"It's been a really testing time, the last two years have been very hard," says singer/songwriter Neil Murray recalling his erratic career path over recent years. But as well as being hard for me it's been very hard for the whole country," he continues. "I think I'm a barometer for the state of the economy. I'm starting to come good so maybe everyone else is going to as well. The light at the end of the tunnel is no longer an oncoming freight train - it's real light, sunlight. I'm thinking finally that I'm going to be able to live, that I'm going to be able to feed myself in the foreseeable future."

Murray's not exaggerating. The last couple of years have been particularly difficult for him. His previous album, the magnificent Calm & Crystal Clear came out back in 1989 but failed to achieve the level of success it deserved.

If you accept Murray's view it was the result of his record company, Festival, not having a fix on what he was about. Certainly from my vantage point the album had a heap of potential singles o it, but you didn't hear a real lot of Neil Murray on the mainstream radio waves. And as a songwriter and performer he's definitely up there in Paul Kelly/Kev Carmody/Archie Roach territory.

"I don't know what they're doing down there," Murray says of his former label. "Sometimes I think they're milking cows instead of running a record label. I got really disenchanted with the whole place and then I went and burnt my bridges there so I had no deal at all. You do those stupid things. I should perhaps have pulled my head in and just sat it out. If I'd done that I'd probably have had a new album out quicker."

An inquiry as to exactly what Murray did to 'burn his bridges' at Festival is met with an evasive laugh. Certainly I have images of Murray uplifting desks and screaming at executives. "Forget it," he chuckles, obviously intent on not taking the matter any further.

The last single from Calm & Crystal Clear was released in 1990, and in May of the following year Murray began recording a self financed album with no certainty that it'd ever get released. "It was recorded under very difficult circumstances because I had no deal and I had to go and put myself into hock to do it," Murray says. "But we got it done in bits and pieces, and now at least there's a first single. The best thing was having Jim Moginie on side. He was really into my tunes and as keen as anything to get into it and be in the studio working with me. Mark Moffatt helped out as well. But they weren't used to working without a budget either so they found it frustrating when they wanted to hire bits of extra gear and I had to say that we couldn't afford to."

The Moginie/Moffatt produced single Far Away was released a fortnight ago, the result of Murray getting a deal with Laurie Dunn's newly formed Massive Records. "Quite frankly they were the only mob that was interested after I'd cast around for the better part of two years," Murray says. "So I really haven't got much choice in the matter. I'm here for them and that's it."

Far Away, an excellent song, was co-written with country person around town, Andy Travers. "Well Andy played on Calm & Crystal Clear," Murray explains. "It was about the time we started when we took a trip in the ute up though Western Queensland so in a lot of ways Far Away really comes from the Calm & Crystal Clear era, and perhaps it would have been better suited on that album. Anyway Massive liked it, and they'd seen the success of that puerile scholock from what's his name... Billy Ray Cyrus, and how well Way Out West had done so they thought this one had a chance. But the song's not really representative of what the album's like."

Murray's album should be released sometime in the next month or two, depending on the success of the single. It'll be a happy day for Murray as he's promised himself that he won't have a drink until the album is released!

Once it is out he hopes to do some serious touring with his band, The Rainmakers. "I can tour on the smell of an oily rag at the best of times, but with an album you can string a better run together," Murray says. "I haven't done a tour with The Rainmakers since the middle of '91 when we went through NT and the Kimberley's. I've done solo shows in Hobart and Melbourne but otherwise it's been about one gig a month with the band and one a month solo. The rest of the time I've been sitting here on my arse in Sydney writing. I've got three or four projects on the go, none of which have come to fruition, but they're getting there. The pots are boiling."

The projects include a screenplay and a book, which Murray describes as autofictography. "Have you heard of that style," he laughs. "It's the semi-autobiographical narrative novel."