David Hudson [Australia]

Australia's world renowned didgeridoo player David Hudson has a new album out this month called Walkabout.  It's available through Real Music, the Sausalito, California based record label.  Martin Curti of New World Buzz recently caught up with David for an exclusive interview.

• Listen to radio show with special guest David Hudson

Martin Curti: David, welcome to the show.

David Hudson: Thanks Martin.  Thanks for having me on your show.

Martin Curti: Your record label has described your new album as "an evocative fusion of didgeridoo and world rhythms."  How would you describe the music on Walkabout?

David Hudson: You know, this album Walkabout is very different to my other albums.  The other ones have been just a slow progression from solo didgeridoo to didge and percussion, didge and piano, etc. etc.  This album here, I'm trying to get away from that new agey sound.  I think by adding in some of the drums, more chants and vocals, it becomes a bit more of world tribal sounds and I hope people will like it.  It's a new sound and perhaps the next album I do will be a bit more commercial and orchestrated [with] chants, definitely, because I like the chants especially indigenous chants whether it's a Native American, Finnish, [or] Russian.  I still think it's important to retain that culture side of me and people like that.  So, I would say that it's just a nice blend of traditional world chanty fusion.  It's very hard to explain.

Martin Curti: David Hudson comes from the Ewamin tribe of the north east coast of Australia.  In what ways is the Aboriginal culture important to your music?

David Hudson: Well, my culture is very important to me because I'm always trying to tell people that the Australian culture is still one of the world's oldest living cultures.  I'm from the north east coast of Australia and the didgeridoo is the oldest wind instrument.  We've got to educate people that the didgeridoo is more than just a stick that sits in the corner.  It's an actual wind instrument and depending on how you play it, there's different sounds you can do [with] it, depending how you mix it with.  And my culture is very important to me because I've got my traditional dance--I've got my art.  I've always explained this before that the inside of the didgeridoo is like a giant telescope and has different paths.  So, one leads to men's business; one leads to woman's business; one leads to art, music--so, it's very important to me.  Without my culture, well, unfortunately, I wouldn't be in this business.

Martin Curti: You play an instrument called the didgeridoo, would you describe the instrument for us?  And tell us a little bit about the history behind it.

David Hudson: Well, the didgeridoo is a wind instrument.  It's made from a Eucalyptus tree, Bloodwood tree.  They're trees that are naturally eaten out by termites.  So, I go into the bush--I select that tree--I tap onto it.  I'm listening for the sound and if it sounds a dull hollow sound, then I chop into it and inside I'll find that it's full of just wasted products.  So, I take that tree home--I get the inside.  I scrap the inside out with a stick and then I cut the end off so it's nice and smooth on both ends.  I determine which end I'm going to play from and then the length determines the pitch.  So the shorter it is, the higher the pitch.  The longer it becomes, the deeper.  Certain didgeridoos have different sounds.  Euca has a very softish light sound.  Bloodwood has a very heavy sound but very very rich.  If I travel to America on my walkabout, then I carry light didgeridoos because they're a lot easier to handle when I'm on the road.  The word didgeridoo is an English word which means tree.  So, in our language for didgeridoo, I would say yigi yigi.  In the Arnhem Land district, you would say yidaki.

Martin Curti: Your playing is currently being heard on Survivor - The Australian Outback, CBS' popular weekly television series.  How did you get involved with that?

David Hudson: Well, I got involved with that because, at least five years ago, I met the man behind the show and that was Mark Burnett.  Then down the track, I received a phone call from a blo called Russ Landau who lives in Topanga, California.   Russ wrote the score for it plus "Ancient Voices," which is the actual theme song for the Survivor I and II.  When Russ had phoned me and we spoke about it, Russ was coming to Australia and coming to a place called Cairns, which is my home town.   We spoke on the phone and said let's choose something that's very unique to this project.  So, I said, well, we're going out where they shoot Survivor, it's more a three or four hours west of my home town.  So, let's go a little further on there to Undara Lava Tubes.  They're volcanic craters that go under the ground.   That's tradition to me on my father's side--that's the Ewamin people.   So, I said to Russ, well, how about if we go and record the didgeridoo in volcanic craters.  He thought that was a great idea.  So, Russ brought his little recording equipment.  And along with Russ and Entertainment Tonight, we did it all out there; filmed it all out there; and c'est la vie--the rest is history.  I think he did a great job and it's beautiful.  I think it certainly put the didge on the map, so to speak, in terms of getting new listeners.  Because every where I go, people always say--oh that didge sounds so nice on that "Ancient Voices" piece.   Yeah, thanks to Russ Landau.

Martin Curti: Of course we want to focus on David Hudson the musician, but we also want to touch upon some of your other interests, which include: acting, narrating, painting, retailing, and not to mention a qualified recreation officer.  But we're probably not going to have time to get that far.  You're also the founder of the acclaimed Tjapukai Dance Theatre.  How did you ever get involved with that?

David Hudson: We started the Tjapukai Dance Theater back in 1986.   We started as a need to preserve our culture.  It's become Australia's longest running theatrical show that's been operating seven days a week.  I left the Tjapukai Dance Theatre in 1992 to pursue my own career as a solo freelancer and they're going very well.  They're based in Cairns now and if you ever come to Cairns, you got to go see the Tjapukai Dance Theatre.

Martin Curti: Getting back to your album, is the music on Walkabout a new direction?   If so, how does it differ from your previous work?

David Hudson: It's definitely a move in a new direction for me.   I've done a lot of albums now, twenty-four all total.  The next album I'd like to do is, as explained before, just a move with a bit more orchestrated, [and] a mood.  For example, if I had to work with say Russ Landau, I'd like to get his influence and where he's coming from, you know, get inside someone else's head.  I'm from Australia and he's from America--two different new affixes here.  Maybe someone like Robert Mirabal.  Robert Mirabal is a friend of mine who lives in Taos.   And perhaps do some vocals as well because I play guitar--I sing.  No one has ever heard me sing over in America, so, who knows.

Martin Curti: Your most recent tour was with New Age recording artist Yanni, do you have another tour planned?

David Hudson: Well, actually the tour with Yanni was finished in 1997.   So that's some years ago.  That was fun touring with him.  We did the Taj Mahal and the Forbidden City China.  We toured a long hard tour but it was great because it was the World of United Nations of Musicians on stage.  There was Russians; there was Germans; there was Puerto Ricans; there was Peruvians; there was an Australian Aboriginal.  It was great fun and I enjoyed it very much.

Martin Curti: Thanks David for being our guest on New World Buzz.

David Hudson: Thanks Martin.  I had a wonderful time and thanks for talking to me all the way from Australia.

Credits:
Interviewer: Martin Curti
Date: June 2001
© New World Buzz