Meet Ruti [@rutimusic] the burgeoning talent from Essex

Essex isn’t always the first place you think of when it comes to music but Ruti could soon be the reason why you do.

We caught up with talent on the rise Ruti prior to the release of her most recent EP All At Once to talk all things music, the new EP and the craziness of the past year. Her music often gets referred to as ‘ethereal’ which is defined as: of or relating to the regions beyond the earth; celestial; heavenly. This is quite the word to describe music in general but feels very fitting for Ruti. There’s just something about her voice that is special and really transports you into her world. Despite still being young and pretty early on in her career still Ruti has built up a very solid fanbase but remains as humble as ever.

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Could you introduce yourself?

My name is Ruti, I’m a singer-songwriter from Essex. I’m 21 and yeah that’s kind of it.

So your music often gets called ethereal how do you feel about that description?

I quite like it. It’s not really a word that I started to hear or had really heard before I started to do music. So it’s kind of weird, I don’t…I guess I don’t know. I hope it kind of makes people feel like dreamy and floaty ’cause I love that sound. I like feeling quite free, especially with melodies and sounds and stuff like that. I think that’s kind of the sound that I’m aiming for, so when people describe it as that it’s kind of like I’ve met that – what I’ve imagined.

What about you? How would you describe your music?

In terms of genre, I describe it as kind of Pop-y, a little bit Soulful but a little bit Jazz-y. Not like super jazzy but I like to get influence from classic Jazz and also the new Jazz scene that’s kind of happening at the moment.

You just mentioned inspirations, what would say are some of your biggest inspirations? That could be people or genres, anything really.

Oh gosh, my mind always goes blank with this question, but like Lianne La Havas, Tom Misch – kind of. At the moment I’m listening to Rina Sawayama I really love her sound. Even though it’s heavier and maybe slightly more Pop I really like it and so I’m starting to get influenced by her a little bit with the more anthem kind of sound.

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So you’ve got a new EP out, what can people expect on it?

A little bit of experimenting ‘cause I kind of experimented with a couple of tracks that are on there. It’s got two singles that I’ve released previously and then two new tracks that haven’t been heard. One of them I feel is like me starting to breakout a little bit more, experiment a bit more. It could go terribly wrong, but it could also be really cool or just be something fun that shows a little bit more of my personality.

All of the songs are kind of influenced by seasons, I guess that’s another influence. I’m kind of influenced by the season because if it’s summer, I feel happy. If it’s winter I either feel really nice and cosy or I kind of feel quite sad and like cold. Which isn’t great, but each song is for a different season, even though it didn’t really get released how I imagined it. Like it didn’t come out one track in spring one track in summer one track in autumn…that’s not the order of them but you know what I mean. But they’re still kind of influenced by that. That’s what I’d imagined.

Good to hear that you experimented as well, it’s not going to be a bad thing. You’ll eventually work out exactly what your sound is at the end of the day.

Yeah exactly, even though I’ve been doing it for like 2 years almost every day. I’m still not quite sure exactly what it is but I know that I’m gonna change as well so I don’t really mind that I don’t really have a set sound.

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So the past year has been completely crazy for everybody. What would you say the biggest thing you learnt out of it was?

To allow myself to rest because I felt right at the beginning of the first lockdown I was like, “Okay, I’ve gotta keep grinding. Gotta keep putting out content even if it’s not actual songs. Gotta keep writing. Take this time, ’cause I’ve got loads of time now, I can just write and film little videos and little covers and just experiment with that and stuff” and I just burnt myself out really quickly. And then there was a week where I was just getting up at 12:00 everyday and just not doing anything and then you know the news and stuff, I needed to take a break from that.

But I just realised, I can just not do anything for a day or week or even a month. So yeah, that’s kind of the biggest thing. Everything has its time and chill out because most things aren’t that deep.

You definitely haven’t been alone in some of those feelings, especially over this past year. Last one for me is besides the EP have got anything else planned for 2021?

No. Obviously I’m prepared, hopefully, to release more singles after the EP or another EP. But this year I’ve decided solid plans aren’t necessary at the moment because things will change, probably. And I’m just going to start writing, I want to start writing for an album so I guess my first album and taking my time with it. Well, not take too much time, but you know it doesn’t have to be done in like three months or anything. It will come when it comes.

Credits:
Interview & words – Zweli Chibumba
Photography – Shenell Kennedy
Styling – Ashleigh Stunna