Born Ruffians, Toronto’s energetic indie rock darlings, returned to Boston on Wednesday night following the cancellation of their previously scheduled show at the Great Scott in April. They played a rollicking set of songs both new and old at The Sinclair, following Boston’s own Kid Mountain (a band well worth checking out — check out their single “Parashootin” on their EP Happies for great rhythm and rather special vocals from Mass Art’s Cole Wuillemier) and charming Chicagoan crust punks Twin Peaks, who rock so hard they broke several instruments during their set. Born Ruffians are continuing their US tour of their newest album Birthmarks and will be heading to New York, California, and Australia soon — but first, they sat down to cookies and conversation with Allston Pudding. Read on for Luke and Mitch’s take on pop music, favorite t-shirts, and the velocity of melting face paint.
Allston Pudding: Welcome back to Boston!
Mitch Derosier and Luke Lalonde: Thanks!
Your last show here was at BU Central.
LL: Yeah, that was a great show.
MD: And then we ere supposed to play here in Allston at Great Scott [the show was cancelled in the aftermath of the marathon]. Really sad.
Well, welcome back! You’ve been pretty much everywhere since you were here last. What were some of your favorite shows?
MD: The rest of that US tour was great. We had really good shows in Houston and Austin—
LL: LA! LA stood out as maybe my favorite touring city.
MD: Yeah, they were all great. Great great great. Houston was amazing, I loved that venue.
LL: I think that show at the Great Scott would have been one of the best ones, though.
I heard “Cold Pop” playing on the radio in a JP Licks (it’s an ice cream place here) the other day. It’s really nice to see you guys getting a bunch of notoriety these days! Do you feel like you’re attracting a new or different audience?
LL: Well, we’ve cracked the JP Licks crowd…
MD: More of a sweet crowd, not a savory crowd, you know (giggles). For real though, I’ve noticed hearing our music a lot more when I’m out and like, trying on pants at a store. I’m like, oh, that’s us! Playing right now! I feel like I’m noticing it a lot more on this record. Literally, all pants-trying-on stories. Like three separate occasions.
LL: We’ve definitely been getting a lot more — and I think that it has something to do with the production value — the way we produced this record was geared more towards that sound which was, you know, a more produced and modern sound. Everything being kind of, you know, tighter and less lo-fi, I guess, you open up doors for getting played on the radio more, stores playing your music, stuff going on. An FM radio station, not that they couldn’t, but they wouldn’t play anything on Say It because it sounds like this weird jarring jump, like, the Black Keys and then Born Ruffians after? Something like “Nova Leigh” would just be like, ‘did they record this in a fucking bathroom or something?’ This record was a bit more like, let’s make everything sound big and modern. Big drums.
Right. Last time we spoke you said that you weren’t really happy with Say It. Still not into it?
LL: Yeah, I mean. Yeah. I can’t listen to that record. I wish we could re-do it; I like the songs on that record, but in my head, I wish that I could show them the way I hear them. Now when I hear one I’m just like… (shudders). I wish they could have been done differently.
Are you noticing different kinds of people at your shows than before?
MD: It’s funny, you know, with the years of playing… We’ve been touring for seven years, so there are fans who grew up with us, who say “I saw you when I was this age and now you’re this age.” That’s really cool. But we also seem to have a younger crowd. We have a lot of young fans who demand that we play all ages shows online, which is awesome and I want to do that every chance we can get. I guess our music brings in young people. The youths. Of America.
Who do you think is exciting in music right now?
MD: I’ve been listening to the new J Cole record. It’s always what I listen to lately.
LL: Twin Peaks has a new record out today. I like them a lot, I hadn’t listened to them before we played together but I really like them. The same stuff I always do, old stuff that I can always go back to, like Brian Eno or Randy Newman or David Bowie or Talking Heads or whatever. The Zolas. We Are The City, this Canadian band that we played with a couple of times from Vancouver. Their album is great.
It’s also been fun to see you kind of randomly modeling for H&M, Luke! How did that happen?
LL: Uhh…Well, whoever directed the casting for that contacted us and asked if I wanted to submit some kind of audition video. I don’t have an agent, I’ve never modeled before, you know, I didn’t have a rep, so they contacted our band manager. So I did it, and I got the job, so I was like “Ok, sure!” They flew me to Palm Springs for a week and it was actually really fun. I don’t know, I did it for money (laughs). I was like, “why not?” and no one really knew. I posted it on Instagram and was like “this happened,” but otherwise I don’t think people would have known. I don’t really notice ads like that. But it was cool. The people were really nice. I haven’t done anything since, I think my modeling career started and ended there.
You don’t see yourself as becoming a star of the fashion industry?
LL: Nah, it was a year ago and I’m too old now! (Laughs)
MD: It’s a short window.
Would you consider yourselves fashion guys? What’s your favorite outfit?
