Ash Grunwald
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Ash Grunwald

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Ash Grunwald has been a part of the Australian blues and roots scene for over a decade now. From little gigs playing to roughnuts in the original Espy public bar to cracking Bluesfest sets, his combination of rhythmic drive and bluesy cadence is always a must-see. Grunwald’s Road Dog Diaries Tour will take in more than two dozen shows all along eastern Australia, including several Victorian stops, which will be immortalised in a documentary film about life on the road.

 

“I think my claim to fame is that I probably tour more than anyone I know, and it’s always really a spin-out,” Grunwald says. “You go out on the road for two or three weeks and you go through five different environments, not just changing states but going from the desert to the city to the coast to the snow. You get back and it’s like you’ve been away for months and months because you’ve seen so much, but only two weeks have gone past. Your life becomes a whirlwind like that, and I want to convey that.” With a few live DVDs already out there in the wild, the focus this time around will definitely be on the behind-the-scenes stuff rather than a document of the live show. “The best-case scenario would be if you hated my music but still loved the documentary,” Grunwald says. “What I’d really love is if this took off and I get maybe a sponsor for it or something and would be able to do it all over the world. That would be great.”

 

When on the road, Grunwald likes to combine his two passions – blues and surfing – and the documentary will gift him with even more of an excuse to indulge. By day he’ll be joined by surfing greats Dave Rastovich, Beau Young, Nat Young, Neal Purchase Jr, and Matt Hoy in the waves, and the tour’s more coastal shows will be built around a surf theme – although Grunwald is careful not to overload metropolitan audiences with too much of the beachy vibe. “I always wear my heart on my sleeve and I get really excited about surfing and doing things in that world, and I don’t want to really be the guy who makes people who don’t give a fuck about surfing have to sit through a surfing movie. It’s just an interest of mine and something I’ve done a lot on the road. About three years into my career I started booking things almost only on the coast and in the cities. Previously to that, a lot of my touring had been quite rural. It was really with a view to creating my own lifestyle. And part of what I want to show in the documentary is the routine, which is a pretty fun routine: do a gig, carry on a little bit, a bit of partying, try to get to sleep reasonably early but often not, get up really early, go for a surf, crash in the van, fall asleep, wake up at the destination, supposed to be sound checking but go for another surf anyway, then sleep until just before the gig and then back into it again.”

 

But the documentary won’t just be surfing and hitting up roadside coffee kiosks for a quick Milo. “I’m going to interview well-known musos and stuff like that along the way. And I’m going to have some good special guests. Like in Melbourne I’m gonna have Kram from Spiderbait sit in for a couple of songs. We’ve become really good friends over the last year. We did a gig together once in Melbourne and then he ended up moving near me coincidentally where I live now. We’re hanging out all the time. I just thought it’d be really good to get him for a jam and in the movie. We may end up doing a bit of a side project together as well further down the track.”

 

Meanwhile a new solo studio album is in the works, one which started life as a bit of a look back at the past but which quickly became a lot more futuristic. Just before heading overseas a few months ago, Grunwald booked four days in a studio to see what he could come up with. He laid down abut 20 songs, initially with the idea of doing an acoustic blues album. “I thought that’d be an interesting vibe: after five studio albums that have progressively become more beats-oriented and modern-sounding, to do a traditional blues album for the people who are more purist and like that kind of thing. That’s always a part of me and always will be. So I did about ten blues standards, but then I couldn’t help myself and I ended up doing heaps of beats, and I got a Moog synth out and started going crazy.”

 

One song from the sessions will get an airing on tour. “I did the beats on my iPad, actually. It’s John Lee Hooker-inspired, but kinda new-sounding because of the beats. I’ve been mucking around with a few beats programs for years now, but I don’t usually end up using it on albums. I mainly used other producers’ beats because I didn’t really trust myself. I think I’ve been doing it long enough mucking around that I’m going to dip my thumb in the water now. Especially with what you can get now from little $5 apps. The challenge is to say to yourself, ‘Yes, it can be that easy.’ I think that’s the hardest thing with new technology as a muso: to have it be so easy but still use it.” Part of this insecurity can be traced back to a gig a few years ago where he ran some beats off an iPhone. “My sound guy heard somebody bitching about it in the toilets: ‘Ah, he’s just fucking around with his phone! What’s this shit?’ And I’ve always been self-conscious. Because I come from a blues background, I think, ‘What the hell am I doing? Why am I doing this?’ But I’m very excited by technology and I’m very into my futuristic stuff. I can’t help it – that’s who I am.”

 

Grunwald still looks back fondly on those early intimate, pre-smoking-ban days at The Espy. In fact, he knew he was on his way to the big time when he landed a slot on one of the venue’s larger stages. “I got an opportunity to go with a girlfriend on a trip to India once and I was like, ‘I really would love to but I can’t – I’ve got a gig on Tuesday night at the front bar at The Espy’,” he recalls with a laugh. “There was no way I’d go to India, because I had reached the dizzying heights of a Tuesday night at The Espy!”