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Photo credit: Eden Meure

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Undulating and revitalising, the brand new single Wash Off The World out today from Tasmanian singer-songwriter Bully Hay drives home a message of empowerment and inspiration, topped off with the addition of The Tea Party’s Jeff Martin on production, recording and mixing duties. Also armed with an accompanying music video, Wash Off The World marks Bully Hay’s first single off his forthcoming debut album, Black Dogs and Songbirds due out later this year on Wednesday October 30.

“I want to get inside the ocean and wash off the world” declares Bully Hay, aka Jonathon Coleman, in the opening buoyant lines of Wash Off The World. Mimicking literal waves with its rolling and receding verses and choruses, Wash Off The World glistens with a wash of guitars and immersive textures, beckoning you to revisit time and time again with its fluctuating elements and flavours. “The sound is reminiscent of the early Powderfinger albums but has this (John) Bonham solid drum sound powering through,” shares Bully Hay. “And Jeff Martin’s influence throughout lent itself beautifully to really fill out certain sections. Often, it’s a process where the sound is shaped kind of unconsciously throughout the songwriting and recording process. I have never written a song with an artist or influence in mind and try hard not to. It’s not until after its finished, I start to recognise: ‘This sounds a little like Powderfinger or Something for Kate here and there’. And of course you can’t deny Jeff Martin’s influence across the sound. I’ve been a huge fan of Jeff and The Tea Party for over 20 years.” 

Teaming up with his musical hero Jeff Martin to bring Wash Off The World to fruition, Bully Hay also channelled notions of enlightenment and awakening into the uplifting track, with Bully Hay penning the song almost a decade ago before ultimately jumping in with Martin to unleash it into the world in 2024. “Working with Jeff would be up there in the top memorable times of my life!” says Bully Hay. “I’d met Jeff through a mutual friend one night in Hobart after he played a solo gig down there. We ended up having a few drinks and sharing a few songs with each other. Jeff offered to produce a record of my songs.  I let him know it was a deal as long as he played some guitar on the record, and we shook on it.  At the time I thought it was just booze talking, but sure enough the next day it was all confirmed that it was going to happen.  Throughout last year Jeff and his wife Melissa welcomed me into their home where I lived for about a month throughout the year and really got stuck into the songs in the studio. At first it was pretty nerve wracking as I really didn’t know what to expect. Jeff and I didn’t know each other apart from hanging out for a few hours one time after his show.  And he knew nothing about me, so was most probably hoping I wasn’t some kind of psycho coming to live at his house! But as the days passed and the music was taking shape, we found we had a lot in common and became really great friends. The actual recording process was really fascinating for me. As Jeff has recorded so many albums, solo and with The Tea Party, I was just soaking it all in like a sponge.  The highlights for me would be when Jeff would pick up a guitar and come up with these amazing lines to accentuate or soup up my guitar parts. I am not a lead guitarist, so to have Jeff Martin play lead on my record was pretty bloody awesome. The luck factor here is not lost on me.”

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“As a producer it’s an incredible experience when you’re working with a singer and don’t have to use any of those evils like Autotune because the guy has perfect pitch every single time,” shares Jeff Martin of working with Bully Hay. “And the harmonies he comes up with…I couldn’t even do that! What Jono has accomplished – which is very rare – is that he can go from tender ballads in the style of Jeff Buckley, to country rock which reminds the listener of vintage Eagles, to these epic rock opuses.”

Engineered by Paul Pilsneniks (Silverchair, The Whitlams, Boy & Bear, Dope Lemon), Wash Off The World was also mastered by the Grammy-nominated extraordinaire Joe Carra (The Teskey Brothers, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard) at Crystal Mastering. The accompanying music  video is an affecting piece that brings together powerful live performance as well as a moving narrative throughline. “The song to me is about breaking free of the walls imposed on us by our day-to-day grind and focussing on the important things in life.” says Bully Hay, “I used some of the lyrics of the song to create a visual representation of this, by having our protagonist literally run to the ocean to cleanse/reset his life.”

A proud Tassie boy currently based in Southern Tasmania, Bully Hay’s upbringing saw him immersed in music, with his musical family helping to ignite his lifelong passion at an early age. Ultimately inspired to become a musician by his father, who introduced him to some chords on the guitar at the age of 14, the rest well and truly was history, with the self-taught Coleman going on to learn music by ear, and performing in bands and as a solo artist for the years to follow. Settling on the moniker Bully Hay for his solo endeavours, the name was inspired by Coleman’s uncle who was one of “The Rats of Tobruk” in World War II. And now with his gaze firmly fixed on the upcoming release of his debut album, Bully Hay once again proudly flies the flag for Tasmania, with The Apple Isle intrinsically permeating through his captivating creations. “Living in Tasmania has really shaped me in my life, and very much so within my music,” Bully Hay reveals. “There’s a thread there behind a lot of songs of mine where I end up visualising certain places there, mainly coastal regions, which is why I often catch these kind of elemental lyrics (water, fire, etc.) creeping into my songs.”

“Wash Off The World is the first single from my debut album Black Dogs and Songbirds which is a full length, 11 track album I’ll be releasing later this year,” Bully Hay concludes. “Working with Jeff Martin on this album as my producer was a huge honour. He was able to draw these songs out of me and make them the best that they could possibly be.  Listening to these songs, you’ll hear influences like Paul Kelly, Crowded House, Powderfinger, Soundgarden, Jeff Buckley and The Tea Party coming through, but the album now has its own Bully Hay sound.  We’ve created something really special. Sharing the album will be my absolute pleasure. I can’t wait to get it out there.”

Wash Off The World is out today HERE.

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AMNPLIFY – DB