Bloom

“We were taking it all in. It was a very fun time,” James Hunt tells Apple Music about moving to Berlin in 2014 to write Bloom, RÜFÜS DU SOL’s second album. Together with Tyrone Lindqvist and Jon George, the electronic trio from Sydney immersed themselves in the life, culture and music of the vibrant German city, welcoming its influence on the growth of their own sound. “I definitely have very sweet nostalgia about making that record,” he says. “I remember being so ecstatic that we got to live overseas, writing music, seeing live music, a lot of new experiences. We were very wide-eyed and ambitious.” George adds: “Berlin was pretty special as we dove deeper into different parts of underground dance music and techno. Everyone is so passionate about music and about creative pursuits. I think that really helped shape our passion for the dance music and creating sonic worlds for clubs and headphone listeners as well.” Below, Hunt, Lindqvist and George talk more about each track on their 2016 album.
Brighter Hunt: “It sets the tone for the album. One thing we definitely love doing at the end of a writing process is figuring out the final sequencing. We wanted a journey that starts sweet and light and hopeful, and it gradually progress toward some of the darker tones, as if there’s a storm coming. ‘Brighter’ felt like the natural opening for that and the feeling that we wanted to start the record with.” Lindqvist: “We also really love creating a world for the song to live in. It could be the crackle of a fire or, in this case, the rain in the background. It’s nice to be immersed in a sound that gives the song an identity.”
Like an Animal Hunt: “One of the concepts we’re constantly facing when making music is cracking the code of the song, figuring the song out. Sometimes the song will present itself to you and the parts will come out organically, and the identity of the song will be fully fleshed out. Whereas with other songs you’re constantly tweaking, changing things, trying to crack the code. This was one of the standout examples where we created about 80 different iterations of it, constantly tracking the chorus lyrics, trying to crack the code of what the bass was going to be, the structure. We just kept pushing and pushing to figure it out.”
Say a Prayer for Me George: “We’d play ping-pong out in the hallway of the studio we were working at for about eight months. We got really good at ping-pong as a way to clear our heads, and then we’d come back and listen to stuff. On this one particular day, Tyrone stayed in the studio while me and James played ping-pong, and when we came back in, he'd written the chords. We quickly started jamming out some vocal ideas—I remember how cool and unique that ‘say a prayer’ line felt for me.” Lindqvist: “Jon and one of his friends had just come in to the studio to see what we were working on and they just decorated everything to give it a bit of a vibe, because it was pretty much a stale little empty space. This was one of the first songs that we were laying down some vocals where there were actual fairy lights and atmosphere.”
You Were Right George: “The essence of that song is very much about realising a bit of an obsession with someone and the real want for someone. There’s a bit of a shift in the early parts of a relationship where it's still very exciting and full of fun and playful, and then something changes. There's a bit of a moment where you're like, ‘Oh, shit. What's happening here?’ A bit obsessive, but in a nice way.”
Be With You Lindqvist: “It was half written overseas and half written back in Australia. It has this cool, very upbeat, dancey vibe going on immediately. We really wanted to explore sort of a chorus vocals and a big, happy house vibe that had been the inspiration. It was cool to explore that with this track and have those uplifting chorus vocals.” Hunt: “With this song, as well as ‘Brighter’, we knew that we wanted to get a gospel choir. We found some people in Sydney who were recommended to us by friends. It brought a really cool vibe. We were listening to a lot of sample-based hip-hop and house, things that had that old feeling. We were able to channel that here. It was really cool.”
Daylight Lindqvist: “We always wanted to make something that didn't quite have a drop. With a lot of the music we make, the tension and release is the big thing we play with, and we really just wanted a song that had tension but the release wasn't necessarily a big one, just a musical release without a drop. Also, we often try to put guitar into songs, and it's hard for us. I don't know why. A lot of music that we listen to is guitar-driven, like Foals or Radiohead. But it's hard for us to find songs where we really love using the guitar. With this one we ended up layering two or three guitars on top of each other and it felt right. So it was one of the rare guitar successes—often we put it in and we get to a point where we're like, ‘No, let's just do it with the synths.’”
Hypnotised (feat. Dena Amy) Lindqvist: “We did a duet on the first album and we enjoyed the experience, so we wanted to do it again. And this song felt like the right one. It’s the most romantic song on the record. Jon's girlfriend at the time was a really great singer. We wrote this melody and she came in and sang it for a demo. We explored other female singers, but sometimes it's just magic in those first demos, and we couldn't really find anything that beat that original demo.” Hunt: “We’ve had people come up and say it was played at their wedding. It's pretty cool when you hear there are people who’ve had your song bookmark a chapter in your life. It's a pretty crazy feeling when people tell you it's gotten them through a hard time or that they see it as a part of their story.”
Tell Me Lindvist: “Nature is often a starting point with our lyrics. Anything that takes you to a specific place or sets the scene. In this song, we had a lot of problems with setting the scene, places that we'd like to go with someone. The lyrics are a tool to evoke that feeling that we're exploring. There's truth in that feeling, more than an actual location. It’s how we work with verse and chorus—often, there’s a chorus that’s the simplified, basic, most direct version of the feeling we’re exploring. And the verses are the detail.”
Until the Sun Needs to Rise Lindqvist: “We were in Berlin in the winter and we were definitely feeling excited to get home for the Australian summer. While it was so exciting being in Berlin, we were definitely longing for some vitamin D. It can get a little bit gloomy over there and cold and dark a lot of the time. Yeah. If you didn't go outside between 11 and 2 or 3, you'd be in darkness. It was the first time we all experienced that for a prolonged period of time.”
Lose My Head Hunt: “We wrote this in Berlin. One of the things we’d started doing was finding YouTube videos and playing the songs while that was on. At the time we were playing a lot of old Disney videos, like Snow White and Bambi—it kind of tied in with the sound and sweet old samples. It sounds really old-school and just felt right. With this song we were very much playing these Disney videos while writing. There’s a specific video with Bambi and Thumper when they go out on the ice and they're spinning on the ice.”
Innerbloom George: “It went on to be one of our most successful songs in so many ways. From the moment we first played it live on stage before anyone had heard it, we were already having people crying. It's amazing to watch the journey of this song from those first moments to the way that people have been able to tell so many different stories about what it means to them. It’s been a very rewarding song for us.” Lindqvist: “It’s popped up during some of the craziest times in my life so far. It feels like a very special song, and I don't really know why. Like there was one moment where I was at a yoga class, and I was just going through a really tough time at this particular moment and I just started crying in the class because the song came on. I guess I was a little embarrassed, like, imagine if someone recognised that it was me crying, but I wasn’t thinking about that then. I just heard the chords and crumbled. So, it means a lot. Every time that we play it, it doesn't matter how good or bad of a show it is, that song has the magic of bringing us back to the stage straight away. It definitely felt like when we wrote it, it was like letting your guard down, just really shedding all your protective layers, and it's like standing there naked in front of someone. It's really liberating and maybe one of the first times I really felt free, musically.”