Xavier Rudd

Xavier Rudd is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Australia. From To Let, his debut album in 2002, he combined a deep love for the environment, humanity, and surfing with an obsession for blues and international roots music from Africa, the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, and the tropics. He often performs solo, surrounded by three didgeridoos in front, a guitar on his lap, a stomp box under his bare feet, and an assortment of drums, percussion instruments, banjos, harmonicas, bells, and a bass all rest nearby. He released Solace, a studio offering, in 2004. Between 2005′s Food in the Belly and 2010′s Koonyum Sun, his albums appeared on the North American Anti- label. He employed electronic textures and backdrops on 2012′s Spirit Bird. 2015′s Nanna was performed by his international nonet the United Nations, and mixed by legendary reggae engineer Errol Brown; 2017′s Storm Boy for Nettwerk, marked a return to his folk-roots sound. In 2022, he issued the double-length Jan Juc Moon for Salt X/Virgin.
Rudd was born in Jan Juc Moon near Toquay in 1978, one of seven children. He is of Aboriginal, Irish, and Scottish heritage. While in primary school, he learned the circular breathing technique required to play didgeridoo after liberating a vacuum cleaner hose from his mother’s machine. While growing up in Torquay and Bell’s Beach in Victoria, he also learned to play guitar, clarinet, and saxophone as well as surf. He could never focus on just one instrument; instead he found ways to combine them. He attended St Joseph’s College, Geelong for secondary school. Immediately after graduating, he traveled to Fiji. He honed his performing and songwriting skills while busking there for nine months. During his travels, Rudd developed an affinity for Canada, where he enjoys dual citizenship from his first marriage. The first document of his performances, Live in Canada, was recorded in 2001 and helped spread the word. His first studio album, To Let, followed a year later on his own Salt X Records.
2003 saw another independently released document of his stage performances in Live at the Grid. His next studio album, 2004′s Solace, attempted to capture his live sound by eschewing guest artists — Rudd played all the instruments with few overdubs. Solace contained his cover of Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry” and the single “Let Me Be,” which he still performs at concerts. The independently released album was his first to be distributed by Universal, which gave him a larger audience. It debuted in the Top 20 of the ARIA charts and attained platinum sales.
Attracting more attention, he toured with Jack Johnson, as well as G. Love & Special Sauce. Another live album, Good Spirit, was recorded at three Australian gigs and released in 2005. The same year brought the release of Food in the Belly, a studio album recorded in Vancouver, which saw guest artists including Beth Preston, Harry Manx, and the Vancouver Children's Choir. Released by Anti in North America, the album was certified platinum in Australia.
Rudd has been an environmentally concerned musician throughout his life. As a child, he sold recycled wood from his grandfather’s workshop. His touring behind 2007′s White Moth was his first to be entirely carbon-neutral. The album, while continuing his blues and roots mix of folk, reggae, rock, and world music, reflects this in its themes. He released the similarly themed Dark Shades of Blue the following year. His 2010 album, Koonyum Sun, was recorded with his new band Izintaba, featuring the South African rhythm section of bassist Tio Moloantoa and percussionist Andile Nqubezelo.
Rudd scaled things back for 2102′s Spirit Bird on Side One Dummy, choosing to record solo again. It entered Australia’s ARIA charts at number two. After touring, Rudd began, quite by chance, to assemble a full-scale band for his next project. Xavier Rudd & the United Nations was an international nonet whose members hail from Europe, Indonesia, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. The band’s sound was reggae at heart, but also encompassed a wide range of global sounds under its musical umbrella. The band’s album Nanna was mixed in Kingston, Jamaica by the legendary Errol Brown, and released by Canada’s Nettwerk in early 2015. Two years later, Rudd issued Live in the Netherlands.
2017′s Storm Boy marked his first solo album in six years and and his first time working with an outside producer (Chris Bond). The lead single “Walk Away” appeared in early 2018, and Rudd prepared the album for release after a run of tour dates that took him through Australia, North America, and Europe during the course of the year. The finished album — that he described as a direct sequel to Spirit Bird — was released in May.
In April 2021, he signed with Virgin Music Australia. He issued “Stoney Creek,” his debut single in June. In January 2022, Rudd released the single “Ball and Chain,” and in March, the full-length Jan Juc Moon appeared. ~ Jody MacGregor & Thom Jurek