Artist.......: Xavier Rudd
Album........: White Moth
Label........: Anti
Genre........: Pop
Catnr........: n/a
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: May-24-2007
str.date.....: Jun-02-0000
quality......: VBR/44.1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: n/a
track title time
01. Better People 03:07
02. Twist 03:01
03. Stargaze 03:36
04. Choices 04:23
05. Come Let Go 06:52
06. White Moth 02:09
07. Footprint 07:04
08. Land Rights 03:14
09. Anni Kookoo 03:18
10. Message Stick 05:12
11. Set It Up 04:09
12. Whispers 04:44
13. Whirlpool 04:29
14. Come Back 04:09
Runtime 59:27 min
Size 76,10 MB
Release Notes:
For so many artists, the divide between their live
shows and their albums can be enormous. And for an
artist like Xavier Rudd, who utterly thrives in
front of audience, and feeds off its energy,
capturing that live electricity has always proved a
wee elusiveùthat is, until now.
With White Moth heÆs finally harnessed that spirit,
thus realizing a goal of combining the acoustic
warmth offered by a studio with the adrenalin of
the stage. Yet the disc, the Australian roots music
starÆs fourth album (and third to be released in
the U.S.), isnÆt all about sound techniques,
fidelity and the stuff that keep soundman chatting
into the middle of the night.
Rather, itÆs just the opposite, as White Moth
charts the spiritual journey multi-instrumentalist
Rudd has been on over the past few years, during
which heÆs traveled the globe and built a devoted
following drawn to his amalgamation of folk,
reggae, rock and world music. Featuring guest
vocals from Aboriginal singers, it finds him paying
respect to AustraliaÆs indigenous people, from whom
the didgeridoo virtuoso has drawn bottomless
inspiration.
Lyrically, it pays homage to those same people, and
also to his wife and children, environmental
activistsùwhom he refers to as the ôbetter
peopleöùand to the people who make this life
possible, his fans, who fuel the spirit of White
Moth.
Co-produced by Rudd and Dave Ogilvie (David Bowie,
Marilyn Manson and N.E.R.D.), most of the albumÆs
tracks were captured in the woods of British
ColumbiaÆs Sunshine Coast at Gggarth RichardsonÆs
studio, The Farm. It was there that Rudd, in order
to capture the bigness of his live sound, plugged
into a P.A. system, which was then mic-ed. Rudd set
up various instruments, like his didgeridoos and
stomp boxes, in other rooms, from which he and
Ogilvie could capture woody tones that could be
fused to the electric tracks.
ôOn quite a few of songs, it sounds like thereÆs
bass, but thatÆs just me playing live,ö says Rudd.
ôI have a technique that I figured out, where IÆm
playing basslines off my thumb while I play the
melody with my fingersùfinger picking. It sounds
like a bass player playing, but itÆs just me. So
itÆs great, IÆm especially stoked with how we
captured that.ö
Within the songs composing White Moth, Rudd takes
you on a personal tour of his world. The title
track and the song ôStargazeö come from time spent
with his wife and their two children. The former
remembers a night they spent sleeping under the
stars, while ôWhite Mothö recalls a particularly
special moment on the day of his wifeÆs 30th
birthday, when the family was vacationing on an
island off the coast of Sri Lanka: ôThat day, a
white moth came to our six-year-old, a beautiful
white moth and stayed with him for about three
hours. We thought it was the spirit of my wifeÆs
grandmother, which is often with her. It sort of
reflects that day, which was a really positive day,
and my wife, who has been the backbone of this
whole career of mine for years.
