Why Crowe plays his own tune - By KATHY MCCABE

The Sunday Telegraph SUN 03 AUG 2003 

Music is its own reward, says Russell Crowe when asked why he still leads a band. Kathy McCabe reports.

It's an obvious question, but no-one seems to have ever asked Russell Crowe why he sings in a band titled 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts. People tend to assume a highly successful actor who can command multi-million-dollar salaries for his films should gain enough satisfaction from that alone.

"I have never leveraged acting into music, but I get accused of it all the f***ing time,'' he says.

"We don't make any excuses for our music. We believe in it. It's simple as that.

"The only reason I do it, and why everyone in the band does it, is that music is its own reward.'' Crowe is proud of the band's latest album, Other Ways Of Speaking. It was recorded during the past 18 months in the US, Mexico and Australia.

Like all TOFOG albums in recent years, it is an independent release available on small quality labels and from the gruntland.com website.

But it could have been a bigger project -- huge, in fact, and not just because Crowe is an Academy Award-winning actor.

Three years ago, Tommy Mottola, the former head of multinational label Sony and one of the most powerful music executives in the world, campaigned aggressively to sign TOFOG to a world-wide deal.

"The absolute reality is that we could have signed with Tommy Mottola in 2000 and been a completely different act,'' Crowe says.

"He said to me in a meeting that he didn't take 'no' for an answer. I replied, 'Yeah, but what if it's me saying no?' And that was the end of the conversation.

"We run our own race. We had a couple of little deals early on, but it's always been me and Dean and the rest of the guys.'' The 39-year-old's musical career dates back more than two decades to New Zealand.

He and his mate Dean Cochrane embarked on the time-honoured touring adventure with four other musicians.

They travelled in a small van so packed with equipment that they had to lie on top of it.

"I left New Zealand after touring with Rocky Horror. The band had also toured a lot. A single came out, and we were on all the video shows,'' Crowe recalls.

"Rocky Horror made me think I could do this acting stuff. It was new and exciting, and I thought we had done everything we could there.

"I left in December, 1986. Dean came over in January, 1987 and we busked for six months, mainly in the Cross, but also at Circular Quay and Martin Place.

'We would dress up in leathers, and Dean would wear this long coat. We had an acoustic guitar and a Strat, and went out three or four nights a week.

"And we made a living. One night, the guitar case was so full of coins we had to carry it between the two of us and stop every hundred metres to rest.

"We used to stop the traffic now and again near the El Alamein fountain. We pulled crowds that would spill on to the street.

"Instead of wanting to get straight into the Sydney gig scene, we wanted to find our own way and do it ourselves.'' The pair half-heartedly sought a recording deal, but Crowe was beginning to get more work in theatre.

Film roles followed, so music was put on the back burner until 1992, when the seeds of TOFOG were formed.

The band now features Crowe, Cochrane, Dave Kelly, Stewart Kirwan, Garth Adam and Dave Wilkins.

Crowe, a captivating storyteller, has crafted strong lyrics about flawed characters and champions, mysterious women and moments in time.

But the blend of folk, rock and blues on their early releases, such as The Photograph Kills, What's Her Name and Gaslight, didn't set the charts alight.

Crowe didn't care. He was a musician making music.

"If it's your choice to be an entertainer, then nobody owes you anything,'' he says. "If music is going to be a part of your life, you have to embrace bohemia.

"I said this to blokes in the theatre in '87 and '88, and they just laughed. They thought I was an idiot. They wanted a car and an apartment.

"You get all of that if you're passionate about it and understand music can save your life, can save somebody else's life.

"I think Billy Bragg's Talking With The Taxman About Poetry did that for me.

"I found out there was someone else in the world with the same sense of humour. He talked about things I wanted to find out about. It was a major shift for me.'' The next major shift in Crowe's musical odyssey came with TOFOG's album Bastard Life Or Clarity.

The band began selling out big venues in the US. Gladiator fans may have been responsible for the initial rush on tickets, but it would have been impossible to continue drawing capacity crowds of more than 2000 people in prestigious venues on that reputation alone.

Crowe is enjoying the same response during his current regional tour of Australia.

He has already sold out four shows at the House Of Blues, in Chicago, later this month.

"It's music that has got me from place to place,'' he says.

"You don't gain any wisdom unless you continue to learn, and I'm learning about how to distil my experiences into song.

Those looking for clues about Crowe's life, family and wife between the lines of his songs, be warned they aren't easy to find.

