Something seems to change in Tyrone Lindqvist's voice when he's speaking to people back in Australia.
Though he and his bandmates in RÜFÜS DU SOL are currently holed up in a Van Nuys rehearsal studio, getting ready for a run of shows in North America where they're now based, a run of media calls from the homeland allows him to reminisce with people who knew the band before their breakthrough 2018 album 'Solace'.Indeed, before they were even RÜFÜS DU SOL; back in the early days, the band were simply known as RÜFÜS before adding the 'DU SOL' to avoid confusion with Chaka Khan's band.
"Some people go way back with this band," Lindqvist says, the lead singer of the band – who formed in 2010 in suburban Sydney.
"They'll talk to us about 'Paris Collides', which was like one of the very first songs of ours that got any airplay.
"I remember one night at the Annandale [Hotel, Sydney venue], we'd finished our set and everyone was shouting for an encore. We literally didn't have anymore songs – so, we just got up and played 'Paris Collides' again!"
The Annandale Hotel used to house roughly 300 punters – maybe 350 on a very busy night. Compare and contrast this, then, with RÜFÜS DU SOL's most recent live outing as headliners at Colorado's Red Rocks Amphitheatre – capacity 9,525.
"It's very weird that this last year-and-a-half has literally been a saving grace for my life at points."
Needless to say, the emotive electronica trio are a literal world away from their humble beginnings a decade and change ago – and that's something that is certainly not lost on Lindqvist himself.
"I think the last year-and-a-half has given us a real opportunity to stop, reflect, look back and think about where we've come from, and how far we've gone," he says.
"There's a lot of gratitude for where we're at right now. It's very surreal – if I told myself ten years ago that we'd be here, I wouldn't believe it. It's very special."
This state of reflection is elaborated on even when talk turns to the band's upcoming fourth studio album, 'Surrender'.
The record is another emphatic and widescreen take on deep, atmospheric dance music, as exemplified by lead singles 'Alive', 'Next To Me' and most recently 'On My Knees'.
When Lindqvist is queried as to the unifying themes that bring all of these records together, he describes the band's four albums as "the sound of three humans growing up".
It's emblematic of the world of change the trio has undergone since their 2013 debut 'Atlas' – along with their Stateside relocation, Lindqvist is now also a father – and their collective pathways are reflected in their own musical trajectory.
"We've gone through a lot of ruptures and we've gone through a lot of repairs," he says.
"We've also really learned how to communicate with each other in healthier ways. You take all of that and you put it into the process of writing music.
"Each album is kind of like a snapshot in time, where we've improved each time at communicating with each other. It's made it more enjoyable to write each record.
"I look back at 'Atlas', and there is a really nice naïveté at play there – this feeling like you can conquer the world. Playing at the Enmore Theatre seemed impossible.
"When we got to do that, it was literally like a dream come true. Having these big goals and achieving them has been very rewarding."
Lindqvist also notes the trio's sonic evolution up to and including 'Surrender' – along with understanding one another better has come a greater understanding of their craft as musicians and as songwriters.
"We always come back to the interplay between things that are organic and things that are electronic," he says. "Whether it's analog synths, or textured guitars, it's all about finding a middle ground in where those worlds exist."
With the new studio album out today (22 October), Lindqvist offers some insight into 'Surrender''s creation, which was forged primarily after a much-earned break following the end of touring in support of their previous album, 2018's 'Solace'.
With the world in turmoil, the trio wrote in order to make sense of their place in society – hence the album's title being described by Lindqvist as "one of acceptance".
The singer also notes the album touches on "exploring feelings, and being able to express them in a healthy way. "I think we've gotten a lot better at being able to articulate a feeling," he adds.
"We're definitely less afraid of leaning into the emotions of the song, both lyrically and musically. We've always been willing to lean into sound and emotion, but we kind of tread carefully around the lyrics sometimes.
"I don't know why that is. We've often wanted things to sound very positive, I guess. It's been really liberating to let ourselves just explore some of the darker experiences in life and the more difficult times."
As thankful as Lindqvist is for parts of the preceding two years – making this album, getting married and the birth of his son – he's also the first to admit that contrasting this with the heartbreak and societal collapse around him has been nothing short of strange.
"It's very weird that this last year-and-a-half has literally been a saving grace for my life at points," he says. "There's so much change. I feel like myself and the other guys have certainly able to feel the full scope of turmoil, not knowing what's coming around the corner with the pandemic.
"Not being able to tour, not being able to see my family, and my family not being able to be there for some really beautiful years of my son's life."
The good, the bad, the happy, the sad. . . it's all part of 'Surrender'. "There's some pain there and there's some grace," concludes Lindqvist. "I'm just so grateful we have a healthy outlet to be able to put it all into."
'Surrender' is available now.
