Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
John from Grammy Award winning rufus Dusoul. I know that
you guys don't do a lot of chats, so I
really appreciate your time. Welcome to America's Dance thirty for
the first time.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Good to be here.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Thanks for having us.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Counting down the biggest dance songs in the country. This
is America's Dance thirty.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Congratulations on the massive success of Music Is Better.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, it's been huge.
Speaker 5 (00:38):
It's been nice to put on new music and starting
with Music is Better, it was a very happy one
to start with. So it's been nice to start releasing
new music to the world.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Now we're gonna be talking all about that.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
We're going to talk all about your latest song, break
My Love, and your fifth studio album Inhale Exhale, which
is coming out very soon. But before we talk all
about music, let's get to know John and rufus Dusoul
a little better with Finky's.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
First all right here you got.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
So.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I love finding out the origin story of artists. I
know that when you were young and in school you
were studying audio engineering, right, that's correct. But even before that,
when you were growing up, was music The first thing
you wanted to do or was there something else you
wanted to be when you grew up.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
I think I was just following in the steps footsteps
of my father.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Who was a lawyer, so I was like, yeah, I
guess I'll just be a lawyer.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
But I took piano lessons when I was young, and
I played saxophone, and then I really started getting into
music when I was listening to dance music and started
dajaying when I was around seventeen.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
It's so funny how many people I chat with that
wanted to be lawyers when they were I wanted to
be a lawyer too, because I loved arguing. But then
I saw every thing that went into it. I'm like, no,
I'm good pass.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, no, I agree.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
I think I've still got the diplomacy of a lawyer,
so I think I still learned some things now.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
When you guys got together almost fifteen years ago, you
were originally called Rufus and then famously had to change
to Rufus Do Soul.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
But where did the name Rufus first come from?
Speaker 5 (02:21):
So I guess it was as boring as the story
of us trying to find a name. I remember Mike
Snow was around at the time, and we really liked
just the idea of just being like more ambiguous and
people bringing like the music doing the talking for itself.
So as a band we were like, well, we wanted
it to be one name and then yeah and then yeah.
(02:42):
We came across the you know, we were just throwing names
out there, and Rufus seemed pretty funny with the umlauts too,
like the little dots above the U.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
It sort of made us phone.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
And that really worked for us for in Australia, so
that everyone could sort of make up their own mind
as to as to what identity Rufus was.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
I love that now when you had to change it,
Where did rufus do soul first come from?
Speaker 5 (03:03):
And it was just following in the footsteps so along
that line. It was just trying to keep it. Yeah,
just super ambiguous and you know, do so as many
things in different languages, and it sort of created this
further Yeah, I guess a story to what Rufus could
be and it sort of feels like it's you're on
(03:25):
an island in the middle of nowhere, Rufus of the
sun somewhere.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
I love it now.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
We were just chatting about how you're getting ready for
the live shows, you're practicing for those. You have been
doing shows all over But do you remember the first
show that the three of you did together.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
Yeah, it was actually in Sydney and we were back
there at the start of the year when we were
playing some shows. We're doing some news e shows and
it was quite trippy to go back into that. It's
just a small little club and we had we had
the drums and everything set up in there, and it
was quite strange being back there at the start of
this year. So I think it was called Spectrum in
(04:05):
Sydney or something. It was like the top of this
nightclub in Sydney.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
But yeah, how did the first show go together?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
It was good.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
We were practicing for a while. We sort of hunkered down.
We'd written our first piece of music, which was the
Roof of CP, and we just spent a lot of
time integrating the live drums into the set. We knew
that we wanted to make that as a point of
difference to just standing there with electronic equipment, that we
(04:33):
had an amazing drummer and that we could integrate that.
So yeah, we were as tired as we could be
at that stage in our career and it was a
lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
We had all our friends down there and it was packed.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
And you know, the people who thought we were from
Sweden or something with those lauts, like I was talking about,
we're probably getting a raw deal that we were just
Australians in their own home country.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
But that's awesome that that was your first show. It
seems like it was a great experience. Now, speaking of shows,
what's the first thing you do on show days and
what's the first thing you do after a show?
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Yeah, so I.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Guess we've gone from living in a bit more of
a walled rock star like sort of beginning where we
were just so excited to be playing around the world
at the time and you know, and just taking in
all of the enjoyment of that.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Whether it was yeah, I don't know, just being silly.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
But now we instead of doing a whiskey shop before
the show, we do a ginger shop before the show,
We do an ice bath before, we do an ice
bath after the show, just sort of calm down and
we have a personal trainer on tour and we do
things a little differently now to be able to sustain ourselves.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
And do multiple week tours and.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
A lot easier, but always still have fun, you know
when we go back home or whatever.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Well, you're definitely men of my style. Ginger shots are
the best.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
A bit bit of breath work too. I should have mentioned.
We like to calm down. You know, if a play
in front of thirty or forty or fifty thousand people,
as it sometimes can be at some of these festivals,
you know, it's quite you know, nerve racking, or you
can sort of lose lose sight of just the musicality
because of just the size of the show. So we
just like to do some breath work together and calm
(06:17):
ourselves down.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Now, finally, in honor of music is Better, what's the
first song that makes everything better for you?
Speaker 5 (06:26):
Ooh well, I guess for some reason, groove Amata via
the River or at the River. It starts to come
into mind for me. It starts to calm me down.
