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We Interupted Ash Grunwald's Bali get away to have a chat about all things music and his upcoming shows at Ellis Beach Bar and Grill and the Port Douglas Yacht Club on the 9th and 10th of August

 

N- Hey Ash, how are you going today?

ASH- Good, how are you?

N- I'm doing great. So you’re in Bali with the kids at the moment.

ASH- Yeah, yeah.

N- Well, sorry to interrupt your family time.

ASH- Not at all. Having a ball.

N- That's really good. The weather's probably almost as good as Cairns.

ASH- Oh yeah, I mean it's pretty good. It's been really rainy here to be honest. So it's been a really strange dry season.  A very wet one. But awesome.

N-The global weather seems a little bit off I've got to say most of the time.

ASH- Yeah, probably.

N- Because our wet season, we didn't have a proper one for 10 years and then two years ago we had a massive one.

ASH- Right.

N- And I think you guys cop our wet season down in Byron now more than we do up here

ASH- Oh my God. Yeah, it's been so wet. And like I always look forward to my great little May,it’s like really dry, crisp, good waves and offshore winds and awesomeness. And I actually had just a little window of time off and it rained throughout all of it in May. So yeah. Crazy. Couldn't get it sorted. Couldn't get that calendar sorted.

N- When I look at your upcoming shows, I'm surprised you have any time off. Like it looks just jammed back.

ASH- Yeah, it is crazy. Absolutely crazy. But, you know, it's been good and it just feels like a good time, you know, when you have such a long career, you have different periods and different rises and falls. and it just feels like I'm just really enjoying it, It's going really well. Lots of people at the shows and it's just great.
Everytime I've seen you play, whether it's been a Blues Fest or up here just at the Edge Hill Tavern, you seem to just be having a blast, man.

ASH- I am lucky that way. maybe that's why I play my show the way that I do. But I'm pretty sneaky in that I just do what's fun for me. So that's why I'm addicted to that kind of show. And, you know, there are other ways, like many artists who do like very cool music and awesome stuff. And often I wish I did it like that. But I don't know. I just want people to feel good. I feel good. I have fun when I do it.

That's why I do it that way. And I think that's why people come. I mean, there's enough trouble in the world that people just want to go and listen to some music, dance around and have a good time. I had a lady come the other day and say that she feels a lot of joy at the shows and that's what keeps her coming back. And she actually said she suffers from depression. But, it's just like, that lifts her up I can't remember the exact word she said, but what I came away thinking was, that it feels like it puts some wind in her sails or something like that.

To me, that's just oh, my God, that's perfect. That's what I wish to do. I guess COVID and all that stuff taught us that that's what's missing when you don't have live music. So I love being able to give that to people. 

N-Yeah, it's such a good way to express that putting wings in people's sails. Like I've walked out of gigs where people have just been hugging people and just it's been the best thing. And it's just been a local band, , music changes people. But talking about recorded music, it's been three years since you released Shout Into The Noise. Do you have a new album coming out, some new recording or what's going on? Are you too busy on the road?

ASH- Yeah, well, I've just spent so much time on the road that I haven't really had time, just the way everything's working out at the moment. It's just hard to have the time off and justify it to yourself to record an album .I love, love love recording , I'm sort of missing it But uh, you know, I I guess I released a single at the start of this year and i'm just drips and drabsing them out really at the moment, I’ve done three singles since that last album and i'll probably keep doing singles. It's just also a weird time for recorded music, you know, you get ripped off by Spotify, it's just difficult because everything sort of still costs roughly the same, but it's just not a part of the business side of it and the the actual getting paid for stuff It's not so much a part of it anymore.  So it makes it harder when you've got a family and you're like chewing really hard and you're doing well at the touring bit to take the time off. This is my first time off in a while. So you know, i'm off to Bali  with the family I don't know.
It's a little harder to find the time to record a whole album, you know, it takes a lot, it takes time and time and money, and that's a sad thing about the the way it It is at the moment, but until I can have a bit of a breather there's it's a bit hard to record.
Like i've got two teenage children 15 and16 and we're just in the middle of you know work, school, their hobbies.

N- Just basically chaos So I could imagine trying to find that quiet time where you're gonna go i'm gonna sit down for now write a song Or i'm gonna spend three weeks and record music could be quite difficult.

