The Happy Blues Man
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The Happy Blues Man
AUSSIE musician ASH GRUNWALD is looking forward to presenting something different to the fans who have been coming to see him since he started out a decade ago. The 34-year old Melbourne native explains to BBM’s ALEX VUCELICH why his latest album Hot Mama Vibes is a change of direction and talks about his current nationwide tour…
“AFRICAN-American folk music, marked by a strong beat and simple chord structure,” is how Webster’s dictionary defines the blues. Ash Grunwald’s music has fit into that description for the better part of his career, but on recent albums and especially on his newest, Hot Mama Vibes, the dreadlocked blues shaman has incorporated a number of different elements, moving from the muddy-stomp of the swamp to the hip-hop thump of the dance hall.
Melancholy is another way Mr. Webster chooses to categorise the blues, but Grunwald doesn’t fit into that category either.
“It’s funny because blues has never done that to me. I’ve never really seen it as somber. And maybe I’m a sicko, but it’s always made me feel good,” Grunwald said, over the phone as he watched his daughter play in a park.
“Laying down something soulful has never made me sad.”
This past week Grunwald was on a break for a few days in between tour dates. He’s riding around in a motor home with four other people this winter as he tours Australia promoting his fifth album. Grunwald said he has an old school approach to touring and that’s why he’s got so many dates on this tour.
Both on his album and this tour, Grunwald is trying new things. He usually presents his “primal sound,” in the simplest of forms: a one man band of guitar, vocals and stomp-box. However, on this tour Grunwald has decided to bring a band along in order to capture live, the fuller sound created on Hot Mama Vibes.
“It took a while for me to realise that having a band, if they’re good people, will mean that your life gets easier,” Grunwald said.
“It’s good to have compadres with you.”
On Hot Mama Vibes, Grunwald breaks away even further from the traditional form and structure of blues music that marked a majority of his earlier music. He seems to be drawing less upon the traditional sound of his heroes; legends like Robert Johnson, Blind Boy Fuller and Howling Wolf and moving more in his own direction which is roots based but fused with electronica and the blue’s cousin: hip-hop.
“The mindset for me these days has been that I don’t really want to repeat what I’ve already done,” Grunwald said.
“It’s not really a case of me saying, ‘Oh the old stuff, I’m not really into that anymore.’
“I just don’t to be a guy that makes the same album with just a slightly different spin.”
Following the success of his ARIA-nominated album, Fish out of Water, Grunwald said he felt pressure to deliver another stellar album and chose to work with a hip-hop artist as his producer yet again.
Like Countbounce before him, Mr. Trials of the Funkoars, manned the sound board on this go around.
Hot Mama Vibes, displays Grunwald’s sonic prowess, and while the project was conceived in a “partying” type of spirit, the album’s lead single, Walking, is one that reverberates in the skull, like you just imbibed a massive bong rip, leaving you content to sit still and be slightly paranoid by Grunwald’s fuzzy vocals.
As for the name of the album and its title track, it’s something Grunwald’s been kicking around for over 15 years and something that he wasn’t sure he’d ever get down on a record.
“I could hear it in my head when I was a kid and made it up. I could hear the backing vocals and that falsetto ‘hot mama vibes’ behind it,” Grunwald belted out in a jazzy, flapper style of voice.
Check out Ash Grunwald on the Hot Mama Vibes National Album Tour:
25 June: Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle, NSW
30 June: Baroque Night Club, Katoomba, NSW
3 July: Corner Hotel, Richmond, VIC
9 July: The Metro Theatre, Sydney, NSW
18 July: The Loft, Warnambool, VIC
For a complete list of tour dates check out www.ashgrunwald.com
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