It was 3:00 am. in Austin, Texas, and Rüfüs du Sol couldn't figure out the chord setting.
The trio worked for hours, assembling and reassembling a chord progression in dozens of different ways. “I think we were on our 30th coffee,” jokes the group's keyboardist Jon George.
Then they thought of Underworld's “Born Slippy (Nuxx)” and the way the 1996 song's classic intro stuttered into existence like passing digital clouds. They carried that structure over to what they were working on, and there they had it, with the idea that it would help round out a darkly rich song called “Edge of the Earth.”
It was a creative spark of the moment that probably wouldn't have happened if the guys had taken evening jobs away from different cities, a method they had tried when they were first starting the music for their new album. But with the group's lead singer, Tyrone Lindqvist, living in San Diego, California, and George and drummer James Hunt living in Miami, they couldn't just get together in the studio.
“There were some nerves about how we were going to finish the next record,” says Lindqvist. “We always knew that we would continue to make music no matter where we lived, but there was some uncertainty about how that would be done. We tried to write separately, and it didn't really click.”
Together, they decided on a two-week assignment. They met for two weeks in Austin and then took eight weeks off. They met for two weeks in Ibiza and then took eight weeks off, with the next two-week session taking place at the Australian group's former home in Los Angeles. They would bring ideas and what Hunt calls an “amazing playground” of instruments to their traveling creative bubble, then go their separate ways and flesh out the music separately.
After 18 months of this workflow, the guys finally put together their fifth studio album, inhalation/exhalation, out Friday (October 11) via Warner Records. The 15 tracks are classic Rüfüs: dreamy and delicate, occasionally dark and wistful, but never overtly defiant, and entirely constructed of both analog and electronic instruments.
“Every time we've had a block, I feel like we've gotten stronger at exploring ideas, breaking the ice faster, playing and being very free,” Hunt says. “We used to finish around 10:00 p.m. and eventually, because we'd be having so much fun, we'd wind up at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. We were leaving those two weeks tired, but very satisfied and full, because there would be so much material.”
And that way, instead of the writing being a never-ending slog on location, the eight weeks off provided a built-in recovery period. Both in and out of the studio, the process was enhanced by the multitude of wellness practices that have been part of Rüfüs' repertoire for years, with group workouts, breathing, ice baths and guided meditations all part of the routine. “It put us in a really inviting zone where we felt focused and present and optimized and in a good position,” says Hunt.
But after nearly 15 years and five studio albums, the trio needed a little more maintenance than some diaphragmatic breathing. They had begun participating in group therapy a few years ago, and—recognizing that they wanted their creative space to be, Hunt says, “sacred” and therefore free of interpersonal drama—they did therapy during its creation. Inhale/Exhale also. Talking to you Bulletin board With Zoom from Australia, the guys (together on a couch and all dressed in black) agree that the therapy has been valuable in enhancing their communication and creating, says Hunt, “a connection that feels much healthier. I think our friendships have improved dramatically as a result.”
It also helped them navigate the touring lifestyle and its myriad challenges and siren calls. “We started this effort of touring on the road and being all focused on the music,” says George, “and that would probably lead to maybe immature decisions. We just haven't done much development for a while. We were just relying on each other and getting caught up in this washing machine of being in a band and indulging in a rock star lifestyle for a while there.
“Of course we had to do a little growing up at some point,” he continues, “and we're lucky that we were safe enough at the time that we didn't blow ourselves up or blow a tire on our bus. to put it that way.”
Now, armed with more sustainable life choices and better listening skills, within Rüfüs there is generally “less finger-pointing,” Lindqvist says, and more “working on communication as quickly as we can in a proper space rather than a room of 30 people or shortly before we go for an interview.”
It is wise to have them all brushed as the Rüfüs du Sol machine has been reactivated in the last four months. The guys, who say they're enjoying the album cycle process, marked the latter with a massive world tour and a win for Best Dance/Electronic Recording at the 2022 Grammys for their track “Alive,” from the album. Surrender.
Their two-year tour behind this album began with three shows at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles (which for many in attendance marked their first show since the pandemic) and ended in August 2023. In addition to a few festival dates in Australia and their ongoing residency at Las Vegas club XS, the guys have been largely quiet until last spring, when they were a recent addition to the Coachella lineup, then made a surprise appearance at Lightning in a Bottle near Bakersfield, California in May. (Lindqvist does not perform during the DJ sets, leaving that element of Rüfüs' work to George and Hunt.)
The lead single from Inhale/Exhale“Music Is Better,” was released in June, eventually reaching No. 1 on the Dance Mix Show/Airplay earlier this month. Three more singles, (and another DJ set played at Burning Man 2024 and uploaded to YouTube), generated hype for both the album and Rüfüs' September headlining performance at the Portola Music festival in San Francisco, their only US live show of the year.
This Portola show drew a huge crowd and found the guys unveiling a new stage, one that was less focused on lights and lasers and more focused on… them.
“There is no shadow, but what happens a lot in the [live] The electronic music scene is much more visual,” says George. “We've been kind of playing around with it on our last couple of tours, with big LED walls and [the like]so we were excited to show something different and lean into the musicality.”
Their Portola setup — designed by their longtime creative director Katzki, who is also George's brother — struck a leaner, more industrial aesthetic, with visuals focused on showing kids playing their instruments in groundbreaking IMAG (image zoom ), for which Katzki was inspired. embed after watching a Rosalía show.
“It focuses on the musicality of what we do between the three of us,” George says of the Portola show. “Now I'm excited about what we're pushing further for next year.” (Rüfüs hasn't announced any other tour dates so far.) For now, they say the release of another album is a success, as are the creative directions they've pushed into it, as well as the number of fans who have been along for the ride. of their careers.
Once they started writing it, they did a guided meditation focused, George says, on “how we would feel after writing a record and what my future self would look like during that process.” (They had done the same kind of meditation before the 2022 Grammys, envisioning what it would be like to win, and then they won.) During this process, George simply saw his future self, the one who had just released the album, smiling broadly. like a cheshire cat. Today at Zoom, he smiles a big smile, like the one he says he imagined. Everyone does.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/rufus-du-sol-new-album-interview-inhale-exhale-1235800103/