Music
Press
"Brett Winterford sings with a wistfulness that makes him eminently likeable. He's also the songwriting powerhouse behind this pop quartet from Sydney's Northern Beaches and hits his stride with Beautiful Thing, an amusing trio of vignettes about boys and girls bumping into each other and finding chemistry. The song is tucked away mid-album, right next to another gem, Warmth. In it Winterford sounds eerily like Neil Finn as he wonders why good things must come to an end."
Three and a half stars
- Katrina Lobley - The Sydney Morning Herald
"Brett Winterford sings with a wistfulness that makes him eminently likeable. He's also the songwriting powerhouse behind this pop quartet from Sydney's Northern Beaches and hits his stride with Beautiful Thing, an amusing trio of vignettes about boys and girls bumping into each other and finding chemistry. The song is tucked away mid-album, right next to another gem, Warmth. In it Winterford sounds eerily like Neil Finn as he wonders why good things must come to an end."
Three and a half stars
- Katrina Lobley - The Sydney Morning Herald
"Few are the Sydney musos who feel driven to sing about the delights of performing in one of the city's pubs, but Brett Winterford is one such soul. Admittedly, his song, Spotlight, is more about the life-affirming qualities of fan worship, but its also testament to the magic of pop music played at grassroots level. Given the limited appeal of guitar pop in Australia it remains to be seen whether Winterford and his colleagues in Peregrine can rise from the pub stage, but there's plenty of promise in this debut. Winterford's voice and pen sit somewhere alongside Glenn Tilbrook and Ice Cream Hand's Chuck Jenkins. There are beautifully crafted ballads (Three Cheers for Gordon, Warmth, Letter) to match melodic rockers Fingerpointing and Walking Home Alone, with narrative wit and poetic soul-searching in abundance. Quietly charming."
Four Stars
- Iain Sheddon - The Australian
"Few are the Sydney musos who feel driven to sing about the delights of performing in one of the city's pubs, but Brett Winterford is one such soul. Admittedly, his song, Spotlight, is more about the life-affirming qualities of fan worship, but its also testament to the magic of pop music played at grassroots level. Given the limited appeal of guitar pop in Australia it remains to be seen whether Winterford and his colleagues in Peregrine can rise from the pub stage, but there's plenty of promise in this debut. Winterford's voice and pen sit somewhere alongside Glenn Tilbrook and Ice Cream Hand's Chuck Jenkins. There are beautifully crafted ballads (Three Cheers for Gordon, Warmth, Letter) to match melodic rockers Fingerpointing and Walking Home Alone, with narrative wit and poetic soul-searching in abundance. Quietly charming."
Four Stars
- Iain Sheddon - The Australian
The Peregrine Falcon is a bird caught in passage rather than taken from nest, peregrine the adjective meaning to wander or roam. If you're into catching bands on the move, as they rise towards prominence, then Peregrine is your next project. Proficient, infectious, acoustic popsters with intelligence, their wares, as displayed on 'One Big Happy Heart Attack', are something to grab a hold of. Displaying poignancy alongside joviality, the album is a palette of emotions that in their equal but opposite intensities, manage to retain a definite unity.
Brass, keyboard and walking bass on the liveliest of tracks, 'Bad Start' and opener 'Finger pointing', hark to the bar stool antics of The Whitlams, or the ska/punk fusion of The Living End, and are yet stamped with Peregrine distinctiveness. Quieter moments display Brett Winterford's mature and thoughtful song writing, his words capable of making a sharp impression on the most blasé of listeners. In particular, the sentiment of 'Three Cheers for Gordon', a portrayal of 'a man on the edge', lingers long after the last guitars fade. Otherwise, the trio of hope, love and comedy ('Philosophy Degree') are never far from the fore.
Aided by the superior production of Chris Townsend (Darren Hanlon, Augie March), 'One Big Happy Heart Attack' is the snapshot of a band in fine form, ready to take on more than The Excelsior's Wednesday night crowd. - The OzMusic Project
The Peregrine Falcon is a bird caught in passage rather than taken from nest, peregrine the adjective meaning to wander or roam. If you're into catching bands on the move, as they rise towards prominence, then Peregrine is your next project. Proficient, infectious, acoustic popsters with intelligence, their wares, as displayed on 'One Big Happy Heart Attack', are something to grab a hold of. Displaying poignancy alongside joviality, the album is a palette of emotions that in their equal but opposite intensities, manage to retain a definite unity.
