Growing up in a family of seven children in Torquay, Victoria (Australia), near the famous surfing location Bells Beach, Rudd showed a keen interest in music. While primary school-aged, Rudd used his mother's vacuum cleaner as a makeshift didgeridoo and he began playing his brother's guitar. He also played saxophone and clarinet as a child.
Before launching his solo career, Rudd began playing music as part of the band 'Xavier and the Hum'. In 2004, Rudd released Solace, his first album to be distributed by a major label.
Rudd's music is compassionate and always manages to render emotion in his fans. His songs include stories of the mistreatment of the indigenous people of his homeland; they tell of humanity, spirituality or the environment. The songs are written and sung with compassion and they urge the celebration of life.
Rudd is skilled with a variety of instruments, include guitar, shaker, didgeridoo, Weissenborn slide guitar, Tongue drum, stomp boxe, djembe, harmonica, ankle bells, and slide banjo. It's an experience to watch him perform his songs live, as he plays the guitar, digeridoo and various percussion instruments simultaneously, using a unique stage setup. But the real magic comes when he opens his mouth and his soulful voice spills upon his audience.
Rudd recalls that when he was 10, his dad took him to see Paul Simon’s Graceland tour. “I remember seeing it and knowing that that was what I was gonna do,” he says. “I had no doubt. It sort of made sense, because I’d always lived in my head, in this world of song that was my own little secret. But to see that show and that whole thing happening, I sort of felt comfortable as a human, and thought.” He learned to play the digeridoo, the 50,000-year-old wooden trumpet of the Aboriginal people, by practising on a vacuum cleaner pipe.
As a teenager, Rudd really got into songwriting. He started performing at his school, with solo gigs following. 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 Hawaii and Native American music.
As with most solo artists, Rudd has experimented playing in a band. Though it was a short- lived experiment, as Rudd quickly found that it wasn't the right way to go for him. “What I do now is just more me,” he says. “And it sounds full.”
Quotes:
“It’s all about peace and happiness,” he says of his performances. “That’s sort of the blanket that seems to sort of settle in the room, or on the venue when I play, but I sort of feel not solely responsible. I don’t really feel like it’s me and the audience. I feel like it’s all of us, one big connection and I just happen to be channeling the energy through music. It comes from the audience and channels through me and I put it back in the audience.”
“My music is about good spirit. I’m so lucky to be able to do what I do. I’m so blessed to be able to be able to travel around and play music and connect with so many people in so many places in so many cultures. It’s a gift of life as a musician.”
After the failure of his marriage in 2009, Rudd was 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 in Austria. Rudd described his connection with Moloantoa and Nqubezelo as musical, spiritual and emotional—"I feel like they were sent to me," he said.
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, titled "Koonyum Sun", as Xavier Rudd & Izintaba. The album moved away from the heavier sound of Rudd's 2008 album "Dark Shades of Blue" to a more up-beat style.
"Nanna", the 2015 album Rudd released as Xavier Rudd & the United Nations champions cultural understanding and condemns racism and intolerance. It features a diverse group of musicians from Australia, South Africa, Samoa, Germany, Ireland, and Papua New Guinea.
In 2018, Rudd released "Storm Boy".
Famine
Xavier Rudd Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And I went down to Spanish Town
To look for a friend of mine
Who's called Seminaya
Then we started to have a little talk
About everything
About the situation
He told me, “Famine, famine, famine
Famine on the land
Because the cost of living
Is getting so high, high, high”
It's really so high, high, high
Sky high
Because the cost of living
Is getting so high, high, high
So I went down to Old Harbour
To look for my brother John
To ask him how is life
And things and things and things
Oh, we started to have a little talk
About everything
About the situation
And this is what he said
He told me, “Famine, famine, famine
Famine's on the land
Because the cost of living
Is getting so high, high, high”
It's really so high, high, high
Sky high
Because the cost of living
Is getting so high, high, high
So I went down to Clarendon
To look for my family
To a little street called Treadlight
Is where I was born
Oh, and we started to have a little talk
Together, together
About the situation
And this is what they said
They told me, “Famine, famine, famine
Famine on the land
Because the cost of living
Is getting so high, high, high”
It's really so high, high, high
Sky high
'Cause the cost of living
Is getting so high, high, high
The song "Famine" by Australian musician Xavier Rudd is a melancholic tune that takes on social issues and assesses the grim reality of the plight of poor and marginalized people. The lyrics depict Rudd seeking out his friend Seminaya in Spanish Town and his brother John in Old Harbour to discuss the current situation in the country. The song tackles the prevalent issue of increasing living costs that push people into poverty and hunger. The repeated phrase in the song "Famine, famine, famine, famine on the land" emphasizes the haunting reality of how the cost of living is getting unaffordable and how it is hitting hard at the poor and vulnerable sections of society.
The song paints a sad picture of how families and communities are being affected by the lack of adequate resources and how the hunger and lack of basic necessities are taking their toll. Despite the gravity of the situation, the lyrics hold the message of hope and unity, as seen in the lines "Together, together." Rudd shows that empathy and understanding can bridge the gap between people and create solutions to the world's problems. The song's slow and melancholic vibe with Rudd's soulful voice adds to the poignant narrative, bringing to life the sentiments of hunger, desperation, and crushing poverty in the listeners' minds.
Line by Line Meaning
Well, I wake up early one morning
The singer wakes up early one morning
And I went down to Spanish Town
The singer went to Spanish Town
To look for a friend of mine
The singer is searching for a friend
Who's called Seminaya
The friend's name is Seminaya
Then we started to have a little talk
The singer and Seminaya had a conversation
About everything
The conversation covered a wide range of topics
About the situation
They discussed the current situation
And this is what he said
Seminaya said the following
He told me, “Famine, famine, famine
Seminaya mentioned famine three times
Famine on the land
There is a famine affecting the region
Because the cost of living
The high cost of living is causing the famine
Is getting so high, high, high”
The cost of living is increasing at a fast rate
It's really so high, high, high
The cost of living is extremely high
Sky high
The cost of living is as high as the sky
So I went down to Old Harbour
The singer went to Old Harbour
To look for my brother John
The singer is searching for his brother John
To ask him how is life
The singer wants to know how John is doing
And things and things and things
The conversation covered a wide range of topics
Oh, we started to have a little talk
The singer and John had a conversation
About everything
The conversation covered a wide range of topics
About the situation
They discussed the current situation
And this is what he said
John said the following
He told me, “Famine, famine, famine
John mentioned famine three times
Famine's on the land
There is a famine affecting the region
Because the cost of living
The high cost of living is causing the famine
Is getting so high, high, high”
The cost of living is increasing at a fast rate
It's really so high, high, high
The cost of living is extremely high
Sky high
The cost of living is as high as the sky
So I went down to Clarendon
The singer went to Clarendon
To look for my family
The singer is searching for his family
To a little street called Treadlight
The family lives on a street called Treadlight
Is where I was born
The singer was born on Treadlight
Oh, and we started to have a little talk
The singer and his family had a conversation
Together, together
The family talked together
About the situation
They discussed the current situation
And this is what they said
The family said the following
They told me, “Famine, famine, famine
The family mentioned famine three times
Famine on the land
There is a famine affecting the region
Because the cost of living
The high cost of living is causing the famine
Is getting so high, high, high”
The cost of living is increasing at a fast rate
It's really so high, high, high
The cost of living is extremely high
Sky high
The cost of living is as high as the sky
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: FREDERICK HIBBERT
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind