Ash Grunwald - Funk, soul brother.

Ash Grunwald is not really a people person. I mean, he doesn’t dislike you specifically, he doesn’t detest the site of human beings opting instead to haul himself up in some hole in the side of a mountain. He just doesn’t really like working with them.

Despite his growing popularity thanks to constant touring, massive Falls Festival support and a new album in the wings, Grunwald still prefers to work solo. No producers, rarely another musician in sight. Just him, a few pots and pans and his soundie.

Naked Dwarf spoke to Grunwald as he was putting the final touches on his latest album. The new LP is an amalgam of everything you’ve come to love about Ash Grunwald, with a twist. His feet are still firmly planted in the roots garden and he’s still experiment with making music out of anything he can get his hands on, but now he’s bringing his love of electronic music out into the open.

“I like the feel and pulse of electronic music but I also like really organic sounding things as well so I sampled my self stomping in the stairwell at home and then we mixed that with that sound of a kick,” he says.

Grunwald says this album has a much more rounded sound than the last, with less of a “solo guy playing junk yard percussion” sound.

“I guess what influenced me to do that [electronic music infuence] was that’s the direction my live show has gone in,” he says, “over the years I ended up playing dance music because everyone I was playing too felt like dancing. Here I am thinking of myself as a blues payer but really I’m more of a DJ, playing with the dynamics of the groove and reacting the crowd.”

This move into the groove has now landed him a support slot for the kind of soul, James Brown.

Promoter, Matt says he chose Ash Grunwald just to try something completely different.

“We could have gone with a band that were more suited, supposedly, like a big funk band with lots a big production, but in the end Ash just seemed like a better choice,” Matt says.

Grunwald isn’t daunted by his task, and despite not having a band to back him up, he doesn’t see any need to change his style for his new audience and he’s confident that the crowd will warm to his music.

“I find when I’m playing solo I draw a lot more energy from the crowd… I feel so much more in touch with the crowd if it’s just me and them. Every show is different…no set unit or group of people on the stage,” he says.

For the rest of the year, Grunwald is busy on the road, taking his one man act to Belgium, Holland and Germany in April. But he says, it’s not something he lives for.

“I could play in Australia for the rest of my life and be happy.”

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