Peter Murphy (musician)
Peter John Joseph Murphy is an English singer and songwriter. He is the vocalist for the post-punk band Bauhaus, which he co-founded with Daniel Ash in 1978. After Bauhaus disbanded, Murphy formed Dalis Car with Japan's bassist Mick Karn and released one album, The Waking Hour. He went on to release a number of solo albums, including Should the World Fail to Fall Apart and Love Hysteria.
In 1990, Murphy achieved commercial success with his album Deep which reached No. 44 on the Billboard 200. It was accompanied by the single "Cuts You Up", which reached No. 55 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1992, Murphy released Holy Smoke, which reached No. 108 on the Billboard 200 chart, featuring lead single "The Sweetest Drop". After the release of Holy Smoke, he moved from London to Turkey with his family and from there he released Cascade in 1995. Bauhaus then reunited briefly for the well-received Gotham tour in 1998.
In 2002, Murphy released Dust with Turkish-Canadian composer and producer Mercan Dede, which utilizes traditional Turkish instrumentation and songwriting, abandoning Murphy's previous pop and rock incarnations, and juxtaposing elements from progressive rock, trance, classical music, and Middle Eastern music, coupled with Dede's trademark atmospheric electronics. He followed this up two years later with Unshattered. The next several years would see a second reunion of Bauhaus from 2005-2007 during which they recorded their fifth and final album Go Away White, released in 2008 after they had broken up again. Murphy then returned to his solo efforts, releasing Ninth in 2011. In 2014, he released Lion, produced by Killing Joke's Youth, which reached No. 173 on the Billboard 200. On 9 May 2025 Murphy released Silver Shade, again produced by Youth. Three singles from the album preceded its release, "Let the Flowers Grow" - a song with Boy George, "Swoon" - which had Trent Reznor contributing vocals, and "The Artroom Wonder."
Thin with prominent cheekbones, a baritone voice, and a penchant for gloomy poetics, he is often called the "Godfather of Goth".
Early life
Peter John Joseph Murphy was born on 11 July 1957 in Northampton, Northamptonshire, the seventh child of a large rural working-class family of Irish descent. He has an older sister Shirley and two elder brothers, Daniel, and Christopher, after whom Murphy so soon followed that their family called them twins. He was raised in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, where he had a strict Catholic upbringing. He described having a happy childhood with a close family which had a "great emphasis on Catholicism in a very sincere, deep, profound way. Always aware of the mysteries of life, mortality, Heaven, Hell, angels, saints and purgatory: all these images. What is allowed and what is not allowed." Murphy's first interest in music was inspired by his mother, who would frequently hum songs. As a teenager, he was introverted but attracted to the arts.At school, Murphy became friends with Daniel Ash, describing their first meeting: "The first moment I saw him, literally, I really loved him. It was not sexual; I was attracted to him in a fateful sense. Something told me that this guy was important. I remember being enamoured by him. I felt very close to him. Extremely. It was almost like a bonding that was immediate and whole. I think I recognised a lot of my own faults in him. I felt there was someone who could understand me. I saw him as the mirror of myself. He was always the person who would be positive and practical and not be lazy and always wanted to be in a band. And so I would have done anything for him in that sense because I wanted to be around him."
Murphy and Ash's musical tastes were shared by their fondness of the glam movement and its artists such as David Bowie and T. Rex. When Ash received his first electric guitar, he would bring Murphy during the lunch hour to hear him play it. Ash was interested in being in a band and told Murphy that he could be in one too, because of his looks. Despite this comment, Murphy was not interested. According to Ash, "Pete didn't think about it at all, it wasn't on his mind as such."
When Murphy was sixteen, he left school to work at a local family printing business, while Ash enrolled in an art college. Murphy worked for his family's printing business for five years, first as a bookbinder and then as a printer. When Murphy came into contact with Ash after two years, Ash suggested that he should apply to art college. Due to his introversion, he subsequently eschewed an opportunity to attend art college, opting instead to work as a printer's assistant while working on painting, writing and singing on the side.
