“All the metal and dark bands say that the end should be all dark and destructive, but can’t we all just groove our way into the inevitable sun?” he quips.
The band are set to play two sets at Byron Bay Bluesfest, plus two more shows of their own in Melbourne and Sydney. Robinson seems a little surprised this Australian tour has come about in such a relatively short timeframe after the band’s inception.
“When we were driving around in the van in California thinking of whether this band was going to work, I didn’t think that we would be coming to play Byron Bay Blues Festival or playing our own shows [in Australia]. I’m just one of those people who is weird enough that I still really enjoy the adventure, and I still really enjoy playing music. This band, what we’re doing and how we’re trying to do it, allows me the benefit of where it all can collide.”
It was Robinson’s love of playing music that inspired him to start this new band and put his own name to it after The Black Crowes announced they were going on an indefinite hiatus.
“The Black Crowes were starting to become something else,” he admits, “and that was an organic thing. For me as I’m getting older, I’m more interested in music now than I’ve ever been. Which is pretty hardcore.
“I’ve always been obsessive,” he goes on. “Making music is my avenue for expression and being a part of something that’s awake instead of in a trance. To be able to say, ‘We can still do this,’ in an age where it seems like there’s no rock’n’roll, it just can’t be true.”
Aside from a few brief sojourns into Canada, Robinson reveals this will be his new band’s first ever tour outside the States. While he struggles to remember exactly how many times he has toured Down Under, he certainly has some standout memories of previous trips here.
“I remember getting so horribly stoned in Brisbane,” he laughs. “Somebody gave me something called ‘Mullumbimby Madness.’ At the time I thought it was really beautiful, but then the balcony started melting off the hotel. I was horribly fried.”
In a live sense, Robinson makes it clear the new band is a very different beast to The Black Crowes, which was bluesy raunch, crunchy guitars and slamming drums. He also says The Brotherhood live will be a very different experience, but one thing that remains will be his crooning and powerful vocals.
“The Black Crowes were a loud, blues-based performance energy. Our energy is a high energy but a different kind of high energy. Our ceiling is the vocals. I think when the vocals are placed where they are, the significance of them in this band, and how they interplay in our expression, then your images and your lyrics becomes something else as well.
“When we set up our instruments, we want to create something that we feel is beautiful, fun, dynamic and expressive,” he continues. “If you can do all that and still call it rock’n’roll, that’s the best thing you’ll ever have.”
With The Black Crowes on the backburner for now, and with three studio albums and several tours already under their collective belt, it seems that The Chris Robinson Brotherhood is very much Robinson’s primary focus for the foreseeable future.
“The Black Crowes were a sweet vintage,” he says, “but it’s a band that has been bottled, corked, consumed and is now just a memory. But what a fine vintage it was.”
The man himself is a fine vintage, and he’s facing turning 50 with what can only be described as glee. “We live in a fear driven, anxiety filled world, but for me every day is a joy. I live in a bizarre cocoon of the vibrations of music, rhythm, harmonics, surrounded by love with my family, my children and my friends. I suggest everyone just get a big spoonful.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
