Stoney Creek

Xavier Rudd

Stripping back the noise and chaos of society, nature remains as the one true source of existence

Why I wrote this song

It hit me last year when I started to write Stoney Creek. I had been in the scrub for months on a trip to the Cape with my wife and two dogs at a time many parts of the world had completely shut down. We’d planned to take the tinnie out to camp on an island for a few days, but the south-easterly wind had picked up and was blowing too hard… so we just stopped and chilled out of the wind.

It was there under the malaleuca trees that I wrote “Stoney Creek” as I contemplated life and what was happening in the world. It felt like a wind of change, literally, in so many ways. Times had changed for everyone, and that had brought us back to what was really important – family, friends, community and our connection to nature. I had been hearing of so many stories about how the forced lockdowns across the world had allowed space for many of the environment’s natural ecosystems to spring back to life and recover from relentless human traffic. I had been thinking a lot about that at the time I wrote the track. Without nature, without our natural resources, how do we survive?

About me as an artist

Xavier Rudd is a barefoot multi-instrumentalist who has captured hearts in every corner of the globe. Looking back over his stunning career, one could easily ask what is possibly left to achieve. Already one of Australian music’s all-time greats, he has earned accolades of every kind, Gold and Platinum certification, multiple ARIA nominations and legions of fans who love him with an inextinguishable passion.

Rudd’s activism in regards to equality and the conservation and preservation of the environment is well documented. He has been associated with countless organisations and events in Australia over the years including Sea Shepherd, Clean Up Arnhem Land and Save the Kimberley. He performed at the Bentley Blockade in NSW in support of the Rock the Gate Alliance in a successful bid to cease coal seam gas mining in the region. His activism efforts also extend globally; he has worked alongside volunteers with Surf for Life and Waves of Hope to build a high school in northern Nicaragua, aided in beach clean ups around the world and raised funds in Bali for Project Clean Ulawatu that successfully diverted grey water and sewage from the ocean to garden irrigation. He has supported Indigenous land rights at events such as the Black Hills Unity concert in Dakota, and has helped raise awareness at rallies against gas pipelines across North America. And the list goes on …

About the music video

I love this video. It was my wife’s idea – she had been following the skater featured in the video (Valeriya Gogunskaya) on Instagram for some time and suggested I reach out to her for the project.

It turns out Val was a fan of my music, and so was the videographer (Axel Massin), so they were stoked to be a part of it and we went on to create something very special that was designed to embody the joy of individual freedom, and freedom in nature. The video was filmed along the beautiful coastline of Portgual where Val and Axel were living.

We were all so confused about what was happening in the world at that time – this video was created to inspire the feeling of letting go and just flowing with the wind, getting out on your own in nature and leaving the cities and the chaos far behind.