The Chris Robinson Brotherhood

“All the metal bands 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?” Robinson quips. He and the band will play two sets at Bluesfest, plus two more shows of their own in Melbourne and Sydney. He seems just a little surprised that this Australian tour has come about in a relatively short time after their inception in 2011 – despite the fact the Brotherhood have already released three studio albums.

“We’re super excited,” he says. “I don’t think that, when we were driving around in the van in California, thinking if this band was going to work, that [we knew] we would be coming to play Byron Bay Blues Festival, or playing our own shows and stuff. 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, and what we’re doing, and how we’re trying to do it, allows me the benefit of where it all can sort of collide.”

It was his love of playing music that inspired Robinson to start his new project, and put his own name to it, after The Black Crowes called it a day – or at least announced they were going on indefinite hiatus – in 2013.

“The Black Crowes were starting to become something else, and that’s fine too; that’s an organic thing as well. For me, as I’m getting older – I’m 48, so I’m getting close to 50 and stuff – it’s funny; I’m more interested in music now than I’ve ever been. Which is pretty hardcore!”

In a live sense at least, Robinson makes it very clear that the new band is a very different beast to his former act, which was all bluesy raunch, crunchy guitars and slamming drums. The Brotherhood will have something else to offer onstage, but one thing that remains is his crooning yet powerful voice.

“The Black Crowes were a loud, blues-based performance/energy thing. Our energy, it’s a high energy but a different kind of high energy, if you will. 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 image and your lyric, that becomes something else as well.

“When we set up our instruments, we want to create something that we feel is beautiful and fun and dynamic. And expressive. And if you can do all that and still call it rock’n’roll, that’s like the best thing you’ll ever have.”

With The Black Crowes very much on the backburner, it seems The Chris Robinson Brotherhood are very much the frontman’s primary focus for the foreseeable future. And he concurs.

“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.”