Representing a full circle experience for the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Jan Juc Moon - his tenth, most resonant and possibly his last album - is a return to the roots of his expression through songwriting.
Since the very beginning, Xavier Rudd’s ability to connect with people has been his most powerful gift. The more he has toured the world, the more hearts he has touched and the more of the world he has put back into his music.
This year the Australian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist released his tenth studio album Jan Juc Moon, the follow-up to Storm Boy in 2019 and alongside, announced a massive 38-date national tour – the biggest tour of the country undertaken by an Australian artist.
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“I often get asked, like why I do like go on these crazy tours and do so many shows and all the rest, because I’ve always been known to be a bit of a road dog, but I think a lot of that is because I’m so thankful, grateful, for the opportunity,” Xavier Rudd says.
“I grew up in Jan Juc, you know, I came from humble beginnings and there are so many great musicians in the world that don’t have the opportunity that I have. I’ve just been blessed with the opportunities and so I feel I’ve always felt bad to say no and not take them because I just think, ‘how lucky am I to be able to do that’, so I’m going do that.
“I’ve been shooting all over the world for 20 years doing this and I’m still grateful and I’m still stoked.”
Despite being in the industry for more than 20 years, Rudd still has an intense passion and appreciation for every moment he gets to spend on stage and is considerate of where he does it.
Coming off the back of a two-year break, Rudd felt it imperative to visit all corners of the nation – from the Moon Martin Parklands in Cairns and Crooked River Winery in Gerringong to the renowned venues like Sydney’s Enmore Theatre and Brisbane’s Fortitude Music Hall.
“I wanted to do as much regional touring as we could. I wanted to try and get to get to as many regional towns as we can, places that we don’t often go and may never go again,” Rudd says.
“I just wanted to try and touch as many different people and places in Australia while we had this time and post-COVID so that was the plan. People have been through a rough time and I feel like people need music so there’s a lot of shows and a lot in obscure little towns too, which is pretty cool.”
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As part of his huge 2022 Australian tour, the national treasure is also returning home to Geelong this weekend.
Taking to the stage at Costa Hall once again on Saturday, July 16, the Torquay-bred legend is looking forward to bringing his music back to where it all began.
“I love coming down and sharing my music back home. It’s special for me. That Costa Hall is a nice venue for this show that we’re touring. it’s a beautiful venue,” Rudd says.
“I guess it’s also a full circle for me. I went to school in that town; it’s just special to come back and after going so many places, across Australia and the world, playing in Geelong is just different in some way. It’ll be nice.”
Nothing compares to experiencing Xavier Rudd in concert who is truly at his best on stage in the company of his fans. Acoustic guitar in hand, engulfed by an ever more complex scaffold of didgeridoos, percussion and various eclectic instruments, Rudd cuts an utterly unique and compelling figure.
This tour however promises to be a complete multi-sensory experience, with Rudd presenting a unique stage design, visuals and live technologies to amplify the magic of the moment for his audience.
“We’ve had the time to invest energy into creating a light and sound journey for everyone. It’s a bit more of a theme-based kind of show that going to take you to different places; visually, emotionally, and physically.”
Joining Rudd will be support act Marlon x Rulla, a dynamic First Nations duo who burst onto the scene in 2020 performing on some of the nation’s biggest stages – opening for Midnight Oil at WOMADelaide, rocking Bass in the Grass in Darwin, Party in the Apocalypse in Tassie and wowing 30,000 fans at the AFL’s Sir Douglas Nicholls round.
Promising to be a display of true magic on stage this weekend, the tour is named after Rudd’s tenth studio album Jan Juc Moon, which debuted on ARIA’s album chart at No. 6 and No. 1 on the A.I.R. album chart, an output hailed as his most resonant album to date.
If you’ve ever listened to Rudd’s music, it almost instantly conjures up images of pristine Australian beaches and the deep red dirt from the country’s heart. This album is different. It feels different. It’s confident, compelling, and sees Rudd present his calmest, centred version of music yet.
