Something to Crowe about

Geoff Hellsma

Russell Crowe is famous for his stellar acting career - he has appeared in at least 27 movies since 1990 and won an Oscar for his role in Gladiator (2000), as well as being Oscar nominated for best leading actor for The Insider (1999) and a Beautiful Mind in 2001.

His other great love, music, has not received the same kind of critical acclaim. In fact, the opposite is true. Since releasing his first album way back in 1981, the critics have given him anything but an easy ride.

With three new band members - Bones Hillman (Midnight Oil), Stuart Hunter (Silverchair), and new writing partner Alan Doyle (Great Big Sea from Canada) - plus Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunts stalwarts Dave Kelly, Stewart Kirwan and Dean Cochran, Crowe reckons he's onto something new and exciting.

While he has full confidence in his work with Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunts, despite past criticisms, reactions so far to his new album and performances have been much kinder - he cites recent positive reviews in the Sydney press following shows at the Vanguard in Newtown.

In response to this, he recalls saying to his band members: "Is this really, actually happening? [Before this] there's been 20 years of downright misinformation or negative opinion."

According to Crowe, the new songs are far more personal and revealing and the new band is taking more chances by letting the music speak for itself instead of relying on Grunt power. Crowe says rather than going for the jugular with fast loud music the atmosphere during the present run of shows "tends to lean more toward listening to the lyric and taking the song in fully."

Article Jump: Q & A - The Clarence Valley Review this week caught up with Russell Crowe

Clarence Valley Review: Considering your success in the cinematic world, many people wonder how you fit your music career into your schedule. How do you prioritise the way you organise your time between acting and music?

Russell Crowe: Music has a priority in my life for personal reasons, but for business reasons it does take a back seat. It's more difficult now that I've got a family. The thing is, I don't do it for any reward as such - music is its own reward. It's just one of those things that is part of who I am.

CVR: You've dropped the "Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunt" (TOFOG) moniker and come out trading on your own name, although I've heard you're leaning toward naming your band 'The Ordinary Fear Of God', why the change?

RC: TOFOG was a specific group of people - two of those guys aren't there anymore, so that's one reason - and the new album isn't written in the same way as those before. From a compositional point of view it's a far more personal and revealing series of songs. I felt that it was probably time to stand up for them myself.

CVR: "My Hand, My Heart": What's the story behind the album's title?

RC: Where it comes from actually - that particular phrase "my hand my heart" - is something that comedian Russell Gilbert says to his friends and, from a romantic point of view, it's kind of a cool thing to say to your friends when you're not sure how long it's going to be before you see them again. For me personally it's a reflection of my hand, as in the writing, and my heart, as in the subject matter of what's talked about on the album.

CVR: The first track on your new album, 'Weight of a Man', broaches the challenges your wife Danielle faces in being your partner. One part of the lyric says: 'I'm so hard to handle, my life's a suitcase that's never been closed, don't know how you stand me, oh how you love me, god only knows." Can you tell us about the story behind that song?

RC: That was written as a tribute to my wife. There's something I say when we perform it: "'it's not just for my wife; it's for all wives or anybody contemplating becoming a wife." It's as much a tribute as it may be a warning. I don't think I'm the only husband in the world that brings pressure to bear on my wife (laughs).

CVR: The title track, 'My Hand, My Heart' is a bit of an ode to having a few drinks and perhaps a few more. It sounds like it was recorded late at night, with its spare piano backing and a good dash of melancholy as you recall the past. Where did the inspiration for that song come from?

RC: Initially I said to Dannie that it was time I contributed to the genre of drinking songs, given that I have a little bit of experience. She said she thought that was a very mature perspective, to write a song about the evils of drink. However, when she heard the song she said: "There's nothing here about the evils of drink; all this song's ever going to achieve for a room full of people having a drink is to sing along".

Without going into any of the obvious negativities of alcohol, there's also on the surface some wonderful pleasure to be had by bumping into an old friend and deciding to throw the day away for the sake of sitting down, having a drink and talking about old times. That's really what the song is about: some people stay with you through your life and some people come and go.

CVR: On this album you've collaborated on most tracks with new guitarist Alan Doyle from the Canadian band 'Great Big Sea'. In the past you have shared many song-writing credits with long-time TOFOG guitarist and friend Dean Cochran. Tell me about your new song-writing partnership and how it has affected your music.

RC: I met Alan in Canada. I've been a fan of his music for a long time - since 1998 actually. I was up there in Banff and I was introduced to his music by someone I was working with. It came to 2004 and I was in Toronto making Cinderella Man where I was asked to present at the NHL awards,the hockey awards. As I was presenting - I was such a fan that I used to do one of Alan's songs with TOFOG - and I'm standing there on stage giving out this award and I look into the audience and I realise that's the guy from 'Great Big Sea'.

He had heard that I was a fan of his, so he sort of manufactured a casual bump into each other in the corridor a few minutes later. We had a little chat and he said he was coming to Toronto again shortly. So we hooked up again and talked about song writing and he said to me, "Why don't we try to write a song together?"

