Xavier Rudd

The song White Moth was written about a moth that followed Rudd's son Joaquin for several hours on his mother's 30th birthday.

Rudd thought it was the spirit of his then wife's grandmother.

Rudd and his family were holidaying to celebrate the occasion on an island off Sri Lanka.

Xavier Rudd (born 29 May 1978) is an Australian singer, songwriter, musician, and multi-instrumentalist.

Several of Rudd's songs incorporate socially conscious themes, such as spirituality, humanity, environmentalism and the rights of Indigenous Australians.

Xavier Rudd grew up in Jan Juc, near Torquay, Victoria.

He attended St Joseph's College, Geelong.

His maternal grandfather was Dutch, born in Tilburg, a town in the Netherlands, before migrating to Australia.

One of his grandmothers was from an Irish potato-growing family and grew up in Colac, Victoria.

Rudd claims to be of Aboriginal, Irish and Scottish heritage, furthermore mentioning being of Wurundjeri ancestry, and that one of his great grandmothers was an Aboriginal Australian, and her child (Rudd's paternal grandmother) was taken away from her.

Rudd showed a keen interest in music growing up in a family of seven children.

While in primary school, Rudd used his mother's vacuum cleaner as a makeshift didgeridoo and began playing his brother's guitar.

He also played saxophone and clarinet as a child.

As a child, Rudd sold recycled wood through his own furniture business.

Immediately after finishing school, Rudd traveled to Fiji.

He lived in villages around the country for nine months, returning to Australia at age 19.

Before launching his solo career, Rudd began playing music as part of the band 'Xavier and the Hum'.

He drew inspiration from artists such as Leo Kottke, Ben Harper, Natalie Merchant and multi-instrumentalist David Lindley, as well as music from diverse sources such as Hawaiian and Native American music.

His music first took him overseas when he traveled to Whistler, British Columbia—Rudd was in a band and would play each night after a day of snowboarding.

Rudd was in Canada when the September 11 attacks happened.

Rudd felt "spun out" watching the American media coverage, including graphic imagery of the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Rudd wrote the song 12 September, which would feature on his first studio album To Let, about the day after the attacks.

In 2004, Rudd released Solace, his first album to be distributed by a major label—Universal Music Australia.

Rather than inviting guest artists to join him on the record, Rudd performed all the instrumentation for the album alone with only a few overdubs.

Instruments included didgeridoos, slide guitars, stomp boxes, djembe drums, slit drums, and the harmonica.

In his live show, Rudd came to be renowned for his 'one-man band' performances.

Rudd recorded Food in the Belly in mid-2004 whilst on break from an extensive North American tour.

The recording was made in May 2004 at Bowen Island, part of the Greater Vancouver Regional District.

In 2006, discussing the song, Rudd said: "That's what the song's about, the world waiting. All of a sudden there was an attack and there was these people who were equally as toxic that were going to retaliate. No one could really do anything about it. It's about the next day and that's why I called it the 12th of September."

In 2007, Rudd partnered with Clif Bar's GreenNotes program to create the "Better People Campaign".

The campaign was about expressing gratitude to the people in the world taking steps to make positive change.

"Black Water" the first track on Rudd's 2008 album Dark Shades of Blue was named after one of Lutken-Rudd's paintings.

The album saw Rudd introduce a heavier sound, using electric guitars in place of acoustic guitars and creating darker more somber tones.

He recorded with Dave Tolley, a percussionist drummer, who he had previously collaborated with for White Moth and Food in the Belly.

Rudd had met Moloantoa and Nqubezelo performing at the 2008 Wiesen Nuke Festival.

Rudd described his connection with Moloantoa and Nqubezelo as musical, spiritual and emotional—"I feel like they were sent to me," he said.

Reflecting on Dark Shades of Blue, Rudd told media he felt the heavier sound was a "precursor for things that might come... I feel like my music is ahead of me all the time. Rudd was referring to his and Lutken's divorce, which was finalised in 2009.

After the failure of his marriage, Rudd was supported in his grief and recovery by new South African bandmates, bassist Tio Moloantoa and percussionist Andile Nqubezelo.

In 2010 Rudd bought 20 hectares of property at Koonyum Range, Mullumbimby, the location was the inspiration for the name of the album Rudd would release with Moloantoa and Nqubezelo, Koonyum Sun.

The album moved away from the heavier sound of Dark Shades of Blue to a more up-beat style.