Interview: The Ruby Suns

As The Ruby Suns, Ryan McPhun indulges in bending sounds; whether it be the sound of crunching leaves beneath scurrying feet or the more hifi sounds of soundcard to keyboard.

Though since sophomore ‘Sea Lion’ the New Zealand native focuses less on the organic and more on the electronic with 2010 release ‘Fight Softly’. The self-confessing pop enthusiast relishes in the sound that, as an adult, he ‘began to appreciate on a different level’. In ‘Fight Softly’ some-what simple lyrics are surrounded by ambient synthesizers and drum machines resulting in abstract shifts and moods. Yet for someone who so readily embraces the unorthodox approach McPhun is surprisingly concerned about its transition in to the live sphere.

Jasmine Phull talks to the creator of The Ruby Suns about rotating band members, and confronting listeners the world over.

You moved back to New Zealand prior to starting up The Ruby Suns. Does that mean the location had an inspiration on the band?

When I moved back to New Zealand I joined a couple of bands and was surrounded by a big group of people. So I was certainly influenced by what they were listening to.

So before returning to New Zealand did you have the concept of The Ruby Suns already in mind?

No, it only started happening when I was playing in other bands there. I kind of got used to performing and getting involved in the recording process and stuff like that.

And exploring sound?

Yea. I had always wrote songs but I have never thought about having my own band. I don’t think I was ever at a stage where I was ready to do it on my own, but playing in other bands...

..steered you in the right direction?

Yea.

Live it seems Ruby Suns is a trio, whereas the album Fight Softly is just you?

Yea. The band has been different with every tour and that’s purely because it’s not an extremely sustainable situation for people to just drop what they are doing and come on tour. So when we come back from tour people have to find a job and kind of start again. It’s like people really only have one chance to go away for a really long time.

So how do you go about finding people to join the band? Do you go on Gumtree?

I don’t think we even have Gumtree in NZ. It’s usually just friends of friends.

With your last album Sea Lion you integrated dictaphone recordings into the tracks. In Fight Softly do you sample everyday objects as well?

I guess with Sea Lion I was wanting to do a lot more organic sounds; whether they would be dictaphone sounds or just recordings of interesting things. For Fight Softly I think I was trying to get more of an electronic feel…

Less lo-fi?

Definitely less lo-fi. I was trying to add a little more clarity to the recordings. The sources are a lot more digital; the keyboard has been plugged into the soundcard and then enhanced on the computer. Definitely a different approach.

Which comes first, the music or the lyrics?

Always the music.

And then do you listen to the music in order to write the lyrics or are they two separate entities?

Over time I’ll get a lyrical idea and write it down; it’ll have nothing to do with music. Sometimes when I’ve written the music for a song I might look through my diary and see if there are any lyrics that fit the song. Or if I can adapt words to...

...compliment the music?

Yea that happens quite a lot.

And the first album you ever listened to?

Well me and my sister both got tape-players when we were eight. She got Dangerous by Michael Jackson and I got Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club by the Beatles.

Did they have an impact on your musical endeavours?

Yea I think so. In the last few years I’ve really gotten into Pop music and appreciated it on another level.

Is the sound of your live show different to listening to the album?

There are definite similarities but some of the sounds can’t be recreated with an instrument so we use samplers to bring in some of the sounds. All of the songs are updated; through playing them so many times we’ve kind of figured out what works best. But all the important bits from the record are there and we just try and make them better.

I guess you wanna make it as high energy as possible?

Yea. We’ve just tried to make it as fun as possible for us too. We’re still trying to have kind of weird songs but at the same time get the audience going.

It must be quite difficult to make that transition with the more experimental music?

In the past I hadn’t thought about that while making the albums. It was more about interesting sounds but this year I’ve gotten interested in what works best in a live situation, objectively. Sometimes things don’t come across as well live as they do on the album. Especially since there are a lot of shifts in mood and rhythm and I think that’s actually quite jarring to see live and it can confuse people. Personally I like that, but it only gets you so far.

Interview by: Jasmine Phull

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