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Sam Margin is recovering from Splendour in the Grass when I get him on the phone. Like most of the music industry and music fans involved in the hectic music festival bender down at Byron Bay a few weekends ago, the post-Splendour haze hit hard. For The Rubens, the festival was a great way to step back on to their Australian tour circuit in style, having been off the road lately working on their sophomore album Hoops.
The album, due for release this Friday, is a long-awaited one for fans of the band, following on from their impressive self-titled debut back in 2012. Introducing them as a band harnessing some great blues and soul infused guitar rock tunes, The Rubens had the band on the road consistently for the few years that followed until it came time to step back a little and begin work on the next addition to their catalogue of work.
"I think we've developed a lot as artists in the last three years," Margin says. "A hell of a lot. We were pretty amateur and I think we've become more skilled at our instruments and we've listened to a lot more music and we've seen more live music than we ever thought we would, by touring with bands. We've seen the standard and I guess we've become a little more creative and a bit more mature in our songwriting. We'd never been in between records before, so it was all new to us, the idea of having an expectation for a record and having to create something from nothing. That expectation before you'd even started writing the songs."
Describing the recording process of Hoops, that took the band to many different areas of Australia and then overseas to the US, the vocalist/guitarist notes a slight change in the band's dynamic and how they approached infusing new influences into their material.
"We noticed that songs we were writing were naturally more rhythmic and more punchy." he says. "We'd always talked about how we loved hip-hop groove stuff and we'd work on those grooves more and more and make them a bit more complex this time. Naturally, the first few songs we wrote, we jammed them out and we were like, 'Maybe we should be focusing our energy on more upbeat and more rhymthic songs' or at least keeping it in the back of our minds and seeing what we came up with. It wasn't like, 'This needs to be this tempo' or 'This needs to be good live', but it was like, 'Let's just have that feeling in the back of our heads'. We came up with certain moments on the record that we thought would be really fun live. It was an interesting experience, the whole thing was pretty mental."
"We went through a lot of changes of scenery," Margin adds. "We rented a house for five months on the beach and worked there for a while, we worked in Melbourne and Sydney, did pre-production in Byron and then recorded in New York. I think one thing I realised is that to me, it's really, really important to change that scenery up. I get stir crazy and I feel stagnant when I try to create something out of nothing in your bedroom or in your office or study. I feel like every time I change scenery, I'll go down to my girlfriend's holiday house or anywhere, I would just be thinking of anywhere I could I go. I just wanted to get out. You're always thinking, 'When I get to this next place, the creativity's just going to hit me and I'm going to be inspired,' and sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't, but that was the way I kept myself sane. It worked."
Moving into the live sphere, The Rubens' new material is seemingly to be more and more tailormade for the great live music atmospheres they've become known for generating time and time again. The band's last Australian tour was testament to how much they'd grown in popularity and significance, with the 'Never Be The Same Tour' selling out multiple dates in cities around the country, including three dates at The Forum in Melbourne and two shows at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney. The anticipation for their forthcoming tour through September and October is one that has been building for The Rubens for some time now, as Sam enthusiastically comments on their upcoming shows with Saskwatch and Winterbourne.
"I don't know about the fans, but we're pretty keen to be on the road again." he says. "You go a bit crazy, writing a record. I guess you go a bit crazy touring and vice versa, but we're all really excited to tour. I can't wait, I'm so pumped. We picked and chose the kind of shows we did over the last two years, so we only did the bigger shows that we got offered so we could write, I'm missing the Darwin [shows] and the weird little country shows that we get to do."
"The energy is just really different at those kinds of shows, it's way more personal. In places like the Northern Territory, it's mental. In places like the Northern Territory and Bunbury, everyone just goes wild and it's great. It's fun going through all these different country towns and we're doing places we've never been before as well; it's fun just waiting to see on the day we turn up in the van where you're getting to play that night. Turning up at the pub or at the local hall or whatever and just playing it be ear. It's a bit of an adventure, it's really fun."
On their tour mates for the album tour, Margin describes how well he envisions The Rubens fitting alongside Saskwatch and Winterbourne, two bands who bring some incredible and different elements of live performance to the table. As music fans, we all want to get something different out of the live experience and when you've got a line up of artists who are all remarkably different in their own right, yet can share threads of familiarity, it's a great quality to notice.
"With Winterbourne," he says. "They came to our attention and I think they were friends of a friend; we were like, 'They're perfect for the opening spot'. They're on their way up and people are really starting to get to know who they are. I haven't really heard much of their music yet or seen them live yet, but that's just how it goes when you're picking support acts, you don't get to see them all. They're really nice, though."
"Saskwatch are obviously a really rhythmic and vibrant band," Margin notes. "They're a smaller band now, they don't have the horns anymore. I suppose it's more of a rock show now. We got them because we've known them for a while and their performances are great, scarily great. They're also really close friends of ours. We've gotten to know them over the last few years, we all have similar friendship groups and we thought the vibe on tour is so important. If you go with some band because they sell a million tickets for you, but you don't know them, it's pointless. You've got to spend a lot of time with these people. I think we've gotten the balance perfect there."
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Hoops by The Rubens is out through Ive League Records on Friday, August 7th.
Catch the band on the road through September and October!
September 16th - Prince of Wales, Bunbury | 18+
www.oztix.com.au
September 17th - Settlers Tavern, Margaret River | 18+
www.oztix.com.au
* Winterbourne not appearing
September 18th - Astor Theatre, Perth | 18+
www.stagetix.com.au
September 19th - Red Earth Festival, Karratha | 18+
www.reaf.com.au
* Saskwatch and Winterbourne not appearing
September 25th - Club 54, Launceston | 18+
www.oztix.com.au
September 26th - Uni Bar, Hobart | 18+
www.moshtix.com.au
October 2nd - ANU Bar, Canberra | 18+
www.ticketek.com.au
October 3rd - Yours & Owls Music and Arts Festival, Wollongong | 18+
www.yoursandowls.com.au
* Winterbourne not appearing
October 8th - HQ, Adelaide | 18+
www.oztix.com.au | www.moshtix.com.au
October 9th - The Forum, Melbourne | 18+
www.ticketmaster.com.au
October 10th - Westerport Hotel, San Remo | 18+
www.oztix.com.au
October 11th - Lorne Hotel (Beer Garden), Lorne | 18+
www.oztix.com.au
October 16th - Tanks Art Centre, Cairns | 18+
www.ticketlink.com.au
* Saskwatch and Winterbourne not appearing
October 23rd - Max Watt's, Brisbane | 18+
www.oztix.com.au | www.maxwatts.com.au
October 24th - Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast | 18+
www.oztix.com.au
October 29th - Panthers, Port Macquarie | 18+
www.oztix.com.au
October 30th - Entrance Leagues Club, Central Coast | 18+
www.oztix.com.au
* Saskwatch not appearing
October 31st - Enmore Theatre, Sydney | All Ages
www.ticketek.com.au
November 6th - Bar on the Hill, Newcastle | 18+
www.oztix.com.au
November 7th - C.ex Club, Coffs Harbour | 18+
www.oztix.com.au
November 13th - Discovery Nightclub, Darwin | 18+
www.oztix.com.au
* Saskwatch and Winterbourne not appearing
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