Rufus Interview

Rufus Interview

RÜFÜS has been making considerable ripples around the world from the peripheries of Sydney's indie dance music scene since early 2011. With skilled pop sensibilities, RÜFÜS' combination of live instruments and electronic production create moments of dance floor euphoria and roaming lo-fi grooves. The result is subtly and undeniably infectious.

Written and recorded solely by the band, the EP was also released through RÜFÜS' own label Monekeleon, and PRed entirely by the trio themselves. In a testament not only to the music, but also to the band's DIY aesthetic, RÜFÜS has enjoyed organic growth and enviable attention from key tastemakers in the blogosphere. Two tracks from the EP, 'Paris Collides' & 'We Left', reached No.8 & No.13 on the Hype Machine charts simultaneously, while also garnering radio play throughout Europe and North America. The brand new video for 'We Left', directed by Tropfest finalist Alex George - also the brother of RÜFÜS' Jon - continues in this DIY tradition.

Locally the band's live show has been gathering a loyal cult following, with growing intrigue from punters in their home town of Sydney resulting in more than a few sold out shows. On the airwaves, RÜFÜS' remix of the Elizabeth Rose track 'Stars Ago', has received national airplay with resident triple J DJ Nina Las Vegas giving the track a 5/5.

RÜFÜS: Jon George - Keys/Synths/Percussion * Tryone Lindqvist - Vocals/Guitar * James Hunt - Drums

Interview with Jon George

Jon George is on keys/synths/percussion/backing vocals.

Question: How does it feel to hear your song played all over the airwaves?

Jon George: It's a pretty special feeling jumping in to your car and hearing your track playing on national radio! We've had a few plays sporadically throughout the year on different radio stations, including regional, community and international radio stations, but now with regular airplay it's great to hear the feedback and get more people onboard with what we're doing.


Question: What are you looking forward to, most, about your upcoming tour?

Jon George: Meeting new people, having new experiences and getting to play live! We're really proud of our live show and it's the most rewarding outlet after spending so much time making new tracks in the studio and rehearsing as much as we do. New bands, new fans, new venues; it's all very exciting!


Question: How would you describe your music?

Jon George: I suppose people can call it whatever they like but it's generally an indie/dance sound for us with a whole range of influences from rock to house music.


Question: Did you have any pre-conceived ideas about the music industry?

Jon George: We've all dedicated our lives to music and have been involved in the industry in some form or another for a few years now and I think the best way you can look at it is to expect anything. It's a ruthless industry but the reward of making music is enough to keep us all involved no matter what hardships you go through.


Question: Do you write your own songs? What's your inspiration?

Jon George: Yeah we write our own songs and our biggest inspiration is music that we are digging at the time. We've all got main influences that we've grown up with and continue to listen to that we are always pushing for individually in our tracks but it's also extremely inspiring to hear a fresh sound and let it influence one of our tracks in some way; from a cool sounding snare to a combination of percussion, drums and bass to make a groove.


Question: What music/artists do you listen to when you are not playing your own?

Jon George: We love going out together and catching a band play live, and we've seen some really inspirational stuff lately like Ghoul, Foster the People, Bon Chat Bon Rat, Pnau, Darwin Deez, Owl Eyes, Jinja Safari, Mitzi, New Navy&hellip They've all really been inspiring to our live show and we're friends with a few of them now so it helps talking through ideas with them, and we've been doing a few DJ sets on the side that have us rummaging through new music all the time so people like Washed Out, Joe Goddard, The Rapture, Foals, Yeasayer, Toro Y Moi, Group Love, Classixx, Gold Panda, Chad Valley, Delphic, LCD Soundsystem and the old favourites- Chemical Brothers.


Question: Was there a moment you contemplated throwing in the towel?

Jon George: I don't think we've ever contemplated quitting, there's no point; we wouldn't be making the music if we didn't love doing it regardless of outside reactions.


Question: Do you prefer performing live or recording?

Jon George: They go hand in hand and we wouldn't be able to do what we do live if we didn't have those crazy, fun inspirational moments in the studio, but playing live is certainly a massive rush and extremely addictive.


Question: What/who was your inspiration to go into the music industry?

Jon George: We all grew up tinkering on different instruments and listening to different music but there's no doubt that we got in to music because of that feeling you get creating something new on whatever instrument and the personal satisfaction of improvement. We all jumped in to the industry for that similar feeling that you get that music can make you feel, and making it together for a living is the only choice for all of us.


Question: What is the biggest challenge you have faced along the way to your musical success?

Jon George: Being patient is certainly a challenge and there's a lot of waiting around from the moment of creation to public release in this industry but playing live helps us fill that void.


Question: What's a typical day like?

Jon George: Lately we've been preparing ourselves for a two week stint recording and mixing in Gigpiglet studios, Surry Hills; so it basically involves us meeting up at our Monekeleon studio and spending 5-8 hours in pre-production getting the demo's ready to be ripped apart and re-recorded and organising musicians to record strings and horns, gathering synths from friends and warming up Tyrone's voice with regular manuka honey tea's&hellip If we have a gig coming up we'll usually dedicate time to rehearsing as well...


Question: What has been your favourite part of becoming a music artist?

Jon George: Doing what you love every day for a living without a doubt is certainly our favourite part. You'll never work another day in your live if you do what you love&hellip :-)


Question: If you could collaborate with another artist, who would it be?

Jon George: We'd love to collaborate with any of our influences that we've mentioned earlier but I think the biggest would have to be James Murphy, the Chemical Brothers, Gotye, and of course Thom Yorke!


Question: Does Rufus have a website?

Jon George: Yes, www.facebook.com/rufussounds


Question: What is the story behind the bands name?

Jon George: RUFUS: "Greetings my excellent friends!"