Xavier Rudd

Xavier Rudd is an Australian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Victoria. His music is associated with folk, folk rock, indie folk, blues, reggae and singer-songwriter traditions, and his writing often addresses spirituality, humanity, environmentalism and the rights of Indigenous Australians.

Background and early years

Rudd is born in 1978 and grows up in Torquay, Victoria, near Bells Beach, in a family of seven children. As a child he begins playing his brother’s guitar, and he also plays saxophone and clarinet. While at primary school, he uses his mother’s vacuum cleaner as a makeshift didgeridoo, later practising the instrument on a vacuum cleaner pipe. As a teenager, he becomes more focused on songwriting and starts performing at school before moving on to solo gigs.

Career

Before his solo career, Rudd performs in a band called Xavier and the Hum. He releases his first major-label distributed album, Solace, in 2004. He also records as Xavier Rudd & Izintaba for Koonyum Sun, and as Xavier Rudd & the United Nations for Nanna. In 2018, he releases Storm Boy.

Musical style and performances

Rudd draws inspiration from artists including Leo Kottke, Ben Harper, Natalie Merchant and David Lindley, as well as from Hawaiian and Native American music. He plays a wide range of instruments, including guitar, shaker, didgeridoo, Weissenborn slide guitar, tongue drum, stomp box, djembe, harmonica, ankle bells and slide banjo. In performance, he plays guitar, didgeridoo and percussion at the same time using a distinctive stage setup.

Themes and collaborations

His songs frequently deal with peace, connection, and support for Indigenous Australians, and he describes his performances in terms of shared energy between audience and performer. After the end of his marriage in 2009, he is supported by South African bandmates Tio Moloantoa and Andile Nqubezelo. He meets them at the 2008 Wiesen Nuke Festival in Austria, and their collaboration leads to Koonyum Sun. Nanna brings together musicians from Australia, South Africa, Samoa, Germany, Ireland and Papua New Guinea, and focuses on cultural understanding while opposing racism and intolerance.