#JOHN BUTLER ARTIST SERIES#

His myth of composition evokes the timeless expanse of both the Aussie Outback and the American West, and he and his fellow band members have been at pains to honour the songs as independent things that belong to no one, least of all themselves.Īrising from a series of agenda-free jams in Butler’s studio ‘The Compound’ in Fremantle, (Australia) the album took a mere 20 days to record and, though beautifully structured in sonic terms, there is a rawness and honesty to the album that reflects the brevity of its laying down. A ‘song-capturer’, Butler’s job has been not to tame those horses but to present their wildness.

Songs, he says, come from the ‘ether’, from a savage hinterland: they must be caught without breaking their spirit. Butler has spoken in interviews of his songs being like ‘wild horses, wild beasts’ and you can see what he means.

The album has captured that elusive thing: soul. Less sometimes really is more.įlesh & Blood may be his best yet. The new album has songs that are less expansive and more ‘reined in’, but the playing is all the more impressive for being more tightly corralled. An old song like “Ocean,” for example, has chalked up 30 million Youtube hits, and not just with guitar freaks studying his technique. He has been hailed as one of the world’s greatest guitarists, a musician’s musician, one whose sound offers not three chords and the truth but a thousand. He creates a sound that is as ancient as aboriginal bone-art and yet as modern as your Twitter feed. But Butler is a maestro – he takes his influences and transcends them. In the hands of a lesser man this would be mere thievery dressed up as ‘eclecticism’. There are dirty Stevie Wonder-style boogies, ghostly refrains that could come from Simon and Garfunkel, sonic poltergeists which seem, at times, to resemble lost rock classics. On Flesh & Blood it goes even further, yet with a restraint that bespeaks a deepening maturity. What could have been a mess somehow made perfect sense, with the bluegrass fingerpicking, hip hop beats and psychedelic wig-outs proving not uneasy bedfellows but perfect complements. Behind all that there was a wistful Celtic ambience surreally counterpointed by a Jamaican roots/rudeboy vibe. The sound had, and still has, elements of folk, funk, reggae and rock all drizzled through the 90s Seattle sensibility. The tape of these early compositional soundscapes Searching for Heritage gave an inkling of where Butler was going, reaching as it did both forwards and backwards in time, conversant with all genres and yet somehow defining its own. An art-school dropout, he was ‘discovered’ busking in 1996, bystanders marvelling at ‘the sweat flying off his brow’ and ‘the holy madness in his eyes’. The narrative arc is well-known Down Under. Maybe the man on the brink will not jump after all?īorn in California and of mixed Australian, Greek and Bulgarian ancestry, Butler began his musical career in classic if tentative style. The songs’ off-centre grooves have always been their charm, and yet now there is a sense, in the new album at least, of resolution and peace after years of being against the world and what it offered. He is the consummate rebel-refugee whose songs chart disenchantment with the corporate world and show a yearning for truth along with an ongoing struggle for a sense of locus. He is from everywhere and nowhere, an Australian/American, Everyman/Nowhere Man, and his music mixes rootedness and rootlessness, pain and celebration in a way that is utterly beguiling. Where will he go next? Up or down? Despite the tensions within the man and his music the new album makes his future trajectory abundantly clear.Īn independent role model, founder of Australia’s Jarrah Records, family man and proud skateboard aficionado, JB, in spite of his matey public persona, remains an enigma.

One of the most successful recording artists Australia has ever produced and a musician whose reputation has begun to rock the waters of both Europe and America, Butler is nevertheless a man on the edge.

The contradictions in John Butler are evident, and, despite his magnificently successful career (with number one albums in Australia and sell-out tours) his is a troubled soul.

John butler artist