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.”
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“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".
love comes and goes
Xavier Rudd Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Love comes and goes
Sometimes decades sometimes months,
Raise you up to the sky
Make you feel like every little thing is bright.
Send you crashing back down
Make you so sick that you want to drown
No other pain, like losing a soul mate.
The roads we take in life often seem to be very strong.
Walk them carelessly like we’re walking on bricks and stone.
Only when we look behind we will see the road is cracked.
Oh, there we must move forward, gently as we tread.
Chorus
To carry our guilt sometimes seems the only thing that’s easy.
Eat away your flesh and bones and all that you be.
My good Amigo once said that the truth will set you free,
But I guess we have to wait sometimes, just wait around and see.
Chorus
I see a new sun rising again,
Brand new colors, brand new road ahead.
Sweeping up the pieces of a broken nest,
Sweeping up the pieces but the piece never end.
Chorus
In Xavier Rudd's song Love Comes and Goes, the chorus addresses the temporal nature of love. It speaks to the highs and lows of love, which can sometimes last a few months or several years. Love has the ability to uplift you and make everything seem bright, but it can also bring you crashing down until you feel like drowning. The pain of losing a soulmate is unparalleled in its intensity. The lyrics suggest that it's not uncommon for people to take the roads of life for granted; we often blindly stumble through obstacles without considering the cracks in our path. However, we need to move forward carefully, paying attention to the journey we are on.
The second verse talks about the ease of carrying guilt and how it can consume a person until there is nothing left. As much as we may want to be free of these negative feelings, it often takes time to heal and regain a sense of self. The song ends by acknowledging the perpetual nature of life - there will always be a new dawn, new roads to take, and new challenges to overcome. Even if there are broken pieces, we must gather them up and keep moving forward.
Line by Line Meaning
Love comes and goes
Love is unpredictable and can appear and disappear suddenly.
Sometimes decades sometimes months,
The duration of love is not constant and can vary greatly.
Raise you up to the sky
Love can make you feel incredible and uplifted.
Make you feel like every little thing is bright.
Love has the ability to make even the smallest things in life seem beautiful.
Send you crashing back down
Love can also have the power to bring you down and create emotional pain.
Make you so sick that you want to drown
The heartache caused by love can be debilitating and feel like drowning.
No other pain, like losing a soul mate.
The pain of losing someone you love deeply can be unbearable and unique to any other kind of pain.
The roads we take in life often seem to be very strong.
At times, the decisions we make in life appear to be sturdy and unbreakable.
Walk them carelessly like we’re walking on bricks and stone.
However, we often walk through life without truly considering the consequences of our actions.
Only when we look behind we will see the road is cracked.
We may only realize that a decision we made was flawed when it is too late.
Oh, there we must move forward, gently as we tread.
Despite flaws, we must continue to move forward with care and consideration.
To carry our guilt sometimes seems the only thing that’s easy.
Holding onto our mistakes can seem easier than facing their consequences.
Eat away your flesh and bones and all that you be.
Carrying guilt can have a detrimental effect on our mental and physical health.
My good Amigo once said that the truth will set you free,
The truth has the potential to release us from our guilt and pain.
But I guess we have to wait sometimes, just wait around and see.
However, it may take time to face the truth and be released from pain.
I see a new sun rising again,
There is hope for a new beginning and a brighter future.
Brand new colors, brand new road ahead.
New possibilities await, and there are countless paths to take.
Sweeping up the pieces of a broken nest,
After experiencing heartbreak or loss, we must pick up the pieces and move forward.
Sweeping up the pieces but the piece never end.
Although we can rebuild and create something new, the past will always be a part of us.
Contributed by Claire A. Suggest a correction in the comments below.