The Way Home

He’s 20 Years Into His Career And Australia’s Biggest Independent Artist, But That Doesn’t Mean John Butler Is Afraid To Step Into The Unknown As A Musician. He Guides Us On His Inspiring Journey To New Album, Home, Via India, Ipad Demos And Stargazing.

- Rob Laing

Even for an artist whose willingness to explore genres transcended the description of ‘roots’ musician long ago, Home marked a dramatic change in the studio for John Butler – largely without his band. “It just wasn’t flowing the way I wanted it to flow,” he explains to us. “I found that around the second session I was way too sensitive to everything and the more people that were around, the more complicated it seemed to get. And not because of them, because of me. I just need to really simplify everything to get out this idea that I had.” As we’ll find out, technology played its part too. “A lot of my demos are pretty much how the album is, though recorded more sub par! So I really wanted to make sure all those ideas came out. I was feeling like I was asking people to play what I wanted them to, as opposed to a creative process. And I was aware of that and a little paranoid about it I guess. But I needed to make the music I needed to make, so the best way to do that was by myself with a producer. I would have done it by myself but I didn’t know how to work all the gear. So I needed to work with someone who I really trusted. I just needed to get everything that I had out. But a lot of it was how it was pre-produced on my iPad…”

APPLE SOURCE

How GarageBand on the iPad played a massive part in Home’s creation