Looking forward to Splendour? Jen catches up with Xavier Rudd, who is keen as!

XAVIER RUDD & THE UNITED NATIONS RELEASE NEW VIDEO

“FLAG” ​TOURING NATIONALLY AUGUST / SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2015​

​Watch “Flag” by Xavier Rudd & The United Nations

Hi Xavier it is Jen from Music Injection.
Hello!
You have an action packed touring schedule coming up, touring seems to be a part of your life, you must really enjoy it!
Yes, I really enjoy what I do. I am right in the thick of it I just got home from States a couple of days ago and its touchdown for two weeks and then straight to Europe. it feels hectic at this point but it is a good job and a beautiful existence but as it’s really tiring. It’s not as glamorous as it seems.
Follow the Sun is one of my all time favourite songs. Is it true that you wrote it in one hour?
Probably, most of my songs that I get a really good reaction from people and become like their favourites are always written really quick. But then a lot of my songs in general are pretty quick, I guess they just flow through me and I don’t write any of them down. I have a rule, like the good ones would stay, so I don’t try to write songs, I will have an idea that comes through and then I’ll just let it be. I let it take shape and it usually does that pretty quickly and then it becomes what is.
So when it is going through your head and your write it down on paper or you pick up your guitar do you have a feeling that it is going to become a hit?
No, it is hard to see anything like that, I don’t think like that to be honest because that whole concept is really unpredictable. You just don’t know, I’ve been surprised over the years. Follow the Sun was not even meant to be on for Spirit Bird, I recorded that when I got home from recording Spirit Bird. And it was like a homecoming song that I wrote when I got home and I actually remember playing it to my new manager at the time and he said that is a cracker that has to go on the record. And I was like you reckon? So I was not even going to put that song on the record. I recorded it and I was really simple. I never thought that it would become the highest played song on the radio. Now it is just gone platinum and I’m really excited! It is funny how things go!
Well it is an amazing song! It seems that you do in fact follow the sun as you seem to tour a lot! Is there a place in the sun that you have not been to yet that you would like to go?
Yes South America for sure. It is probably the market that I have not tapped into, in terms of sales etc, it is just a matter of getting there and I think I will next year.

Your album Nanna is very spiritual which I feel is what the world needs right now more so than ever before. Do you feel that your music’s message is important to the younger generation that is exposed to music that is usually meaningless.
I hope so, you know that, I guess I feel like more so than just posed a question for people with my music then tell people anything. I guess my spiritual path and my journey is very powerful and I feel there is lot of the ancestral activity around me that is attuned to my music and I have become more cynical now I have travelled around. I guess I feel the wisdom has come through in the end but I can’t really take responsibility for it. In Nanna I do think that that has important messages and I also think those messages are going to reach the people that need to hear it. I really do believe in that and that can’t be controlled it is what it is. 

Is there a reason that you called it Nanna? That word brings warm memories of being looked after by my Nanna when I was young.
Yeah that’s what it is, it is dedicated to the spirit of my great-grandmother that I never met but I believe she is in my music and I guess with the United Nations we are came from different backgrounds and we have a lot of respect for our ancestors, so respecting owners or grandmothers of that past is relevant to the message of this record. I also think that it extends to great grandmother creation and just the whole concept of rebirth and all seasons of the Earth and the grandmother being the concept of reproduction.

I saw on your fb page that many people are commenting on feeling the spirit when they listen to your music. How important is that feedback to you or do you stay off social media?
I see it a little bit I’m not on it all the time so I check it here and there and I think it’s great it is inspiring I love what I do and I care about what I do, I’ve always have. so even if there’s one person in the room that gets a song out of 10,000 it is huge and I feel very very grateful and it still blows my mind that it gets such a reach.
Tell us about the story behind the Rainbow Serpent song when you were running along the beach.
okay, to cut a long story short I will try and tell you quickly, for this record I shut my eyes and saw where the spiritual journey that I came from, I was catapulted to different power centers around the globe, in the last few years I felt that I was sent, I felt that I was forced into some places that some powerful things happened and one of those places was Peru and one of those places was Indonesia and another one was the Kimberley and a couple of other places in Australia. So I went to do a ceremony in Peru and I sang that song over and over again when I was in that part of the world. Then I went out to the Kimberley to talk to an elder up there about the song. I’m finding it really hard to explain what happened. Basically I went up to the elder and he was watching me run along the beach and he gave me permission to run natural track. So I was running and I had this dream that I was pulled out of my sleep and I was dropped and there was to be goes the sky that I saw like spirits and it’s pretty hard to explain this over the telephone and as I was running it was like my heart beat and I went down all these tunnels and I was in Peru again and everything was linked and I was singing about the Rainbow Serpent and I was singing that whole chant as I was running and as I woke up I realize that that was the song. So yeah that is as short version, is pretty hard to explain the phone, let’s sit down over a cup of tea at Splendour and talk about it.
Do you know how long your set is at Splendour?
I think an hour and a half.

