Blues musician Ash Grunwald lost his Mojo, then got it back again
When Australian musician Ash Grunwald travelled to the US to record with some of his blues heroes he could never have known that the producer, and all of the songs, would go missing.
Five years. What have you been doing for the past half a decade?
I’ve been doing a lot of different things actually. It all started when I got approached by a guy from America who flew me over there to do a more traditional blues album that would introduce me to the States and the worldwide blues community, which sounded like a great idea. Particularly then, in my late thirties – instead of being an old roots guy I could be a young blues guy. We went over there and we did it and it was amazing. I played with all these old blues legends and learned a whole lot and got told some amazing stories and then he … kind of went missing. And the album went missing. And it all sort of fell apart around me.
So you’d actually cut tracks for that record?
Yeah, we recorded a whole album! I tried to get a handle on that, and was unsuccessful. I was just kind of wondering what it was all about – getting philosophical and midlife crisis-y about it. So anyway, we went over the Bali for three years. I just gigged from Bali, and now looking back on it was a bit of a rebuild. Then in 2018 I quit drinking because I’d been partying like a maniac for a long time, and I started writing a book (Surf By Day, Jam By Night). I interviewed amazing people like Kelly Slater, Steph Gilmour, Jack Johnson, Dave Rastovich – 15 people all up. I found that really inspiring and I started getting into some out there concepts of manifesting something really positive for myself and try to lift my head and get back on the horse. Then I got a new manager who tracked down that album! We got it back. Some of the blues guys, in particular Terry Evans who’s my favourite vocalist of all time, were on that album and he had died in the meantime and that made it even more important.
Well you have two dead blues legends on there with Eddie Clearwater – you must have some of the last recordings of those guys I’d imagine …
Absolutely, both of those guys. Working with Terry in particular, that was one of the best days of my life. And now that’s going to see the light of day.
Every song on this record is a collaboration – was it a matter of calling in some favours and ringing up some old mate?
Yeah, the Australian part of it was. Getting Kasey Chambers on Whispering Voice was obviously a massive win for us and I really have so much respect and admiration for Kasey, and she’s a great friend. Harry Angus is another great friend. A really interesting one to me that felt almost magical – I was in Bali practising my guitar playing because I wanted this to be a real guitar album, and I was trying to learn some licks by Joe Bonamassa and it was really a shock to end up getting him on the album. It was such an amazing win.
And to get him to play on a song by Townes Van Zandt, one of the great American songwriters…
Oh man. There’s a YouTube clip of Townes playing in a house with an African American cowboy just crying in the background, and that’s all real. He was just amazing. Absolutely goosebumps material. I have a funny thing in my psychology where I’m a very happy person who chases music that’s very melancholy. People ask, ‘Why did you get into the blues?’ because they think the blues is very depressing, but it’s the opposite of depressing. To get into that moment I have to be moved. Being in that moment, that’s what it’s all about.
What is about blues music – music that’s rooted in the struggles of black America from 100 years ago – that still talks to people today?
We don’t why, but that is the most soulful music. Perhaps because it was born from all of those terrible injustices, and maybe that pain and sorrow mixed with a colourful culture made this beautiful, soulful music. It chooses you, and if you feel it you feel it. When I was a kid learning guitar my teacher said, ‘Oh, you’re doing well on that blues stuff, but it’s time to move on to something different’. I wasn’t interested. I was stuck on the blues.
Now, the book. You’re exploring the connection between surfing and music, and it opens with Timothy Leary’s famous quote about surfers being “the epitome of be here now”, but I wonder if Leary grasped just how many hours of practice came before that moment where someone is standing tall in the barrel. In that way surfing is quite like playing music I suppose.
I studied that type of thing in depth in the book, and the people I interviewed really enjoyed exploring that as well. There are definitely some ironies at work, because if you want to be that person in that barrel, or if you want to be that person floating above the audience playing away and totally unaware of what’s happening, it takes years and years of practice. You need a level of mastery to actually be in that ‘now’ that people talk about.
The great thing about practising and giving to your passions is that you can get to deeper and deeper levels of pleasure.
If you look at some like Dave Rastavich, who features in your book, his surfing is incredibly reactive, very in the moment. Very few people can lay down a line on a wave like he can.
I’ve been so lucky to have Dave as a close friend. He was actually the best man at my wedding. He is just amazing, one of the most incredible surfers in the world. He so stylish, but the style is authentic and not posed. It comes directly out of him, and it’s very powerful. Very powerful but very free. Heartfelt and different. Perhaps the definition of style, whether it’s surfing or playing the guitar, is being able to shred but not feeling the need to show everything you can do. You do the flashy thing when it’s needed and the simple thing when it’s needed.
You’re coming down to Adelaide on October 4 – who are you bringing with you?
My band is so great. It’s a real jam band and I love getting these virtuosic musicians and jamming with them.
And you’re also playing the Caltowie Chilled Out ‘n Fired Up – do you know much about that?
I don’t know much about the area, but I’m definitely looking forward to the gig.
The show is raising money and awareness of the challenges young people in rural areas face when it comes to mental health issues. I imagine that’s something you’d be down with.
That’s totally something I’d be down with. It’s a really big issue at the moment, mental health. I think it’s really important and it’s a big part of why I started doing my podcast after the book. On my podcast, Soulful Conversations, John Butler brought up the issue of mental health and how many men die to suicide. The numbers are huge, and we need to get to the bottom of it. I love positive psychology, working towards creating maximum happiness for yourself and those around you, and if that was more common it would alleviate a lot of the negatives we face. It would be great to get out in front of those negatives and create people who were happy and joyful. I’m finding much more that these are the discussions that people are having everywhere, and it’s about time.
HEAR: Mojo, out now
SEE: Ash Grunwald, Chilled Out ’N Fired Up Festival, Caltowie, Mid North SA, September 21
TICKETS: Facebook/chilledoutandfiredup
SEE: Ash Grunwald, Jive, October 4
TICKETS: moshtix.com.au
READ: Surf By Day, Jam By Night, out now