"I didn't censure myself about Dani on this album. Maybe I should, but I haven't,'' he says.

"There are songs about other people, but I'm not going to tell you who they are, because that creates its own maelstrom.

"There are specific people who have inspired each and every one of the songs and I take no prisoners when it comes to what inspires me.

"But the danger is if I discuss who they are about, then you lose the essence of the song and the ability of the listener to use their own imagination.''

Caption: Rewarding: (clockwise from top) Russell Crowe and his band in Alice Springs; Crowe with mate Dean Cochrane; actor Jack Thompson helps out on harmonica in Adelaide; Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunts at Coffs Harbour
Illus: Photo
BIOG: Russell Crowe Column: Express
Section: FEATURES Type: Feature

---

lots of grunt By NUI TE KOHA

Herald Sun - THU 14 AUG 2003

Russell Crowe takes his music as seriously as he takes his acting, writes NUI TE KOHA

THREE encores down, and still Albury wants more. Russell Crowe, lead singer in 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, is keen to build on the momentum of a sweat-soaked show which, at the 110-minute mark, has reached a searing version of Ring of Fire.
Crowe asks the NSW border town to make with its best train noise, sparking to life another Johnny Cash classic, Folsom Prison Blues.

"I'm not getting on that train," Crowe chuckles, as Albury responds with cheers, raised arms and a toot-and-hoot din.
But the Grunts, tweaked and primed after 12 shows in the back-blocks, give Crowe the locomotive he wants, charging into the tune with strength and purpose.

It has been this way all night, from the immediate riff-rocker Afraid, jangly pop provocateurs Swallow My Gift and Inside Her Eyes to the soaring, epic All the White Circles.

Drummer Dave Kelly and bassist Garth Adam are a bold and muscular rhythm section, holding it down on the insistent What's Her Name and sublime liquid groove of The Same Person.

Crowe, 39, an occasional moviestar, rises to the challenge of frontman and lyricist.

His work on TOFOG's latest record, Other Ways of Speaking, displays a calm thinking that permeates the songs, making it less cluttered, and certainly less cryptic than Bastard Life or Clarity (2001).

Painted Veil, a glorious and subtle mood piece that opens the new record, may be Crowe's best moment in music to date.

"I wanted the composition of the songs to come across," Crowe says.

"I'm sick of getting shafted. But, you know, whatever. It's always going to happen.

"People can piss on me," Crowe says, "but I don't like them pissing on the band as a group of musicians, or statements made without due consideration to the reality of this band."

Crowe's frustration is understandable, but TOFOG live -- a rare event given Crowe's film schedule -- represents them far better than the studio work.

NEWER, textured songs such as Veil, Mission Beat and The Same Person may be an attempt to shift that balance.
But Crowe is not particularly interested in capturing the live energy of the band. "It's its own thing," he smiles.

In that way, TOFOG is its own thing, too -- a six-piece that, despite major label courting and Crowe's serious industry contacts, chooses to run its own race.

"We run our own race because rock 'n' roll is full of f . . . in' liars and bulls . . . artists. Smoke and mirrors, man," Crowe says. "People who are in the business get chewed up by the business and are very happy for that to happen while it's happening.

"It's only when they realise `Oh, my time is up' that all the bitterness comes out. I don't want to be a part of that machine. I see that machine as being an absolute lie.

"I heard this statement recently. Somebody said, `Film people are so full of s . . , but at least they are not full of s . . . in rock 'n' roll'.

"And I thought, you're f . . . in' kidding yourself. Rock 'n' roll has been a lie since the birth of the term rock 'n' roll.

"The bottom line is, do you like music? Are you passionate about music? I am passionate about music. Music will save your f . . . in' life," Crowe says.

"It saved my life and I revere the songwriters who did that for me."

Crowe was a musician before he was an actor. Besides, he had no choice.

"It was an essential part of my background. I lived in a house filled with music," he says.

"Every social occasion was about music."

Yet, early on, Crowe had a very sober perspective on his career choice and its rewards.

"If it's your choice to be an entertainer, then nobody owes you a living," he says.

But, on another level, is it about approval?

"What? Being an entertainer? Standing in front of a crowd?" Crowe asks, then answers: "Of course it is.

"Everybody does it for that. I do it for that. If people tell you it's not about hearing the words `I like your song', they are lying to you, they are very confused and they should f . . . off and work in a bank.

