With the release
of a new record apiece, Ash Grunwald and Xavier Rudd discuss the adolescence of
contemporary roots music in Australia.
Within the space of a week, I sit down in Brunswick
Heads with Ash Grunwald and Xavier Rudd.
First of all, on a sunny Thursday, at the health food shop, I speak with
Grunwald – he’s bouncing off the walls, he’s excited, he’s full of insight and
chat and has just come from the beach where he was surfing with Rudd. It’s a tight-knit musical community up
here, they all hang out together.
Exactly a week later, I’m sitting in the park opposite
the pub with Rudd. He’s going
surfing after our interview, and he
too is in an ebullient mood, more than happy to talk, to really get into where
his music comes from. He’s barefoot
and looks like he hasn’t shaved for a couple of weeks, but he looks content,
and says as much, saying he’s found peace over the last short while, and it
shows.
These two artists, both stalwarts and innovators of
the roots music scene in Australia, are similar in so many ways: they’re both
avid surfers, they both draw from the blues and old American folk music, they
both live for the healthy lifestyle offered up by this part of the world; the
outdoors, the sun, the surf, the love of life in a place where music is as much
a part of the makeup as industry and infrastructure.
But they’re so different in other ways. Grunwald is a lot more logical and
ordered in his approach to making music, whereas Rudd acts more as a conduit
for his musical ideas, saying “I’ve never actually sat down with the purpose of
writing a song”. Grunwald
intentionally adds more to his music, seeing his musical evolution as something
that he has shaped, whereas Rudd’s evolution is “just how it happens”. They’re so different then, but their
music has had the same result – it’s been responsible for turning a younger
generation of music lovers onto roots music (or various aspects of), and it’s
music which has captured hearts and minds the world over.
And so it’s refreshing to see them sitting, barefoot
and fancy free, in little ol’ Bruns, chatting excitedly about their new
records, about life, about roots music in general. It’s real.
***
Rudd has just released his seventh studio record, Spirit Bird. Grunwald, similarly, has just released his sixth, Trouble’s Door. Both albums are different from their
predecessors and both see these two artists stretching even further, yet
another boundary reached within the wide-ranging confines of roots music,
something both these artists strive to do with every new release – another
similarity.
Calling it the ‘confines’ of roots music is hardly a
phrase which rings true however.
In both interviews, we talk about roots music being just that, the
roots, a starting point from which things grow, branch out, evolve, there are no boundaries. Grunwald, for example, began as a
straight up bluesman, but over the years has successfully introduced elements
of hip hop, soul, and with Trouble’s Door,
dub, to his mix, whilst still staying true to his beginnings.
Roots music, technically, is the base, the ‘old
music’. The blues, jazz, folk,
world music, basically anything and everything covered within the pages of Rhythms. Rudd however, takes this notion a lot deeper, likening the
term more to his roots within music,
as opposed to the roots of music itself.
“I like the term roots music,” he muses. “All my career, people have been trying
to pigeonhole me. That was always
the question, ‘What do you do, what style?’. So when the term roots came along, in my mind I thought,
‘Yeah, that’ll do’. To me, roots
is the root of my tree, it’s the roots,
it’s beneath the earth, not above the earth of what the music industry is, what
the music is. It’s what you don’t see.
“So it’s the spirit that comes up from the roots to
the tree, which is on top of the earth, influenced by everything in the music
world and the world as it stands.
In this crazy place we live in, the tree is still standing and there’s
still nutrients coming up from the roots, and whether you nurture those roots
or not is your own path, musically.
I feel like I’m that tree, and I’m constantly feeding my roots.”
If you were to listen to Rudd’s 2002 debut, To Let and then his new one, Spirit Bird, this reference to feeding
his roots becomes obvious; the difference in these two bookending records is
marked. There are the obvious
differences, the improvements in musicianship and songwriting, but then there
are the differences that come with said feeding. To Let was simple
and elegant, fuelled by American folk music with an Australian twist. Spirit
Bird, by comparison, is heavily layered and brings in elements of African
percussion, samples, reggae and soul.
Rudd’s roots have been hungry, and he’s not been shy about nourishing
them.
***
Ash Grunwald’s roots journey seems to have been a more
simplistic one, although no less enigmatic. He sees roots music in the more literal sense, the
aforementioned ‘old music’, which is obvious when you listen to how his own
music has evolved since his debut, Introducing
Ash Grunwald in 2002, which was essentially a blues album.
“Going back to when I was on Black Market Music, I’ve
always been encouraged to strip it back, really get into the influences, keep
it really raw,” explains Grunwald, who is a lot less esoteric than his
counterpart. “And the thing I love about that, is that I was always sure my
career, musically and in terms of genre, would unfold like it has, because I
was consciously keeping it stripped
back.”
At the same time though, he’s been consciously pushing
it forward. As early as Give Signs (2006), Grunwald was
introducing hip hop beats into his bluesy grooves (“I was mucking around with
beats and blues, like, five years before my first
album,” he laughs) – by the time he got to Fish
Out Of Water (’08) and Hot Mama Vibes
(’10), it was just a part of his sound, barely worth commenting on anymore.
As the pair of them have continued along on these
musical journeys then, they’ve been joined by countless others, fans, people
who have connected with this music, and as a result, have delved back through
parents’ record collections and found the early players, the ones who
influenced the likes of Rudd, Grunwald, John Butler, The Waifs, Blue King Brown
and The Audreys, all bands who played a part in the roots music ‘movement’ from
early this century.
“Well I’ve seen it happen, I’ve had young kids come up
and say they’ve been listening to Howlin’ Wolf, and I’m stoked by that,” says
Grunwald when I ask if he feels he’s had a hand in introducing this music to a
new generation. “And then you’ve
got the wave of kids coming through with resonator guitars and stomp boxes… and
I think that’s the nature of it, isn’t it, that you have an influence when you
get to a certain level. I’m stoked
by that if that’s what you’re thinking, because who wouldn’t want to do that?”
The introduction of an old music through a modern take
on it is an interesting concept, one which seems more apparent in roots music
than any other form, particularly in Australia. The modern take is, to be honest, a very mainstream take,
but it’s one that has true beginnings, and people like Rudd and Grunwald see
that, acknowledge it, revel in it,
and, happily, pass it on.
...
Samuel J. Fell
Xavier Rudd's Spirit Bird is available now through Universal Music.
Ash Grunwald's Trouble's Door is available now through Shock Records.
