A DAY IN THE LIFE: RUBY GILL

IMAGERY COURTESY OF RUBY GILL

Johannesburg-born, Naarm/Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Ruby Gill releases her stunningly intimate album Some Kind of Control today—a powerful exploration of reclaiming agency over her body, identity, foreignness, and queerness. To mark the release, F Word was eager to dive into the makings of the album and have this captivating artist take us through a day in her life.

LISTEN TO SOME KIND OF CONTROL

Ruby Gill: If you had to assign a temperature, a colour and a taste to this album, what would they be?

F Word: Tastes like rice pudding, it's the colour of glacier water in Aotearoa, and it's the temperature of a good hand resting on your chest on a bad night.

RG: What was the biggest change you made to the album during the writing process?

F Word: There were two big shifts - one was culling all the rogue instrumentation ideas I had in mind. Horns, lead guitars, strange bubbly synths... I had dreams of putting so many random sounds on this record but the day after we recorded the choir (an incredible day, feat. Angie McMahon, Annie-Rose Maloney, Jess Ellwood, Hannah McKittrick and Hannah Cameron) I listened back to the recordings and there was nothing more left to say. Their little human voices took precedence over any new instrument, and felt so much more real than any conjured-up horn could. We left the whole choir in, even just the hums in between takes, it was so special.

The second big change was killing one song. I had this song pegged called "honest woman" - it was about microwave meals and feeling very lonely. And on its own it sounded pretty cool, but in the context of the rest of the record it gave off a self-pitying scent, and also felt so different to the version of gender i'd since landed on. I just didn't relate to it, and I'm glad I put that gut rejection of the content of the song over how good it sounded musically. RIP.

RG: What genre could you see yourself experimenting with for a future project?

F Word: I grew up around a lot of incredible South African music - kwaito, house, amapiano - and I have some pretty hot friends who create in those worlds that I would love to collaborate with. We're working on something in the background as sort of a sister record to this one, actually. It will feel like home, which is a pretty rare feeling for me to land on in my own sound. I've lived away from home for so long I often wonder 'where' I sound like.

RG: If you had to choose a new career completely outside of anything having to do with music, what would it be?

F Word: Ornithologist - I've always wanted to be wearing khaki standing out in a field watching a bird talk to another bird, and then write 10 essays about it. Or school teacher, because I love marking (!). There's this sort of expert, academic rigour, data analysis part of my brain that I don't feel like I get to use in music. And to be honest this is not a hypothetical answer - I do need to choose one of these careers haha. I really value having something outside of music to expand my identity, responsibility and connection to the real world. I just quit a long-term advertising job and it's weird being 30 and sort of starting from scratch in terms of what I'd like to do with my life.

F Word: The world would be better without _______? The world would be worse without _______?

RG: Elon Musk. Singlets.

F Word: Go-to lunch on a studio/writing day?

RG: On a rushed day, I'd let a banh mi do anything to me. But on a slow day, Tim Harvey (my beautiful producer) taught me how to make thyme and garlic butter beans on toast with lemon. It is cheap and tastes like the past. And the present. Actually and the future too.

F Word: Do you believe in manifestation?

RG: Not particularly - feels like playing God. I do believe in asking, and stepping into, and being hyper aware. But I like the randomness of feeling like I'm not necessarily in the driver's seat - that there's some wonder left in every new event being something I didn't ask for.

F Word: What is your favourite F - word?

RG: Friction.