And I think when we're making music is better. We
had a lot of those sort of two thousands era
electro or house music sort of songs in mind, and
(06:48):
we're sort of, you know, really laying into that sort
of Roger Sanchez another chance sort of vive and we
really had a bit of fun with that nostalgia.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Man, it just puts a smile on my heart just
hearing groove our.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
That's what I grew up on and I absolutely love
that vibe. Let's talk about this smash now. First of all,
are the lyrics in honor of a real person?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Well?
Speaker 5 (07:19):
I guess this actually that just that sentence itself came
from our last record, and we had this phrase that
we just couldn't fit on the last record, and it
was part of what ended up being always the last
song on Surrender, and we had it in the breakdown,
but it just felt like two songs, so we just
(07:41):
held off on putting that in. So we had that
line music is better when we're together, and I guess
that was one of the first things we started laying
into when we started rewriting again. So yeah, I think
it's just a beautiful sentiment that we all related with.
And then tyrant further with the with again just being
(08:03):
a little bit ambiguous as to like who it's with,
whether it's your best friend or whether it's your lover,
and where you are situationally, down at the beach or
at a club or you know. So we have fun
with sort of just playing it to meet people making
up their own minds about what it's what it's about.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
It's just great lyrics. Now, how long ago did you
guys start working on it?
Speaker 5 (08:23):
So it's been about two years of writing the last record,
so I would say it was two years ago. And
like I said, we'd sort of written parts like just
like the the main chords, and and that vocal phrase
had come from the last record. Even so even you know,
three or four years ago carrying carrying it over. So
(08:43):
it's been a work in progress for a while. And yeah,
I guess it was. It was a fun one to
lead with because it was it's a bit different to
the rest of the record that we have coming out,
and there's a bit of a celebration of just coming
back now.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Something I love to find out about songs is how
many different v's there are from when you start working
on it, all the tweaking that goes on when you
finally mastered and put it out. Do you remember what
the final v was of music is Better?
Speaker 5 (09:11):
Yeah, I think we're We were definitely over thirty mixed downs,
so we had many variations.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Of that song and is that music.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
Yeah, it can be, particularly with the with the songs
that you know are coming out first. Yeah, they were
really interested in like carving out this story for people
to ingest our music in a certain way. So some
of those songs that were putting a lot of importance
on can end up being a lot of variations. But
(09:42):
like a lot of the songs like can just come
out within the first day and then it can just
be a little intricate play and small variations from there.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Well, let's talk about your latest song, break my Love.
How was that song born?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
That one?
Speaker 5 (09:57):
It was an interesting one, actually, we were so we
wrote this record around all parts of America and so
like in Austin, LA. And we also wrote for two
weeks in a Beiza as well in the middle of
last summer, And that was because Tyrone ended up moving
further south of LA and me and James decided just
(10:17):
to pick up and move over to Miami as well,
just to change, to shake things up, and so situationally
we would find these little blocks of time to do
these little writing blocks together. And during one of those
times in Austin, we were right in the creative zone
and I actually.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Woke up from a dream around like three am.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
And recorded this voice note, which ended up being the
breakdown vocal. Came into the studio the next morning and
played it on the piano with some simple chords and
sung it to the guys, and that's sort of how
it started, and James from there brought in this really
interesting up.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
They gave it that slow chug.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Me and James have been working on a bunch of
different beats before we got to Austin, and we applied
this sort of yeah, really cool chugging slow tom kick.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Snare feel and then Yeah, tarn started.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
I think within like the first day or two, had
all of the lyrics written and sort of riffed on
that original melody that I had that was a little
bit more funky, I guess, and we had a lot
of fun playing with a bit more of a slower tempo.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Now you mentioned dreams, I mean the stuff that I
dream about is crazy, especially on melotonin. As a producer
and songwriter, do you dream about a lot of melodies?
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Yeah, it's pretty funny, like particularly during those periods of
our intense create like creative periods. Yeah, like during those
two weeks, we wouldn't generally have our partners, like you
know in Austin, and we would be doing these long
days and going back to the hotel and just sleeping
and rinse and repeating every day. So you're really still
(12:04):
in that zone even when you leave the studio.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
So yeah, we would find ourselves waking up with that.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Different melodies are different you know, production ideas, and it's
quite common.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
That's incredible.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Well, let's talk about your fifth studio album that is
coming out very soon. What can RUFUS fans expect from
Inhale Exhale.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
Yeah, I guess this has been a real fun journey
for us. It's been, like I mentioned, a different process
for us from the last few records, and I think
that gave us time to digest things more and really
create this journey. And so that's what I'm really excited
about that there is the first record. The first track
(12:45):
on the record is called Inhale. On the last track
is called Exhale, and it is this you know, almost
like a two humped camel and its journey in the
way that we sort of bring up the vibe and
we had these intentional sort of breaks in the record
and sort of you know, played with different tempos and
(13:07):
different textures. I think that we had a lot of
fun creating that journey for people, and we're really excited
for people to be able to experience that well.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I think I speak for all RUFUS fans when I
say that I cannot wait to hear this album. John,
congratulations on all the success you guys have had. Thank
you so much for your time with us on America's
Dance thirty.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Thank you so much for having us, and yeah, thanks
for all the support.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
America's answer, counting down the biggest dance songs in the
country AM America's Dance thirty