Xavier Rudd (born 29 May 1978) is an Australian singer, songwriter, musician, and multi-instrumentalist. Several of Rudd's songs incorporate socially conscious themes, such as spirituality, humanity, environmentalism and the rights of Indigenous Australians.
Early life
Xavier Rudd grew up in Jan Juc, near Torquay, Victoria. His maternal grandfather was Dutch, born in Tilburg, a town in the Netherlands, before migrating to Australia. One of his grandmothers was from an Irish potato-growing family and grew up in Colac, Victoria. Rudd claims to be of Aboriginal, Irish and Scottish heritage, furthermore mentioning being of Wurundjeri ancestry, and that one of his great grandmothers was an Aboriginal Australian, and her child (Rudd's paternal grandmother) was taken away from her.
Rudd showed a keen interest in music growing up in a family of seven children. While in primary school, Rudd used his mother's vacuum cleaner as a makeshift didgeridoo and began playing his brother's guitar. He also played saxophone and clarinet as a child.
As a child, Rudd sold recycled wood through his own furniture business. Immediately after finishing school, Rudd travelled to Fiji. He lived in villages around the country for nine months, returning to Australia at age 19. His music first took him overseas when he traveled to Whistler, British Columbia—Rudd was in a band and would play each night after a day of snowboarding.
Rudd was in Canada when the September 11 attacks happened. Rudd felt "spun out" watching the American media coverage, including graphic imagery of the destruction of the World Trade Center. Rudd wrote the song 12 September, which would feature on his first studio album To Let, about the day after the attacks. In 2006, discussing the song, Rudd said: