"I NEVER GET SICK OF THE THRILL OF PUTTING WEIRD SHIT TOGETHER"- NINE QUESTIONS WITH RUAH

Interview and foreword by Dan T./ Strange Mono Records. Scroll down for free Ruah track after interview. Fruit Of The Spirit wishes to thank Ruah and Dan for opening up their world to us and you, our devoted readers. 

This quote, from the American writer Gene Wolf, has been bubbling around in my head for weeks now: 

“Imagine a man who stands before a mirror; a stone strikes it, and it falls to ruin in an instant. And the man learns that he is himself, and not the mirrored man he had believed himself to be”.

At first I thought the meaning was self realization. Or about not being able to recognize one's own impact on our surroundings. Then I thought it meant take a look at the bigger picture! Don’t sweat the small stuff! but that still isn’t an exact fit. Today I think I had a breakthrough. This quote is about time, when you look at yourself in the mirror you are looking at a version of yourself that used to exist. The preconceived notions we have of ourselves are our past, not our future. The time that it takes for the light to reflect off of our bodies, into the mirror, and then back to our eyes can never be the present. Everytime we look in a mirror we are looking at a snapshot in time, a memory of ourselves, preserved for an instant in a sensory delay. This idea fills me with hope. It’s an illustration of enlightenment. It means a new beginning. It means all beginnings and all ends realized within ourselves. We are not defined by time. We are not defined by the mechaniations and reflections of our bodily machines. We are undefined, blurry around the edges, fluid, and never static. A life summarized so succinctly by the mysterious Flann O’brien as “a succession of static experiences each infinitely brief”

I sat down with Benjamin Schurr (BLIGHT Records, Luna Honey, Nyxy Nyx) to talk new beginnings, vulnerability in songwriting, and about his new Post-Industrial project Ruah. Who’s upcoming release Smothered and Covered comes out August 5th.

I asked him 9 questions.

1. Originally your project was Br'er can you explain a bit about the switch and how you landed on Ruah for the name of your project?

I started recording the first Br'er album in late 2006, which as you can imagine feels like 100000000 lifetimes ago. While I had a rough map in mind for what I wanted the project to be (Einstruzende Neubauten and Swans playing the soundtrack to Edward Scissorhands fronted by Roy Orbison lol) I was totally clueless and unprepared to run a band and deal with the vulnerabiltes of putting out songs addressing identity, queerness, abuse etc... Along the way I feel super lucky to have played with the myriad of musicians, and tour/live all over the country (which was a product of the project) but by 2020 there was so much baggage; the lineups falling apart and just other problems associated with the moniker that it felt like a major shift was in order. I believe a name can really be a map of intention and the name Ruah is Hebrew for "A violent joyous sound or a war cry" which to me seems like an appropriate trajectory for the project. 

 

2. How did you get into industrial music and what influenced you to start Ruah?

There are two major touchstones which set off the spark. I remember hanging out at Curt Howard's (Worshiper, Heavy Medical) house and there was a copy of "Public Castration is a Good Idea" by Swans sitting on his CD player and just being like "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT" and Curt gave it to me because it was the last CD in a his friends CD player who just passed. I took it home and just was completely enamored by how severe, hypnotic and terrifying it was. The second experience was going into spaceboy records on south street in like 2005 or something and them having the Neubauten DVD Halber Mensch at the counter, I picked it up and was like "I think I heard of these guys, they're pretty wild right?" and the clerk said "put away whatever CDs you have and buy this”. Obviously I bought it, watched it with my friend Sean Finan (who I used to play with in CAW!) and we disassembled a piano and recorded the last CAW! song around it. 

I wanted to take the wisdom (ha!) I possibly acquired from the years of doing Br'er and other projects to move forward with intention. I don't want there to be a formula to what the project can and can't do, and I still want to feel like I'm discovering fire when I'm creating the music; but I do want the delivery of how it arrives in the world to be very much on a path. I'm also hoping to assemble a band once I move to Philly, with a steady lineup, and that we can use the first album as an outline that we can color in and evolve as a group moving forward.

3. Smothered and Covered is your first full album using the name Ruah.

How did the effort of composing this album compare to the last Ruah offering?

Well Smothered and Covered is basically a collection of singles. The first offering under the Ruah name was a remix of my friend Madeline Johnston's (Midwife) song "Name". I remember seeing her a couple of years ago play the song in a basement in mount pleasant DC and the mantra of "YOUR GOD HATES ME" just totally eviscerating me. Weirdly enough that line is a cover of a cover of a song by Susan Anway's pre Magnetic Fields band V. 