Will you be available for meet and greets? (Please say yes I have a 16 year old daughter that we are driving from Melbourne to see your set! She would be ecstatic to met you as you are the reason that she started playing the harmonica. )
I don’t know I haven’t thought that far ahead that probably!

Your multicultural band how did you find all your musicians?
It was really organic, the right people just appeared, really really organic, we just found the right members and it just felt all very right.

thanks Xavier for your time, I am sorry that the 15 minutes have flown but I do hope that we meet at Splendour.
Thank you very much Jen, hope to meet you there too.
Good luck for your tour in Europe.
Thanks very much!

Here are the details for Xavier’s National tour.

Macro Music & Salt X Records present

XAVIER RUDD & THE UNITED NATIONS

The Flag Australian Tour

With special guest BOBBY ALU

Tickets on sale 9am Thursday 21st May from www.xavierrudd.com

Sun 09 AUG: DARWIN FESTIVAL, DARWIN NT

Thu 13 AUG: TANKS ARTS CENTRE, CAIRNS Qld

Fri 14 AUG: THE VENUE, TOWNSVILLE Qld

Sat 15 AUG: MAGNUMS, AIRLIE BEACH Qld

Sun 16 AUG: MACKAY ENT CENT, MACKAY Qld

Tue 18 AUG: PILBEAM THEATRE, ROCKHAMPTON Qld

Wed 19 AUG: MONCRIEFF THEATRE, BUNDABERG Qld

Thu 20 AUG: THE TIVOLI, BRISBANE Qld

Fri 21 AUG: C.EX SERVICES, COFFS HARBOUR NSW

Sun 23 AUG: MIAMI MARKETTA, GOLD COAST Qld

Thu 27 AUG: CLUB FORSTERS, FORSTER NSW

Fri 28 AUG: CIVIC THEATRE, NEWCASTLE NSW

Sat 29 AUG: CENTRAL COAST LEAGUES CLUB, GOSFORD NSW

Sun 30 AUG: DUBBO RSL, DUBBO NSW

Wed 02 SEP: KATOOMBA RSL, KATOOMBA NSW

Thu 03 SEP: PANTHERS, BATHURST NSW

Fri 04 SEP: ENMORE THEATRE, SYDNEY NSW

Sat 05 SEP: WAVES, WOLLONGONG NSW

Sun 06 SEP: UC REFECTORY, CANBERRA ACT

Fri 11th SEP: PALAIS THEATRE, MELBOURNE VIC

Sat 12 SEP: ODEON THEATRE, HOBART TAS

Sun 13 SEP: COUNTRY CLUB, LAUNCESTON TAS

Tue 15 SEP: THE CAPITOL, BENDIGO VIC

Thu 17 SEP: KAY ST SALOON, TRARALGON VIC

Fri 18 SEP: COSTA HALL, GEELONG VIC

Sat 19 SEP: MT GAMBIER GAOL, MT GAMBIER SA

Sun 20 SEP: THE GOV, ADELAIDE SA

Wed 23 SEP: GOLDFIELDS ART CENTRE, KALGOORLIE WA

Thu 24 SEP: CIVIC CENTRE, ESPERANCE WA

Fri 25 SEP: ALBANY ENT CENT, ALBANY WA

Sat 26 SEP: BELVOIR AMPHITHREATRE, PERTH WA

Sun 27 SEP: 3 OCEANS WINERY, MARGARET RIVER WA

Sat 03 OCT: CALOUNDRA MUSIC FESTIVAL, SUNSHINE COAST Qld