One of the wonderful things about music is its manifold significances. There’s no ultimate meaning for a song, and likewise the desired sensation that comes from listening differs between individuals.
Of course, music can’t be manipulated to symbolise whatever the listener chooses. The intentions of the composer largely frame the listening experience and these intentions also vary widely.
For Sydney’s RÜFÜS, their springy indie-dance music is purposefully sculpted to remove circumstantial distractions. “It’s all based on a feeling, which hopefully can help you to escape,” says keyboardist Jon George. “We’re just trying to make ourselves feel good and escape [from] what we’re in. I think that’s always been the idea with our music and will continue to be the idea with our music.”
On the group’s debut LP ‘Atlas’ (released last August), George and his band mates – vocalist/ guitarist Tyrone Lindqvist and drummer James Hunt – displayed affection for Trentemøller’s dark electro and infused it with a melodic sensibility akin to radio favourites Foster The People. Throughout, the overriding objective was to construct a corridor of escape portals. “When we were in the studio making the album we were trying to come up with this idea, via the audio, of taking people to different places,” George says.
This conceptual agenda didn’t get the better of them. In fact, the record’s mass appeal basically catalysed an aural exodus. ‘Atlas’ resonated all the way to the top of the ARIA charts and early this year the singles ‘Take Me’, ‘Desert Night’ and ‘Tonight’ all made it into Triple J’s Hottest 100. “That was so surreal for all that to happen,” says George, incredulously.
“It happened so quickly – [number one] within a week — and we were getting so much good feedback. Fast-forward to now and we just found out our album went gold and we’ve been signed in a bunch of different territories around the globe. I never thought any of this stuff would happen. We definitely hoped for success but I don’t think I was even hoping this far ahead. It’s awesome that the hard work is paying off.”
The hard work hasn’t yet ceased for the Sydney threesome. ‘Atlas’s ongoing success now gives them the opportunity to develop a large scale, ambitious live show. In May and June the aptly titled ‘Worlds Within Worlds’ tour visits a monster list of classy venues nationwide. George outlines their plans to apply a third dimension to the record’s sonic escapades. “We’ve been working with a bunch of different teams on different multimedia. What we were envisioning in the studio is finally going to be translated to the fullest degree. That’s why we chose a lot of these venues, to be able to use these big spaces, and trying to fill out these regal venues and do something creative with them and definitely take people to some different places while they’re watching the show.”
George refrains from giving away too many production details, but it’s clear that the shows won’t be a modest undertaking. “I’m pretty excited for people to have the surprise value,” he says, “but we’re definitely working hard on it and we’re excited for people to see it. I think we want to prove that we’re of an international quality, too. We want to be able to finish these shows in Australia and end our album tour run [with] everyone knowing what we’re capable of.”
Fashioning a visual complement to their commercially triumphant album again underlines the band’s quest to engender a transporting sensual experience. Providing a means for escape has actually been a central aim for RÜFÜS since the very start. “The name, to begin with, was supposed to be a familiar name yet with the umlauts [dotted vowels] it looks so foreign and almost sounds like a foreign destination or a foreign location.”
Speaking of foreign locations, after completing the upcoming Australian tour RÜFÜS will pack up shop and relocate to Berlin, where they’ll get stuck into album number two.
This appears to be yet another instance of escape and, fittingly, they’re far more comfortable writing music away from regular surroundings. “When we first started writing ‘Atlas’ we relocated to the south coast of New South Wales, locked ourselves away and we wrote extremely constantly that way, being away from civilisation,” George says. “I think that the conclusion is you don’t really need to be up from 9am until 5pm working. We were working right through the night and it was almost like shift work. Someone would go to bed and two people would keep writing and then the other dude would get up and take over for another eight hours or something.
“I think that if we were in the middle of suburbia or the city it’s a little bit shameful coming up on to the street at 6am – you don’t feel like you’re really contributing to society. So we’ve always tried to buck that. I think Berlin’s perfect for that. We spent a bit of time there in December and fell in love with the place. I think that it’s perfect for what we want to do and it’s cheap and we can lock ourselves away.”
The group are no strangers to the Northern Hemisphere; at present they’re touring across the US before making their second run through select parts of Europe. Legal worries enforced a name alteration in the US, but the Sydneysiders are starting to make an impression on the world’s biggest market. “We’ve signed with Columbia [in the US] and we’ve changed our name to RÜFÜS DU SOL, [so] we’re sort of starting afresh,” George says.
“I think we do have a good team behind us and everyone knows what their role is and how to go about it. Particularly now that we’ve gone from A to B in Australia, we just want to do the same in other territories. I think that’s sort of exciting too, the fact that we’ve just got to work our way up again with intimate venues and settings and we’ll get there.”
Despite George’s enthusiasm about beginning the crowd-building campaign again, there’s already a rampant buzz surrounding the band in the UK, suggesting their time playing to sparse audiences is limited. “I think it’s all starting to roll out there quicker than it is in America at the moment,” he says. “We’re getting some good play on [BBC] Radio 1 and [electronic music presenter] Pete Tong’s been saying our name so that’s all pretty exciting.”
Having soared to such dizzying heights at home, the prospect of mounting the world stage isn’t as staggering as it once would have appeared. “It definitely helps having some success here in Australia to have that confidence to go over somewhere else. Confidence, rather than arrogance.”
It’s inevitable that the group’s vindicated confidence will have an influence on the songwriting for the next record. Although George can’t precisely predict what path they’ll take with the follow-up, the intensified experiences since ‘Atlas’s release certainly gives them plenty to draw from. “We’re writing individually, in transit at the moment, [and] a lot of the ideas we’ve been sharing seem to be very similar in nature. I think that’s because of all these crazy highs – and [the] lows as well that come with touring – that we’ve been experiencing together.”
The success of ‘Atlas’ has made RÜFÜS the subject of keen public observation, which could very well impose a weight of expectation on the band’s next move. However, George isn’t particularly concerned. “I think that it’s more exciting, really,” he says, “because we’ve actually got an audience – a substantially larger audience than we had ready to listen to the first album – that will be ready to listen to the next album.
“I feel a bit more creative freedom because we don’t need to be winning anyone over. We can do something and then an audience will be there to listen to it. Then it’s up to them whether they like it or not, but at least we’ll be trying stuff.”
Written by Augustus Welby
Rufus Tour Dates
Fri May 9 - Cooly Hotel (Coolangatta)Sat May 10 - The Tivoli (Brisbane)
Sun May 11 - The Tivoli (Brisbane)
Tue May 13 - Palace Theatre (Melbourne)
Thu May 15 - Palace Theatre (Melbourne)
Fri May 16 - Wool Exchange (Geelong)
Sat May 17 - One Night Stand (Mildura)
Fri May 30 - Players Bar (Mandurah)
Sat May 31 - Fremantle Arts Centre
Thu Jun 5 - Entrance Leagues Club (Bateau Bay)
Fri Jun 6 - Panthers (Newcastle)
Sat Jun 7 - Coffs Harbour Ex Services Club
Sun Jun 8 - Beach Hotel (Byron)
Fri Jun 13 - HQ (Adelaide)
Sat Jun 14 - Wrest Point Entertainment Centre (Hobart)
Thu Jun 19 - The ANU (Canberra)
Fri Jun 20 - Waves (Towradgi)
Sat Jun 21 - Enmore Theatre (Sydney)
