The Purple Book

29 May

Written By Shaun Holton

Local + international vocalist Shaun Holton will release ‘The Purple

Book’ his fourth studio album. The release coincides with launch

show at The Jade on October 24, where Shaun will perform live

with his full band - and celebrate turning 20 years of original music

AND turning 40!

Drawing inspiration from Carl Jung’s Red Book, Holton describes

The Purple Book as a “scrapbook of healing and integration,”

capturing the fragments of life that come with error, growth, and

connection. Musically, it feels like progressive folk pop with

heavier tones, some of the songs taking you through the 4 seasons

of love, life and grief in a few minutes.

ALBUM LAUNCH LIVE AT THE JADE OCTOBER 24, 2025.

The Purple Book

”there is little nod to Steven Wilson, Opeth, Filter, Hans Zimmer, and Fink.
But largely, this album has been a deep experience, I grabbed hold of
some of the threads I wasn’t ready to deal with and pulled them up and
out, and I have let it unravel and be what it is, with less getting in my
own way”- Shaun Holton

The Jade | Adelaide | October 24 | Doors 8pm

Special guests Monya and Priyanka Luxx

Come be a part of something deep.

Get Tix

Why Call it the Purple Book?

While studying psychotherapy years ago, I came across Jung’s Red Book. It was messy, hand-drawn, and unapologetically inward. It was something I resonated with. I didn’t relate to the symbols so much as the process, and while I wasn’t quite sure at the time exactly what I was resonating with, looking back, it was Jung’s willingness to look inward, even when it’s uncomfortable. Something that perhaps only comes with a little bit of discomfort and age.

The Purple Book was made from grief, error, love, therapy, tension, and learning from reflection. My dad is a bit of a collector, coins, stamps, cars, and Ford shirts. Among this extensive nuts and bolts collections, he had been quietly mapping my journey in music from those early high school days to now, it’s a big, handmade Purple scrapbook. Opening it, realising how richly layered with history, mess, and memory now held in my hands, as I these pages turned these pages, I realised why I resonated with the Red Book so much.

While at first glance one may think this Purple scrapbook is overly curated or polished,carefully put together by someone who cares deeply for me, but to me it’s a record of necessary and inevitable mistakes, discoveries, and quiet momentum. There are posters to my first shows with my first, second, and third bands, ticket stubs from shows that my parents never missed, photos and articles from my first international contracts, and there are things I would also rather forget.

That scrapbook and this Purple Book album have become a kind of metaphor.