I see this album as proudly transitional, sort of a bridge between Br'er and Ruah, with the Smothered side being more traditional songs and Covered being  more of the dark electronics that will follow. The Smothered side is weirdly a collection of preemptive B sides recorded at the same time as the upcoming full length, but didn't really fit.

 

4. Ache really stands out on this new album, with its blend of acoustic and electronic instrumentation. What is the story behind that particular track?

I wrote Ache while working on the last Br'er album at Ben Usie (Bruisey Peets/Br'er's former Drummer) 's house in NOLA. Right before the pandemic I visited Ben, and he's been one of my best friends/fav people to collab with so it felt like that song was a perfect chance to do a thing together again (albeit remotely). It's probably the only...love song I have left in me lol! Weirdly enough it was finished 5 years after I wrote it so it's a 10 year grief.

 

5. You have been supporting Nyxy Nyx, and Luna Honey in live shows and on their records. How did these partnerships come about? and how has it influenced your songwriting for Ruah?

I've known Brian(Nyxy Nyx) since like ‘04 or something, the first year we met he released something like 7 albums and I was like how the fuck did he do this? and he showed me his set up; which was like a shitty radioshack mic and cool edit, which was bonkers because with such minimal gear he made such adventures and bizarre records. It basically gave me permission to make music by myself on a computer with no experience or qualifications whatsoever. In like 2018 I started helping him put out tapes on my label BLIGHT. and when he started recording spirit exchange he sent me unfinished tracks to help him finish which is a relationship that has carried on ever since (I'm working on 4 songs of his this week lol). 

As I mentioned earlier I jumped right into Luna Honey after Br'er fell apart. I was actually gonna move to New Orleans and kinda keep the project going from there but Maura and Levi convinced me to stick around DC for a lil longer and work on Luna Honey which I am super grateful for! 

I can safely say Ruah is very directly influenced by both bands. Nyxy, in that it has helped me stop being too precious and perfectionist oriented and that I should follow my first impulse and commit to my gut. Nyxy is very much a primal ID kinda thing to me, and that’s because Brian is so prolific I try to keep the pace with him, like if he sends me a song, it has to be done in like no more than 2 days, so I just follow the immediate impulses. Luna Honey is a true band, it's the product of the weird chemistry of Levi, Maura and Me and there are so many ideas and permutations of how to write songs in that project, a tape loop, a bass line, Maura writing something on the rhodes, a weird synth gurgle, a loop of peeping frogs. no rules. Also both Brian and Maura are amazing singers, songwriters and performers so they keep me on my toes.

6. There is a real vulnerability and openness to your songwriting. What motivates your process?

I see songwriting as one of the few places that's truly mine, and I want that space to be honest. whether it's reflective or trying to manifest something. In ways it's like casting spells, and It's about what energy I want to draw from and draw in, which echoes my sentiments towards being very intentional in my work, and def being aware of what I'm attempting to say/attract. 

I've worked no shortage of shitty jobs and i really value the time I have to hopefully put something meaningful into the world, and I don't believe anything good will come from me not being true to my intentions as a songwriter

 

 7. There are a variety of unique instruments on this. How many of them are there? Which ones did you play?

 

I can list ‘em all! Marxophone, tape loops, bass, nylon/electric guitars, various hardware drum machines and synths, Rhodes, Dulceola, Gongs, Mellotrons, Drums, Viola and Voice. I played basically all those instruments, save the drumset and viola which were played either by Dan Angel or Ben Usie, and Hannah Burris did the viola. I recorded everything except the second track "I believe in you" which was recorded/produced by Tim Jordan of Sun Organ and Sean Sprecher of Bad History Month also played guitar/sang on it.

 

8. You mentioned you have been recording yourself for years. Can you walk us through your current studio set up?

Right now the studio is in the spare room of my house in Richmond, which has a walk-in closet where I do most of my production. It's currently littered with old synths, drum machines, cassettes, zithers, guitars and other junky electronics. 

I like the collage approach to production that's kinda a tapestry of a bunch of weird sounds that are meaningful to me that I weave together into a (hopefully) cogent piece of music. I'm always chasing the sense of wonder and discovery of finding new (to me) sounds and textures. I also really love finding old ideas that I maybe forgot about and recontextualizing them, I never get sick of the thrill of putting weird shit together!

 

9. Thanks for taking the time to answer these 9 questions! Are there any final thoughts or insights for the community? 

Lots of new stuff is on the horizon, I'm very grateful for yr time!

Ruah’s new album Smothered and Covered is being released August 5th on Strange Mono. All proceeds from this album are being donated to Planned Parenthood in an effort to support bodily autonomy and access to safe health care procedures.

Download the track "Ache" by Ruah here.