Born Ruffians Finally Get Some Release

Every year, music fans spend plenty of time waiting for their favourite artists to release their next album, or sometimes even their first (looking at you, Tokyo Police Club). But, sometimes, that wait can be just as aggravating for the artists themselves.

Case in point: Born Ruffians. The Toronto-based trio originally aimed to have their debut full-length out last October after recording the bulk of it in May '07 before heading out on what seemed like an endless string of tours.

The mixes of Red, Yellow And Blue, however, didn't come back as strong as the group, label or management had hoped. Producer Rusty Santos and Luke Lalonde did some extra work on it in July and eventually the release got pushed to this March, 10 months after work began.

"So it's kind of like having a baby — and you have the same kind of excitement and nervousness," Lalonde says at a tiny restaurant on Toronto's Queen Street West. "The only thing that's not there is the feeling of, 'Are we ready?' because we know we're ready to put it out.

"Every once in a while I'll get this splash of panic and nervousness. It'll hit me really hard and I'll be like, 'Holy shit, we're putting our album out, and is it even good, and what will people think?' And then that goes away and I can usually get through my days in a pretty good head space and not worry about it."

Lalonde shouldn't be too worried because Red, Yellow And Blue is one of the most headstrong, complex and endearing debuts you'll hear this decade. Judging by the strength of Lalonde's voice, Mitch DeRosier's bass lines and Steve Hamelin's beats, you'd never guess the group were a trio of 21 and 22 year olds.

The key to their sound may be the production work of Santos. If you've never heard of him, you've probably heard his work on Animal Collective's landmark Sung Tongs and Panda Bear's universally acclaimed Person Pitch. A similar atmosphere washes over most of the tracks on RY&B, something not lost on the band.

"I think he was so easy to work with because we're similar-minded," Lalonde says. "We demoed every song on our own, and listening to the way we demoed them and the way he did them is totally different, but so much better.

"The title song, 'Red, Yellow And Blue,' I recorded that in my room all in one night, and it sounded good. I played it for Steve and he liked it and said we should put it on the album. And Rusty took it and made it this really beautiful, warm song and brought out so much weird life in it.

"I like how the record's not really slick. I'm not a big fan of records that are full volume the whole way through and the ProTools bar is just a big chuck the whole way through and every song is like that. I think some people think a loud record is a good record. But we like dynamics. Rusty did a good job of making the more powerful songs sound powerful, but still dynamic."

The only thing that might have fans scratching their heads upon release is why EP track "Hedonistic Me" made it through to the full-length when the group had
so much time to produce a disc of all-new material.

It turns out Born Ruffians didn't really want to carry anything over from their
previous recordings. But, when push came to shove, they made a last-minute
decision that, in retrospect, they're more than happy with.

"The label had been kind of pressuring us ever since we started playing demos for them," Lalonde recalls. "They said, 'You'll put a few from the EP on,' and we said, 'No, we want all new stuff. We have 20 new songs and it's going to be hard enough narrowing those down to 10 or 11 for this record, so we just want to do new stuff.' They said OK.

"Then, as it started to get closer and closer, I started to think logically about it.
I started thinking, 'Just because we're tired of playing some of the old songs
doesn't mean they're not still great songs.' And especially 'Hedonistic Me,' I thought we should consider that one.

"It's not that old and I still like playing it. I would have said no to any of the other ones because I think we're beyond writing songs like that. And, you know, we're hoping that our record will be listened to by a lot more people than our EP, too."


Mix And Match
Born Ruffians toured constantly in 2007, sharing bills with the likes of Caribour, Hot Chip and Peter Bjorn & John. So, how did the group of relatively unknown, young Canadians stack up against internationally beloved indie rock acts?

"Caribou was the best match," Lalonde says. "Hot Chip was hit and miss.

"The Peter Bjorn & John Bowery [Ballroom, NYC] show was sold-out and the majority of people were there because they'd seen their name in the press and they'd heard that whistling song on the radio, 'Young Folks.' You're walking through the crowd and this is an actual quote from someone that describes the mentality of the crowd: [in a goonish voice] 'I just want them to play that whistling song so we can get the fuck out of here.' So they didn't give a shit about what we were doing."

The following feature is from the March 2008 issue of Chart Magazine. To purchase the issue, head on over to the Chart Shop.