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Hi Ruby, welcome to VENTS! How have you been?
I’ve been very good thanks, thanks for chatting with me!
Can you talk to us more about your latest single “Flood”?
Flood is my debut solo release and it’s from my forthcoming EP Lagoons which comes out later this month on the 25th! It’s being released on No Such Thing Records and is really about those moments of solitude when you start to recognise you’ve transformed in some way after going through a tough time. It’s quite celestial and romantic, but also has a darkness and melancholy.
Did any event in particular inspire you to write this song?
Yes definitely, a lot of my music and art practice is inspired by water and I spend most of my time around it! There was a particular period of time early last year where after nights out I’d take a shortcut across a field to get home- because it was so muddy I’d just take off my heels and wade through it! It was freezing and flooded but it was starlit and beautiful- I really enjoyed those moments dancing by myself and it just felt really freeing, so it became a song!
Any plans to release a video for the single?
Not as such for the single, although I do work with film and have made a music video for another of the EP tracks. For Flood I quite liked the idea of using small audio/ video clips that I’d collected from the area that inspired the song to promote it- tadpoles, stars and some timelapses of the wetlands as well. There will be a full large scale film piece that accompanies the whole EP as part of my upcoming exhibition which ties into the music.
The single comes off your new album Lagoons – what’s the story behind the title?
Lagoons is also the title of the exhibition I just mentioned which is going to open at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery in April. I’ve been working with the gallery since 2018 on a project which explores their collection of amphibians and reptiles. They’re a fascination of mine and the songs are all inspired by the museum’s objects and also my emotional life experiences that are tied in with these animals. I think originally when looking through their collections I had thought of spirit specimens as each little lizard being in their own private lagoon of sorts, preserved forever in the watery habitat they come from. But it’s also inspired by the idea of a prehistoric Warrington apparently once the area would have been a giant red desert surrounding a salt lagoon with reptile creatures living around it- I thought this was a beautiful image to encapsulate all the songs.
How was the recording and writing process?
I always write and record very experimentally so it was really enjoyable, particularly collecting all kinds of amphibian and reptile sounds to be turned into rhythms- I’ve been working with electronic artist Dirty Freud for years now and we collaborated on a lot of the beat production which was great! I also wrote this EP on ukulele which I’d never played before until lockdown, so there was lots of learning and experimenting involved!
What aspect of romance did you get to explore on this record?
I would describe all of my music as ‘romantic’ in some way- I’ve always been obsessed with music from another time that has so much sentimentality driving it. But it’s also the sense of place I think. Swamp and wetlands habitat for me is the epitome of romance- Flood takes a kind of yearning and sorrowful look at it, as I was lonely at the time and just really wanted someone with me to dance around with in that environment and share that sense of wonder- and mud!
Where else did you find the inspiration for the songs and lyrics?
There were quite a lot of influences for the EP as a whole that came out of my research with Warrington Art gallery- the idea of reptiles as monsters, resurrection, prehistory, transformations… Glasshouse for example is inspired by a naturalist called Linneaus Greening who donated lots of their amphibians- he apparently had his own private vivarium in Warrington where he kept all kinds of plants and animals. I wrote a song imagining what it would have been like working alongside him in that place. The track Lagoons also references the Silent World which was an aquarium in an old church I used to visit as a kid in Wales- I put a lot of my interest in these animals down to those early childhood experiences in that place! I always weave elements of my own life into the stories I’m telling lyrically- it’s a way of self mythologising and making everyday life a bit more fantastical.
What else is happening next in Ruby Tingle’s world?
It’s a really busy year! After Lagoons in Warrington opens I have performances and exhibitions coming up in Manchester, lots of new releases and gigs with Dirty Freud and another solo show at PAPER Gallery in June which ties in with my next release co-written with London based producer Rookes. I also have a very special new music project and performance announcement coming up next month which is really exciting! So I’m just busy writing and creating at the moment which is a brilliant feeling, and when I’m not doing that I’m hanging out at the swamp soaking up inspiration for the next song!
