While it's really only been a year-and-a-half, it's felt like an eternity since beloved left-field Toronto, ON pop trio Born Ruffians released their debut album, Red, Yellow and Blue. Since then, they've been hard at work on a number of international tours, but things have finally slowed down enough for the band to prepare their second full-length album for Warp Records.
On the phone with Exclaim!, front-man Luke Lalonde explains that the non-stop touring led to a sort-of creative hiatus. "It's been two-and-a-half years since the writing of Red, Yellow and Blue, and then we took a fairly long break. It wasn't on purpose, but from intense touring and whatnot, it was really hard to write throughout 2008," he says.
Fortunately, the break in writing allowed the band time to re-evaluate their priorities, a fact that Lalonde says has left its mark on Born Ruffian's as-yet-untitled second full-length. "I think we just had a different approach to songwriting as a group," he says. "I was still bringing in melodies, but I think it was more collaborative than the last one. The last one, there were certain songs that I just wrote and brought them in and we'd learn them. This one, we wrote songs off of Mitch's bass lines. I think there was more input from everyone this time around. It was a more collaborative effort."
The record, which is currently in the mixing stages, won't be out until sometime next year. But according to Lalonde, it will be worth the wait, as the band have stopped over-thinking their process, instead simply going where the songs take them.
"I think we went more in a do-what-feels-right direction," he explains. "Instead of trying to fuck with a song and make it weird, we tried to make it more of a pop song, because that's the kind of music we like. We just wanted to have fun and write songs that we have fun playing. That was the main goal. We want to be able to tour and have fun playing the songs. The last record, we had fun but we just got tired of the songs."
On the phone with Exclaim!, front-man Luke Lalonde explains that the non-stop touring led to a sort-of creative hiatus. "It's been two-and-a-half years since the writing of Red, Yellow and Blue, and then we took a fairly long break. It wasn't on purpose, but from intense touring and whatnot, it was really hard to write throughout 2008," he says.
Fortunately, the break in writing allowed the band time to re-evaluate their priorities, a fact that Lalonde says has left its mark on Born Ruffian's as-yet-untitled second full-length. "I think we just had a different approach to songwriting as a group," he says. "I was still bringing in melodies, but I think it was more collaborative than the last one. The last one, there were certain songs that I just wrote and brought them in and we'd learn them. This one, we wrote songs off of Mitch's bass lines. I think there was more input from everyone this time around. It was a more collaborative effort."
The record, which is currently in the mixing stages, won't be out until sometime next year. But according to Lalonde, it will be worth the wait, as the band have stopped over-thinking their process, instead simply going where the songs take them.
"I think we went more in a do-what-feels-right direction," he explains. "Instead of trying to fuck with a song and make it weird, we tried to make it more of a pop song, because that's the kind of music we like. We just wanted to have fun and write songs that we have fun playing. That was the main goal. We want to be able to tour and have fun playing the songs. The last record, we had fun but we just got tired of the songs."
