The Rubens are a 4-piece from the tiny town of Menangle, NSW. The 3 brothers and 1 childhood friend are responsible for some of the finest soul-soaked blues in the country. Super smooth!

Tell us about your music. How did you develop your sound?

Our music is all about soul.. We wanted to create something new, a kind of blend of genres, so we started writing songs that were heavily influenced by early blues and soul... It is really simple and easy to create our sound, we use lots of reverb and tremolo, organ sounds, and hip-hop influenced drums. We write and record our songs in our bedroom at home which definitely contributes to our raw and relaxed sound.



What’s The Rubens live show like?

Soaked in reverb and warm tremolo guitar tones with underlying classic blues organ sounds.



The Rubens are from Menangle, a regional NSW town. What’s it like being a band in Menangle?

As far as we know, we are the only band in Menangle, and we're pretty sure no one knows or cares that we are in a band. Menangle is 10 minutes down the road from a larger town called Camden, there's pubs and restaurants there but not really a music scene. This means we travel into Sydney most weekends to play our shows. Its quite a good thing being out in the countryside while writing music; not so many distractions.



What are the best and worst things about ¾ of the band being brothers?

Good things: Conveniently being in the same house to rehearse and write. Being completely comfortable criticising each others musical ideas. Maybe one day we could have a gallagher brothers kind of feud with a bust up on stage.... good publicity. Bad Things: We don't always get along, just your typical sibling rivalry and such. Each of us has certain annoying habits.



What’s coming up for you in the rest of 2011 and looking to 2012?

We've got some really exciting stuff in the pipeline. We are heading to Brisbane and Melbourne for shows in december which will be great as we haven't played there yet. 2012 is going to be a big one for The Rubens! We're heading over to New York in January to record our debut album. We've got a really big producer on board so hopefully come march 2012 we will have a great album ready to go!



Australian music is…?

...A good idea...ha ha. Australian music is great though, and most good bands coming out these days owe a lot to Triple J and Unearthed. In such a tough industry artists are given the opportunity to be discovered and thats great. Its helped us so far!