John Butler Trio have been nominated in the 2011 APRA music industry awards in Australia.
Song of the Year - REVOLUTION
Most Played Australian Work - CLOSE TO YOU & ONE WAY ROAD
Blues & Roots Work of the Year - ClOSE TO YOU & ONEWAY ROAD
Check out these interview videos with John Butler:
John Butler talks about songwriting
John Butler talks about “Close To You”
1 April 2011
Happy Birthday John! The man behind the Trio dropped by today to spend some of his birthday with you. He also walked you through The Seed, the not for profit arts fund he and his wife Dan set up a few years ago to help up and coming young muso’s and managers get a leg up in the industry.
Over six years, tens of thousands of dollars has been shared around to help independent artists, and applications for the current round of grants are about to close. This morning, John walked you through some of his musical highlights of bands who have used The Seed since it’s inception.
It’s a great fund, and always looking for donors and also people to hand that cash out to every year; go here for more info. And if you missed our Take 5, stream it right here!
Here’s what he played:
1. Impossible Odds - Laugh It Off
2. Dan Sultan - Love Is Like a Song
3. Husky - History’s Door
4. Tame Impala - Lucidity
5. Felicity Groom - Finders and Keepers
Listen:
2010 has been filled with remarkable achievements for Australia’s most successful truly independent act and as the John Butler Trio continues their nationwide tour they have one more achievement to thank their fans for, the band’s fifth studio album ‘April Uprising’ has officially achieved platinum status.
The John Butler Trio released ‘April Uprising’ around the world simultaneously in 11 markets in April of this year. The album received the strongest and finest critical acclaim of any JBT album to date, and is the 3rd consecutive JBT album to debut at No. 1 on the Aria Charts. In the USA the band achieved their first ever debut in top 50 of the US Billboard charts (no. 36), and in France in the Top 30 (no. 23).
The John Butler Trio has travelled through many cities and countries taking their music to their global fans over the past 6 months. During their travels the band has played to their biggest crowds ever, headlining sold out shows at New York’s Summer stage in Central Park, Red Rocks Colorado and played many festival main stages in territories such as Brazil, Canada, Japan, Switzerland and France, just to name a few.
The band has also celebrated their most successful year on radio in Australia to date, with the album’s second single ‘Close To You’ being the most played Australian song this year and massive airplay results have been achieved for the album’s two other singles ‘One Way Road’ and the current single ‘Revolution’.
John Butler thanks his loyal fans for their continued support and commented on April Uprising’s platinum achievement today,
“What can I say to the best music fans in the world? Your support, love and absolute enthusiasm for our music is, to say the very least, humbling and an incredible honour to have. You all make dreams come true and I love the relationship we’ve built over time. April Uprising going platinum in this day and age of downloading is testimony to a very special friendship and the amazing journey that we’re all on together. To all of you AND the amazing teams we work with to bring this music to the masses thank you , thank you , thank you all so very much !! You f***king ROCK!!!!!!!”
After a year in the making, the band has released their first documentary, ‘These Are The Days - The Making Of April Uprising’ which is out now on DVD. This film depicts an open, honest and rare look into the world and spirit of John Butler and the Trio as you have never seen them before.
World Cafe Broadcast - Interview & Performance
The World Cafe recently broadcast an interview and performance with John Butler via NPR. Check the link below to listen to the 25 minute interview and an alternative performance of ‘Close To You’.
ARCHIVE: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129151737
August 12, 2010
John Butler got his start in music by busking on the streets of Western Australia. His style escapes simple genre classification, and the guitarist’s music pits funky, spitfire lyricism against slide guitar and “open-tuning” riffs. Here in the States, his upbeat worldliness and passionate instrumental jams has set him alongside G. Love and Special Sauce and the Dave Matthews Band (he’s on Matthew’s label, ATO).
Recently, Butler was the subject of an episode in the Australian TV series called Who Do You Think You Are, which traced the musician’s ancestry. He found out that his great-great-grandfather fought in an uprising in Bulgaria called the “April Uprising,” and this discovery, amongst other April-related happenings, inspired the naming of the album.
“April Uprising became this metaphor for this huge musical revolution — spiritual, metaphysical, personal, musical revolution,” says Butler. “April Uprising kind of fit because everything seemed to have happened around April, in one century or the other.”
Butler also talks to guest host Tracey Tanenbaum about moving to Western Australia, hanging out with his small town’s indigenous population, and how he inherited his grandfather’s dobro.
LISTEN TO THE ARCHIVE: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129151737
Back home in Australia the video for the John Butler Trio’s new single ‘Revolution’ will be serviced to TV this week. Made in Los Angeles whilst the band was on tour it was directed by James Minchin III. It’s an emotive black and white clip featuring a band performance interspersed with a large cast of fascinating characters from all walks of life depicting the diversity of humanity and the world we live in today.
Of the inspiration for the track, John Butler said,
“Revolution is such an overused impotent word nowadays, I just wanted to explore the subject and find out what it meant to me. We live in some pretty extreme times .I think a lot of people are considering living in a drastically different way on this planet and with each other. They have to. But the old ideas of reform and revolution are not applicable nor have many “revolutions” really ever brought about meaningful change before they turn into what they were fighting. My idea of revolution is basically taking the R off the word. It’s evolution. It’s not gonna be some fanciful day that comes where everything is going honky dory utopia. That’s bullshit and a practice in futility. You can’t stop evolution. It’s sometimes painfully slow and other times brutally quick but never the less it is on-going. You can rev it up however; accelerate it from time to time by being engaged in your community, by being compassionate. I see that around me. That’s what I concentrate on when I’m being bombarded by the intense images and news of these times. Stay engaged but not inundated. By knowing that the revolution is underway and not some fantasy about to come I’m able to have the energy and optimism to keep being part of this eternal, unstoppable REVOLUTION.”
Check out the Video here:
http://jbtserver.com/blog/videos/revolution-2010/
For Australian and NZ fans,
JBT’s intimate Sydney show recorded in April at the iTunes store is out now on iTunes (oz/nz stores).
http://itunes.apple.com/au/album/itunes-live-from-sydney-ep/id382378792
The 5 track Ep features;
01// Johnny’s Gone
02// Better Than
03// Revolution
04// Zebra
05// One Way Road
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