The Ruby Tears are an interesting band, formed as a partnership during the Covid lockdowns from a set of online writing sessions. Despite the odds being against them, they’ve managed to create some fabulous tunes, with their EP Shifting Sand being one of their more recent offerings. If that sounds intriguing, you should read more about them below!
By Jane Howkins
You recently released an EP titled Shifting Sand. What can you tell us about the EP?
Our recent EP, Shifting Sand, came about fairly slowly this time around but all the songs were started and finished within 2022.
Small Town Valentine was the first to come about and that came really quick, Jeff just got it down then John came up with the song idea and it was done in the space of a week. We were able to play that one live for a while and play with the ending a bit so the live version was a bit shorter. We edited the finished track before we released it properly. Sometimes it is like that.
Broken Toy was started while Jeff was working away and bought a new telecaster. Once he started playing it the music wrote itself and was recorded over several late nights in hotels across the UK. The music wasn’t immediately inspiring to John through, and the final version took a while to come back – almost 6 months. Sometimes it is like that.
Smash was something that John had been working on and he sent it to Jeff at the same time as the draft for Broken Toy. Once Jeff added the surf style guitar riff at the beginning and a solo, it had new legs and again was done in the space of a week. We always bounce ideas via the internet and don’t write together at all. After 21 songs done that way, we’re not sure we could actually write face to face. Maybe we should try it, because sometimes it is supposed to be like that!
How has the reception to Shifting Sand been so far, and where can the songs be purchased?
All in all the reception for the EP was very warm and we have had no negative responses to it at all. We could always use more positive reactions though so thank you for including us and asking us these questions. One supporter from the weekly DJ Vanian’s From The Bunker podcast put both Valentine and Smash in his top 30 songs of the year and Shifting Sand itself was number 1 in his top 10 EPs of the year! We are always writing, sometimes slowly and sometimes songs just come of nowhere. One that we started last April just got finished and is available as a free download on Bandcamp (https://th…arn-to-fly)
All of our material, including the covers we have done are available on Bandcamp and available to stream on whatever your favourite services are.
Are there any plans to release a full-length album anytime soon?
We have planned to record a full album since we first started playing live but just haven’t found the time in between gigs and work commitments. As it happens, we are going into a studio in Salford in the New Year to get 6 or 7 songs down. These hopefully will see the light of day as a mini album and a physical release sometime later.
You got together just before the pandemic. Did the pandemic hinder your work much?
The band would not have happened without the pandemic, Jeff has been working away from home for 9 months a year for the last 25 years and as such, has never had the time to put a band together. Once lockdown happened, he committed to getting song ideas that he had started finished. Through Bandmix.com, he found John and the two of them started writing together the first song was completed just 2 weeks after lockdown started. We were a lot slower then but we came up with a song a month for the first year without having actually met.
Your music contains lots of elements of different rock genres from across the decades. What/who influences you most as artists? What have you been listening to recently?
We were all teenagers in the 70s and so our influences come from then, as well as the obvious remnants of the sixties, the first music that was ours was glam rock – Bowie, Slade – even David Essex! Later we had punk come along, followed by new wave and post-punk into the 80s. I think that our tastes may have split off after that but the common ground is late 60s to early 80s. The Clash, Elvis Costello, David Bowie, magazine, Wire, Talking Heads, XTC and so many more have a huge place in our hearts.
We put together a Spotify playlist of our inspirations if you’d like a listen https://op…342e284157
What is the composition process like for you?
One of us (Jeff or John) comes up with a fairly fully fledged song but without lyrics, we send it to the other one and then it gets bounced between us. There is a large mutual respect for what we come up with and only a few times have we had to really change much of each others ideas. The first song was the funniest because we didn’t know each other and John just changed whole sections of what Jeff had sent him. Jeff was like “what the fuck have you done with my music!!?” Neither of us had done much songwriting with other people for years, so we weren’t used to compromise.
We had to learn that again and now we have it in spades. Once the song is recorded, we often take it to practice with our bassist Jim Sangster and drummer Mark Robson and then the four of us work on it some more. All the songs we have played live have changed to include their input and we think this is so important. This is what we are doing with the recordings in Salford. Getting the live versions down. I think some differences will be quite subtle but both players have brought so much to the songs that it is important for us to get them down.
Where are you based? What is the music scene like in your part of the world?
Three of us are based in Liverpool and John is originally from Yorkshire, is but now based in Manchester. The music scene is strong in both Manchester and Liverpool ad we have been lucky to have been introduced to great bands through playing live. Mexican Dogs, Modern Marriage Cafalpa, Silent K are from Liverpool are all doing great things and The Sprats from Rochdale, The Midnight Foxes from Chester and Villanelle and The Northern Wonder from Manchester have all recently released great singles. Check them out.
Do you have any tour dates lined up for the UK?
Not at the moment but we will return to the stage at some point in spring probably. We want to focus on the recording and get that right. Unfortunately, Jeff continues to work away for periods of time so we have to fit gigs into the gaps between jobs. We’ll see.
Any last words for the fans?
Thanks for your support so far, it has been an interesting few years for us and we are only just getting started. Watch this space.