While still working at the printing firm, Murphy maintained an interest in music. He explained: "I was very interested in figures like Bowie, Bolan and Iggy. I related to their psyches more than their music." He loved Iggy Pop's albums such as The Idiot and Lust for Life, and went to see artists and bands such as David Bowie and Judas Priest. He then went to a local pub and saw Ash's latest band at the time, "Jackplug and The Sockets". The band consists of Ash on guitar, David J on bass and Kevin Haskins on drums and played mainly cover songs from the Rolling Stones. After the concert, Ash caught sight of Murphy and continued to mentioned to him that "You must be in a band". However, nothing came about it. After some months later, Ash's latest band split up which caused him to become depressed. However, Ash was still determined to form another band. He needed a singer and remembered his old friend from the pub with his old band, months ago. Ash explained how he approached Murphy for this offer: "I didn't ring him up or anything. I just arrived at his door and he was just arriving back home from work on his little motorcycle. I got out the car, knocked on the door and was surprised to see me. I just played him this tape and I asked him if he wanted to get something going."
Murphy finally accepted Ash's offer and explained about his decision: "I thought, Yes, I don't mind. Yes. If you're doing it, I'll do it because you fascinate me." After Murphy accepted Ash's offer, they got together over a weekend in a mobile classroom at the Northampton's Teacher Training College and used that room as a rehearsal room. Ash explained this meeting: "Just Pete and myself went in. I drove him from Wellingborough to Northampton. He didn't have any lyrics or anything, he didn't know if he could sing or anything as such, but he had a newspaper and I just put loads of echo on the mike to give him confidence, make him sound good and I just started playing a riff - anything that came into head and he just started singing from the newspaper. As soon as I heard him sing I knew within five minutes - I honestly thought it was just a matter of time. He had the voice, the charisma, the good looks - the whole thing."
Career
Bauhaus
Daniel Ash convinced Murphy to join Bauhaus, one of the establishing acts of the goth movement. Their use of spacey recording effects and theatrical aesthetics was evocative of glam rock; they became an influential group in the early days of gothic rock. In 1983, Bauhaus appeared during the opening sequences of the horror film The Hunger, performing one of their most popular songs, "Bela Lugosi's Dead". The camera focused almost exclusively on Murphy during most of the scene, panning only briefly to the stars David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve. Bauhaus reformed in 1998 for a tour, and later reunited again in 2005, culminating in a tour with the band Nine Inch Nails in 2007, and a final album, "Go Away White," released in 2008 shortly before disbanding again. They reunited once more in late 2019 for three reunion shows in Los Angeles, California, and launched a reunion tour post pandemic which ended in 2022.Dalis Car and solo career
Break from music and Dalis Car: 1983–1984
By 1983, Bauhaus had broken up and Murphy went on to new projects not involving Bauhaus members Kevin Haskins, David J or Daniel Ash. He received an offer to play Fletcher Christian in a remake of Mutiny on the Bounty. He also auditioned for a role of Tarzan in Greystoke. The British director Derek Jarman was interested in using him in his film Caravaggio. Murphy turned many of these offers down due to his insecurity of his slight stammer as he was very self-conscious about it. This speech impediment made Murphy anxious about branching out to film, TV and radio work despite the encouragement of his ex-manager Harry Isles to accept some of these roles. He even refused a follow-up ad for Maxell since in his words, "they wanted me to go through space with this dolly bird." However, Murphy did focus a significant amount of time to dance and his interest in this activity strengthened with his new girlfriend and future wife, Beyhan Foulkes, who was a choreographer. As Murphy explained: "She’s introduced me to new aspects of movement and dance that I’d like to try. I’ve always liked the modern Ballet Rambert style of dance and I’d like to co-ordinate that with my music…writing the music and dance together." Murphy made an appearance on the TV arts programme Riverside, one month after Bauhaus split up, where he performed a dance routine in a sandpit in a "locationally obscure" beach with a female dance partner, Annie Cox. The background music for this routine was the Bauhaus track "Hollow Hills". It was not received well by the public and even Murphy admitted that, "it didn’t work. It looked rather silly really." Despite his interest in the subject, Murphy did not want