Ruel

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**At only 20 years old, Australian artist Ruel is already building his empire, both in the music and fashion spaces. His debut album 4TH WALL is proof of it.**

Effortlessly weaving both industries into one career, he performs all duties of a full-time musician: releasing music regularly, touring, and connecting with his fanbase, all while being the face of Adidas campaigns, and landing a spot on the cover of GQ Style. It’s a balancing act that’s undeniably impressive, but especially impressive for an artist so young. Ruel is no stranger to the public eye, however. Making his debut at just 14 years old with his single Golden Years in 2017, Ruel has spent most of his adolescence in the spotlight.

Most recently, Ruel has surpassed another milestone in his career: the release of his debut album. 4TH WALL was released on March 2nd, 2023, via RCA (ROW) and Sony Music (Australia). Throughout 14 tracks, Ruel takes listeners through different scenes. There are moments of acoustic instrumentals with heartfelt lyrics on tracks like LET THE GRASS GROW, as well as moments of groovy drum lines and booming choruses on songs like I DON’T WANNA BE LIKE YOU. Created throughout the height of the pandemic, 4TH WALL has been a long time coming, and it was well worth the wait.

1883 Magazine chats with Ruel about the making of his debut album 4TH WALL, finding inspiration through other forms of media, and more.

I want to say congratulations on your album release! It’s a great record, I’ve been listening to it on repeat.

Thank you so much!

How are you feeling about the response and everything that comes with releasing a full-length project?

Yeah, I didn’t know what to expect at all. I haven’t put out an album before. I’ve put out little EPs, where I felt a little bit nervous, but it’s mainly just compilations of songs within that year. There wasn’t much concept around it or much to it. It was just, “here’s this EP” and then go on tour. Now, having a full album that you’ve been working on for three years, you’re a lot more connected to it. I felt like it was a lot more of a big deal. I was really happy, obviously, with the response. Around Australia, I did these pop-up shops where I was selling vinyl and CDs, doing signings, and talking to fans about the record. It was cool to get that first-hand response. I feel like I won’t properly know until I’m out on tour around the world playing the songs to people. That’s what makes it real.

Totally. And this was a long process, you said three years?

Yeah, yeah. From when I wrote the first track of the record… It was three years.

How did the project evolve? Can you tell me a bit about the creative process?

It was difficult, mainly logistics. With COVID, trying to go to LA to write but I was locked in Australia. I wrote a bunch of songs here that were in a completely different world from what I had been writing before, I don’t know why. I was writing by myself, making a lot of depressing alt-folk stuff. I had never written music like that. I liked it for me, but at the same time I wasn’t sure I was good enough at it yet to make a whole album of it. I had to wait a little bit for things to open up and then went back to the states. I kept writing what I was loving, but also using my strengths with my producer and so many other amazing writers there that I love to work with. It was great to have that collaboration back. I feel like that’s where I got all my good stuff. [Laughs] That’s pretty much how the rest of the album came about, just from a mixture of all that.

I read that you pulled a lot of inspiration from movies for this record, do you usually find inspiration in other forms of media like that?

100%. I tend to feel like I’ve exhausted a lot of my life experiences in terms of inspiration. I feel like I’ve got a fair few but, at the same time, I write a lot of songs. I’ve written around 10 songs about every small thing that’s happened in my life, and I’m like ‘goddamn I need to figure out something else.’ So I went to the movies and that just opened up a whole other can of worms, it was amazing. I didn’t think that was possible, but it is! You just find a scene that you connect with and you try and make your score to it. I was like, oh my god, this is so much more fun. But, at the same time, you do feel a bit more disconnected from the song than if you were just talking about your own life and experience. You try and make it connect to your life whilst you’re writing it. That’s the thing. You’ve got to try and figure out how to still feel an emotional connection. Otherwise, if there’s no emotion, it’s really easy to tell.

Right, you still have to put a piece of yourself into it, even if it’s not your narrative.

Yeah, exactly.

I get that, for sure. Could you tell me how you decided on the name 4TH WALL for this record? Is that another aspect that’s movie inspired?

