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Flying high with Xavier Rudd

The Australian musician returns to Whistler
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songbird Xavier Rudd is set to play Whistler Nov. 15 at GLC. Photo submitted

It's been over a decade since earthy folk singer and multi-instrumentalist Xavier Rudd released his debut record, To Let. Since the 2002 debut, he's gained a reputation as a captivating performer — wailing on a range of traditional and indigenous instruments — and activist in both his native Australia and in Canada, where his latest record Spirit Bird, was released in June via EMI.

His seventh album, to which he says he is most connected, is rich with textures and curious sounds — even opening with ominous caws of a bird — and wanders from dark moods to lighter messages of hope. It's punctuated throughout by calls to action, particularly on the title track, which contains the refrain, "Soldier on my good countrymen, keep fighting for your culture now, keep fighting for your land."

In lesser hands such lyrics might feel contrived, but coupled with an earnest delivery and Rudd's impressive activist CV, its sincerity is clear. Rudd spoke to the Pique, en route to Chicago, ahead of his Whistler date Nov. 15, about the issues that irk him, recording the new album and finding avian inspiration.

Pique: It's been 10 years since you released your debut. Does it feel that long?

Xavier Rudd: It feels longer. A lot has happened.

Pique: What have been some of the major lessons, music-wise?

XR:  Learning to read what's going on and follow your instincts. I come from a small town in Australia and when I got out into the big wide world there was everyone involved, such a big team. When you keep it in your own control, the only way to really learn is to trip up and fall, and work out why you tripped. It's been a bit of a journey like that.

Pique: I wanted to talk about the new record too. It came out in June. Does it still feel new to you?

XR: Yeah it does. A lot of the times the music is ahead of me by six months. I feel very much in it now. I feel closer to it than my other records. I feel very connected to this record.

Pique: What do you mean it's ahead of you?

XR: Generally, I've found my music will come through and it's like the spirit moving through bringing my dreaming ahead of time. At the time when it's coming through I won't understand it. Then later on, it starts to unfold in my life and I start to see and hear it play out in real time. That's quite often what I've noticed, but this record Spirit Bird, I feel very close to it. I don't know how to explain it.

Pique: What exactly is a spirit bird and how did it wind up as the title of your album?

XR: "Spirit Bird" basically came from a story with the red-tailed black cockatoo. In the northwest of Australia is the Kimberley Coast. It's a very, very powerful place, a very ancient place. I started to get in touch with the Kimberley through a guy who's now a good friend who reached out to me about helping him with the save the Kimberley campaign because the Australian government wants to open it up to industry. There's a big protest right now (at) James Price Point, which is part of a coastline that is under threat from (a gas company). I went and spent time camping in that country. I had some pretty amazing, powerful experiences that are very much part of the Spirit Bird record. I was coming back from a sacred site (and) I decided to stop the car. I got out of the car and there was this dead tree. In the tree were these red-tailed black cockatoos. There was a whole mob of them in front of me. Basically red-tailed cockatoos, right around the country, represent the old people, the ancestors in the aboriginal culture. This one bird locked eyes with me and I had this experience, it was pretty profound. She looked at me. She was creaking and groaning and talking and I was transfixed by this old woman bird. I felt like I was being pushed into the earth. I saw these visions flashing through my brain and places and situations and memories, but they weren't my memories. That night I wrote the lyrics for "Spirit Bird" in the sand on the beach and the first half the song just poured out of me. I was really emotional and ended up in tears. It was probably two years between then and when I was up in Thornbury, just north of Toronto, recording on a lake up there. It was about 10 p.m. at night and I was sitting by the fire and started to play this song and the second half of the song just poured out of me. Again, it was really emotional. The next morning I woke up and realized that the police had moved in on James Price Point at about the same time and started dragging these aboriginal people and protesters and traditional owners and forcibly started to acquire the land.

Pique: That's so strange.

XR: The next time I went back to the Kimberley a few months later, every morning we camped we had red-tailed black cockatoo. The guy with us who spent a lot of time up there had never seen that before. Then at the end of that trip one of the birds dropped a feather for me. It was like the end. I was gifted that feather and that's the one you see on the album cover. That's why I called the album Spirit Bird.

Pique: There are actual bird sounds on the record too. Did you collect those?

XR: I bought those samples off a guy who spent the last 35 years recording bird sounds in Australia.

Pique: There are a lot of other interesting sounds on there too, like a children's choir. Who are they?

XR: That's my son at school. I recorded a whole group of kids one day. The spirit of kids always has a haunting, a presence when it's recorded — not haunting in a negative way, but in a hair-on-the-back-of-your-neck way. It's really special. It's always a treat to record with kids.