“With the music industry falling apart, it seems like keeping your hardcore fans as a foundation is more important than ever. We want to be important enough to people that they’ll subscribe every year and tell their friends about us. The feedback we get is amazing.”
The fans’ support enabled Rubylux to fund recording of their album Fake Control with James Sanger. “We heard he was incredibly eccentric, and those stories were true!” admits Rob. “He’d have us work through the night, and still wake us up at 6am. But James is a lot of fun, open to any idea and experimentation of our sound that we wanted to try out.”
Since completing work on Fake Control, the band have been one of the first Western acts to tour in Vietnam, an experience they hope to repeat later this year as well as playing at Singapore’s biggest festival, Singfest.
“The owner of the Hard Rock Cafe in Vietnam wanted to get a Western band over, and we were lucky enough to be chosen,” Rob recalls. “It was an incredible experience – beautiful country, beautiful weather, beautiful people.”
With such a devoted worldwide fanbase that other more established bands would kill for, isn’t it frustrating that Rubylux are virtually unknown in the mainstream at home in Britain? “Not at all,” Rob insists. “I’ve always thought Britain might be one of the hardest countries for us to crack, but that won’t stop us trying.
“There’s a lot in our music that people can love. Yes, our music is instant. But, the more people listen, the more they can get into the finer details and our lyrics.
“The idea of succeeding at home doesn’t frustrate me, it’s a challenge. We won’t stop until we’ve pulled that off.”