Lydia: How would you describe your new album, The World Goes Quiet?
Clark: Hooky, anthemic...fucking good! There's no hiding it, it's commercial, pop-rock stuff. We don't think that we're heavy metal stars, and we're not -- nor a four-piece boy band. We are a real band.
Lydia: For me, The World Goes Quiet is one of the most prominent tracks on the album. What's it about?
Rob: The song is about a friend of mine. We've got loads of musician friends, and one in particular got quite successful and he couldn't handle the highs and lows of the industry. The World Goes Quiet represents the feeling when you're on stage getting a buzz from the crowd, and you're feeling adoration for that scene. And then you step off the stage, go home, and close the door. And it's that feeling that you're on your own, and you have your own thoughts to contend with. He couldn't handle that. He got into lots of drugs and, yeah, it was tough. It's about that feeling, I guess.
Lydia: And how is your new record different from anything you've done before?
Rob: We see the first one as our experimentation.
Clark: With the first album, we were locked up for 6 months and we had to make something. This time around we didn't even realise that we were making an album. We'd just be in our bedroom studios recording little songs. And then Rob ended up writing a couple more, and we were like, "Oh fuck, we've got an album. Sweet!"
Lydia: There's an overarching sense of melancholy with a number of the tracks on the record. This seems to be the case with 'Red Moon Falls,' too. What's behind that?
Rob: Um, that track was about a slight long-term relationship. It kind of felt like I was losing myself in a relationship and needed to pull back and find myself again -- going away and stepping outside of it. So, we went to Spain on a lads' holiday. I wasn't naughty, but I just needed that time away to find myself again. And on the way back there was a big, red moon; it was a sign to write a song about it -- so I did.
Adam: I thought it was the end of the world, that red moon.
Lydia: You talk of finding yourself again, but how do reconcile that with the notion of spending your whole life looking for somebody to save you -- efforts that you express at the end of this track?
Rob: The need to have someone completely -- that's not how it should be. There's a need to be content with yourself, instead of trying to push it on to somebody else to make you feel content. Eckhart Tolle, a philosopher, who wrote a book called The Power of Now -- I was slightly inspired by that, I guess. He would call himself enlightened and it's all about living in the moment. The past is gone and the future is yet to happen and so all you have is this moment. I don't want to go too deep into it, but it's all about loving yourself and being content with yourself first, above anything else.
Adam: Big headline: "Rob loves himself."
Lydia: Known for your cross-country 'guerrilla style street gigs,' they've actually helped fund your new album, haven't they?
Rob: You can't explain the buzz that we get from doing it, and the naughtiest ones are always the best ones - especially when there are barriers in the way!
Adam: If you're not nervous and don't think that the police are going to come, you're in the wrong place.
Rob: Once, I think we got 30 seconds into a song and we had the council down. The police were there, and a priest came running out of the church because it was during his Sunday sermon. He was fully robed, just screaming for us to stop. Everyone just pounced on us. It was crazy!
Lydia: And, so, what's next?
Rob: As daunting as it is, we need to get it together. We've started writing already. We need to keep it going. Musically, we'll take it up another level...
Track listing:
1. The World Goes Quiet
2. Black Sun Needs Sparks
3. I Don't Want Paradise
4. Spiral
5. Red Moon Falls
6. Lovers of New York
7. Our Design
8. Tell Me Where You Wanna Go
9. Order Me Double
10. Love Without a Cause
11. Screaming Surrender
12. Sound of Light
Website: http://rubylux.net/
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/rubylux