Brass, keyboard and walking bass on the liveliest of tracks, 'Bad Start' and opener 'Finger pointing', hark to the bar stool antics of The Whitlams, or the ska/punk fusion of The Living End, and are yet stamped with Peregrine distinctiveness. Quieter moments display Brett Winterford's mature and thoughtful song writing, his words capable of making a sharp impression on the most blasé of listeners. In particular, the sentiment of 'Three Cheers for Gordon', a portrayal of 'a man on the edge', lingers long after the last guitars fade. Otherwise, the trio of hope, love and comedy ('Philosophy Degree') are never far from the fore.
Aided by the superior production of Chris Townsend (Darren Hanlon, Augie March), 'One Big Happy Heart Attack' is the snapshot of a band in fine form, ready to take on more than The Excelsior's Wednesday night crowd. - The OzMusic Project
"Songwriter Brett Winterford gives the idea of the Dear John Letter a unique twist, writing as the man for whom the girl has left the John in question - an idea it seems born of Winterford's own experience, a letter never sent but turned into a song for all the world to hear. I hope the girl in question got to hear it. Either way, he's come up with a perfectly crafted slice of pop/rock, delivered with all the longing of unrequited lust. The acoustic "Remember This" delivers the reality, the man left behind, while the Lennon-esque "Daughters" toys with another kind of cliche."
- Michael Smith at Sydney's Drum Media
- Drum Media, Sydney, August 2007
"Songwriter Brett Winterford gives the idea of the Dear John Letter a unique twist, writing as the man for whom the girl has left the John in question - an idea it seems born of Winterford's own experience, a letter never sent but turned into a song for all the world to hear. I hope the girl in question got to hear it. Either way, he's come up with a perfectly crafted slice of pop/rock, delivered with all the longing of unrequited lust. The acoustic "Remember This" delivers the reality, the man left behind, while the Lennon-esque "Daughters" toys with another kind of cliche."
- Michael Smith at Sydney's Drum Media
- Drum Media, Sydney, August 2007
Discography
album: one big happy heart attack (Shock, 2003)
compilation: Triple J Home and Hosed First Harvest (Track: "Fingerpointing") (ABC Music, 2003)
compilation: On a Beautiful Tuesday (Track: "I Fired First") (Independent, 2003)
singles" dear john letter (private practice, 2007)
Photos
Bio
In 2003, songwriter Brett Winterford and his Sydney-based band ‘peregrine’ released an independent, self-financed rock/pop album called One Big Happy Heart Attack. The infectious melodies caught on at Australia’s national youth radio station, Triple J, and before they knew it the lads had national rotation, four star reviews in every major national newspaper, a distribution deal and a publishing deal, and several months of touring the country.
Winterford decided against fast cars and loose women and instead gave the band notice – 2004 would spend his royalties travelling the globe in search of inspiration for the next record.
He would meet flamenco dancers in Madrid, revolutionaries in Berlin, famous French designers in London and senile old drunks in Cork. He would perform in cities from Asia to the UK and Europe right through to New York. He would sail around the Greek Islands with a broken leg, get arrested for swimming nude in Rome’s Trevi Fountain, fall disastrously in and out of love… it was the stuff every songwriter dreams of.
In 2005 he returned to Australia for a reunion with the band – primarily to prepare material for a new album. After several months of pre-production demos and live recordings at Sydney’s premier music club, ‘The Basement’, songs written in bus shelters and hostel rooms have now gone into full-scale production. The band has tracked the album at Sydney’s famous Studios 301 with producer Daniel Denholm (The Cruel Sea, The Whitlams) at the helm. Conservatively the album is slated for release in early 2007.
Expect 2007 to be the year peregrine launch a new benchmark for innovative rock/pop.
www.peregrine-music.com
Links
