Petrol Fuels Search For The Greatest Songs Ever

Chris Murphy (not the guy from Sloan) discovered and managed INXS for 15 years, has become a well-known music mogul in his Australian homeland, and bravely started Petrol Records — a label created to introduce the masses to unknown music from around the globe. Adventure could be this man's middle name, as he ventures to some of the planet's most remote areas to discover music. It's not surprising, then, that a simple interview with him turned into one of his travelling escapades.

Location #1 — Hotel lobby

We begin by talking about one of the compilation series' on the label. It's confidently titled The Greatest Songs Ever. In order to negotiate, discover and compile these iconic tracks, rumour has it that Murphy has a group of hot ladies travel to exotic countries, live there for a month and party hard to find out what these "greatest" songs are. The rumour is almost true.

"We do have a French girl who is very attractive and, yes, a lot of the Petrol team is female," Murphy says. "Our creative team travels around the world, yes.

"And we have a lot of girls who submit music and who do A&R, but they don't actually go into a country for a month and party to discover music. Although I suppose Aline does."

Location #2 — The cab ride

At this point we're told that we have to stop the interview and hop in a cab right away to get to a television interview that Murphy has scheduled. We jump in and Murphy puts me on the phone with the aforementioned Aline — one of his female music seekers. The one who's smoking hot and lives in France.

"Of course, to be able to discover the greatest songs ever in one country, there has to be some hard partying," Aline Renet says. "Sometimes I stay in a country for under a month, yes."It is a lot of work, but it's the greatest job in the world."

"I also have a female cooking guru, who inserts the food and drink recipes in every album sleeve," Murphy adds. "Her name is Valentina [Canclini]."

The Italian girl who does our research does all the follow-up. So if the French girl finds a track in Berlin, she'll track it down and pursue it."

Location #3 — The dressing room

Petrol recently signed a deal to be distributed by EMI. But it previously had success as an indie label selling music via iTunes. There's a reason that Petrol does so well. The collections are gathered and researched with heart and personal experiences from the worldwide team. Murphy told me about one of his adventures before going into makeup in his dressing room.

"I gotta say, one of the most spiritual moments of being in the music industry was a night in Cuba when all the power went off at 10 p.m. and some rappers all got together in a circle and started beat-boxing with their bodies. I jumped in the middle of them and I thought I was in heaven. I'm not a musician. I don't think I'm one, I don't pretend to be one or want to, but what these guys were doing had nothing to do with hit records or limos or TV shows. They just loved what they were playing and singing. That's one of the greatest things I've ever experienced."

Location #4 — The green room

As we move into our final location and Murphy calms down before going on air, he leans across the cheese tray and attempts to explain the secret to how Petrol has found "The Greatest Songs Ever" in countries like Argentina, Cuba, Italy and Turkey.

"Are these songs the greatest ever? They're not. They're not, in a sense, because a lot of people won't even let you license the material. I knew we couldn't do the greatest hits, because that's only 10 or 12 tracks that were popular during a period of time. Just because they're popular doesn't make them great, and I thought the collection should be songs because songs outlive artists.

"How will we determine these songs? We're going to have to play God so that our first series is music that is accessible, because there's no use doing this and repeating what other compilations have done in the past."