For many countries around the world, deforestation has evolved into a widespread issue. It is an issue among a series of human errors against the environment manifested through effects of global warming and water pollution.
Australia is no stranger to the image of people cutting down 600-year-old trees every day, a topic of controversy which has always been at the forefront of the music written by the John Butler Trio. The group's latest album, "Sunrise Over Sea," recorded at Woodstock Studios in Melbourne, follows the 2003 work, "Living," and 2002's "Three." The latest album on Jarrah Records was certified a platinum-selling record within two weeks of its release.
John Butler, who was born in Torrance, moved back to his father's home in Australia with his family in 1986 at the age of 11. The family moved from the Los Angeles area to the small town of Pinjarra.
"Musically, I just write about what moves me and what is around me, which is my environment. I feel it is being used irresponsibly and it basically pisses me off," explained Butler. "I just write about my reactions; it could be on love or politics or the environment itself. During the first two albums, there was massive deforestation going on in southwestern Australia so that people in Japan and other places could make toilet paper out of it."
After taking a six-month break following the birth of his child, Butler began writing new songs and coordinating a recording session that featured his brother-in-law, Nicky Bomba, on the drums. Butler began recording "Sunrise Over Sea" in 2003, which was released several months ago. Shannon Birchall sat in on the project, playing bass.
As a young child, Butler grew up to appreciate all different genres of music surfacing mainly from cities in his old American homeland along with England. He first picked up his grandfather's 12-string guitar at the age of 16, and eventually turned to music full time at 21.
In the late 1990s, Butler moved to the states to attend college in the hopes of earning a fine arts degree but ended up leaving almost two years later. He discovered that he could earn a living at busking (playing in public for donations) while attending art school in Australia at Fremantle University. Butler finally dropped out of school indefinitely to pursue his music career. He began playing local venues in Fremantle during open mic nights and played regularly at Mojo's Bar which at the time was owned by Phil Stevens, Butler's manager. He spent $10,000 of his own money and recorded a self-titled debut album following the demo "Pickapart."
"It wasn't the money but the appreciation I was getting and that is how my energy materialized," Butler added. "All of the pressures of society saying to get a real job and make a living faded away, and it's still that way. If it all ends tomorrow, I could still go out busking to pay the rent and eat. That's all success is, paying the rent and eating. If you can do that with what you love, then it's even better."
Butler claims, like many musicians, that American popular culture is somewhat of a paradigm when it comes to musical attitudes and styles influencing numerous famous rock groups from around the world.
"Australia, like a lot of countries, is influenced by American music and its culture," Butler said. "I mean, the Rolling Stones were a blues band and there ain't no blues in England. We are influenced by blues, funk and jazz. All I can say is that it's very unique being an island. We do have all the influences from all over the world but yet it is a contained musical bacteria, so to speak, that grows to be unique."
Last August, Butler set out on a national tour and replaced Bomba with drummer Michael Barker since Bomba already had commitments to his own band, Bomba. Butler completed work on his new album by early 2004. Butler first began recording his albums despite interest from both independent major record companies. Since its release, the album "Three" has gone platinum in Australia, selling more than 70,000 copies. The group continues to tour all over the world with the likes of Gov't Mule, the Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer and Robert Randolph.
"In Australia, it was never really our idea to be an independent band, it's just that no one really wanted anything to do with us," Butler said. "We just realized we could do it and we started getting offers from labels after we started selling gold. By that time, we didn't need them. There seems to be a big swell for independent music; a place for it to grow without being signed and that is a really interesting trend for new musicians."
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