The John Butler Trio

John Butler may come second to Mark E. Smith when replacing band members, but he's hoping the band's fourth album, Grand National, will be straight out of the gates.  The John Butler Trio have broken out of the acoustic paper bag and gone back to their Roots.  And reggae.  And blues.

From busking the beautiful streets of Perth in 1996 to wailing to the wading British at a wet Glastonbury in 2005, The John Butler Trio have come on leaps and bounds.  Their new album includes songs recorded before the release of their previous record but it also has some polished live tracks and some new material.

The band is trying to break away from their previous acoustic-folk shackles they found themselves chained to.  They're away from their native Australia, with a small European tour finishing with an appearance at Camden's Roundhouse.   So we caught up with John Butler before he began his Dreadlock Holiday.

VF: So you have a new album coming out, Grand National, what can we expect this time?
John Butler: "What can you expect?  Well that's a good question. You can expect a great album that's going to take you to a lot of different places.  We're influenced by so many different styles of music and me, as a writer, [I] like to go on a lot of different rides, sonically as well as topically.  So you're going to get the whole gamma of emotions, the full spectrum of what you expect to in my head in this time, and a lot about the human condition and how I see the world and how I see myself in this time.  It's a good representation of where I'm at.  And its not one paramount, you're not going to just get a pop song or a balled its going to go everywhere."

VF: Would you say it's maturing from your previous albums?
John Butler:  "Yeah.  I'd say it's evolving."

VF:  In a different direction?
John Butler:  "It think its broadening in as far as the subject matter is concerned, I'm just into beginning peeling off the layers of the onion, if it were, and getting more to the harder matter.  I'm more into what I'm talking about rather then the face value.  Musically it is definitely broader.  We've just gone out in a lot more directions rather my interests. [We] Just go there as a band with Michael [Barker, drums] and Shannon [Birchall, Bass] and I.  Our musical ability allows us to go into loads of different directions.  We're not really interested into sticking into roots, or into reggae, or hip hop, or blues, or any of those types of things, we kind of just mashed them all together into a sound we like.  Have you heard the album yet?"

VF: I haven't heard it yet, but I've listened to your older stuff.  Your last album [Sunrise Over Sea] took you to Glastonbury, how did you find playing Glastonbury, the big one in the UK?
John Butler: "It was great.  Glastonbury was great and Cambridge was great."

VF: A very wet Glastonbury for you?
John Butler:  "Wet but good."

VF: Have you got any festival plans for this summer?
John Butler:  "Not of as yet.  Nothing I know of, there's plans but I haven't thought about them.  I'm just doing this interview right now, that's where I'm at, I'm in the present."

VF: How do you find playing at home, in Australia, compared with playing here in the UK?  Do you notice a difference?
John Butler: "Not notably.  I really like coming over here, I like coming to places where people don't know us and it's always nice and fresh to turn people on and every time we play the British population really digs what we're doing and are like, 'Wow why haven't we heard of you?  This is amazing.'  So I always find it really exciting coming here, there is some really great potential to turn on the British to what we are doing."

VF: Do you prefer playing at the festivals or do you prefer playing the smaller, more intimate gigs?
John Butler: "I prefer anything where there is a connection with the audience, there is some good sound and there's a good connection.  I don't care if it's singing to 50 people or to 50,000 people, I just want there to be a vibe.  I want to create a sense of unity, that's what we do with our music and we create unity and a positive change throughout our music and that's what we're interested in doing.  We don't really mind where we do it as long as it doesn't compromise the soul and the integrity of what we do."

VF: Do you think you're able to keep the intimacy when you play the larger gigs?
John Butler: "It just depends; there are different things that happen at big gigs and at small gigs.  You just try to maximise the best parts of those things.  Whether it be the huge energy of the big gig and you try to, somehow, harness that energy into a positive and focused musical movement.  Or at intimate gigs you can get a lot of different places as well.  You can get the room down to where you can hear a pin drop and really move that down there as well.  As musicians we're challenged and excited by any kind of circumstance that we can throw ourselves into and see how it bounces back."

VF:  So when you played Wave Aid for the tsunami victims, did it feel different playing for something you believe in rather then playing your usual gigs?
John Butler: "It's a different event because it's not always about how I feel but how the audience feels when they've come together for something that's bigger then themselves, bigger then just giving a little personal satisfaction.  There is this other universal humanitarian satisfaction that we are all in it together and we all have each other to make this happen and to make what we want happen in a positive way and I think people are really energised by those things whether they be Live8, or Make Poverty History concerts or Wave Aid, they are all things that bring people together for something that is bigger then all of us and that's really special.  It's special for the bands, it's special for the audience, it's special for the promoters and everybody involved."

VF:  Bigger then music itself?
John Butler: "Well, yeah.  It's bigger then any -ism or any kind of label you can put on it.  It's bigger then industry, its bigger then politics - it becomes universal.  We all want the same thing as human beings.  We all want clean air, clean water, peace, freedom, justice, equality and respect.  We all want that.  So when we come together for those reasons, yeah it transcends all political pigeon holing."

VF:  Are you going to any festivals yourself, aside from playing?
John Butler: "No."

VF: Why not?
 John Butler: "I'm pretty busy moving around and when I'm not usually there's nothing really on."

VF:  Instead are there any new bands from Australia we should be listening out for?
John Butler: "Yeah Blue King Brown and Eskimo Joe, they're some good bands."

VF:  You're playing an intimate gig this evening.  Will it be all new stuff or will we hear some of the older tracks like 'Peaches and Cream'?
John Butler: "Not much old stuff, probably all new stuff, maybe one old song."

VF:  Is that the same for the rest of the tour?
John Butler: "Yeah we're just here to promote our new album so we're moving forward.  That's what we're trying to do."

VF:  Will there be another album from John Butler Trio after this one?
John Butler:  "Maybe, I hope so.  At the moment all I have on my mind is sharing this album with as many people as I can."

The John Butler Trio's album - Grand National is out on 9th April.  The band are appearing at The Roundhouse in Camden 26th April.