Exploring genre as if endlessly fruitful terrain, Talulah Ruby is the rising songstress who sounds like no one else. Born and raised in Lanzarote, Ruby is now firmly seated at the UK scene’s burgeoning table, working with the likes of The Silhouettes Project, ingraining herself into the heart of London’s creative sphere.
Having grown up on a diverse array of music, the singer-songwriter has, from years of writing and creating, developed a sound that its refined yet elusive, emotionally resonant and musically explorative.
Ruby has now unveiled her highly anticipated three-track debut EP, entitled “HYPERDRIVE”. Acting across all roles on the project, from composer to vocalist, producer to creative director, it’s a singular and condensed effort that feels drawn straight from the depths of Ruby’s artistry and character. Combining electronic and naturalism to dazzling effect, the EP is delicate and folk-inflected, but also atmospheric and ambiguous, drawing on personal ideals to convey a wider message of self-acceptance, purpose and love.
We had the pleasure to chat with Talulah around the release of the EP, delving into the process of creating the body of work, the overarching ethos, and the future ambitions of the rising star.
Listen to the EP…
Read the interview…
Who and what inspires you to create?
Films & their makers. Be it directors, scores, music composers, set design, characters, special FX – it all has such a large effect on me.I actually lived with the most graceful and impacting filmmaker over lockdown. We became really close and I got to feel her creativity and the importance of sound in film… it felt worlds apart for me to ever be included in the process of making a film. But I dove into my project and hyper-focused so that eventually I would arrive here. Open to a new terrain. With some visuals of my own under my belt. I’m very grateful to this time.
When it’s strictly inspiration to write a song though, that’s usually personal, a raw emotion that I’ve needed to express but am unable to do so in any other format. I let my voice take me where she needs to when she needs to. Both “A win, for once” & “Feature on a film” are complete one take improvs.
Films of note:
Lisa Rovner’s Sisters with Transistors
Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria
Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire
How did you first become interested in music and writing?
Ever since I could make noise, I was improvising songs and words as a 3 year old. I’ve always had an unwavering ‘mission’ like relationship with music. It’s been a companion forever.
How would you define your essence as an artist?
Ahh. That’s a lovely question, I can’t define it. But imagine that momentary bliss you get when you first submerge into a hot bath. My essence is the salt in it that makes you float.
How has your background shaped your sound?
It’s given me immense amount of texture. I grew up around lava fields, desert dunes and caves plastered in glossy white concrete, so my environment alone has given me permission to see beautiful things next to baron or quite harsh backdrops – I think that’s why I crunch up my drums and play around with distorting my bass in the mix because it actually creates balance for me to be super delicate and beautiful in the vocal performances and the more melodic elements like with my Rhodes and guitars.
How does it feel to be releasing your debut EP, “HYPERDRIVE”?
It feels visceral. I genuinely don’t know which direction to steer in. It really does feel like we’re about to go into hyperdrive. It’s like I’ve been cruising through deep space, had some gnarly meteor encounters and now we’re through the turbulence and about to do the jump into light speed.
I’m very curious as to what’s on the other side.
Talk us through the themes and concepts of the EP?
This EP is a short, 3 track taster of where I’ve been swimming sonically. They’re the first of a big bunch. The intro. The Debut. The EP’s themes are: Star Wars, neuro-divergency, love, sensuality, duality, community & meditation.
The heartbreak theme is something I shy away from, but it’s quite obvious in the title track how in love I was with my “pilot” – we had drifted into a difficult place and it was really cutting us both up. So the song was about letting it go. It was extremely painful – so I wrote the song from the perspective of a Jedi in training who’s re aligning her mission. This Jedi was based on a character called Rei, who ultimately goes through three phases in each track on the record until reaching the point where she’s managed to slow down the ship and regain control of the wheel.
I adopted some the “hyper” theme after writing it. Originally I didn’t include “Hyper, you think I’m hyper. Hyperdrive; a driving force right into light speed” in the chorus, it was just an outro idea… bringing it in as a chorus meant admitting to the world that someone might think of me as being “Hyper”, and that wasn’t the intended message of the song. But because it has such a negative connotation, I decided to give it more airtime as it was a conversation that kept coming up in different circles and I felt it was more often than not, a painful one. So through the project, I’ve further connected with the concept of neuro-divergency and how healing music can be within it.
What are you hoping to achieve with the release?
Honestly, I want this project to do what it’s meant to do and heal some people in the process. Be it healing from a damaged dynamic or a companion through a self-reflection period. Hopefully the themes in this record start a conversation about what kind of environment we’re expecting artists (mostly neurodivergent, especially womxn) to navigate and thrive in. If we start in music, then we can create cultural shifts that spill into other sectors.
On an impact level, I want to see a real shift in how we create, execute, release and nurture projects within the music sector. Our contemporary music industry is a shit show. The separation between the art and the business is too wide. And the cost of being a recording artist, producer, writer and artist is unrealistic so it becomes a case of privilege. I’d like to see more creatives & neuro-divergent people in the exec positions – with the appropriate support and resources to execute the big ideas. Mental well-being in music is the marathon.
What are your career goals?
‘We’re aiming for the moon’ to quote my brother Loner Muaka who’s on the phone with me right now. I’d love to be creating collaboratively forever. Big projects that take chunks of time, and maybe require retreat from society for a minute to create without distraction. Ambitious projects with ambitious people in different places around the world. I’d like to co-write with artists that I love… spend months prepping/rehearsing for shows in a big acoustics focused venues… design the soundscape for a design based project… work with a great film directors… you name it. I working on it. My goals feel wide but I have the ability to hyper focus on my side so with the right team and support, we’ll be doing some really interesting things.
What’s to come from you this year?
London chef @sisterwomanvegan & I are teaming up to create a conceptual evening to soothe all the senses & celebrate the release, eyes peeled for tickets, as I know these will go fast. A film screening & Headline show will also be announced soon, and I’m also dropping a tune with The Silhouettes Project later in the year. The rest is a surprise!