Yeah, exactly. It was just coming from movies. All the movies that I was loving to write about were movies that break the fourth wall, in some way or another. The Truman Show is a massive one, Fight Club… It was so much fun. It was that extra layer, it was cool writing songs that break the fourth wall a little bit, as well. Tapping into the audience and seeing what they’re thinking whilst listening to the song, just all that self-referential stuff. It was really cool and really fun to play with. There’s so much to play with visually as well. I always think about that when I’m writing songs: the single cover, the album cover, music videos… stuff like that. That’s so important nowadays. When you’ve got a strong concept, you can kind of just run with it. 4TH WALL just made so much sense. It’s also the fourth body of work I’ve put out.

So, do you consider 4TH WALL to be a concept album?

I don’t know, the idea of a concept album… or like, the definition for me, is something that’s super experimental. I wouldn’t describe my album as some experimental masterpiece. But it had a concept, so, sure!

There you go! A concept album, but a loose definition. How do you feel your musical sound and style have evolved over the years?

I think it has just matured with my age. At this point in my life, or I guess, not so much now, but when I was writing the album from ages 16 to 19, your music taste drastically changes every six months. You constantly find new things to connect to. When I was writing it when I was 16, I was only listening to R&B and rap. Then, I decided I wasn’t going to listen to any of that anymore! I’m going to listen to Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley and that was all I wanted to listen to. Then it changed to more like The Beatles and classic rock. Classic songwriting stuff that’s just timeless, I suppose. Throughout the record I was trying to figure out what I liked the most, to keep in there, and then towards the end, it was just a mixture of all of them. It was a weird time to write an album, for sure.

Yeah, that’s fair. What are you listening to right now?

Getting on my Spotify right now… I’ve been listening to a lot of Slow Thai’s new album. I’ve gotten really into Pinegrove.

I love Pinegrove!

Yeah, I feel like I’ve neglected them my whole life until now. Boygenius, I’m so excited about that record. There’s an artist called Lomelda, so good. And Saya Gray, 100%. Good stuff.

I’ll have to check out Lomelda for sure! Going back to the visual aspects of the album, you put out a music video for I DON’T WANNA BE LIKE YOU! I’d love to hear about the concept and how it all came together.

Yeah, for this one we had so many different concepts. There were so many different ways it could’ve gone. We were thinking of all these crazy, complex ideas, like a million storylines going into one. Then I thought that we were making it way too hard on ourselves. Let’s just do one insane shot and make it feel like it’s a trailer for an action movie, so that’s what we did! We found a way for me to like, surf on a car, through this never-ending parking lot. That’s me trying to leave the matrix, or you know, trying to break the fourth wall of this trailer. All these people, whom I call the ‘fourth wall men’, have shown up in all the visuals around the album, and it’s cool to incorporate them. It was so much fun to shoot. I want the next video to now link to that and make it a little storyline. So that’s gonna be fun.

Yeah, that’d be sick. I love those visualizers you have for each of the album tracks.

Thanks, yeah! When we were shooting the album cover, we thought we should do some real slow motion.

So you’re about to hit the road on an international tour for this album, what are you most excited about when it comes to hitting the road? I know you mentioned that fan connection and response are important to you.

100%, it’s that firsthand connection and response to the record that keeps you inspired and wanting to do your job. That, I’m incredibly excited for, I’m also excited to go places I’ve never been before. In America, there are a bunch of states I haven’t even driven through. I’m excited to play there. There are a few continents I haven’t even hit yet, like South America. I’m excited to try and get there. Lots of places I haven’t been to that I’m excited to go to, that’s the main thing.

Is there a specific tour stop or location you’re most excited about?

I can’t single anyone out! [Laughs] I don’t know what to expect from South America, that’s why I’m excited about that. I couldn’t pick one country or city, because I don’t know what they’re like yet.

For sure, just the continent as a whole! So to wrap up, are there any more upcoming projects or releases accompanying this record that you can share a bit about?

I haven’t started thinking about it too much, to be honest, but I know I want to do more with this record. There are a bunch more tracks that didn’t make it. I didn’t wanna make it 45 songs long. I’d love to put those out somehow, definitely in the works. More around this era.