Ash Grunwald says Port Fairy Folk Festival pivotal in the start of his career

Born to a South African father and an Australian mother, Grunwald was drawn to the blues from an early age - but says folk is at the heart of what he does.

Hear the acclaimed musician talk about his forthcoming album, and why he's shouting into the noise, in episode five of The Folkie Podcast.

"I'm really looking forward to it, I have many good memories of Port Fairy," Grunwald said.

"It was in the start of my career in some of the most exciting periods of my career, which has gone for a long time now. I'm stoked to be on the bill."

For Grunwald, the festival holds a special place in his heart.

He first went to Folkie in 2000 when he was a guitar tech for Xavier Rudd.

"I remember handing Xavier his guitars going, wow, this would be rad," Grunwald said. "Maybe it was the next year that I was playing it.

"It was one of the real festivals I remember really early on with just this real excitement around it.

"It was a really amazing time also for the crossover between roots and it still is now actually, when you look at huge acts like Ziggy Alberts.

"Definitely at that time, the crossover with a lot of young people's music was roots music, like blues and folk and reggae and different things.

"You the like of John Butler and The Waifs and all of those coming through and it was almost becoming mainstream for a little while - that really earthy music so it was a really exciting time to be doing it.

"I remember at Port Fairy the audience full of people young and old. It was really exciting."

Grunwald's music, whilst calling from the Delta Swamp, is an eddy of influences, collaborations and mediums.

Born to a South African father and an Australian mother, Ash grew up listening to the songs and myths of both South Africa and Australia. Drawn to the blues from an early age, Ash learned to play the music of Robert Johnson, Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, influences that remain a strong part of his music today.

At the very heart of it, he says, is folk.

"Folk music just means music of the people really," he said. "I'm very influenced by folk music in that I try and write original songs and songwriting's always been important to me.

"But the difference for me is it comes out usually through the blues genre, but the songwriting side of me is influenced by folk.

"I'm trying to tell, you know, tell stories and I think if you're really into songwriting, at some point, you get into folk music, because it's very songwriter focused.

"That's where I fit into it."

Grunwald is now one of Australia's most successful blues musicians ever, with six top 50 albums and two APRA Awards.

In addition, he's been nominated for five ARIA Awards and four AIR Awards, and he was named Best International Act at the LA Music Critic Awards in 2014.

2019 saw Grunwald release the acclaimed album Mojo, and publish his first book, Surf By Day, Jam By Night. Most recently, he collaborated with Josh Teskey on the top-10 album Push The Blues Away.

His new album Shout Into The Noise will be released next month. It will be his 11th studio album.

"It draws on the influence of hip hop and that kind of way that music is made but also a lot of bang and clang of junk percussion and hard hitting stomps and claps."

It stemmed from an unlikely partnership with Mansonair's Lachlan Bostock.

"We're from completely different worlds - he's from the cool indie, sort of younger kind of demographic and lives in the middle of Sydney. We're just worlds apart," he said with a laugh.

"After we did the song 'Shout Into The Noise' I rang my manager really excited like we have to get this guy to produce the whole album.

"In the chorus the person singing it realises they're almost worried that they're small and they're trying to say that they're shouting to the noise trying to tell everybody how well they're doing. But they realise they're not small, they're minuscule. How small they were worried that they are, it's alright, because they're way smaller than that - they're actually a tiny, tiny piece of this universe. But they're a magnificent slice of stardust.

"That's the sort of catch; I'm not small, I'm miniscule. A magnificent slice of star dust walking on the third rock from the sun. So in the context of the whole cosmos, where an infinitesimal micron on a pinprick so we can just relax. It's not all that serious."

It's a dilemma Grunwald faces as someone who shares his voice through his lyrics, podcast and broadcasting centred around the the protection of land, sea, river, self and resources.

"I just feel like with all of us social media everything's about you, it makes you self-conscious and it makes you, to a degree compared to generations gone by, maybe quite egocentric.

"And that's not a relaxing thing - that can send you around the bend not realising your place in the universe.

"Imagine thousands of years ago or if you're living in a more tribal way and you're camping under the stars all the time and you have no light, no devices to stare into and you're just staring at those stars every single night you would feel your true place in the world, which is part of the environment not separate from it.

"You'd see all of those stars ever single night and realise what a small part of creation you are.

"Fast forward to now, when we're staring into our devices and we're uploading things the whole time, you're the biggest part in your reality and you've totally forgotten your place in this world.

"It's actually a lot more relaxing when you know that true place."

For a man that dreamt once of being a script writer but found the humility of school teaching and from it the determination to follow his dream, Grunwald has carved out a unique path that inspires others to do the same - to follow passions from one project to the next, expanding skills and themselves as an individual, whilst also serving the greater good.

With this mindset, Ash Grunwald released his first ever book - Surf By Day, Jam By Night - interviewing the likes of Kelly Slater, Stephanie Gilmore, Dave Rastavich, Pete Murray, Jack Johnson, and many others. And has his own podcast Soulful Conversations, featuring candid and insightful chats.

In 2019 he freed himself from the ball and chain of alcohol and its constant cycle of elevation and suffering.

"For the most part for the 20 years preceding quitting, I never did a gig without drinking and I always felt that I had to have a few," Grunwald said.

"I remember some musicians saying to me, you know, you wouldn't drink at work if you're working a day job. That's why we shouldn't drink at work. And I was like, what, this is a job? This is music, how dare you, I'm going to get a beer.

"It caught up with me in the end and I feel like my music suffered for it and my health suffered.

"I never begrudge other people drinking but my music, I got my spark back, which I did not even expect that. When I started my career, I used to make up a lot of songs on the spot and be laughing and carrying on the whole time.

"I kind of thought that was just an era by gone and that's something I did when I was younger, but it came back and I do make up songs on the spot now. So you can get your brain back."

Through the pandemic he's been able to use platforms like Twitch to share his music.

He's excited to be performing live shows again, and hopes to see a 2022 filled with the gigs so missed by musicians and audiences alike.

"I sit on Twitch now in the day, and I'm surrounded by guitars, just live streaming for three hours a day, which is awesome. So people can check that out if they want to see how I make music," Grunwald said

Ash Grunwald will be playing at the 2022 Port Fairy Folk Festival.

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