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One of Australia’s foremost rock acts, The Rubens, have just been announced for new Sydney boutique festival Lost Picnic. We had a chat to keyboardist Elliott Margin about Lost Picnic, their upcoming sophomore record, and so much more!
2013 was a pretty great year for the Rubens, hey – plenty of touring and festival appearances, plus your record went platinum and so much more – what were your highlights of the year?
Ooh, I don’t know! Playing Splendour was really big. We played in 2012 but we played at like 1 o’clock or midday or something, so we weren’t high on the bill, but this time we were a little bit higher, it was pretty cool. And we actually got to move up a bit ‘cause you know Frank Ocean didn’t turn up so we got put up a bit higher than we thought. It was an awesome crowd and everything. I think that show was really fun.
And most recently you played Falls over New Years, how did that go?
Oh, it was really good, really good! We’d never been to Falls. It’s good to be on a tour, like a festival tour – we did Laneway at the start of the year and it was really fun because you get to know the bands that you’re travelling with, and see all their live shows, and you get to see them every day kind of thing. And with Falls, we hadn’t done our last festival like that so it was good to do Falls where you get to see all the bands a lot. We didn’t see every band obviously, you only really get to see the bands that you’re on the same day as.
Did you have any highlights that you saw?
We saw The Roots at Southbound, and they were awesome, they were crazy. Who else did we see… Johnny Marr was really good. Yeah… right now I can’t really remember, so probably just The Roots.
I saw you guys at Falls Byron, it was a great set and you played a couple of newies – when can we expect a new record from you guys?
Well we’re working on it now, we’re at the writing stage. We’re hoping – well the plan is to get it out by the end of this year, maybe September, around then. But yeah, it’s all up in the air, everything has to go right for it to come out then. So we’ve just got to work really hard and make sure we can do it.
What can we expect from this new record, compared to your debut?
I think overall we’re better songwriters now. When we made the first record we’d only been a band for a year I think and we didn’t have a lot of songwriting experience by ourselves or together as a band. So now that we’ve toured a lot, we’re a lot tighter and we’ve found out more about ourselves as a band – we’re getting better at the whole writing process and we know how to get the best out of ourselves.
The songs that we’re coming up with at the moment I’m really excited about, because they’re more – I don’t know how to describe it – they’re more… bad-ass, maybe? Which is fun, ‘cause on the first record there were a lot of slower songs. But what we’re coming up with at the moment is yeah, a lot more bad-ass, that’s the way I’d describe it.
What’s the band’s songwriting process; how do your tracks come together?
We’ve all got recording programs on our laptops, and if we have an idea we’ll go straight to the laptop and put it down there and then maybe program some drums and try to hash out as much of the song as we can on our own. Then we’ll bring it to the others and show it to them and see what they think and then work on it together to make it better, and then write it for real. That’s kind of the way we work – we’re not really a “jammy” band. When we do jam we tend to take it too far and we don’t sound like The Rubens anymore. You know, all of a sudden, Zaac (Margin, guitar) will jump on drums and then we’ll be playing Led Zeppelin, so we can’t really work like that. We work best alone and then bringing it together once the idea has been formed.
Does the whole sibling thing make it easier or more difficult, do you reckon?
I think it makes it easier. We’ve lived together for our whole lives, we know everything about each other and we respect each other a lot, so when someone says “I don’t like this idea” then you respect their opinion because you understand that they know what they’re talking about, they wouldn’t lie to you. So it’s kind of like “Alright, let’s work together then to make this idea good”.
What’s your musical background – how did it all start for you?
When I was in primary school I got piano lessons and I hated it, so I gave it up. And then I think in high school I came back to it ‘cause I got back into music and I wanted to play again. So I got lessons in high school for a bit but I could never read music or anything so I was still pretty terrible. It was pretty much just a hobby.
And then I think when I was in Year 12, Sam (Margin, vocals) and Zaac were living at home and were bored, so while I was at school they started to jam together – they’d never played together. So they jammed together and when I got home they were like “Do you want to jam with us?” and I was like “Cool!” and then all of a sudden we’d started a band! It kind of just happened like that, it was never… I don’t think any of us ever thought it would be a career, it was just fun, something fun to do.
So if music hadn’t worked out, where do you reckon you would’ve headed career-wise?
Personally, I always did performance and stuff at school – like drama and stuff – so I was planning on studying that. But you know, I’m more than happy to be doing music! (laughs)
Yeah, definitely! The Rubens’ sound clearly has roots in classic rock and roll – tell me about some of your main musical influences, as a band and personally.
Oooh, that’s hard. Well, me and Zaac, we’re big ‘Stones fans, they’re a massive influence. There’s a lot of stuff – I mean when we were younger we listened to whatever Mum and Dad had on the car, Fleetwood Mac , Van Morrison, R.E.M., Tracy Chapman. I think all that influenced us in a way that we’re not really aware of, we don’t sit down and think what are our influences and think right back, but obviously it sets you up for what kind of music you’re going to listen to later on.
