Australian musician Xavier Rudd made it big as a one-man groove machine touring the globe with his didgeridoos, guitars and stomp box, turning out beach blanket blues on a series of highly regarded albums backed by moving and energetic live performances.
Although he’s done collaborations in the past, notably with a drummer on the moody and raw album Dark Shades of Blue and employing a two-person rhythm section, dubbed Izintaba, on the 2010 album Koonyum Sun, his career has largely been defined by his breathtaking solo work, both live and in the studio. It’s kind of been his thing. And it worked.
But for his latest album, Nanna, Rudd did something totally different and put together a massive, eight-person band, dubbed United Nations, for a reggae-infused jam fest, and he’s bringing the entire crew to Toronto on May 6 as part of Canadian Music Week.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, put a big band like this together,” Rudd says.
Rudd is a free thinker, a vegetarian and a well-known environmental activist who actively supports organizations such as the Sea Shepherd Society. When he talks about his music, he speaks as if it is something that comes to him, not something he actively creates. And so it is with his new collective.
“It came together pretty organically to be honest,” he explains. “As soon as I put it out there to the universe, it just came. All the members are the first members, there were no auditions or anything. It was almost like the ancestors sat down and had a cup of tea and put it all together.”
As is the case with much reggae music, recording Nanna brought Rudd to the island of Jamaica, where he mastered the album side-by-side with the legendary Errol Brown at Tuff Gong Studios.
“It was an honour to work with him. He loved the record,” Rudd says. “You know, his mom had passed during the mixing process, and he was kind of grieving, and the content of the record, the respect for the sacred feminine really touched him. So he got right into it.”
Rudd has a strong connection to Canada. His former wife is Canadian, so Rudd’s two boys, now 14 and 9, have some maple syrup in their veins. In addition, he recorded his last album, Spirit Bird, at a cottage in Thornbury.
“It’s a beautiful wooden studio on the lake,” he says. “I never really planned on recording anywhere but the coast. But I’d just had back surgery and needed to chill.”
Rudd plays the Opera House on May 6 (www.xavierrudd.com).