ASH GRUNWALD

Ash Grunwald has made a name for himself over the last ten years as a funky blues man, doing his own thing and quietly producing some of Australia’s best music.

His choice to work with Andy Strachan and Scott Owen of The Living End was equally laid back and proved just as popular.

“I’ve been friends with Scotty for ages and on a whim I asked if he wanted to come down [to Melbourne]. We ended up playing near Andy so we invited him to come for a jam,” explains Grunwald.

“The next day we played at St Kilda Fest, that went really well and we still hadn’t done a rehearsal. It was natural and fun – really cool.”

One runaway jam session turned into an album of rock-infused blues. There are a couple of original tracks, a direct result of the fresh collaboration but the rest are reworkings of Grunwald’s more “up” tracks.

“I’ve rerecorded them with that rock treatment that only these two can do,” Grunwald explains.

“It’s been fun to play heavy and go for some big wailing guitar solos which I haven’t done for a long time – I’ve indulged.”

Indulgent or not, this one-off will reinvigorate a genre that is sometimes underappreciated, “It seems when the word ‘blues’ is used they imagine it’s too sad and moaning,” says Grunwald. “It’s not like that as a genre.” (LL)

Jun 21, The Metro Theatre, 624 George St, Sydney, $30, metrotheatre.com.au