Now we like a lot of different stuff; at the moment, we really like Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Tame Impala are always awesome, Pond are awesome with their live shows and stuff… But obviously we don’t really sound like any of those bands. You kind of get inspiration from whoever’s making awesome music, like “Fuck, that’s sick. Let’s go write some music of our own” kind of thing.
For sure. And you’re playing with Bruce Springsteen come February, which is awesome! How did that come about?
We played with him last year on his last tour, we played two shows down at Hanging Rock, and it was awesome. And then we just got an email saying he was coming back, and do we want to support him again, and we were like “of course we do!” – so I don’t know, it just sort of happened like that. I think ‘cause we know (Michael) Gudinski and I think Springsteen’s touring through Frontier, so we have a lucky connection there.
We still haven’t met him though, so hopefully this time we can say hi, I don’t know. I think he’s a pretty secretive guy.
Oh yeah, probably, yeah. But that should be so good! And you’ve got the brand new Lost Picnic festival in Sydney coming up, which sounds amazing – what about it are you most looking forward to?
Oh, I think just ‘cause it’s kind of local for us, I think it’s gonna be fun. There’s not a lot of travel for us, we can come in and have a good time and relax and play some music close to home. Not a lot of catching two planes and getting tired and all that kind of stuff – we can just rock straight up to it and have a good time and enjoy the crowd. I’ve never even – is it a new thing? I’ve never heard of it.
Yeah, it’s brand new, this’ll be it’s first year.
Oh, okay. Yeah, so that’s cool! I guess we can be the people that get the first vibe of what it’s going to be. It should be fun!
So you’ve been playing live non-stop for a while now, and you’re a band renowned for having a great stage presence and always putting on a rad show. How do you feel like your live performances have changed and developed over the last few years, since you released your debut?
I think we’ve gotten tighter as a band, we understand how to work our live show better – how to give a show peaks and troughs set-wise and bringing songs up and down.
And I think overall, we’ve just gotten more confident being onstage. At first it was all a bit scary and we were all a bit shaky. It was a bit weird, standing up there with your brother or your brothers, and your good friends and all of a sudden you’re a band and there’s people screaming at you and it just doesn’t feel right as such. So we got into it and I think we’ve gotten a lot better. Everyone feels a lot more comfortable on stage and there’s not a lot of nerves anymore. We kind of feel like this is our job, we’ll go out and do it as best we can, and put on a show for people, and it’s just enjoyable! We just have a lot of fun. We’re not going up there feeling scared or worried about anything, we just go up there wanting to have a good time and everyone else to have a good time.
Yeah, that’s definitely the key I reckon. And you’ve played a fair amount of festival and club shows – what do you find are the main differences for you guys between playing either of them?
With club shows you have a lot more control. I think with festivals you kind of get straight in there and you set up in twenty minutes and there’s barely a soundcheck and you’re thrust on but you’re expected to put on more of a show even though the odds are against you just because of how festivals are done. You don’t have a lot of time, there’s so much going on and you’re not the priority.
Whereas with a club show, it’s probably your show. You check in the afternoon, set everything up right so you’re feeling confident about it, and then you do it and it’s really intimate and fun. But then again, once you get a festival right, it’s just an awesome feeling. If there’s thousands of people and everything comes together properly then the energy is definitely different to a club show. So they’re really different, but there’s good things from both sides.
Does 2014 look like it’s going to be as hectic as last year for you guys? What’s coming up for after Springsteen, Secret Garden Festival and Lost Picnic?
It’s pretty much just getting this album done. It’s all up in the air at the moment. We’re renting a house down in Wollongong where we’re writing all the songs for the second album – when we’re not playing shows we’re down here writing every day and trying to get the best out of ourselves and set ourselves up for the second record. So that’s pretty much our year for us apart from the shows coming up. We’ll just be doing the record. Which is exciting and kind of scary.
Yeah, super exciting! And finally, with Triple J’s Hottest 100 coming up, which you guys have dominated in the past, what were some of your favourite tracks of 2013?
I didn’t even vote, I’m a terrible person!
Oh, noooo!
I know! I think I would have voted for… who’s that guy that does “White Lies”? Max Frost, yeah, I really like that song. I probably would have voted for that – I think it’s the stand out one just ‘cause it sounds like Outkast but it’s a white dude. It’s awesome.
Yeah, it’s a fusion kind of thing! It’s awesome, yeah.
Yeah, I really like that song. I think Arctic Monkeys killed it, I love their whole album, I’m blown away by it – the sound, and the songwriting, everything. It’s ridiculous. I think that’s kind of it, all I can think of off the top of my head!
Yeah, fair enough – rad! Thanks so much so much for chatting, Elliott – really looking forward to the next record! Have a good one.
No worries, awesome. You too, thanks!
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Lost Picnic will be taking place on March 22, with tickets starting at $89. The gourmet hampers feed 2-3 people and cost $69, available now! Head to http://www.lostpicnic.net/ for more information!
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