Grunt Work
By Miriam Di Nunzio / Weekendplus Editor
Chicago-Sun Times
August 15, 2003

It's fair to say that 30 Odd Foot of Grunts has endured perhaps more critical scrutiny than most other celebrity-driven garage bands that have tested the waters of rock 'n' roll--Keanu Reeves fronts Dogstar, Dennis Quaid heads up the Sharks, Kevin Bacon and his brother Michael traverse the club circuit as the Bacon Brothers, Jason Schwartzman drums for Phantom Planet. Music critics don't often think kindly of these rock dabblers, and Russell Crowe has fared even worse in their eyes. He couldn't care less.

TOFOG's latest disc, "Other Ways of Speaking" (Artemis), is a strong effort from the Aussie band. With its lilting melodies and lyrics that read more like poetry than rock 'n' roll, it's hard to believe the main man behind the music is infamous tough guy Crowe. Come on mate, Crowe and Co. make "beautiful" music together? You bet.

30 ODD FOOT OF GRUNTS

*9 p.m. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Aug. 21 and Aug. 23

* House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn

* Tickets, $28.50; 21 + over

*(312) 923-2000

The Oscar-winning actor ("Gladiator"), known for his tough-guy bravado both on and off the screen, sings romantically on the new disc: "Inside her eyes/that's where I want to be/Inside her eyes/But I'd never rush in, I'll wait for the call/ It's not that she scares me as much as the fear/Of giving so much, needing so little/Of loving so gently/My heart never meant me to fall."

Has finding true love (via his new bride, Danielle Spencer) softened Crowe? Not on your life. His marriage and the impending arrival of their first child have humbled him, Crowe admits. But he's still the same bad ol' boy he's been all of his 39 years. And if you don't like it? Tough s---.

"I have so many conversations with journalists that dig the music and then when you read the article there's so much other stuff in the way that they never just say that," Crowe says with an emphatic chuckle during a phone conversation from his Sydney harborside home. "So all you ever read are the quotes with 'f---' in them. ... I don't mean to be rude. I'm an Australian, that's how we talk."

Rewind to 2001, when the band released "Bastard Life or Clarity." The music was not necessarily beautiful, but it was good--rough-edged rock infused with blues, roots rock, folk and pop. Not that the new disc doesn't deliver a dose of rock as well. Together since the late '80s, the band (Garth Adam, Billy Dean Cochran, Dave Kelly, Stewart Kirwan, Dave Wilkins and Crowe) is dead serious about the music they make. Crowe even produced an 80-minute documentary released earlier this year called "Texas," which chronicled their 2000 world tour exploits as well as the making of "Bastard Life." He is fiercely adamant about the band's sincerity--this is not, he will tell you, "a weekend hobby for some bored f------ actor and his mates." He's Australian--that's how he talks.

****

On this day, Crowe is congenial, funny, forthcoming and direct--nothing like the rumors that have plagued him concerning his volatile relationship with the press. Our chat is more of an hourlong conversation than an interview. Crowe loves to talk about music, which has been a part of his life for as long as he can remember. The dramatic actor is quick to point out the early years when he "busked in the streets" as a musician to make a living. He also toured Australia and New Zealand in "The Rocky Horror Show" (as Eddie and Frank-N-Furter) and starred in the Australian stage version of "Grease." He could sing and play the guitar almost before he could read and write.

TOFOG is in town for five shows at the House of Blues beginning Sunday. (The band also taped a "SoundStage" at WTTW-Channel 11 with Kris Kristofferson that will air some time next year.) Upcoming for Crowe the actor, whose credits also include critically acclaimed performances in "A Beautiful Mind," "The Insider" and "L.A. Confidential," is the high seas drama "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World."

Crowe talked to WeekendPlus about his music.

Q. The new album features your name above the band's for the first time. Why did that happen?

A. It's not our decision. It was the American album company's decision. [Laughs] My stupid face doesn't appear on the cover in Australia either. We gave the original cover [two cows in a field] to the American company [Artemis] and they made two changes: putting my face on it and my name before the band, which is completely against the policy and the charter of the band.

Q. Is this an official fallout with Artemis?

A. Not a fallout. Just conceptually differing opinions. Obviously they're going through some changes at the moment and they felt that's what they needed. None of us are really happy with it, but at the same time we understand it's their business and they're gonna make business decisions. We just don't necessarily agree with those decisions.

Q. Did your bandmates give you a hard time for being out front on the cover?

A. We're all a little disappointed because it's got nothing to do with who we are. ... Considering the impact of the tour we had last time we played in America--we sold out every show--the guys thought [laughing] the record company would at least show them a little respect. And it's actually had an opposite effect because there are thousands of 30 Odd Foot of Grunts fans in America who have ordered the Australian version of the record [via the Internet] instead of buying the American version because they'd rather have the artwork and the concept that the band agreed to.

Q. This album is a bit "lighter" in tone than the last one.

A.Well, I don't necessarily agree with you. There's a finesse to this album, which the last album possibly didn't have. The jangles and the dust on "Bastard Life or Clarity" [2001] were there on purpose. [Laughs] That was the type of album that we wanted to make. We were all in one place making a very cohesive record.

... The new album ended up being recorded all over the place, in Melbourne, Sydney, New York, Austin and Rosarita [Mexico]. The strength of the last few years, of things that we've gained in terms of the unity within the band as well as the playing, is just reflected more heavily in this album.

Q. How did you hook up with Chrissie Hynde for the duet on "Never Be Alone Again"?

A. She was doing some press for the record company with the [A&R] guy [Ray Di Pietro] at Artemis and her agent had some demos in the car. She asked who it was and he told her 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, [laughs] and she was cool enough to know that I was in that band.

... In great journalistic tradition she announces on the radio that there's been talk that the Pretenders and 30 Odd Foot of Grunts are going to be touring together [laughing]. She said that thinking it was just a bit of a gag, and it ended up making all the national papers.

... We did book some dates on a rough schedule and it just didn't work out. But in the interim ... I called her and said "I'd like to send you this song" ... which she ended up loving. ... She was in L.A. and I was in Rosarita, so we flew her down by helicopter and recorded the vocals in a bedroom that we converted into a recording studio.

Q. Why did you select Chicago for your only U.S. tour dates this time?

A. We just discussed where we had the most fun on the last tour, where did the audience go the craziest. ... Then it was all about the best venue. ... We didn't want to do the whole thing of traveling point to point [in the U.S.] because we wanted to do larger coverage of Australia, which we hadn't done in four or five years. ... Plus, Chicago is a place you can get to easily from everywhere. I've also got friends there, and Danielle has family there, an uncle and bunch of cousins. For us, the main thing is it's just a great venue. And the people there really enjoy the music. And voila! [laughs] A decision is made.

Q. Getting to some of the songs on the new disc, "Inside Her Eyes" is very beautiful. What's the backstory on that one?

A. You're probably gonna reach for the barf bag, but I wrote that song in about April of 1989 the night after I met Danielle Spencer for the first time. [Laughing] I'm sorry but you just had to pick the f------ song. And I played it to her the second time I met her.

Q. So where did you meet her?

A. I met her the first time in a Cafe in Paddington [Australia] It was an organized meeting to do with a job.

Q. Were you instantly smitten?

A. I just really liked her. She had a stillness and a grace, which wasn't very usual in women her age--she was only 18 or 19 at the time. I just wanted to find out "what was really going on behind those eyes." [Laughs]

Q. So all these years later, do you know?

A. [Laughing] I know some of it. I certainly don't know it all.

Q. What did she say when you played it for her?

A. The thing is she likes me to sit and play her songs, so I suppose it was the first time I did it. And we still do it now. If I'm working on something she likes me to sit down and play it for her.

Q. Are you going to sing to the baby?

A. Oh, I don't know. I don't want to scare it. [Chuckles] Danni's father, Don Spencer, is a really famous children's performer here who's sold millions of albums singing songs for kids. I don't think [laughing] me and Danni are even gonna get a look inside the crib when it comes to singing lullabies.

Q. Any plans to record an album together?

A. Danni actually played as a support act in the last U.S. tour. But she's now taken the opinion that now that we're married, if we were to do anything like that again, it goes to a ridiculous level of cheesy. So it's outlawed [laughs].

Q. No shades of Linda and Paul for you guys, then?

A. [Laughing] She said something the other night along the lines of, "Listen Sonny, I'm no Cher."

Q. Back to the new disc--there's "Swallow My Gift," an interesting title for a song.

A. That's one of the songs you write when you're a struggling young artist, and in a way that's never gone away. I get a lot of negative s--- from people because I play in a band and I'm an actor. They don't understand that my attitude is "Get over it."