LL: I like clothes a lot, actually. We were talking about clothes earlier because Andy is the most frugal person – he’ll buy a record for fifty dollars but he’ll scoff at you for spending more than ten dollars on a sandwich. I mean, I like nice food, I’m happy to spend twenty dollars on this sandwich! He’s kind of that way with clothes too, you know, one pair of pants. Jeans. I was just like, man, I have too many pants! But on stage, you know, it’s like one or two shirts that I feel confident in and present myself the way I feel like I want to be. I think the way you dress onstage is like how you see yourself in a photo or in a mirror and you want people to see it. I think you have to put thought into that. It comes down, though, to an outfit or two, and then I can just sweat through ’em and not worry about stinking up my suitcase. I think we all have a favorite shirt.
MD: Yeah, I have a couple I love now. Usually a flannel type shirt. I got a pizza shirt. I discovered at the end of a show in Chicago that there was pizza on my shirt… Like cold pizza, actual hardened pizza sauce and I just played the whole show. The worst part was, we’d eaten pizza the day before.
Oh man! That’s so metal. Did you guys dress up for Halloween?
LL: We did a face paint thing.
MD: We didn’t play on Halloween, we played the day before in Detroit so we all put skull makeup on. Mitch was the wrestler. For some of us it melted.
Here’s a polarizing one: what do you think of the new Miley Cyrus? The new Kanye?
LL: I love Kanye West. I think he is a genius, and I think he is a rock star. When he said that I was like “Yeah, you are!” Rockstars are so redundant, rap is getting to that point that it’s been around for a long time, but it’s still the most innovative genre out there. And dance music. Kanye is really at the front of that herd.
MD: Yeah, that’s exactly how it went with rockers in the 60s and stuff when your parents were just like ‘What is this? What are they doing onstage? That’s embarrassing!
LL: Yeah. John Lennon said all these crazy inflammatory remarks, and people were burning his records.
MD: And especially Kanye West has this sense of mystery. A lot of bands are just happy to put themselves out there — I’m happy to do that on Twitter and stuff, but Kanye West is very cryptic and kind of insane seeming, but it’s all a persona created by him. It’s that “who are these guys, I’ve heard this and that about them” thing.
LL: My dad doesn’t understand rap at all.
MD: And his dad didn’t understand rock and roll!
LL: Exactly. As far as Miley goes, I haven’t heard her new record. I like “Wrecking Ball.” Her personal image is, for me, a misstep, but it seems like she’s really capitalized on it. It’s very calculated, the reason you’re asking about it and the reason everyone is talking about it is because she’s done that very well. It’s hard to shock people and she’s done that. And she’s got a great voice, I think she’s a real talent. It all comes down to that, really. I think she’ll keep making records. I think the Miley Cyruses and Justin Biebers of the world are setting something up for the future. Part of what they’re doing is coming from them, and it’s taking them in the same direction as other pop legends like Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson, and their success comes from themselves, not an industry. I could go on and on about pop music.
Do you guys consider yourselves a part of that movement?
LL: Well, when you think about those infrastructures when you’re making any kind of music you have to think about where your product fits in and who your fans are. People have to think of that on any level. We just went to the Motown museum in Detroit, and learning about Berry Gordy and the genius of Motown, this amazing music that was for everybody. He said “I just want to make music that everyone can like,” and he did. It’s not just making music. It’s part art and it’s part theater, and you have to sell it.
What comes next? Far future, near future?
LL: Death! (Laughs) Well, far future, death, but near future, we’re gonna tour a bit more, not too much more. One more show on this tour and then a couple in California and then Australia, plus a big show in Toronto in a couple of weeks that we’re excited about. Beyond that, just trying to write and record. I gotta finish this EP that we want to put out, of alternate versions of Birthmarks songs with maybe four songs of my own. So it’s gonna be an acoustic-y EP. It’s more organic and soft versions after a year of recording where everything is super calculated, I just wanted to do something less produced. More organic instrumentation. We’ve got some B-sides we want to put in the EP as well.
If you could perform for one person once who would it be, living or dead?
LL: A lot goes into that question. If you perform for the richest person in the world, like some Saudi Arabian prince, that could set you up for life! You could just keep making records. He’d be like, “Here is one million dollars for your record” and you could just keep going. Or you could perform for David Bowie and he’d just be like, “Yeah, that’s fine. I think I’m gonna go now because I didn’t really like that.” That could crush you. Oh! Tim Heidecker!!!
Beautiful!
LL: He’s one of my inspirations generally, to be honest. I have a lot of respect for him. If I could have dinner with anyone…
MD: I just wanna jam with him…
LL: Yeah! You can tell he really likes his music. He probably really has fun and loves playing music. I admire how much he does.
MD: I was gonna go on a bummer route. I was gonna say my grandma, my mom’s mom. She died when I was pretty young. She was really funny, and my mom, whenever we play in Toronto she’ll come to the pit of the stage, and she’s 53 now. I think my grandma would have been the exact same way. It would have been hilarious. It’s something I wish she’d gotten to see. She never got to saw that.
LL: Your mom was born in 1960?
MD: Yep.
LL: She’s ten years older than my dad?
MD: Yeah. (Both laugh).
How sweet to see such an old friendship! Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to Allston Pudding!