Freewheeling Butler a servant to no one

By STEPHEN JEWELL

John Butler may have launched his musical career playing on the street but the Byron Bay-based songwriter has since become one of Australia's most successful independent artists.

The first John Butler Trio album, Three, Butler's second LP after his 1998 solo debut, has sold more than 100,000 copies in the American-born musician's adopted homeland since being released there in 2001.

"I left art school because I wanted to busk around the country," says Butler.

"Then I started getting lots of gigs through busking. People would come up to me on the street and ask me to do a gig at their venues. I used to just do instrumentals when I was busking but I started singing more at the gigs. Then people wanted an album so I went into a studio with a couple of guys and recorded an album. The next thing we were the John Butler Trio and we started touring. We've been touring these songs for a while now."

Butler's acoustic, rocky blues style has been described as being in a similar vein to perennial New Zealand favourites Ben Harper and Jack Johnson, and the artist concurs.

"To a certain degree we're all doing a contemporary, acoustic, soul folk singer/songwriter thing," says Butler. "I can definitely see that comparison or a comparison with someone like Annie DiFranco or John Mayer."

But Three also possesses a distinctive Australian flavour with Butler including didgeridoo and Aboriginal backing vocals on tracks like Money and Take.

"I've always loved the didgeridoo," says Butler. "It's a very beautiful, sombre, serious and sincere sounding instrument. It seemed to have a voice of the earth in lots of different ways. It strikes a heart chord as soon as you hear it and I just wanted it on those songs."

With song titles like Earthbound Child and Media, Butler wears not just his heart but his politics on his sleeve. Despite singing in Media that television and newspapers "censor and brainwash our minds", Butler insists that he holds no grudges against the press.

"Some journalists have been a bit confused and have said why are you talking to me if you don't like the media," he laughs.

"I have to explain that I write a lot of songs and they're general comments but I end up spending more time explaining myself more than explaining the song. "I've got nothing against the media but it seems that a lot of mainstream commercial media are full of misrepresentations and fear. Everybody has a vested interest. People today see the media as a modern-day bible. They believe if they see it or they read it, it has happened."

Butler will be playing Auckland and Wellington this weekend with the other members of his eponymously named trio - expatriate New Zealand drummer Michael Barker and double bassist Shannon Birchall.

"We're just going to play music, have some fun and see what happens on the night," says Butler. "There's always something different. I'm just looking forward to coming over and playing to you people and with the people I'm going to be playing with on stage. New Zealand seems in many ways to be a very intelligent country.

"There seems to be a respect for the traditional origins of your land and respect for the environment.

"You had nothing to do with the [Iraq] war and you're willing to stand by your morals and not worry about what the rest of the world thinks."

Performance:

* Who: John Butler Trio

* Where: Kings Arms

* When: Tonight