I'm following an extremely long tradition of performers who do multiple things. It's absolutely ridiculous. Any actor you talk to whose worth his soul has come up through theater. And to a great extent, if you come up through theater you have to sing. I used to supplement my income as an actor by playing in bands and busking in the streets. Basically any type of musical performance you can name, I would have done some as a young man. ... It's not square peg, round hole. I'm not forcing myself to do this. It's just something that comes naturally. And writing the songs comes naturally. And "Swallow My Gift" is about "I just do this. I make a song, here it is." It's pretty simple.

Q. Is music your first love?

A. I think it's more easily understood as a young person of 6, when I started writing songs. But I knew all my life that I was a performance artist. It took a long while to find the medium--film--where I was truly comfortable. However, when I get back on the stage it's like fun, you know. I'm not a stare-at-my-shoes kind of performer. I like to get an audience involved, I like to make them laugh, and ultimately I like to make the room shake and [laughs] everybody's got to get sweaty.

Q. At the end of the day, is it important to you to get accepted as a serious musician by the industry?

A. What, if Rolling Stone gives me a positive review? I couldn't give a s---. Of course the band would go, "Stop! Don't say that! "[laughs].

If anything, what I'd like is the band to actually be measured equally against other bands without my day job being taken into account, or without my supposed random f------ ego or whatever the f--- it is that supposedly drives the music. I'm like, "OK, where was my random ego when I was busking on the streets for a living? [laughs] What the f--- are you talking about?" I just happen to sing songs. Songs are rather observational or narrative-based; for me it's just another level of self-expression.

At the same time, I really enjoy making movies, I love the cerebral journey. For me, instead of going to Broadway or the [London's] West End to do a play when I've got some time off, I'd rather do this. I'd rather have the immediacy of a rock and roll gig.

This band has a long history, six releases, thousands of shows. You can stack us up against anybody that's supposed to be credible.

Q. So if you wanted to be taken seriously, why didn't you go for a bigger label with a lot more push behind it in terms of marketing and promotion, especially with you as the trump card?

A. We were offered a deal by Tommy Mottola but we turned him down because we don't want to be changed, we don't want to be manipulated, we don't want to be packaged. We just want to play our songs and do it our way.

Q. Are you in search of a new label or pondering your own label?

A. We'll see. When it becomes relevant we'll make that decision. Artemis is going through a bit of a hard time and restructuring, so I don't really want to kick them. Danny Goldberg [chairman and CEO of Artemis] is a good man with a good reputation whose done a lot of great things in the music business. If he wants the relationship to carry on, fine and dandy.

For us, it's never been important that we have a record company as such. We used to just sell albums on the Internet for quite a few years and we were happy doing that.

Q. Do you guys call all the shots in the recording studio?

A. Yep. That's one area where the record company cannot get into. For us, it's "This is the record, this is the way it's gonna run, this is the track listing." You don't like the f------ cover because you have something against cows [laughing]? They don't even come to the studio when we're there.

Q. Do you have the final word on the albums?

A. On this one, yeah, but on the one before it was Dave Wilkins the guitarist, on the one before it was Dean Cochran, so we have a little bit of shared responsibility.

Q. Do you like having the final say?

A. Well, I know if I've written the songs, and except for the Johnny Cash cut ["Folsom Prison Blues"], they're pretty much all my songs on this album, then yes, I do. If you conceived the song in the first place, you want to have the final say on how it goes. ... I wouldn't call myself a control freak, but as principal songwriter, I do have a larger voice in what goes on the recording.

Q. Is Johnny Cash an idol of yours?

A. Those sort of words don't sit well with me. [Laughing] I'm not sure I have idols. Have I respected him for a long period of time? Absolutely. His music writing is just fantastic.

But that's a total deconstruction of "Folsom Prison Blues" on the album. That song is not a 12-bar, but we play it as a 12-bar. And if you listen to the story the way he sings it, it has no relation to the way I sing the story. [Laughs] That's an old blues tradition, you know: "I dig the song but I'm not gonna do it the way he does it."

Q. Any plans to re-release some of the band's earliest albums?

A. There's one or two we purposely deleted because we didn't want to have a relationship with the people who put them out. But I'm the least ambitious person in the band when it comes to the band being in the people's eye.

