He Did it Himself!
By Jessica Hart
Talk about being a one-person band! The Rough Go, a music project created by Jimmy Ruffian, released their debut album “Of Luxury Bones and Peasant Food”! An album that they fully wrote, played, sang and produced themselves! The album is full of great folk-punk songs, catchy guitar melodies, and hard-hitting lyrics that represent the anger in the way the world is and has always been.
One of my favourite tracks from the album is “Salvage”! It’s on my favourites playlist and I sing it every time it comes on.
The Rough Go gladly agreed to an interview, which I was so excited for. To be able to pick his brain and learn what makes him tick.
What inspired you to make "Of Luxury Bones and Peasant Food"?
I think it started how most things start when you are talking about Punk-Rock and making Punk-Rock. It comes from a place of anger and frustration in dissatisfaction, and that can mean a lot of things. In relation to what, ya know? And specifically, when we are talking about the title tracks and a lot of the main themes of the album, it is very much navigating the world as someone who doesn’t have any power in it, in this late stage capitalism we are living in, or end-stage capitalism if you want to define it like that. What it’s like to be a person who isn’t wealthy, isn’t powerful, isn’t influential, struggling to kind of exist in that world and do the best they can do in it. It’s [the album] is embedded in those types of frustrations.
What advice would you give someone trying to self-make their own album?
I think I would say, go with your gut. Don’t overthink it. If it sounds good, run with it and don’t worry too much necessarily about what other people are going to think. Does it feel the way you want it to feel? Does it sound the way you want it to sound? Are you getting the feeling from it that you’re really going for? Because you don’t have a producer to bounce things off of. You don’t have other people there to bounce things off of. At least how I did it. This was very much a closed solo personal project and I didn’t really get any input from anybody else while making it. Maybe bits of technical advice about how to use a compressor, or an EQ in a certain way but other than that it was very much a, don’t worry about what other people are doing in the industry in music. Don’t worry what other people are going to think about it. Worry about what it means to you, and let that always be your guide.
Who are your biggest music inspirations?
I grew up listening to bands like Green Day, The Offspring, NOFX, Bad Religion. All those sort of biggest quintessential bands in Punk-Rock. I was listening too all of them and I loved all of them. So that obviously, has a huge impact. Especially, I would say, Green Day and Billie Joe Armstrong, being my favourite songwriters of all time. Then, of course, Against Me, and Laura Jane Grace, was a huge influence on this record and a lot of the music that I make. David Bowie, definitely, a huge influence. A lot of people notice that one, as well. Especially in terms of being a little, kind-of genre-less. It’s all embedded in Punk-Rock, I would say. It’s the backbone. But there’s a lot of it that isn’t quite that, and willing to kind of not be restrained sonically into trying to fit one genre or one sort of feel. Bowie is definitely an influence with that part and a lot of my style. Presentation as well, he’s helped shape that for me, in a lot of ways. Those are the biggest ones overall. There’s definitely a lot more I could name, but if we are narrowing it down to the biggest influences, especially ones that stand out on this record, that would be it.
What goals do you have for The Rough Go project in the future?
For the future of The Rough Go, I just wanna, you know, onward and upward. Play bigger shows, and bigger stages, and develop this thing and let it hit new heights. I’m just going to keep trying, and doing different things, and seeing how it goes and enjoying the ride.
The Rough Go performing at The Corktown Pub, Hamilton, ON
Photocred: Jessica Hart
Make sure to check out The Rough Go HERE
HELP JIMMY MAKE MORE GREAT MUSIC!
Two ways enter:
Donate $5 or more to paypal.me/theroughgo between now and August 1st, 2024
OR
Go to theroughgo.com and listen to the album "Of Luxury Bones and Peasant Food" and write a review of your favourite song on the record through the email form on the site, and put "custom song contest" as the subject!
No limit to how many times you can enter
The prize:
You can request a song to be about something, have a certain sound or genre, be a cover song in The Rough Go’s style or one of your choosing and he will do his damndest to bring it to life!
Also listen to Jimmy Ruffian’s podcast: The Rough Report
I might be bias because I got to be a guest on it =]
