Ruby for Lucy
Ruby for Lucy
Julie came with the name and Kat loved it –“they’re two characters, a make believe of sorts.”
Le Depot Patisserie
10.30
One pain au chocolat, two croissants and three lattes later.
Kat: It was kind of funny actually, we met in a bizarre way. I was really bored at work one day and thinking so sick of working in this corporate world I wanted to get back into playing music.
So I typed into Google musicians wanted sydney and on this website I see this one little peculiar advertisement ‘I really want to make some songs with someone.”
I emailed Julie and it turned out she only put it up that morning, worked in the same industry as me, lived around the corner and we were the same age.
Julie: So I just walked over to Kat’s house with my guitar and I’ve been doing it ever since.
A little later
Synchronicity is one word to describe Ruby for Lucy. Kat and Julie pre-empt one another’s thoughts and finish each other’s sentences, it’s a lovely thing that seems to flow from their daily lives into their art.
Kat: We have opposite strengths so it works quite well.
Julie: When I first met Kat I could only play about four chords pretty badly on guitar but I was really interested in writing melodies and lyrics –
Kat: I cannot write to save myself; it would be very lame if I wrote the lyrics!
Julie: So it gets split nicely down the middle –
Kat: And it goes back and forwards, back and forwards.
See what I mean about the sentence thing?
10:37
Their promising debut Catching Bream was recorded with their ‘crazy french producer’ Steeve (note the two e's), then later as Julie made her debut as a grey nomad, travelling for three months across Australia, the album came to fruition.
Julie: We went into the recording studio thinking it would be just Kat and I, but then our crazy french producer convinced us that the songs could be something more and we ended up doing bass and drums and all sorts of other things.
Kat: It was a very organic process.
Julie: Steeve is a musician himself and he’s probably the only person I know who can get away with spelling his name with two e’s but it suits him, he’s definitely earnt his e’s.
Kat: It was really quick, it took us about two months -
Julie: I had to go away on holidays and Kat was left with the baby. I was trying to drive into cities to get reception and download the tracks from the internet, emailing to Kat,
‘I think that sounds okay, maybe a little less whirlizter – otherwise, thumbs up!’
10.40
I always thought that they were childhood friends, it’s an easy mistake to make; under the guise of Ruby for Lucy the girl’s music is reminiscent of times now passed, of bicycles and books, teacups and gnomes and of course, grandma’s sentimental porcelain.
All memories beautifully captured on their album artwork for Catching Bream.
Julie: These two girls we knew did it for us, they were amazing. I just loved the fact that when they first showed it to us I still hadn’t seen everything there was to see - it was multilayered.
Kat: They just got it.
Me: The record came together really well, it had this suburban imagining feel to it, as if you were reminiscing – I just sort of assumed that you grew up together.
Julie: That’s a lovely thing to say, It’s funny I did a radio gig in Canberra and the guy who was interviewing me said, ‘You seem to write about a lot of mundane things and your album looks like its covered in wall paint.’
And I was like, well I prefer to think of it as being fascinated by the everyday, its more what our lives are about, you know?
Kat: It’s relatable to a lot of people.
11:00
Then there’s the hook, like all good albums you can play Catching Bream countless times and with each listen still find something new.
Julie: We wanted to make something that when you peel all the layers back, right to the very heart of it, is thought about. If you were to dissect one of the songs, you could then have something to think about in the lyrics.
I’m very obsessed with language and words so it’s really important to me that songs read like a story, there’s some substance there.
Kat: We said when we got together, let’s just write songs that we like and if other people like it then that’s a bonus.
Then some:
Somehow our interview transformed into a book club of sorts, a music appreciation session - whatever you want to call it. So here's is a little list I wrote for you guys, It’s called Ruby for Lucy recommends:
Agnes Obel (listen to ‘riverside’)
The Dice Man (‘It’s the best book I’ve read’)
The Nimrod Flip Out (short stories)
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (fun)
Restaurants on Glebe Point Road (no explanation necessary)
One Big Damn Puzzler (as Kat emphasized – it’s a book too).
The title track, Catching Bream is my personal favourite - there's a beautiful, gypsy, caravan vibe.
Feel free to check Catching Bream out on Itunes, it's lovely, I promise!
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