Born Ruffian's Say It has the youthful band growing up and growing sombre.
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Riding high on a wave of boyish vigour and melodic whimsy, Born Ruffians definitely lives up to the vernacular myth of snips, snails and puppy dog tails. Darlings of the Canadian all-ages scene, these natural-born Ontarians have made a name for themselves by virtue of their youthful exuberance and their unabated willingness to leave it all on stage, whether they’re sweating it out in Toronto’s night clubs or toughing it out on a frigid winter tour. Bonded by an irrepressible drive to perform and a well-rounded sense of humour, lead guitarist-vocalist Luke LaLonde, percussionist Steven Hamelin, guitarist-keyboardist-multi-instrumentalist Andy Lloyd and bassist Mitch DeRosier share a wealth of fond and, more often than not, funny memories about cutting their permanent teeth on Canadian indie rock. “The all-ages scene has always been important to us,” acknowledges Born Ruffians bassist Mitch DeRosier. “I’m a strong believer that whoever wants to come in to watch a show should be allowed to do so. No one should be restricted from enjoying live music; I just wish it didn’t cost so much to put on all-ages gigs, it just seems unfair. And it’s frustrating from our point of view as a band, especially since we’ve been in those shoes when we were in high school.” “I remember one of our first tours — we were out on the road with Hot Chip, which was awesome,” DeRosier continues. “But we were only 19 or 20 years old at the time, and therefore, not old enough to drink at the venues in the States. In San Diego they actually made us wait out on the street until our curtain call. Of course, like any kids, we were just happy to be there — even if we did have a babysitter hired just to watch us back stage.” Like so many Canadians who have to leave their home and native land to gain some decent recognition, Born Ruffians released its debut EP on the U.K.’s Warped Records in 2006. Two years later its award-winning second LP Red, Yellow & Blue appeared to much critical hoopla, cementing the band’s position in the international zeitgeist and priming their rapidly expanding fanbase for a string of live concert dates that would take Born Ruffians around the globe. Certainly, runaway singles including “This Sentence Will Ruin/Save Your Life,” “Knife,” and more recently, “Hummingbird” have all garnered widespread acclaim, the latter being featured in an Australian car commercial, an Orange mobile ad campaign and on the British drama Skins. Still, according to DeRosier, it was the soul-stirring hymn “The Ballad of Moose Bruce” and the accompanying video that really captured the group’s frenetic imagination. Filmed in black and white at 2000 frames per second, the entire four minute indie-rock epic is focused on a spectacular “moonsault” executed in incremental perfection by pro wrestling star Chris Hero. “Steve and I are particularly big fans of pro wrestling, and have been since birth,” boasts DeRosier. “I’m still trying to figure out why it sticks with me. We try to showcase the art of the thing, where other people only see the violence and the soap opera aspects. We shot the video at way-too-many frames per second. It’s cool to show pro-wrestling in the same light as a shark jumping out of the surf at high-speeds. The ballad and the tone fit the imagery so well that you forget what’s happening and the idea of harm no longer resides at the core of it. It’s just one back-flip, it’s bravado, it’s fiction, it’s exciting and it’s a rebuttal of the perception of wrestling and other martial arts as being mere brutal entertainment.” With the aim of amusing themselves first and appeasing their audience second, Born Ruffians entered T.O.’s Metalworks Studios to hammer out what would eventually become the outfit’s 2010 summertime offering. Conjuring images of a red-faced Sam Kinison, Say It swims in the singer-songwriter LaLonde’s verdant dreamscape, scraping its knees on emotionally raw folk-rock exposés such as “Nova Leigh” and “What To Say,” even questing for domestic justice on “Sole Brother.” “It’s true that the urgent energy of our previous recordings doesn’t show up as much on Say It. That’s because of timing,” confirms Ruffian co-founder DeRosier. “The whole period when we were doing Red, Yellow & Blue, we were touring and performing live and that really influenced us to construct songs that were harder and faster, and all that. This time around we were working in a civilized rehearsal space and it was a much more relaxed atmosphere.” “It’s amazing how much environment and circumstance affects the mood of a record,” he continues. “Fans may question direction we’ve taken things, but I don’t think there’s necessarily a right way or a wrong way to go about it. For our next CD, we’re talking about writing at a friend’s farmhouse and getting away from it all. If that happens you can expect an even slower, more relaxed, meandering, cunt-ray album.”
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