Quick Before it Melts

Monday 22 March 2010

QBiM Q&A with Born Ruffians’ Luke Lalonde

June 1st may seem far off, but with Spring having sprung this past weekend, it won’t be long before Born Ruffians second LP, Say It, arrives on our doorsteps.  As a matter of fact, when I asked Luke Lalonde of the band if he would be interested in doing one of my infamous Q&As, I thought I may get the finished answers closer to release day, but Lalonde is no slouch, making quick work of my questions in short order.  Say It is being released on Paper Bag Records, and Lalonde and the rest of the band are eager for the world to hear it.  I’m sure they previewed the LP when they played the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto on the 14th as part of CMW before heading south to do a series of shows in Austin this past week for SXSW.  So why wait to post the interview?  QBiM readers, meet a Ruffian who really loves his grandma!QBiM: State your name for the record, and mention your record while you’re at it.
LL: Luke Lalonde of Born Ruffians. Our new record entitled Say It will be released on my grandmother’s birthday, June 1st 2010. She will be 89 years old on this day.

QBiM: Where are you from, how did you get here, and where are you going next?
LL: I am from a smallish town in Ontario called Midland. Right now I’m in Scranton, Pennsylvania – made semi-famous by the American version of the popular television series The Office which is set in said city. I am stopping here with the rest of Born Ruffians on the way to New York City to play out music.

QBiM: Who’s hanging out with you?
LL: Mitch DeRosier, Steve Hamelin and Andy Lloyd are here working, sleeping, eating and playing together with me.

QBiM: How was the recording Red Yellow & Blue (the Ruffians’ first album) different from Say It?  Did anything strike you as difficult the second time around?
LL: I think generally things were easier this time around. We were more focused on what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go with the songs. We decided not to demo a single song ahead of time and to reserve spontaneity for the recording studio. We were working with Rusty Santos again but in the two years between Red, Yellow & Blue and Say It we, as a band, and he, as a producer, had lots of time and experience to grow and get better at what we do.

QBiM: What has been the biggest change in your day-to-day life since Born Ruffians signed to a label and started releasing music?
LL: I suppose there’s a correlation between signing and quitting my job. I’ve been able to live off music since signing to a label. I don’t roll around in piles of money but I’m able to continue sustaining myself. Working with a label has been a great learning experience. Initially, and because of my general ignorance as a young man, I sort of assumed they would take care of everything. This related to most of my involvement in the “business” side of our music. In the past 3 or 4 years since being a “professional musician” I’ve learned to be both a professional and a musician. I’m still learning. The most valuable thing I’ve taken away from it is to not get lazy and to be very active in every aspect of what I’m doing in order to keep growing and eventually roll around in piles of money.

QBiM: What’s the one sound that drives you crazy?
LL: Ambulances/fire trucks. I know they save people’s lives but I just think they’re a bunch of assholes.

QBiM: What’s the greatest invention of all time?
LL: Fire trucks/ambulances. They transport people who risk their lives to save others (this is bullshit pandering to make up for the last question).

QBiM: Other than music or other artists, what influences you as a musician and songwriter?
LL: I would say everything, but that’d be a pretty gay answer. I really don’t seem to consciously draw too much influence from day-to-day stuff and I like to keep real life real, and songs more fantasy. I like the fantasies to be rooted in reality though, which is tricky. I draw a lot of inspiration from books. I read sporadically and I’ve discovered I write a lot more (lyrics) when I read more. The more you put in the more you get out. The last three books I read that were inspiring to me were Factotum by Charles Bukowski (any Bukowski I love), Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.

QBiM: What’s the one song you wish you’d have written?
LL: “Happy Birthday.”

QBiM: Do you sing in the shower?
LL: I dance.

QBiM: Do you listen to your own music in the car?
LL: The car is my favourite place to listen to new mixes of songs after they’ve been completed. I don’t listen to my own music after it’s all said and done. I think I’ve now listened to the new record for the last time. It just becomes unbearable.

QBiM: What would be the one moment in time you’d go back and relive or experience?
LL: What’s the earliest time in the history of planet earth in which human life could be supported with the proper balance of molecules in the atmosphere and vegetation etc? That’s where I’d go. I’d rather go to deep outer space than back in time if I had the choice.

QBiM: Define “pain”.
LL: This question must be from when emo was really cool.

QBiM: Is there anything left to explore?
LL: Most of the universe.  Parts of the deep ocean.  Blue whales mating and travel patterns (could be included in ocean subject).  The future, specifically my future.

QBiM: When was the last time you cried?
LL: I was thinking about this the other day and I honestly couldn’t remember, so I started to cry then just so I’d know when the last time was. It was the other day.

QBiM: If you didn’t make music what would you be doing with your life?
LL: I would be a movie star like Tom Cruise and Meg Ryan.

QBiM: If you could be invisible for a day, what would you do?
LL: This is something I’ve given a great deal of thought to. I’d rob banks, but only under the assumption that anything I touch also becomes invisible (i.e. my clothes would be invisible if I were wearing them). I would also go to old folk’s homes and knock things off the shelves. Then do some really positive things for the old folks in the home, like wedgie the nurse they all hate. This would give them all hope in an afterlife.

QBiM: What’s the one thing our world could with less of and why?
LL: Cynicism, nobody likes a cynic. Also the ability to tell when someone is being a cynical asshole or just genuinely hating on something.

QBiM: We’re embarking on a new decade: what major change would you like to see in the world by 2020?
LL: I hope I am alive in 2020, this is selfishly the first thing I thought. I suppose in all sincerity I’d like to see the planet recovering from all of the shit we’ve thrown at and into it. I would like for there to be a 2030, 2040, 2050, 2060, 2070 & 2080. I hope I do not live into 2090 because statistics show an alarming rate of mental and physical degeneration after age 80 so by this time I will surely be, at the very least, completely incontinent. Happy birthday Grandma!

QBiM: What are your big plans for 2010?
LL: We’re releasing the record at the halfway point of the year. The summer isn’t really prime touring time because of all the festivals that happen. Unfortunately because of our timing we won’t be doing a ton of those. I will continue writing and recording music in my spare time as I have been. We’ll do a tour around the album release and continue thoroughly touring as much of the world as we’re willing and able to do in Autumn and Winter 2010.

QBiM: Anything to declare?
LL: Happy birthday June Walton and “Say It.” I wish you both many more years of success and well-being and may you both get plenty of wonderful reception from your fans and sell millions of copies worldwide.

MP3: Born Ruffians “Sole Brother”
Myspace: Born Ruffians

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