We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Peter Foldy. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Peter below.
Hi Peter, thanks for joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
I’ve been interested in music since I was a little kid growing up in Budapest, Hungary, and even more so after my family immigrated to Sydney, Australia where at the age of 12 I somehow found the nerve to audition for a kid’s talent show called “Opportunity Knocks.” It didn’t exactly knock for me but they did give me a prize for being on the show. It was scary as hell to be on TV, but also exhilarating and a bit of a confidence booster.
I was further encouraged when I made friends in Sydney with three brothers who would soon find world-wide fame as the Bee Gees. Being around them made me say to myself, “I wanna do that too.” Before long I started writing songs.
Arriving in Canada I enrolled in film school and played in a rock band at night. I continued writing music and was lucky enough to land a solo record deal with a small label called Kanata Records. My first single, “Bondi Junction”shot to the top of the Canadian charts, landing at #1 on RPM Magazine’s Adult Contemporary chart nd aearning me two Juno Award nominations. “Bondi Junction” also had a US release on Playboy Records where it charted on a ton of Top 40 radio stations in America, It was a crazy, heady first few years as a recording artist. I didn’t have a clue and made some bad choices in terms of management but somehow I was later signed to Capitol/EMI, and then to Polydor Records, and then RCA Records in Los Angeles, where I now live and direct films for a living. I guess you could say I’ve come full circle from my early days as a film student and have been able to continue with a career in the arts for all these years.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Being able to entertain people after all these years is a blessing and a thrill. The music business has changed drastically since I started and while being able to make a full-time living as a musician/songwriter has gotten a lot harder, getting one’s music heard is a lot easier and I find that cool, that I can leave a musical footprint behind.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I was a full-time musician for the first 10 years of my career but after moving to L.A. I drifted into the film business where began writing scripts. I was able to sell a teen comedy called “Hot Moves” which made a bunch of money for the company that produced it and was something of a pioneer in the teen comedy genre. This led to other writing and producing gigs, and eventually to directing. Film making has became my day job but when Facebook came along people started reaching out and saying nice things about my past recordings. A label also approached me about doing a “best of Peter Foldy” CD and that kind of nudged me back into music. In 2016 I put out a 10 track CD called “Nine Lives” and followed that with a single released every year since 2019. Going in the studio and making music is still my happy place.
Contact Info:
- Website: pf@peterfoldy
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peterfoldy/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PeterFoldy
Image Credits
Photos by: Jonathan Stoddard, David Williams, Kenney Selvey, Jonathan Burkhart