The band discusses the importance of maintaining band relationships and songs they wish they hadn’t written
When watching Born Ruffians perform, one thing’s clear: the band’s tight. This comes in part from performing on stages across the world, and in part from their close relationship off stage.
The Midland trio released their fifth studio album earlier this February, a project that also marked the triumphant return of their original drummer, Steve Hamelin. Before taking to the stage at Riverfest on Saturday, Hamelin and lead singer Luke Lalonde spoke to The Ontarion about their small-town roots, international crowds, and the value they place in their close relationship.
Fiona Cashell: You guys put out an album, Uncle, Duke & The Chief, back in February. In your own words, how would you describe this album in comparison to your other ones?
Luke Lalonde: It’s not that different from our other records, it’s most closely related to our first couple records. It’s recorded pretty live off the floor with the three of us in a room together. Our first two records we recorded a song per day in the studio, and that’s what we did for this one too. We didn’t put a lot of time into it in a good way; we didn’t spend a lot of time in the studio so it sounds like a band playing their songs, which is how we like our records to sound.
FC: Steve, you left the band and came back. Was that always the plan?
Steve Hamelin: [joking] That was the master plan. No, I took some time off to go back to school and I came back. I missed it a lot. I wrote a little bit on the album RUFF when I was in school. The first day that I wrote I thought, “Oh, I want to keep doing this!” That put the seed in my mind that when I was finished school I would come back.
FC: You guys are from Midland, which is a pretty small town. Did that shape your career ambitions early on?
LL: It helped make it easier to cultivate our own thing. There wasn’t a lot of competition, which could be a good or a bad thing. When we were starting out, it was great to just go to Steve’s basement and jam. Everything’s easier in a small town. If you’re in Toronto in high school trying to make a band happen, and you don’t have a rehearsal space or connections, it’s probably harder. In a small town, you can just do whatever you want. Emo, hardcore, and punk were big in our hometown but we were doing more indie rock, just weirder stuff than what was happening. It tricked us into thinking we were more original because we were the only band in town that covered The Strokes versus just doing a bunch of punk songs.If we were in Toronto, we might have realized we weren’t as original as we thought.
SH: I think it made us naïve enough to try and do this too. I think if you tried to start out in Toronto and you couldn’t get a show you would be discouraged. You need to be a little bit naïve going into it. We were mailing our demos to Warner thinking, “Oh yeah, they’ll hear it, and they’ll sign us!” We were kind of delusional in a good way.
FC: Has there been any song you’ve put out over the years that has made you feel vulnerable to play live?
LL: Well, there’s this song that we never really played that was all just a metaphor for oral sex, which I really regret writing. I don’t mind the song, it was just all about cunnilingus and I was like, “Why did I write that?” There’s some new songs that we have that I feel vulnerable when we play them, but not in a bad way — I just feel emotional. I like when a song makes me feel something when I play it. I think that if you’re afraid of anything in your song, you’re either doing something weird or you’re doing something right.You’re exposing a part of yourself that is vulnerable and I think it’s part of your job to expose those areas.
FC: You’ve done a couple of projects with the lead singers of July Talk, Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay, including your latest music videos. How did that relationship come about?
SH: That relationship actually predates the existence of July Talk. We’ve been working with Peter since before he was a professional musician. He shot at least four of our early music videos. It was pretty natural for that to just come back together, he’s been a friend for a long time.
FC: On your YouTube channel, you have your B-Roll vlogs. Is that a pretty accurate representation of how you guys are offstage?
SH: I guess, with [bassist] Mitch [Desrosier]’s editorial slant. He picks and chooses what to show. It’s fairly accurate — it’s how Mitch sees us obviously.
FC: What’s the best advice another artist has ever given you?
LH: My dad, as a musician, told me to start writing songs when I first started playing guitar. He said, “Don’t just imitate other people, try and write stuff on your own stuff, even if it’s just stupid at first.” The other piece of advice came from a jazz drummer who passed away, Steve Reid, who told us to stick together. No matter what, above all else, make sure you stick together because your friendship and relationship is the most important thing out of everything and if you don’t keep that strong then you’re not going to get very far. I think that’s good advice for whatever you do. Those relationships have to be strong, and you have to like each other and be nice.
SH: Ups and downs, but seventeen years later we’re still together.
LH: And we still hang out even when we’re not on the road, but there’s only so Mitch can film and put on B-Roll though (laughs).
FC: Speaking of being on the road, you’ve done a lot of touring abroad. What would you say is a big difference between international audiences and in Canada?
SH: German crowds have their own thing going on.
LH: They’re more attentive, shockingly so sometimes. They’re either super rowdy or they’re really attentive and quiet.
SH: A respectful quiet though, so you know you’re not bombing.
FC: If you could design your own dream tour line up for you to be a part of, what would it be?
SH: I like to tour with people I get along with offstage. It is so important that the vibe of the tour is good. In that sense, my current dream tour would be resurrecting Young Rival, and throw in Little Junior. Basically, tours that we’ve already done. You can throw July Talk in there too.
LH: And Caribou.
SH: Sam Roberts seems nice. Why not? When you’re on the road you really just want to be with people you get along with.
FC: Who are you most excited to see this weekend?
LH: I’m really excited to see The Flaming Lips again. I’ve seen them a bunch, but I’m excited to see them again.
SH: Carly Rae! I’m excited to see her, big time.
Click here to check out our review of Riverfest Elora 2018 and to see more photos.
Photo by Karen K. Tran