Biography
In the 1960s the Australian press enthusiastically yet erroneously cast Pip Proud as the local answer to Bob Dylan, though his approach aligned far more closely with the splintered vision of Syd Barrett, Alexander Spence, and Roky Erickson. His work also anticipated the lo-fi indie folk that emerged in the early 1990s. Born in 1947 into a middle-class household in Hindmarsh, South Australia, Proud dropped an electrician’s apprenticeship while still a teenager and relocated to Sydney to stay with his older brother Geoffrey, then an emerging painter. Describing himself as “spastic,” he struggled with hand coordination and took up guitar as therapy. Shortly after settling in Sydney he began writing original material and gained the support of stockbroker Michael Hobbs, a friend of Geoffrey Proud. Backed by this patronage, Proud cut his songs and assembled the privately pressed De Da De Dum, issued in an edition of roughly fifty copies in 1967. Despite the tiny pressing the record reached sympathetic ears, leading to television variety-show appearances; by 1968 he had signed with Polydor. The label released Adreneline and Richard late that year, essentially a re-recording of the earlier set. Its elongated, semi-spoken, mantra-like lyrics were supported solely by Proud’s irregularly timed, erratic guitar strumming—primitive yet distinctive and unlike any other Australian release of the period. Audiences remained uncertain how to receive him. Sales nevertheless justified a follow-up, so Proud assembled a rhythm section for A Bird in the Engine. The players could not accommodate his idiosyncratic timing, leaving the 1969 album once again largely a solo effort. With his domestic profile fading, Proud moved to London in search of more receptive listeners. Apple expressed brief interest, as did John Peel’s Dandelion imprint, yet neither connection produced results; soon he was without contacts or funds. Returning to Sydney in 1970, he found the press had moved on; a family death further discouraged any fresh start, so he took a succession of odd jobs that continued into the early 1990s. Renewed attention arrived in the mid-1990s amid rising lo-fi interest. New Zealand singer-guitarist Alastair Galbraith led the revival; the two Polydor albums were combined on a single CD, with two tracks removed at Proud’s request, and issued as Eagle-wise by Australia’s Half a Cow label. Emperor Jones released One of These Days in 1998, gathering alternate 1960s takes alongside 1990s compositions. Oncer, Proud’s first collection of entirely new material in more than three decades, appeared on Emperor Jones in 2000, followed in 2001 by the second disc of fresh songs, A Yellow Flower.