Back in May, Canada’s Born Ruffians came over to the UK for a mini tour, with vague intentions of ‘breaking England’. Turns out they’re already well on their way. ‘The promoter had to turn people away on the door so we’re thinking that next time we come we can play somewhere like Scala or a bigger show’ says vocalist and guitarist Luke LaLonde on the three piece’s recent London shows. While the band are beginning to notice the following they have over here after two full length albums, they’re not getting ahead of themselves, ‘When you start to think about it, it is pretty cool that we even have 100 people to play to.’
Despite being around for a few years now, and achieving the questionable pseudo-acclaim that’s customary for any band that’s been featured on Skins or an advert for Orange, the band still have the refreshingly modest attitude of a group that’s just started out. However they’re now more than comfortable in the studio. ‘It’s a little different for us because we had albums before ‘Red, Yellow and Blue’ that were kind of like secret records but they more just ones we just made as high school students for fun, so we ended up having a writing period for the first album which was a lot like writing a third or second record.’ New album, Say It, was written in a similar way; ‘It felt really relaxed and chilled out, we wrote when we wanted to and we only worked on stuff when we really felt inspired’. This relaxed approach to writing has complemented the sound already established by Red, Yellow and Blue, as well as LaLonde’s ability to fluctuate between soft verses angsty choruses, giving Say It an equally varied texture. The timid frontman references Talking Heads as a lifelong influence, and solo McCartney material for the second album, while Mitch, the more extroverted bassist takes influence from elsewhere.
‘Personally I’m influenced more when I go and see a band, than just listening to a band on record. Sometimes if we see a band and think, “Ahh we can’t do that, we’re not even that good!” it makes us want to do better things with our live shows and our music.’ Live performances seem to have been more of an issue for the Canadians than the album itself. With few opportunities to play the new songs before release, they’re having to work out setlists as the go along. ‘We’re starting to figure out what songs are the live songs. Once you get out in front of a crowd you realise some songs sound great live. There’s one song which I thought would be awesome live but the more we try it, the more it’s like…maybe not.’ For their showcase at Basement as part of Great Escape Festival in Brighton, the set was made up mostly of old songs, but the few new songs that get airtime hold their own amongst the old favourites.
If you missed the select few London shows in May and the Brighton showcase, you might have to wait a little while to catch the new songs live. With the album being released in June, they’re a bit late to get themselves on festival line-ups and they’ve got a fairly busy summer touring the US and Canada as it is. At the moment there’s no clear plan for touring the UK, just a ‘plan to make a plan’ for a return in the autumn. When offered hypothetical fantasy festival line-ups or collaborations -rather than bringing Hendrix back to life or reuniting The Beatles in their minds- they’d rather just invite all of their friends along and see what happens. Though they may still retain some of the humble ideals they had as band in high school, they don’t lack ambition. ‘It’d be nice to try just sending a song to friends and see if they have a guitar part for it. We’d like to push our music a bit, push our boundaries and our comfort zones and hopefully the next record will be something a little more, a little different. That’s what I’m excited about.’ They’re already making music that’s different to anyone else’s without the pretentiousness of many bands. If they want to push it further, things can only get better for Born Ruffians, wherever they choose to go.
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