Brighton-based four-piece Rubylux, known for their guerrilla gigs across the UK, are about to take their surging melodic rock to the next level. As anthemic and dynamic as rock but with the commercial and catchy appeal of the best pop, the music on their second album ‘The World Goes Quiet’ has the accomplished, assured quality of a Premier Division band.
Rubylux performed on Chris Evans Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2 Friday morning, other guests on the show included Usian Bolt and Helen Skelton. In homage to Usain Bolt the band did a cover of Jake Bugg’s ‘Lightning Bolt’ working Chris Evans and Bolt into the lyrics, along with two acoustic versions of tracks from the new album ‘The World Goes Quiet’, which is released today.
Rubylux have recently been announced as the Music Ambassadors for Soccerex – joining some big names in football such as Michael Owen and Neymar – the band are the company’s first musicians to take on the role. They will travel to Rio later this year to perform at their Global Football Festival on Copacabana beach, as well as performing at Soccerex’s other famous social evening events in which football’s most senior decision makers attend.
Singer and guitarist Rob Irving, bassist Clark Coslett-Hughes, keyboard player Adam Harris and drummer Mike Hall have seen a ground swell of support since the release of their first single earlier this year. Facebook fans rocketed by 250% to over 25,000, a number which is still rising daily. Having already received recognition from the likes of The Who’s Roger Daltrey and Led Zeplin’s Jimmy Page at Brighton Music Awards, this summer at Kendal Calling Seasick Steve caught Rubylux’s performance and later, during his own set, name checked the band as the ones to watch this year.
Now, Rubylux are poised to go global with ‘The World Goes Quiet’, featuring 12 tracks of rousing, infectious, big-chorused pop-rock, appealing to fans of bands such as Snow Patrol, OneRepublic and The Script.
It is a showcase for Rob Irving’s husky rasp and the band’s keen grasp of dynamics, the players matching the lyrics’ sense of drama with energy to spare. Subject matter ranges from the title track’s exploration of how artists deal with success to the struggle to sustain love in a relationship as examined in ‘The Black Sun Needs Sparks’, a lighters-aloft, strings-enhanced would-be stadium ballad to slot next to Foreigner’s ‘Waiting For A Girl Like You’. Throughout, love is viewed as turbulent, and the language used to express this is suitably rich, chiming perfectly with the powerful yet accessible music.
Variously inspired by The Beatles, Leonard Cohen and philosopher Eckhart Tolle, the songs on The World Goes Quiet are classic pop-rock, using melody and honed, harmonic noise as the Trojan horse to sneak in advanced ideas about life and love.
The album was recorded in three studios, in Arundel, London and North Wales, aided by mixer Russ Hayes. Rob essayed draft versions of tracks on guitar or piano before taking them to the others for developing and finessing. He compares their modus operandi to that of The Killers, and emphasises their attention to detail. “We follow the whole process right to the end, all of us living at the studio until it’s finished,” he explains. “It’s a process that has evolved within the band and really works for us now. It’s so exciting to watch it all come together at the end. We took the time to get every part the way we wanted it, meticulously carving it into an album that we’re proud of.”
“We gave everything on this album the time and attention it deserved,” concurs Clark. “We tried to achieve the perfect balance on the songs and sounds from epic to chilled, which we like to put across in our live shows – it’s all in there. So I am confident that the album represents the band through and through.”
Mike is delighted with the end results. “We wanted to make an album where people could fall in love with every single song, and hopefully that’s exactly what we’ve done,” he says. “For me, each track has something special about it, whether it’s the string arrangements we wrote in the mountains of North Wales for Sound Of Light, or Rob’s guitar solos we recorded in his bedroom, Ad’s synth solo on I Don’t Want Paradise or Clark’s bassline on Love Without A Cause. Each part of each song has a story behind it. I can’t stop listening to it, and I’m hoping other people won’t be able to either!”
Concludes Adam: “From the day Rubylux got together our aim was to make the kind of record that we would all like to listen to, to try and compete with the biggest bands in the world – to play as well as they play and make the kind of music that touches people in the same way they do. With this album I think we have begun to achieve that.”
Rubylux recently performed at Rockness, Kendal Calling, Chris Evan’s Carfest, Lodestar Festival – playing the main stage on August 31st and Feastival. Please check their website www.rubylux.net for details of forthcoming live shows.