ôThis album,ö Rudd notes, ôfeels like an amazing
recording. ItÆs been a really good space and a
really good time, and itÆs just sort of a nice,
positive reflection of our whole journey over the
last seven or eight years.ö
Featuring appearances by members of the esteemed
Aboriginal musical group Yothu Yindi, percussionist
Dave Tolley, Panos Grames, and First Nations Cree
elder Kennitch, White Moth is representative of
RuddÆs entire life, ranging from those snapshots of
life at home on AustraliaÆs south coast (in the
town of Jan Juc), and meditations on friends
(ôTwistö) and the family bond (the cancer victim in
ôChoicesö) to emotional and literal trips to
AustraliaÆs historic Arnhem Land, an Aboriginal
territory whose people are the subject of the song
ôLand Rights.ö Rudd recorded some of the guest
vocals on White Moth here, and with an elder in
Canada, where his wife was born.
ôThese people are the special people, who, as human
beings, have been connecting with this land for
thousands and thousands of years in their family
lives,ö says Rudd. ôI feel like these people have
been denied a voice in the white settlements in
Australia. We live in a time where weÆre rapidly
deteriorating the environmentùin a manner of a
couple hundred years. TheyÆve been on the planet
for 60,000 years without leaving a stone unturned
environmentally. So I feel like these people should
be given a voice.ö
With the music building into a storm-like squall at
songÆs end, ôFootprintö examines the damage being
done by global warming, while ôBetter Peopleö is
RuddÆs tribute to the people who deserve more
credit for their environmental activism than he: ôI
feel kind of guilty sometimes because IÆm getting
highlighted for those things, while, in my busy
life, IÆm constantly touring, constantly playing
through these power-hungry P.A. systems in a time
when global warming is so critical, so I feel a
little toxic in the existence that I live in. So
that song is like a respect song to the people who
should be doing those interviews, the ones who are
strapping themselves to trees, out in the ocean
saving whales and feeding kids in Africa. TheyÆre
the real heroes.ö
A one-man-band/multi-instrumentalist who plays
guitars, shakers, didgeridoos, Weissenborn slide
guitars, stomp boxes, djembes, harmonica, ankle
bells, and slide banjo, Rudd made his U.S. debut in
2004 with Solace. In the three years since, his
popularity and reputation have begun to mushroom
for a string of conscious, heartfelt songs and,
maybe more so, for a rather impressive stage show
that often finds him performing those songsÆ
guitar, didgeridoo and various percussion parts
simultaneouslyùusing a unique set-up that finds him
literally surrounded by his various instruments and
singing from behind a stand holding three
didgeridoos (of different keys).
A bona fide star in Australia, Rudd grew up in
BellÆs Beach in Southern Victoria, notable for its
cameo in the memorable surf film Point Break.
Reared in a music-friendly environment, where his
parents spun records by the likes of Neil Young and
Paul Simon, as a child Rudd played guitar,
clarinet, saxophone and didgeridoo, the
50,000-year-old wooden trumpet of the Aborigines.
In 2002, Rudd released his debut album in
Australia, To Let, which was followed by Solace and
in 2004 by Food in the Belly, his debut for Anti-,
for which he has trekked across the U.S. several
times supportingùamassing a burgeoning grass-roots
fanbase and the admiration of the likes of Ani
DiFranco and Jack Johnson, while hitting many of
the countryÆs top festivals, like Bonnaroo.
Both Solace and Food in the Belly have been
certified platinum and gold sales certifications in
Australia, while his 2006 DVD Good Spirit
(2006)ùfiled at a sold-out 2004 show in Sydneyùwas
also recently certified gold in Australia.
Of White Moth, he says, ôI think the record is just
a reflection of my journey and my journey is
amazing. ItÆs a reflection of a connection with
powerful people around the worldùpowerful
spiritsùbut also connections with the energy that
people bring to my show. You know, IÆm really lucky
that I have such a good and amazing support base
everywhere I go. Great people come to my gigs, and
they bring beautiful energy, and that energy flows
through me everywhere I go, every show I play.
ôIt all shapes what I do. So I feel like everyone
thatÆs been part of this journey to me, down to
everyone who comes to the gig has helped shape what
this album has become. And itÆs a really positive
one for me. ItÆs the most positive recording IÆve
done, in terms of sitting back and saying, æWow,
what a journey, here it is, I hope it reflects
it.Æö