"But it's also very healthy as a composer, as a lyricist, to work past disapproval as well. It's all too easy to have a demo that gets picked up by a record company, then gets on the radio.

"You will never know the beauty of turning a room, going in front of 800 hostile people and saying, `All I'm going to do is sing you some songs'.

"Then, through base levels of communication, or sometimes very subtle and sophisticated levels of communication, you reach that point where a crowd is giving you that energy.

"That, to me, is the joy. That is why we did these gigs. We wanted to play places we had never been before, where there wasn't really a knowledge of this band.

"It was only what people may have read in the press, which is generally, relatively degrading," Crowe says. "So be it. If that is the case, then it's about turning the room."

Albury, it must be said, was converted from the walk-on as TOFOG's set list favoured the romance and redemption themes on Other Ways of Speaking.

However, beyond Crowe's tales of awakening, realisation, love, commitment and, um, talent digestion, consistent, introspective pop songs emerge.

Oddly, in this nondescript hall near the Murray River, Crowe reveals himself completely in song for just a $25 door charge -- and more so than any film character for which Hollywood pays him royally.

"I don't think there is anything more personal that I do in my life than what I do in my songs," Crowe says.

"Certainly, while I try to answer everybody's questions, I'm very guarded, or as guarded as I can be, without it getting in the way of what the actual process of an interview is supposed to be.

"But the songs: they say what I feel.

"For the longest time, people have been asking me stupid questions like `Do you think you could have been a general?'

"No, I'm an actor. That's what I do. I just play a role for a film. My day job is about a character fulfilling the vision of a director and a writer.

"I am not a mathematician, either. I am not a gay plumber. I am not a priest. I am not any of the roles I play.

"It is a job I do with love. I really enjoy it and I get very, very caught up in the process.

"But it's the same with music. It's the same soul that's doing this."

CROWE says he is more focused as a vocalist, on the advice of a famous singer/songwriter.

"I take a very patriarchal role in this band. And this singer/songwriter asked me: `What do you think of when you're in the studio?'

"My honest answer was: `When I'm in the studio, I'm constantly adding up hours, thinking about whether anybody is hungry, is everybody cool, is there enough to drink, where is the transport, what are we doing tomorrow . . .?'

"The next time you go into the studio," Crowe's adviser said, "just think about singing."

Is Crowe thinking about penning or performing with his wife, singer/songwriter Danielle Spencer?

No.

"We don't have any desire to be Sonny and Cher or Donny and Marie -- actually, they're not married, but they're Mormon, so who knows?" Crowe jokes.

"Danielle is serious about what she does. And she is great about what she does.

"I would never be presumptuous and think she would stoop so low and start writing with me."

Other Ways of Speaking and single Never Be Alone Again (Artemis/Difrnt) out now. 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, Mercury Lounge, Sept 26.

******************* 

what rusty thinks ...

On being a frontman: "I have a very basic working-class attitude towards it. You pay for a ticket, I'm going to do my best to make sure you have some fun, even if that means saying some extreme things to get your attention."

On Swallow My Gift, his song for all the haters: "Occasionally, people hang @#%$ on you. It is dedicated to those people."

On his expectations of marriage: "I never expected it to be anything else. I joked to my cousins just recently, `No pipe, no slippers yet!' I know the woman and she's my girl."

On turning down a record deal from music industry heavyweight Tommy Mottola: "He told me, `We drink blood and we don't take no for an answer'. And I thought, well, that isn't why I like music.

On his next film role: "I have committed to playing Jim Braddock, a boxer from the Depression era, for Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind director). I am looking forward to working with Ron again."

On taking a 12-month break from acting: "When I walked off the set of Master and Commander (last November), I knew I needed to take a year off. I wanted to go home and do some life things."

On his real-life role as a father: "I hope I will be balanced, I hope I will be consistent. I hope I will be able to communicate joy and openness in the same way my parents did to me."

On his three-day wedding in April to Danielle Spencer: "I thought, OK, if we are going to do this, everybody has to come together, learn about each others' families, spend an extended period of time together and do things."

Caption: Together: (top) Russell Crowe and wife Danielle Spencer together at the 74th annual Academy Awards in Hollywood.
Crowd pleaser: (right) Crowe gets into the swing of things on stage and (left) the 30 Odd Foot of Grunts perform in Albury.
Blood and sweat: Crowe turned down Tommy Mottola (left) and decided tog et a life after Master and Commander (above)
Illus: Photo
Illus By: FIONA HAMILTON
Section: HIT