Strange waves

By Stephen Jewell, March 11, 2008 @ 12:39 pm

One British critic dubbed The Ruby Suns his pick  “to make strange waves in 2008”—but first there’s an ocean to cross

Hard work and talent will take you a long way, but a bit of luck certainly speeds things up. For The Ruby Suns—singer Ryan McPhun, bassist Imogen Taylor and percussionist Amee Robinson—their break came when Dean Taylor of British label Memphis Industries stumbled across a website comparing the Auckland band with one of his own signings, Field Music.

“The music was quirky left-field—just the way we like it,” says Matt Jacobs, co-founder of Memphis Industries, which is also home to the likes of The Go! Team and Dungen. Memphis duly released The Ruby Suns’ eponymously-titled 2005 debut album in the UK early last year and invited the band to support Field Music on a British tour.

“We enjoyed ourselves immensely,” says McPhun. “We all love travelling so it was great to go to places we’d never been before. We’ll be returning most likely at the end of April and hope to be able to visit the UK heaps this year as we’ll be based in the northern hemisphere for most of it.”

The locals are paying attention. Hopes are high for the Suns’ sophomore effort Sea Lion, which will be released more or less simultaneously on Memphis in the UK, the band’s own Lil’ Chief in New Zealand and in the US on veteran indie label Sub Pop, whose roster over the past two decades has included Nirvana, Soundgarden and more recently fellow Kiwis Flight of the Conchords and The Brunettes. Influential Independent critic Andy Gill recently declared The Ruby Suns his pick “to make strange waves in 2008” when they follow up “the ambitious Brian Wilson-esque pop of their debut album with an even more ear-boggling collection of blissful pop heavily influenced by African and Polynesian music”.

If McPhun is feeling pressure to deliver, it doesn’t show. “The last album did surprisingly well,” he says. “So far we’ve been able to break even. Theoretically we should soon start seeing some money from album sales for the first album and I hope this new album will do better. We’ve got a long way to go before we can be in any kind of self-sustaining situation, which would be the ultimate goal.”