Born Ruffians' Day In The Sun Arrives
Wednesday March 19, 2008 @ 02:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

Born Ruffians

Toronto via Midland, Ont. band Born Ruffians recently released their first full-length record, exactly nine months after they finished most of its recording.

Most bands don't end up waiting such a long period between the time they record an album and the time it hits store shelves, but a series of snags pushed Red, Yellow And Blue back further than the Ruffians could have ever imagined. But after making tons of noise opening for the likes of Hot Chip, Caribou and Peter Bjorn & John in 2007, Born Ruffians are hoping 2008 will be all their own. Red, Yellow And Blue, produced by Animal Collective collaborator Rusty Santos, offers a powerful indie pop punch, complete with some of the most intricate and complex arrangements you'll ever hear from a trio of 21 year olds.

Frontman Luke Lalonde sat down at a cafe on Toronto's Queen Street West on a chilly January afternoon to discuss one of this year's best debuts. You can see their pile of Canadian tour dates below the interview.

ChartAttack: Was it tough sitting on the finished record for so long?
Luke Lalonde: It hasn't been as hard as with the EP. We recorded that in February 2006 and put that out in October, which was about eight months. But I remember getting really, really antsy and nervous, way more so than now, probably because it was our first release and I didn't know what to expect. I mean, this is our first album and I still don't know what to expect. And I listened to it last night. We each got a master copy and I couldn't find mine. I had to borrow it from Mitch [Desrosier, bass] and I listened to it for the first time in like months — probably five or six months — and it was really good! I forgot what it sounded like, the quality of it, how it was mixed, and I'm genuinely proud of it. The songs still feel fresh, I think, because we haven't written a lot of new material.

Are you surprised it took so long?
We recorded it in May with the intention of putting it out in the fall, like October or November. We did the whole thing in two weeks in Toronto at Chemical Sound, recorded it in one week and mixed the second week — pretty intense. Our EP was two days, so pretty intense. But having two weeks also felt pretty luxurious. But at the end of it, we weren't happy with some of the mixes. We had this big listen where everybody got in the room at the studio with Rusty, who produced it, and our manager. Our label rep came down to listen to it, and the general consensus was that the songs were there and the performances were there, but that some of the mixes weren't right. So Rusty went back to New York, where he lives, and I ended up flying down there for a week-and-a-half in July to finish mixing it. Everything just took so much more time than we thought. Actually, on that day when we finished recording it, I remember saying, "You know what? Putting this record out in October really isn't a concern of mine." Originally, I really wanted it. I was like, "I want this out in the fall, it has to be out in the fall, I don't want to wait again." And then I realized there's no point in rushing it and said we should push it back to early 2008, and everybody was for it.

How did you end up working with Rusty?

Our manager, Leila [Hebden], organized a tour with her brother [Kieran Hebden], who's Four Tet, five years ago, and Animal Collective were opening for him on that tour. Rusty was doing sound for them. He recorded Sung Tongs. Anyway, they stayed in touch and when it came time to do our album, we were talking with a few different producers and we weren't sure who to do it with. This one guy fell through, and then on Kieran's suggestion — we usually take his advice because he seems like a wise guy who knows what he's talking about — he said, "I think you should do it with Rusty. I think he'd do a really good job." So we had a meeting with him and it went well. He seemed like a really nice guy. So we said, "Let's do it." We love Animal Collective and we love how that record sounds, so…

Some of the songs on the LP, such as "Foxes Mate For Life," have incredibly complex arrangements — the kind of stuff you don't hear a lot in any music. How do you come up with your arrangements?
It's different every time. Some songs have the whole thing planned out, exactly what it sounds like in my head. And I'll bring it to Mitch and Steve [Hamelin, drums] and say, "Now learn this," and they'll make up their parts. Sometimes I'll say, "You should play this here," or something. I like how no-one has an ego, so Mitch will be like, "OK, yeah, I'll play it like that." "Red Elephant" was like that. "Foxes" was a demo I made with the intro sounding the same as how it is on the record. I did it with electronic drums and it had a hip-hop feel to it. We all liked it and wanted to try to recreate that sound with real drums. Steve made up a really fat beat. It's one of my favourite ones on the record. The verses and the core production come from me 95 per cent of the time, just because I'm the one who plays guitar. Sometimes a bridge will be based on a bass line Mitch wrote. It's always hard to remember because most of the time somebody will just say, "Let's try that," and then someone else goes, "Yeah, that works." And it goes from there. It's like brainstorming.

You have a pretty powerful singing voice. How did you come to discover it?
I sang in choirs when I was little — children's choirs. We used to sing at music festivals when I was aged six to 10. Then when I was 10, I quit the choir and quit the singing lessons and started playing guitar when I was 11. I stopped singing regularly. We started playing in a band when I was 15 or 16, and we were auditioning singers. I think I forgot that I'd sung, and I only sung on my own. I never really thought about it. But at the end of one practice, we were sitting around and everybody was packing up their stuff and I started playing "Rocky Raccoon" by The Beatles, and I sang it all the way through. I guess everybody listened to it and then Steve said, "Why are we auditioning singers? You're our singer. You're going to sing for us now." I just needed that — for somebody else to say I was good — approval or recognition. From then on, I didn't really have any trouble doing it.

When Born Ruffians weren't in the studio last year, you guys were pretty much constantly touring. Were you burnt out at all by the end of the year?
It was actually really good. We had a lot of time off before recording to write, so that was good. But we did a tour with Caribou in the fall that was really fun. It was the most fun I've had on tour. I kind of miss it. But now when we go out on tour, there's that potential that it can be really fun, because we're not a band who likes to party every night, and neither is Caribou. So we could go back to the hotel and hang out and watch TV and not get high and get drunk. I mean, we did get drunk sometimes, but we're all big homebodies. We had more fun eating at a good restaurant or hanging out. We're going back out with Cadence Weapon this time. He's a nice guy. I have high hopes.

Here are Born Ruffians' Canadian tour dates:

• March 25 Victoria, BC @ Lucky Bar
• March 26 Vancouver, BC @ Media Club
• March 28 Edmonton, AB @ Velvet Underground
• March 29 Calgary, AB @ Hi-Fi Club
• March 30 Saskatoon, SK @ Amigo's
• March 31 Winnipeg, MB @ West End Cultural Centre
• April 11 Brantford, ON @ Ford Plant
• April 12 London, ON @ Call The Office
• April 17 Ottawa, ON @ Zaphod's
• April 18 Kingston, ON @ Grad Club
• April 19 Montreal, QC @ Casa Del Popolo
• April 24 Guelph, ON @ Vinyl
• April 26 Toronto, ON @ Lee's Palace

—Noah Love