Butler on his hat obsession, finding himself and politics

It’s one of the sunniest days in London this year and John Butler is traipsing around the markets in Camden. He’s just bought a nose ring and he’s on the prowl for a hat, or two. ”I’m always looking for a good hat,” he says. “I have a hat obsession, so I buy a lot of hats and don’t wear any of them. I think I like the idea of hats, more than I like them on me.” It turns out that John didn’t just fly to England to buy a some jewelry and a hat he’ll never wear. Australian Times journalist Vivienne Hill caught up with Mr Butler, one of Australia’s most influential artists to find out about his new trio, album and upcoming UK tour.

There have been a lot of changes in John’s life in the last few years. It was the culmination of these events lead to his new album, April Uprising. “Having to look back on the last few years I went through a big metamorphoses, I had my son, cut my hair and then went on a huge ancestral search. Those three things are quite empowering in a spiritual way,” he said. The search took John to Bulgaria where he learnt about his family roots. “I think we have all heard that if you know where you come from it’s a sense of rights, and a sense of foundation that you get from it. Being in the exact places where my ancestors stood was just amazing.” On his travels through Bulgaria John learnt how his grandfather fought in the famous April Uprising battle in the 1800s. “I was born 100 years after that uprising; it was a great metaphor for everything that encompassed the last three years.”
John believes the album is more ambitious and focused than anything he has done before. “We created this strong, powerful, song driven album. In terms of my songwriting, I wanted to create more with fewer words,” he said. “There are different songwriters around who can boil down a five hour conversation into a phrase. The power and the art of that is amazing. I am very much inspired by that.”

April Uprising packs a punch in terms of revolutionary lyrics. “There is some crazy stuff that is going on in the world at the moment but there is actually a revolution happening as we speak. Rather than people thinking its going come one day and everything is going to change, I believe it’s kind of underway. Change is totally happening.”

With looming elections in both Australia and the UK John believes people need to make politicians accountable now more than ever. “The most important thing that people need to consider when voting is that the politicians are their employees. Sometimes people want to make the politicians their leaders and the public should be the politician’s leaders,” he said. “If you want your politicians to be accountable you have to knock on their front doors a few times.”

Soon to be knocking on London’s door with his new trio, John is excited to tour the UK once more. “My home is Australia and I love it deeply but when I go overseas I see all these places and the best part about it is meeting different brothers from other mothers and different sisters from other misters. And just catching up with the fans and being able to play music and travel is just an extreme honor,” he said. John believes that fans differ from country to country. “In Japan they are very quiet during the song and then very loud in the pause. French love clapping on every beat, Germans they stomp their feet in a uniformed way. It’s scary. They are all very similar too though. As human beings we have different colours different nationalities but we can all shake our ass.”