Ruel, a 21-year-old pop star from Australia, performed his first set at Lollapalooza this year. In a sit-down conversation with The Daily Illini, Ruel discusses his recent move to LA, his own music taste and his most recent EP, “Adaptations.”
Friday was a big day for the internationally-known singer: He took to the IHG Hotels & Resorts stage at 5:45 p.m. — amassing thousands of fans in his set — and that morning, he released his fourth EP.
“It was very surreal, pretty amazing,” Ruel said about his performance. “I’ve always seen photos and videos of Lolla (ever) since I was a kid, so it was pretty crazy.”
The festival had been pretty good to Ruel — he’d been excited his performance time was earlier in the weekend and looked forward to relaxing and seeing other sets for the remainder of the time.
Besides the energy he brought surrounding the festival, Ruel’s been living off the fire since his latest-release EP, “Adaptations.” Featuring five songs he covered, Ruel’s picks for what to record came from a massive playlist from a wide time range, he detailed.
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“I have songs that I’ve loved and would like to try my voice on,” Ruel said, regarding his final selections.
He gave special praise to Tobias Jesso Jr., the musician behind “Hollywood” and the first cover on the EP. Tobias and Ruel have a strong friendship, with the latter highlighting Tobias’ songwriting ability.
“‘Hollywood’ is just one of my favorite songs, ever,” Ruel said. “It’s more of an unknown song, but he’s just an amazing writer and I felt like I should try that.”
Did the selections of Ruel’s songs on “Adaptations” reflect his own music taste? The artist mentioned the five tracks were more or less random, and his general music taste isn’t reflected in his own discography, either.
“Honestly, my music taste, 90% of it is just sad … like really sad s—,” Ruel said. He listens to music that resonates a feeling within him — the most intense of which is sadness, he said.
His discography is hardly one of only heartbreak ballads: The “Dazed & Confused” artist loves a good upbeat sound.
“I feel like (my own music taste) really doesn’t reflect in the music that I write, because I really want to write music for live shows where you can have fun and jump around and create energy,” he explained.
So what music for live shows is Ruel writing? His second album is currently a work in progress, according to his Instagram bio.
Six months into the journey of the second album, he’s written roughly 60 songs, he mentioned. A slightly overwhelming, drowning process — but having just moved to L.A. from Sydney, he mentioned he was in a good spot to be disoriented.
Australia was like “living on holiday,” he said. “When you’re writing there, it’s like ‘Oh, maybe we can do this for a couple hours then go for a surf.’”
And while he can surf in LA, “It’s a whole day … it takes a whole a– weekend,” he said.
He’s excited to get the album out quicker since he’s in America: L.A. almost forces him to focus on writing more because of its bustling atmosphere.
He’s looking forward to where the future is headed and is finishing out a tour this week.
