All posts tagged jbt

  • The Big Issue story: John Butler Trio, September 2010

    A story for The Big Issue #362: a profile of the Australian roots/rock act John Butler Trio ahead of their Australian tour throughout August and September 2010.

    Click the below image for a closer look, or read the article text underneath.

    John Butler Trio profile, 'Riding The Rails', by Andrew McMillen in The Big Issue #362

    John Butler Trio: Riding The Rails

    Over the past 15 years, John Butler has strummed and sung his way to his present status as one of Australia’s most recognisable musicians. But people’s perception of the 35-year-old, who was born in the US and moved to Australian when he was 10, can vary widely, as Butler is all too aware.

    “I think to some people I’m a blues artist. Some people think I’m a sensitive new age guy who writes songs about his children and his family. Some people think I’m somebody who’s lived in Australia for 24 years, and is Australian, and loves Australia but still has an American accent, he laughs. “I’m many things to many different people. I think some people hate me, some people love me and there’s probably a lot of people who don’t give a shit – and that’s probably a healthy thing.”

    “I’ve tried to let go of what I hope people see in me, because for quite a long time I felt misunderstood,” he says. “I have these ideas: I do care about peace and justice, the truth, my country and its land and culture. For that to be pigeonholed; for that multidimensional point of view to be put into a single point of view of a ‘tree-hugging hippie’ was frustrating, for a long time. I felt that a lot of these things are not fringe issues. They concern us all; they’re everyday people stuff.”

    Maturity has lent a new perspective to Butler’s interpretation of such misconceptions, though. “I’ve learned not to care so much about that misunderstanding,” he admits. “There’s bigger fish to fry. I’ve got two children who are amazing. I’ve got an amazing band. I have a fantastic, amazing wife. I need to worry about what they think about me more than how the general media is going to misconstrue me to make it more palatable to a reading audience.”

    The Big Issue caught up with Butler in the midst of an intensive European tour, which immediately followed a triumphant series of shows in the United States. The US highlight was the Trio’s first headline show at a capacity Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, a buzz that Butler likens to his skateboarding background.

    “When I used to skate really heavily – I still skate, but when I was riding and trying to get sponsors – I’d climb these eight-stair handrails and ollie, 50/50 grind on ‘em. I was thrilled by it, I wanted to do it, it excited me, and at the same time it scared the fuck out of me. I’d played Red Rocks seven or eight times before and always opened up for other people. To be headlining that show and playing to 8,500 people – the biggest audience we’ve ever had, anywhere in the world – it came like a huge fucking wave, a big wave that I dropped into and I was just trying to make sure I didn’t fall off. It was exhilarating, scary, exciting and daunting; all those things. It was like an eight-stair handrail.”

    With so much time spent overseas, how does Butler retain his connection to Australia? He replies: “I know this almost sounds like a Qantas ad or something,” he replies,”But wherever I go in this world, I’m taking the spirit of our country with me… It’s like when they see AC/DC or The Cat Empire, or whoever else: we’re all ambassadors for our culture. Every time we play, we’re like – in a slightly, kind of defiantly arrogant way, but with great respect – ‘This is how we fucking roll. This is recipe and this is how we cook. Come to our kitchen, and let’s get it on!’”

    The John Butler Trio song ‘One Way Road’ has been used recently on the One HD sports channel. How does Butler feel about being associated with TV advertisements? “I see these things as kind of like infiltration. I’m not really a sports fan, but I don’t have anything against sports.”

    He starts singing the song’s lyrics to himself – They come, they take / It’s never enough because they can’t relate / To the real world, thinking that the oyster is just for the pearl – before interrupting himself. “Oh, big lyrics! Of revolution and progression. For that to be on a mainstream TV station?” He laughs: “I’ve infiltrated these mofos! I don’t have a problem with it. In a way, I’m using their forum to spread a message that I think is important. I feel like, okay: the revolution will be televised!”

    But one thing should be made clear: Butler keeps control of which ads his music will appear in. “It doesn’t mean it’s a slippery slope to doing a BP ad, by any means!”

    by Andrew McMillen

    The John Butler Trio are touring Australia through late August until late September. For more details, visit johnbutlertrio.com

    Elsewhere: the full transcript of this conversation between John Butler and myself, which was published on The Vine.

    More John Butler Trio on MySpace. Music video for their song ‘Revolution‘ embedded below.

  • The Vine interview: John Butler, September 2010

    An interview for The Vine. Excerpt below.

    John Butler at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Colorado. Photo by Tobin VoggesserInterview – John Butler

    It’s a pretty safe bet to name John Butler Trio as Australia’s biggest independent act. Since their humble beginnings with the 1998 LP John Butler, the singer/guitarist and his regularly-rotating musical partners released Three to wide acclaim in 2001 and have continued to grow in stature ever since.

    Butler [pictured right] owns Jarrah Records, an independent label created to release his band and The Waifs; in 2005, he and his wife inaugurated the JB Seed grant program to support artistic expression and encourage social, cultural and artistic diversity in Australian society. In the last five years, Butler and his supporters – including Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins and Blue King Brown – have given away somewhere in the vicinity of $500,000 to Australian musicians, managers and social activists through (the recently-renamed) The Seed.

    Above all else, though, John Butler is known for his music, a heady mix of blues, roots, rock, and – more recently, with the release of April Uprising – pop. When TheVine reaches John Butler, he’s on a tour bus somewhere in France, having just played at a music festival. He and his current band – drummer Nicky Bomba and bassist Byron Luiters – have spent much of 2010 overseas. The trio completed their most successful US tour thus far, which included their biggest headline show to date at the sold out, 8,500-capacity Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. Ahead of his biggest Australian tour since the release of 2004’s Sunrise Over Sea, there’s a lot of ground to be covered. Butler is up to the task; he speaks with TheVine for over 40 minutes.

    Andrew: It’s been interesting to follow you over the years, because it seems your outspoken nature and what you and your name stand for are all ideas that many Australians can identify with. Besides your music, which obviously resonates with people, I wonder if this idea, that people feel like they can identify with you, speaks to why you’ve achieved so much as a public figure. What do you think John Butler stands for in the eyes of the Australian public?

    John: Wow, what an introduction. That’s great. A real journalist, this is refreshing. Well first of all, who I am and how I define myself is a work in progress. And in another way I think it would be kind of pretentious to think of what I stand for to people. It would be almost a little bit too self-concerned to presuppose what anybody thinks about me.

    I think to some people I’m a loud-mouthed fringe hippie who hugs trees. I think other people think I’m a blues artist. Some people think I’m a sensitive new age guy who writes songs about his children and his family. Some people think I’m somebody who’s lived in Australia for 24 years, and is Australian, and loves Australia but still has an American accent. [laughs] I think I’m many things to many different people. I think some people hate me and some people love me and there’s probably a lot of people who don’t give a shit and that’s probably a healthy thing.

    Full interview on The Vine.

    More John Butler Trio on MySpace. Music video for their song ‘Revolution‘ embedded below.