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Crowe's Feat - by Christie Eliezer, Sain magazine Feb' 2001 As Russell Crowe's star began to rise in Hollywood, it wasn't long before the major record companies started waving their cheque books at his band 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts. In the last three years, particularly, with LA Confidential, Michael Mann's The Insider (for which he was nominated for an Oscar for best actor) and the $100 million Gladiator which was best selling DVD in Australia over Christmas, the 34-year old has become a hot item. But Crowe soon discovered that their motives for being interested in his music were much different from why he played. "We spoke to some of the biggest record companies in the world, he says seated in a hotel penthouse, chain smoking. It became obvious they didn't give a **** about what we were doing. I guess I can understand that. They're there to sell records, and that would mean cashing in on the singer's Hollywood celebrity, and riding on the coat tails of the hit movies. We almost signed a deal with one label, and then I said, Oh by the way, you can't release it for another six months. They freaked. They couldn't see the sense of not releasing it near one of my new movies. As far as I'm concerned - and I realise, I'm in a privileged position where I can make these stands - if the record is going to sell, it should do it on its own merit. Listen, music is such a passion for me. I don't want anyone to prostitute it for me. If I wanted to be a slut, I'd do it myself." Instead, he went the independent route. 30 Foot were one of the first Australian bands to embrace the Internet as a marketing and selling tool. Earlier releases like 1998's Gaslight album, 1996's debut EP The Photograph Kills and the 1997 single 'What's Her Name' sold well. Their website www.gruntland.com has got three million hits. But their new album Bastard Life Or Clarity, out February 26, goes through
the Sanity music chain's Stomp label, which for the first time sees the
band's releases Crowe is deadly serious about 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts, in which he sings and plays rhythm guitar. He knows that trying to mix acting and music puts a credibility dampener on both. But he doesn't really care what anyone thinks. They are both as important to him, he says. Both offer his fans a look into his soul because they both come from the same place," he says. He did his first acting stint at six, and was playing in a band at ten. Acting allows him to slip into different characters. He's very good at it, too. In Gladiator, for instance, he completely commanded the screen. But music allows him to express himself, primarily through the lyrics. He's drawn to storytellers like Billy Bragg, Tom Waits, Lloyd Cola and David Gray. When he was home sick from school as a 12-year old, his mother bought him an album by a '70s songwriter called Jim Croce, who had hits with "TelephoneOperator " and " Bad Bad Leroy Brown". Crowe was fascinated with the strange characters in his songs. Is it coincidental these characters roam around on the band's album? "I don't think about in those terms," he shrugs. "That's for someone to make that connection. A lot of what I write is just stream of consciousness." Crowe writes about the people he knows, but puts them against a larger picture. The Night That Davey Hit The Train was about the suicide of Daniel Pollock, a co-star from Romper Stomper. It's more about the guilt felt by the ones left behind. "Ten years after Daniel died, it was still going through in my mind our relationship, and wondering, what else I could have done? The Legend of Barry Kable", is about an alcoholic and violent painter and docker in Sydney who would drink three bottles of port a day. Guitarist Dean Cochran, wh worked with the Sydney Mission, used to pick up Kable every day. "It was an eye opener for Dean" says hell raiser Crowe who flew in cans of VB to Malta during the shooting of Gladiator. "There but for the grace of God went he". Memorial Day was inspired by his grandfather, a decorated war photographer ("but he'd never wear his medals because he associated them with destruction") while Judas Cart recalled the time he had to pick up his niece from his brother's house after a messy divorce and drive her away to her rnother's. The title Bastard Life Or Clarity comes from when Crowe told Dean Cochran he had come up with two possible titles "Bastard Life" and "Clarity" and asked him to choose. "I want both", the guitarist replied. 30 Odd Foot Of Grunts includes long time members Garth Adam (bass) and Dave Kelly (drums) and newly arrived Dave Wilkins (guitar and vocals) and Stewart Kirwan (trumpet and vocals), who were brought in to augment the vocals at gigs. "Bastard Life" is the band's most confident record to date. It's a mix of bar room rock ("Things Have Got To Change", "Somebody Else's Princess","Swept Away Bayou"), country ("Sail Those Same Oceans") and folk ("Memorial Day" ,"Wendy"). It was co-produced with Kerryn Tolhurst, whom the band wanted because of his work with Paul Kelly and Black Sorrows. The album was cut at a time when Crowe's personal life with Meg Ryan was under close scrutiny from the tabloids. In between Crowe's acting commitments, they met in London to work through ideas, playing a show at the Borderline. Then when recording began at Arlyn Studios for six weeks over August and September, they played three sell out shows in Texas. They broke the house record at the famous Stubbs Amphitheatre when they sold 6,000 tickets in four and a half hours. "The second night at Stubbs was the best show we've ever played. It was the first time we realised just how deep people had got into our music. I took my face away from the microphone and heard 2,500 people sing our songs back to me. We had a bet how many tickets we'd sell at the Borderline. Highest was 1,000, lowest was 150. But we sold 4,000 tickets in 45 minutes. It's largely been through the 'Net. We don't get much radio airplay. But the bond is created through the website (www.gruntland.com). I like the idea of playing to people who are having a good time. Pub rock is a maligned word but I don't see it as a negative. Being brave enough to stand in front of a bar and singing your own songs is a cool thing." Crowe makes a spoken word cameo on the next Wendy Matthews record, his Proof Of Life movie is out here in March, he starts shooting Beautiful Mind with Ron Howard, and then hopes to tour with the band in August.
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