Summer Vibes

It seems like he's been on the road all year. Not just all over Australia, but earlier this year Portugal and Spain – that's just how Ash Grunwald likes it, mixing his love of performing with the chance to hit the surf every chance he gets. It made sense to cut a video for the recent single, Longtime, from his latest album, Trouble's Door, chasing waves with a few of his musician friends – Pete Murray, Xavier Rudd, Kram, Scotty Owen from The Living End and Beau Young among others. He surfs with Young and Rudd regularly, Kram lives round the corner in Byron and Owen plays in a band, Mr Cassidy, with his own and Grunwald's wife, and, along with Oils/Break/Backsliders drummer Rob Hirst, is joining Grunwald for his Falls Festival shows. Sadly they won't be part of the rest of this final run of shows off the back of Trouble's Door. In fact they're quite the exception.

“I've been playing solo again,” Grunwald explains, “which I haven't done for years, but that's what I've done all this year and it's been epic. I think I needed to have a break from that vibe when I did – I mean, four years, off and on, of having different band line-ups and stuff. Now, I have loved being back in that vibe and I think I'll do that for the next little while. I mean, there are some exceptions to that but, yeah, that's been really fun.”

Grunwald builds his songs around a variety of beats, as demonstrated on his last three albums – 2008's Fish Out Of Water, 2010's Hot Mama Vibes and this year's Trouble's Door, with latter's beats by regular side project partner and dubstep producer Fingers Malone. Playing solo has meant a lot more work for him.

“My show is, like, half-half – organic and using programmed beats. You know, I just mix it in and I've got this set-up where I control the beats from the computer and some foot pedals. Like, I make up these medleys sometimes, using those beats, and sort of transition between them. It's kind of almost DJing your own music into your set – it's pretty bizarre but it's pretty fun. It works pretty well and gets people dancing. And then the usual kind of organic vibe, but you get into a vibe using the programmed beats [that] then... jolts you awake to go one hundred per cent organic after that, and then sort of mix them. It's something I haven't seen a lot of people doing, that kind of mix, so that feels kind of exciting, to be doing something a little different,” says Grunwald.

With the end of this last run of shows, Grunwald is taking time out to welcome his next baby into the world and “chill out”, but that doesn't mean the music will be stopping any time soon. A couple of years ago, his track, Walking, was picked by the producers of Hollywood feature thriller, Limitless, starring Abbie Cornish and Robert De Niro.

“I had another thing,” he points out. “It was on the trailer for [2011 Brad Pitt vehicle] Moneyball, my old song Breakout. A really good thing I was asked to do but I didn't get it unfortunately – there's a new Arnie Schwarzenegger action movie coming out, and they asked me to do, you know, the first song that comes on when the credits roll. I really enjoyed that and would love to get into that more. I'm happy to give those things a go,” he concludes.

Ash Grunwald will be playing the following dates:

Friday 28 December - Wharf Tavern, Mooloolaba QLD
Friday 28 December - Tuesday 1 January - Falls Festival, Lorne VIC
Saturday 29 December - Tuesday 1 January - Falls Festival, Marion Bay TAS
Saturday 29 December - Ferntree Gully Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Sunday 6 January - Beachcomber, Toukley NSW
Friday 11 January - The Espy, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 12 January - Trevor Music Festival, Melbourne VIC
Sunday 13 January - Portsea Hotel, Portsea VIC
Thursday 24 January - Lizotte's, Newcastle NSW
Friday 25 January - Lizzotte's, Dee Why NSW
Sunday 27 January - Finnian's Irish Tavern, Port Macquarie NSW