For me it's just all about writing the songs and recording them the way I want them to be and the way that showcases the talents that are in the band. That for me is success. I don't need anybody else to pat me on the back and say "You know what, you are a real musician." Stick your "real" in your ass, mate. [Laughs] I've been doing it all my life and I'm gonna keep doing it. If you're annoyed by it now, gee whiz, you're gonna be really pissed in 10 years. [Laughing] So you might as well just relax.

Q. Are you a little more grown up these days?

A. Hopefully any period of a couple of years [laughing] of my life I'm gonna be a little bit more grown up. Every time we come together as a band, it feels like it's better than it was before. As long as that progression keeps going, I don't think we're gonna stop what we're doing.

Q. Are you nervous about being a dad?

A. I've got 12 godchildren, so I've had a lot of practice. And I know it's completely different. I've got a gigantic road ahead of me. [Laughing] Just leave me with the bliss for now. There's plenty of time for reality.

Q. Does it literally scare you on some level?

A. Of course. A completely honest answer is, I'm humbled, fascinated, terrified and blissed out. All of those things. The hardest thing for me is figuring out why should I ever work when I've got the baby to look after? [Laughing] That's why my agent and all the people in America who look after that part of my life are all going "Oh no, we'll never get him out of there [Australia]."

Q. Are you going to be present at the birth?

A. Oh yes, Danni wants me to be in a certain place and be focusing on her. [Laughing] For whatever reason she doesn't want me to actually see the baby come out. Ooh, that's probably too much information.

I'm definitely going to cut the cord and all that other stuff. What a privilege. What a great experience.

Russell Recalls Fond Memories of Alice
by Adam Wylie
Centralian Advocate, June 17, 2003


RUSSELL Crowe has spoken about his fond memories of Alice Springs.

Crowe told the Centralian Advocate he would be taking a break from movies this year to devote time to new bride Danielle Spencer.

"The aim this year with the folks is not to get on planes and go overseas.

"The last time I had a break was November '96 so this year I get married and enjoy being a newly-wed.''

Crowe has labelled the upcoming Youth Concert in Alice Springs which will kick off his tour with band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, as a "special occasion''.

He said: "I had a great time last I was in Alice.

"I was on a motorbike trip with some mates. We rode from Coffs Harbour up to Darwin and then down to Alice.

"The night we arrived in town Jimmy Barnes was playing. After that we hooked up with Ted Egan and spent the night telling stories and having a chat.''

Honeymoon

Crowe said wife Danielle would like to further explore the Territory after their recent sunrise-honeymoon at Ayers Rock, and may be coming on tour with her superstar husband.

Crowe admitted that part of the charm of playing in small towns was the beauty of the location.

He said: "We want to tour, but do we want to play in the same cement bunkers every time? It's like, ah... no thanks, what's the aesthetic we can apply to touring?''

The band will be touring many small towns to places where their music is appreciated and their CDs have been sold.

Crowe: We're an easy going type band

Crowe said: "If your town is off the touring path then that's the town we want to go to.''

Crowe's easy-going band will be playing Alice as part of the NT Youth Concert on July 11.

He said: "We have a pretty relaxed `how you doin'?' kind of attitude and there's no sort of build-up or hype to it.''

But music gives Crowe another creative outlet and offers him a chance to reflect.

He said: "It's about opening yourself up and exposing the truth. But it can be a bit difficult when you're a narrative-based songwriter. You're drawing from real life and my life just happens to be a bit absurd sometimes.

"Even though it would never be my intention to comment on my life and being famous you can't help but allude to it.''

The band's new album title Other Ways Of Speaking says it all.

Aside from being just plain "good fun'' and a respite from Hollywood, the actor can communicate through music in a way he cannot through acting.

It has been two years since the band last played in Australia and Crowe said it was time the group got together again.

Crowe said the band, more than 10 years old, was still growing and changing.

He said: "It matures and it develops every time you do it, you know. Every time we play together we feel we are a better band.''

Crowe said freedom was the most important factor in how his outfit operated.

He said: "We don't do things that people expect us to do or because people say we should. We do things because it feels good to us.''

He is enjoying his music as Hollywood gears up for another blockbuster release.

Crowe's new movie which hits cinemas later this year is the big budget Master & Command: the Far Side of the World directed by Peter Weir. He plays a British Navy ship's captain in 1805.

He is off to Toronto next to film Cinderella Man directed by friend Ron Howard.

(Thanks to Sheila)