Ruel's Career Is Going So Well He's Had To Quit School: 'I Didn't Have Time'

Ruel van Dijk could be one of the hardest-working teens in Australia, consistently recording, touring and promoting music globally. Fortunately, the pressure is off academically. This year the Sydney pop-soul prodigy, 16, quit school – for now.

"I was doing school all of last year, Year Ten," van Dijk explains. "It was pretty tough – you know, travelling and also doing exams an hour before shows and stuff like that. That got really hard, just 'cause I could never focus on one thing… It was difficult. So I decided this year I should try to do homeschooling, [but] it wasn't working out again. It was just too hard 'cause I was travelling so much. I didn't have time to do the work that was required. I had a big chat with my family, with my manager, and we just said, 'Well, we'll put it on hold until we really properly get some time off.'"

Mentored by veteran Aussie producer M-Phazes, van Dijk made his official debut in 2017 with the single Don't Tell Me, attracting a cross-generational fanbase. He's since had many career highlights. Last November, van Dijk joined the Californian festival Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival, his music hero, Tyler, The Creator, its curator. Coincidentally, he bumped into Tyler at a Los Angeles grocery store prior to his performance. "So, when he's my biggest idol, and I've loved everything he's done, it was definitely a bit of a shock to just see him sitting down outside Whole Foods!" van Dijk gushes. "I went up to him and said, 'Hi, I'm playing your festival and thanks for putting me on.'" 

Today, van Dijk wonders what Tyler, The Creator initially thought of him, being that, as a stan, he was "probably" sporting Golf Wang clothing. "Maybe he did think I was stalking him. I do look like just an average Tyler fan." 

Still, van Dijk peeked at his idol's food haul. "He was having a very healthy salad, so that was cool."

The singer-songwriter has just released a new EP, Free Time, the sequel to 2018's Ready.That same year, his single Dazed & Confused won him the ARIA Award for Breakthrough Artist. Singles Painkiller, Face To Face and Real Thing all epitomise his modish take on R&B classicism. "I'm really, really excited for this project. I think it's pretty different to the stuff I recently put out, like Ready that I put out last year. It's matured a lot. So that's how it's kind of gonna stand out – in my opinion, obviously! I'm really excited. I just like the songs a lot more, because they feel like they're coming from me more than ever. My creative direction is a lot clearer this time, so I really knew what I wanted." 

Van Dijk's lyrics on Free Time resonate deeply with him. "Probably the most personal song on it is either Hard Sometimes or [the opener] Don't Cry. Those are by far the most real songs – and all the stories that I tell in those songs are coming straight from me and all my life experiences."

Van Dijk does intend to deliver an album eventually. "I feel like [if] I have nine to 12 really great songs, and [songs] that I really wanna put out, yeah, I'll put out an album. But I've never really got to that point where I've had that. Like, I've written over 30, 40 songs for this project. But I just feel like I wanna have at least nine to 12 that are really great and really special to me. So we're definitely gonna aim – or I'm definitely gonna aim – to do that next year."

Of late, van Dijk has ventured into the realm of collabs (notably, the US post-rapper GoldLink bounced on a remix of Ready's Not Thinkin' Bout You). Van Dijk sings on Hilltop Hoods' The Great Expanse LP and, unusually, SG Lewis' electro banger Flames, Ruel actually accompanying the Brit dance muso at Coachella. Incredibly, van Dijk is sitting on a duet with Khalid. "When I was touring with him [in 2017], we just went to the studio one day and we wrote something. It's pretty cool. I don't know if it'll ever see the light of day. It's not finished yet – like, it's only, I reckon, a verse – but I wanna get back in the studio with him and write something even better. We can beat it. But it's still cool."

This month, van Dijk is embarking on an Australian headline run, followed by international dates. "I'm back [home] in December and gonna have Christmas and a little bit of a break. And then next year I'll start writing again." 

Van Dijk has long included buzz covers in his setlists, and he's continuing the tradition. "I like to have a different cover each tour. Like the first tour, I did a Billie Eilish bellyache cover and then she got huge and then everyone started doing them," he laughs. "I'm like, 'Ok, I'm gonna do another one.' So I did Call Out My Name by The Weeknd last tour. I'm thinking of doing a Frank Ocean cover this tour, but we'll see what happens."