ASH- Yeah, yeah, I mean you imagine piling on top of that like when you're playing like Five out of six weeks you're away you know or whatever it is, it's really hard to find the time

N- I think a lot of musicians find it quite difficult to write when they're on the road because they're in that zone.

ASH- Yeah, some people write on the road, i've never written written much on the road. So it's not really part of my thing.
I think a little bit of downtime a little bit of naval gazing to come up with songsfor most people

 

ASH- Yeah.

N- Now, we've touched on this before, but you've had such a long and, I would say, pretty successful career as an Australian musician. And obviously, we just touched on Spotify and all that. You started at a time where, you would sell CDs at a show, as well  as t-shirts, and you would sell CDs in record stores. And that's kind of gone now. But what do you put the success of your career down to, other than your good looks and personal charm to keep going for 20 years?

ASH- Well, I think my drive and my tenacity helps me a lot. And, you know, I've been living the dream. So, I've always been so appreciative of that and always worked hard at my career.  But I don't know, like, I've done 12 albums. The songs have connected with people, but, you know, it's probably a big part of it is that live scene. And I've just done so much of it, playing live so that I've done so many laps of this country. Yeah, I guess, after a while, it feels like a lot of people have seen you at some stage. So then when you do come back, , people come out the woodwork. So I haven't been to New Zealand that much. But I have gone a few times over the years. Now I didn't go for a long time. And now I've come back there and it's just going, going really crazy.
So it's just when you've done it, I guess you put in a lot of work. So I'm really enjoying it. Because I feel like I wasn't looking for anything, whatever happens, happens, really, I guess. It's taken me by surprise that it's going so well at the moment.  So I'm just appreciating it.
Yeah, it's a good one, you know, I've had tough times in my career. And for other artists, you know, they can be great artists. But if you've been in it for a while, you can like I say, have ups and downs. And when you got a, family to feed and whatever, it can be stressful. You think, okay, what does the  future hold, I think sticking at it is a good thing, because you, you can  never know when some really good success is around the corner.
And it's not like I was ever chasing fame I just wanted to make music and not work a day job.

N- And have a good time.

ASH- Yeah, that's a good way to be, a bonus for me.

N- You weren't chasing superstardom. You were just interested in being a working musician. 

ASH- Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's well put, because I came from the blues scene, and it was never even thought or having seen a thing that you could ever really go huge just playing blues. So I wasn't even thinking that way.
I just actually started in Melbourne, I was just playing around pubs and stuff. And then it's sort of one thing after another, maybe I'll do a gig, or you know, okay, maybe I'll do this next bit, maybe I'll do the next bit. Then that roots thing came along with John Butler and Xavier Rudd and The Cat Empire, all that generation, and I just hopped aboard and away we went, and it was bloody awesome.
But you know, it got into bonus territory pretty early on in that career. Like I was living the dream, just because I was a professional musician, I didn't have any illustrious pathway with that, I just wanted to do that. So yeah, it's all been great.  Very, very fortunate.

N-The names of those people that you just mentioned, you know, that was a great time in Australian music. And sad to say, but you guys are kind of becoming the establishment now. John Butler, The Cat Empire, you've all been going for probably 25 years, some of those bands. So You're the you're the Cold Chisel of that generation.

ASH- Well, yeah. And then what that means is, when you get to that stage, you get a bit of heritage vibes going on, you can play more in country areas. And you're well known, whereas when you first have success it was mainly in cities and then you're still like not known in the country but it sort of flips so it's overall for your career it's better places to play and stuff like that.

N- You are playing at Ellis Beach, Saturday, 9th of August. You've played here before, it sold out last time. What do you think of that venue?

Great spot, good vibes. Absolutely magical. Absolutely magical, what a setting. Gotta be one of the best settings in Oz for a venue, you know, right there. Right on the beach, it blew me away last time. So I'm very much looking forward to getting back there and I'm bringing my own  really nice sound system which we're gonna drive up. So the sound will be mint.

Ash Grunwald Plays Ellis Beach Bar and Grill on Saturday the 9th of August Buy tix HERE
Port Douglas Yacht Club at 3pm on Sunday the 10th of AugustBuy tix HERE