to be a serious dancer. He found dance to be useful skill for his repertoire. As Murphy explained: "I’ve learnt things and I’m storing them for whenever the need comes to use them." He also made an appearance to take part of Nicholas Treadwell's Superhumanist Exhibition at an old manor house that was converted into a studio and gallery in Canterbury. Murphy explained this experience: "I appeared as the Father of Time in one dance. It was an environmental Dance installation which people would experience as they walked through the gallery." After some brief dabbling with acting and dance – including a television performance to Bauhaus's "Hollow Hills". In the aftermath of Bauhaus splitting up, Beggars Banquet had offered him a recording contact as a solo artist but Murphy declined. Murphy showed no interest in making music for one year after the band's break up.After one year, Murphy wanted to record music again. However, he had difficulties with creating music at the time since his bandmates from Bauhaus had come up with the musical ideas and use them in their work. Murphy's input was limited to writing and interpreting lyrics, creating vocal rhythms, adding vocal parts into songs. Also, despite Murphy's input to the occasional sound effect on a Wasp synthesiser, playing a few percussion instruments and efforts of basic guitar, he did not play any musical instruments professionally. Murphy later explained this: "As a solo artist I had to learn to make records without this machine I had been part of. I had no skill. No idea what I should do. I was suddenly a solo person writing from where? From what perspective? So I was looking to find what I had to offer." Murphy was in need of a collaborator at the time. Around the same time, the bass player Mick Karn from the new wave band Japan was struggling with his solo career as well when his band split up. Despite his musical ability, recorded demos and session work, Karn was struggling to get a record deal since he was mainly interested in making instrumental music rather than pop songs. In order to secure a record deal, he needed to convince a record company that his work has commercial prospects. Karn was looking for a frontman.
In 1984, Murphy and Karn formed Dalis Car. The origins of the band started during an Murphy's interview by a Japanese journalist for the Magazine "Quiet Life", where he spoke of his admiration for Mick Karn's work and his unique bass style. The same journalist interviewed Karn a week before Murphy's interview and had Karn's telephone number. Murphy jotted Karn's number down and called Karn for a conversation. This led to a meeting and dinner in a restaurant and both discovered that they had a connection with each other. Did led to the creation of Dalis Car along with drummer, Paul Vincent Lawson. Despite the popular belief that the group took their name from a Captain Beefheart song from his seminal album, Trout Mask Replica, this was apocryphal. Instead, the name came from a dream from Murphy's friend, where he dreamed of buying a car belonging to Salvador Dalí. There were issues and conflicts during this time. Karn explained one issue on how each of them had a different way to construct music: "There would be whole sections I'd leave for the vocals to take over the track, whereas Pete saw it from a completely different musical perspective; "Well, this is such a nice musical break I don't want to touch it."So I guess there was a certain amount of friction caused by that because we both heard the tracks in a completely different way." Another issue was their drummer, Paul Lawson. As Karn explained: "He was supposed to be the other third of the band. Originally, that was the idea. He would be playing live drums – we got on with him very well, he was very young and eager – unfortunately when we got into the studio we found that nerves took over and he couldn’t actually play so much. So we ended up having him programme most of the patterns rather than play them." Despite not touring in front of live audience due to these previous issues, they did make a performance of their single "His Box" on The Old Grey Whistle Test where they played over a backing track. One commentator mentioned their reaction to their appearance in the performance by saying: "In their sober suits they looked like investment bankers who had just had a bad day on the stock market". The group recorded only one album called The Waking Hour. The cover was the painting "Daybreak" by American artist Maxfield Parrish. The album went overbudget and was not successful and despite Karn's willingness to continue on with the group, Murphy was not interested based on the lack of success. In fact, he did not even show up when Karn established the bonus tracks for their single, where Murphy would prefer to stay in Turkey with this wife. According to Karn: "by that point it became obvious that Peter didn't want to carry on with it."