A Discussion with Ruby Red: Superbloom and the Creation of "Area of Affect"
Ever wonder what it would look like if you made music with that childhood best friend? The one who you would make up dance moves in your room with. Well Ruby Red creates a sound that is unmatched because it's something they've been crafting since kids. With a fan base that shines rubies their way, they're here to chat about new music and exactly how they got such an amazing sound.
Our conversation started a little bit like this:
(Nia Rice): How do you feel you have grown since mastering your craft since childhood?
(Ruby Red): Whoa starting off existential. We both started out playing guitar, and to be honest I'm not sure either of us has gotten any better. We also played in a middle school band for a while but didn’t take a stab at writing music together until quite a bit further down the road. I would say we’re a long way away from “mastering our craft,” but going through so many musical phases has definitely allowed us to think outside of the genre we are working in.
(NR): “Superbloom” lyrically embellishes the beat! Talk about creating the song and visuals for the track.
(RR): Superbloom was one of the more complicated songs we put together. It started with us wanting to replicate the feeling of a Brazilian funk song and fragmented a few times before the final product came about. The first version we had was good, it just didn’t have that original feeling we were trying to emulate, so we took the pieces we liked and started again. The song itself goes through peaks and valleys, lyrically and instrumentally building up to this realization that your secrets may not be as secret as you think. It’s also just fun to chant “I knoowww” lol
(NR): Let’s talk: “Area of Effect”. What creation process are you all taking? What can we look forward to?
(RR): Our process is still something we’re trying to figure out ourselves, honestly. But we’re both big consumers of music, so we'll often pull a bunch of references and go from there. For “Area of Affect,” we spent a lot of time (maybe too long) going back and forth with each other to make sure that we were happy with everything.
I think we can all look forward to music that involves a bit more feeling and a lot less thinking. Same introspective lyrics, but without forcing it as much.
(NR): Who are a few artists and/or producers that you all would like to collaborate with?
(RR): As far as producers go, it would be absolutely crazy to work with Ian Kirkpatrick. If he ever gets tired of making hits with Dua Lipa, our door is always open.
To have a song with Toro y Moi, Young Thug, or Kevin Parker would be a dream come true. Rosie Lowe, Khruangbin, Ruben Neilson, Jai Paul. The list goes on...
(NR): With the protesting for equality and COVID-19, how have you all been staying creative?
(RR): It’s very hard to stay creative and productive living through all of this. Now just doesn’t feel like the time to be making music––it’s the time to speak and act against racial injustice. And then you add a global pandemic on top of that… we understand that people might have other things on their minds than our EP.
We’re trying to give ourselves space to reflect and do our part, which might not mean being creative. All that being said, Black Lives Matter, defund the police and fuck racism. In case that wasn’t clear.
(NR): What can we look forward to from Ruby Red in the future?
(RR): More music, for sure. That includes some collaborations that’ll stretch people’s ideas of what Ruby Red sounds like. They kinda make us question what Ruby Red sounds like.
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