Xavier Rudd Biography, Career, Events, Family, Albums, Wife and Songs

Xavier Rudd Biography

Xavier Rudd is an Australian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who was born on 29th May 1978. Several of Rudd’s songs incorporate socially conscious themes, such as spirituality, humanity, environmentalism and the rights of Aboriginal peoples.

Xavier Rudd Career

Before launching his solo career Rudd was part of the band ‘Xavier and the Hum’. He drew inspiration from artists such as Leo Kottke, Ben Harper, Natalie Merchant and multi-instrumentalist David Lindley, as well as music from diverse sources, such as Hawaiian and Native American music. His music first took him overseas when he traveled to Whistler, British Columbia—Rudd was in a band and would play each night after a day of snowboarding.

Xavier Rudd Solace – Xavier Rudd Food in the Belly

Rudd released Solace, his first album, in 2004, to be distributed by a major label—Universal Music Australia. Rather than inviting guest artists to join him on the record, Rudd performed all the instrumentation for the album alone with only a few overdubs. Instruments included didgeridoos, slide guitars, stomp boxes, djembe drums, slit drums, and the harmonica. In his live-show, Rudd came to be renowned for his ‘one man band’ performance. Rudd recorded Food in the Belly in mid-2004 whilst on break from an extensive North American tour. The recording was made in May 2004 at Bowen Island, part of the Greater Vancouver Regional District.

Xavier Rudd White Moth

The song White Moth was written about a moth that followed Rudd’s son Joaquin for several hours on his mother’s 30th birthday. Rudd thought it was the spirit of his then wife’s grandmother. Rudd and his family were holidaying to celebrate the occasion on an island off Sri Lanka.Rudd partnered with Clif Bar’s GreenNotes program in 2007, to create the “Better People Campaign”. The campaign was about expressing gratitude to the people in the world taking steps to make positive change.

The first track on Rudd’s 2008 album Dark Shades of Blue ,Black Water ,was named after one of Lutken-Rudd’s paintings. The album saw Rudd introduce a heavier sound, using electric guitars in place of acoustic guitars and creating darker more somber tones. He recorded with Dave Tolley, a percussionist drummer, who he had previously collaborated with for White Moth and Food in the Belly. Reflecting on Dark Shades of Blue, Rudd told media he felt the heavier sound was a “precursor for things that might come… I feel like my music is ahead of me all the time. Rudd was referring to his and Lutken’s divorce, which was finalised in 2009.

Rudd was after the failure of his marriage, supported in his grief and recovery by new South African bandmates, bassist Tio Moloantoa and percussionist Andile Nqubezelo. Rudd had met Moloantoa and Nqubezelo performing at the 2008 Wiesen Nuke Festival. Rudd described his connection with Moloantoa and Nqubezelo as musical, spiritual and emotional—”I feel like they were sent to me,” he said.

Xavier Rudd Photo

In 2010 Rudd bought 20 hectares of property at Koonyum Range, Mullumbimby, the location was the inspiration for the name of the album Rudd would release with Moloantoa and Nqubezelo, Koonyum Sun. The album moved away from the heavier sound of Dark Shades of Blue to a more up-beat style.

Rudd underwent emergency back surgery, in 2011, to repair three herniated disks, bone spurs and nerve damage. Rudd wrote the track Comfortable In My Skin, on his 2012 album Spirit Bird, when he was suffering from major nerve pain before his surgery. In its entirety, the album sampled 30 species of Australian birds. The song Spirit Bird came about after an encounter Rudd had with a red-tailed black cockatoo in the Kimberley. The encounter coincided with Rudd experiencing a powerful rush of imagery and emotion.

Rudd released Nanna, the 2015 album ,in collaboration with the United Nations, champions cultural understanding and condemns racism and intolerance. To record the album, Rudd and the United Nations worked with producer Errol Brown. Rudd in an interview published in The Aspen Times, shared that Nanna had given him a chance to focus on his vocal performance. He said that he had never really liked his voice before and vocals were often little more than an afterthought, but by 2016 was embracing it.

The song Shame on Nanna was inspired by conversations about racism surrounding AFL player Adam Goodes, an Aboriginal football player who was repeatedly booed at matches. Rudd had previously declared his support for Goodes addressing the AFL Players’ Association 2014 Season Launch. At the time of writing the song Creancient for the album, Rudd was working with a Shaman in Peru. He participated in several ceremonies, including one that involved vomiting and experiencing hallucinations and another involving mud bathing. Rudd described the song as something that flowed out of him over a week while he felt like he was outside of himself, looking at his ego from a distance.

Rudd was forced to cut short his North American tour for Nanna in late 2015, to have disc replacement and fusion surgery in his lower back, having experienced chronic pain over several months. “Let Me Be” Rudd’s song featured in an Australian TV commercial in November 2015, promoting KFC, a large fast food restaurant chain specialising in fried chicken. Many fans used social media to complain about the inclusion of the song on the commercial. PETA responded that they hoped that Rudd had not approved the use of his music for the advertising.

Xavier Rudd Events

  • Fri, Sep 29
  • Fri, Nov 24
  • Queensland, Australia
  • Queenscliff VIC, Australia
  • Sat, Nov 25
  • Sun, Nov 26
  • Pokolbin NSW, Australia
  • Bondi Beach NSW, Australia
  • Sat, Dec 2
  • Sun, Dec 3
  • Western Australia, Australia

Xavier Rudd Family – Xavier Rudd Wife

Rudd met Marci Lutken, an artist from Canada, when she was backpacking in Fitzroy in 1999. The two married soon after, and had two sons, Joaquin and Finojet. Rudd obtained Canadian dual citizenship. Lutken-Rudd ended the  relationship in 2009 and the pair listed their off-grid, solar powered home in Jan Juc for sale.

As at June 2015, Rudd was building a house near Byron Bay, which will include a music studio. This house is currently for sale. Shortly before Christmas in 2016, Rudd had his second marriage in a Byron Bay Australian Aboriginal Ceremony to Ashley Freeman, an Australian holistic wellness trainer.

Xavier Rudd Albums

  1. Live in the Netherlands
  2. Nanna
  3. Spirit Bird
  4. Koonyum Sun
  5. Dark Shades of Blue
  6. White Moth
  7. Food in the Belly
  8. Good Spirit
  9. Solace
  10. To Let
  11. Live in Canada
  12. Live EP
  13. Live at the Grid

Xavier Rudd Songs

  1. Come People/Sacred
  2. Connie’s Song
  3. 9 Times a Day
  4. Pockets of Peace
  5. Anni Kooko
  6. Soften the Blow
  7. Bow Down
  8. Creancient
  9. Sky to Ground
  10. Little Chief
  11. Where Do We Fit
  12. Generatin Fade
  13. Let Me Be
  14. Conceal Me
  15. Creating a Dream
  16. A 4TH WORLD
  17. Follow the Sun
  18. Spirit Bird
  19. Come Let Go
  20. Lioness Eye
  21. Green Spandex
  22. Better People
  23. Flag
  24. Time to Smile
  25. No Woman No Cry
  26. My Missing
  27. Comfortable in My Skin
  28. Fortune Teller
  29. Come People
  30. Mystery Angel
  31. Energy Song
  32. Love Comes and Goes

Xavier Rudd – Video

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