It is a powerful experience, a big adrenaline rush, and I play out the notes as quickly as possible, and there is the song, appearing almost out of its own accord. Some songs are more constructed, more personal history, than others, but often, the songs just rise up out of me, from somewhere else. I never force myself to sit down and write a song. These songs show the musical range Xavier now has, but, he says, “I don’t go hunting for stuff, material. “Hope That You’ll Stay”, played on a 20-string handmade Chaturangui slide guitar, is content with its soft tones and entrancing melody. “It was written to reflect the reality of Uncle Goomblar, an aboriginal medicine man, a true seer, a man who was mistakenly ‘taken’ by the authorities when he was 16, and the song shows the terrible things he experienced,” says Xavier. I was opening some doors inside myself.” He pauses, smiles, and adds, “I am very lucky to have music to help me deal with that stuff.”ĭark Shades of Blue features a colourful, variegated musical palate, best exemplified by the multi-faceted song “Uncle”, with its ebbs and flows and towering sonic assault one third of the way in. “It is a very personal album, perhaps even more so than the others. I wrote music back then, before I even knew what I was doing, but today, it still comes from that same source.” Fair enough, but his latest album, titled Dark Shades of Blue, is, if not a departure, exactly, from his previous work, distinctive in the heaviness of the sound, the driving bass and drums, and some almost flagrant hard-rock guitar licks. My music comes from that, comes from the land. “Time out in the bush, sleeping under the stars. “I spent a lot of time alone, when I was a young kid,” he says. The music seems not so much to be played, as to emanate from him. He seems perpetually relaxed, at ease with himself and the world. It is an imposing sight, but Xavier is comfortable as a multi-instrumentalist, and extraordinarily effective in performance. ![]() I have it in my head, and when it comes through these amplifiers, it needs to be very close to that.” The setup includes a fairly standard drum kit and a bass guitar-the rhythm section-along with electric and acoustic guitars, multiple percussion instruments, and several yidiki (didgeridoos). One of them notes, “This takes 10 times longer than a normal five-piece rock and roll band.” Xavier smiles, and says, “The sound needs to be right. Xavier Rudd strolls across the empty ballroom floor, watching two technicians set up his equipment on stage.
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