He tours five nights a week but always comes to Toronto on a Sunday night on his way back to Newfoundland, where he lives. Probably seven out of nine Sundays we got together and discussed song writing and actually started working on a song - that song is on the album, it's called Raewyn.

The process of song writing is a ridiculously individual thing; everybody's got their own way of doing it. Alan brought his way of doing it to the table, and his disciplines really suited me. Alan's brought that along to me as a composer and also as a friend. It's been a real eye-opening and ear-opening experience, working with Alan.

CVR: The new album is mostly acoustic and quite folky at times. I believe the shows you are doing with the new band are a little more sedate than those you did with Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunts; what can the punters expect this time around?

RC: I'm not sure sedate is the right word, but they can certainly expect a great deal more clarity and also a certain level of bravery. My previous albums had a lot of very folky-type slow songs on them, but we didn't necessarily play them live, we tended to go for the jugular because it was a pub situation.

We've been playing a lot more theatre-style gigs where the people have a meal first before we do the show. The atmosphere tends to lean more toward listening to the lyric and taking the song in fully. However...whatever [the songs] may lack in deliberate pace, they certainly make up for it in power.

We've been having packed rooms in pubs, with people obviously having a big night, but still the songs are grabbing them to the point where it's bringing them up to absolute focus, so that's been a great experience,

CVR: You'll have done about 14 gigs before tonight's show with the new album; how have the shows been accepted so far?

RC: We're in this incredible purple patch at the moment: we've had positive reviews in the Sydney Morning Herald, positive reviews in the Sun Herald, positive mentions in the Sydney Daily Telegraph and we're all looking at each other going: "Is this really actually happening? (laughs)" [Before this] there's been 20 years of just downright misinformation or negative opinion.

CVR: Are you taking the show overseas?

RC: We've been asked to do some shows in America shortly, but it's all going to be worked out around family commitments first and other work commitments. However, it's very appealing playing these shows and talking to people afterwards, [who say] they've been affected by the songs. We'll just see how it goes.

CVR: You have chosen to distribute the new album exclusively via the internet; why?

RC: We've had multiple record contracts in the past with a lot of different companies...but none of those record company relationships have had the sort of personal commitment thing, which we feel we give to the music. On one hand we've cut out the middleman for people who are desperate to hear it instead of putting the record out [without] the kind of [record company] support [we need].

We're just prepared to be patient and wait. If we are lucky enough to interest a record company that will put some effort into marketing the record - not because I'm in the band and I happen to have a day job or whatever - but because they believe in the songs, then we're very definitely interested in talking to people like that.

However, with the slight change in critical response, there's been quite a bit of record company interest. For us, if we're good enough to earn the respect of the record companies to the point where they are willing to put in the effort required in this day and age to release something, then great, we've earned that. We don't want it for any other spurious reasons; we want it for the right reasons.

CVR: In the past your credibility as a musician has been called into question by the media and certain sections of the music industry - 'Russell Crowe's Band' (is a f...ing pile of s...t) by Frenzel Rhomb is a particularly scathing attack. How do you feel about being this kind of target and how do you deal with it?

RC: People will say whatever they want to say. The fact is I've been doing it (playing and composing music) most of my professional life. Now, you might be the sort of person that would take information or opinion from a newspaper, which is incorrect in the first place, and take that as fact - like the attitude that I only became involved in music when I became a movie star, which is just rubbish; my first record came out in 1981.

I imagine the guys in Frenzel Rhomb where probably in primary school at that time. I'm glad I gave them a shining moment in their career, because that's probably what they're most famous for, which in itself is probably a grand irony.

I don't hold any resentment or anything about that sort of stuff, because I was [once] a performer with that kind of perspective as well, where everything was wrong and I was cynical about it all. I'm happy they had a big bright spot for their years of touring and stuff, but I would prefer they had taken the piss out of somebody else but...(trails off laughing)

CVR: Your last movie 'Cinderella Man' attracted good critical approval and many critics have praised your performance, yet the box office sales have been judged as being less than expected. Some have put this down to the negative publicity that has dogged you through your career. Has this kind of publicity resulted in heckling at your concerts?

RC: There's always that kind of element in any sort of live performance in Australia, but it's surprisingly gone the other way. I think the people that are coming [now] are a lot more respectful. They're actually there to have a listen. We've been doing a residency at the Vanguard in Newtown (seven shows over the past six weeks) and we sell out every week. It's a new set of faces every week. Obviously they've been told what to expect by their friends because they're really there to have a listen and that's been great.

CVR: Music is obviously one of your greatest passions. With all the pressure, particularly being seen as a tall poppy, what keeps you doing it?

RC: The same reason I started doing it. A three-minute pop song can distill a massive amount of experience and emotion. It's one of the clearest forms of communication that I have available to me, it's clearer than the media.

CVR: Thanks for talking to the Clarence Valley Review, Russell; hopefully your message comes through clearly in this interview.

Thanks Avril for the scans and Lynda for transcribing the article.