XR: I bought those samples off a guy who spent the last 35 years recording bird sounds in Australia. Pique: There are actual bird sounds on the record too. That's why I called the album Spirit Bird. I was gifted that feather and that's the one you see on the album cover. Then at the end of that trip one of the birds dropped a feather for me.
The guy with us who spent a lot of time up there had never seen that before. XR: The next time I went back to the Kimberley a few months later, every morning we camped we had red-tailed black cockatoo. The next morning I woke up and realized that the police had moved in on James Price Point at about the same time and started dragging these aboriginal people and protesters and traditional owners and forcibly started to acquire the land.
at night and I was sitting by the fire and started to play this song and the second half of the song just poured out of me. It was probably two years between then and when I was up in Thornbury, just north of Toronto, recording on a lake up there. I was really emotional and ended up in tears. That night I wrote the lyrics for "Spirit Bird" in the sand on the beach and the first half the song just poured out of me. I saw these visions flashing through my brain and places and situations and memories, but they weren't my memories. I felt like I was being pushed into the earth. She was creaking and groaning and talking and I was transfixed by this old woman bird. This one bird locked eyes with me and I had this experience, it was pretty profound. Basically red-tailed cockatoos, right around the country, represent the old people, the ancestors in the aboriginal culture. There was a whole mob of them in front of me. In the tree were these red-tailed black cockatoos. I got out of the car and there was this dead tree. I was coming back from a sacred site (and) I decided to stop the car. I had some pretty amazing, powerful experiences that are very much part of the Spirit Bird record. I went and spent time camping in that country. There's a big protest right now (at) James Price Point, which is part of a coastline that is under threat from (a gas company). I started to get in touch with the Kimberley through a guy who's now a good friend who reached out to me about helping him with the save the Kimberley campaign because the Australian government wants to open it up to industry. It's a very, very powerful place, a very ancient place. In the northwest of Australia is the Kimberley Coast. XR: "Spirit Bird" basically came from a story with the red-tailed black cockatoo. Pique: What exactly is a spirit bird and how did it wind up as the title of your album? That's quite often what I've noticed, but this record Spirit Bird, I feel very close to it. Then later on, it starts to unfold in my life and I start to see and hear it play out in real time. At the time when it's coming through I won't understand it. XR: Generally, I've found my music will come through and it's like the spirit moving through bringing my dreaming ahead of time. Pique: What do you mean it's ahead of you? I feel closer to it than my other records. A lot of the times the music is ahead of me by six months. Pique: I wanted to talk about the new record too. When you keep it in your own control, the only way to really learn is to trip up and fall, and work out why you tripped. I come from a small town in Australia and when I got out into the big wide world there was everyone involved, such a big team. XR: Learning to read what's going on and follow your instincts. Pique: What have been some of the major lessons, music-wise? Pique: It's been 10 years since you released your debut. 15, about the issues that irk him, recording the new album and finding avian inspiration. Rudd spoke to the Pique, en route to Chicago, ahead of his Whistler date Nov. In lesser hands such lyrics might feel contrived, but coupled with an earnest delivery and Rudd's impressive activist CV, its sincerity is clear. It's punctuated throughout by calls to action, particularly on the title track, which contains the refrain, "Soldier on my good countrymen, keep fighting for your culture now, keep fighting for your land." His seventh album, to which he says he is most connected, is rich with textures and curious sounds - even opening with ominous caws of a bird - and wanders from dark moods to lighter messages of hope.
Since the 2002 debut, he's gained a reputation as a captivating performer - wailing on a range of traditional and indigenous instruments - and activist in both his native Australia and in Canada, where his latest record Spirit Bird, was released in June via EMI. It's been over a decade since earthy folk singer and multi-instrumentalist Xavier Rudd released his debut record, To Let.
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