A reflective album, Rudd weaves together organic sounds of nature and wildlife, themes of environmentalism and Indigenous history, powerful collaboration, and a mix of synths and R’n’B beats and the traditional blues-folk sound we’ve come to know and love.
Maintaining that same arresting quality of his passion and musicianship that we’ve seen from Rudd over the past two decades, the hypnotic collection of tracks welcomes new sounds and moods, made possible by the album’s creative process and time.
“I started seriously working on the album in about 2021 where I had time with this record; I had more time than I’ve ever had.”
It was time that was incidental. Rudd, who has been touring the international circuit for 20 years, decided that in 2020 he would take a year off. This break accelerated a return to the solo mode of creation that first led the barefoot multi-instrumentalist on his phenomenal journey.
“I thought it was a good time for a break and then coincidentally, COVID happened. So it didn’t affect me as much as a lot of artists,” Rudd shares.
“Instead, I just chipped away at it at home and I had my engineer producer come in in blocks and we worked on the album in my studio at home. We would work on it a week here, and a week there and we had time in between to just digest it.
“I had time to get a bit trippy with it which is what I wanted to do with all those sounds that you hear that in it: it’s this analog synthesiser that I was mucking around with where I’d go in late at night and do that. I just had a bit more time to get more experimental, whereas in the past my albums would be made in the middle of a touring block, so within three to four weeks.”
From ‘Stoney Creek’, a rolling acoustic balm of a song that finds refuge in the simple blessings of rest, companionship and belonging in a world gone crazy; ‘I am Eagle’, where he sings about the state of the world and his connection to the land; to ‘Ball and Chain’, a powerful piece featuring J-MILLA about Australia’s past and future and the “constant fight for justice to pave the way for change,” the wind blows strong though this album.
It’s a recurring image that speaks of wide-open space and the awesome natural elements that shape it: a force far greater than us, but ours to harness if we take the time to learn, reflect and respect its ways.
It’s the title track, however – which was written more than a decade ago – that provides the greatest insight into the heart of Rudd’s 10th album.
“I wrote that about 15 years ago when I left that area and I recorded Spirit Bird. It was a very personal song for me. It was the start of a hard time. Everything was falling apart around me. I was going through a divorce, my kids were being taken to another state… there was this real sense of longing,” Rudd says.
“I hadn’t released it before, but it felt like it was time; this time it’s about reflection and I was reflecting on the world and world pre-COVID and my journey and where it began,” he continues.
“At the start of ‘Jan Juc Moon’ what you hear is my son’s heartbeat in the womb; my one-year-old, Jundi. I recorded his heartbeat and that runs right through the song so it’s kind of like a full circle. That’s why I called this record Jan Juc Moon. To me, it feels like a bit of a follow-up to Spirit Bird in some way.”
Representing a full circle experience for the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Jan Juc Moon – his tenth, most resonant and possibly his last album – is a return to the roots of his expression through songwriting.
“It was a really special album for me, it just sort of felt like a full circle; where in some ways I was coming back to my roots with it. I don’t even know if I’ll make another album. Like it’s number 10 and I feel like it might be a good way to close a book.
“This record, even with that last song ‘Joanna’ [a song named after a beach Rudd would visit as a kid where his dad would sing a capella] for me, it reflects on everything. It touches everything so I’m not sure what I’ll do in the future, but it somehow feels a bit like that. So it’s very special to me.”
With songwriting that’s both philanthropic and inspiring, a voice that inspires both action and movement, it’s no surprise Xavier Rudd is one of Australia’s most successful international artists of all-time. He has long believed that music is medicine and right now, Xavier Rudd is the antidote we all need.
Xavier Rudd will perform at Costa Hall in Geelong on Saturday, July 16 2022. Purchase tickets to the Geelong show here.