Breaking Out Of The City

"We didn't know what we wanted to do, but we definitely knew what we didn't want to do, and that's actually a really good way to explain it,” says lead singer of The Rubens, Sam Margin, by way of explaining the band. “We definitely didn't talk about what style we were going to be, but we did talk about what we don't like, and we are absolutely so passionate [about that]. We are massive haters.” Adds brother Elliott Margin, who plays keys, “We always know the sound or the way we want the song to turn out, but we just take our time making it sound right.” “Yeah, going through a hundred different sounds, choosing the right organ,” Sam continues. The latter comment is part a brotherly dig, part faux diva behaviour and part total devotion to actually making good music.

While this introduction might initially paint The Rubens as one of the bitchiest in the upcoming local scene, when you hear their stuff, you'll notice they've used such negative energy very wisely indeed. The band's self-titled debut is catchy without being clichéd, subtle enough to get a mainstream airing but with enough spunk to keep the indies happy. For example, new single, My Gun, first got the attention of international big name Grammy-winning producer David Kahne (Regina Spektor, Paul McCartney, The Strokes) when it was just a scratchy demo, but the ambition of the band sold the deal and got the attention of Ivy League Records. Lyrically it's a 'gun' like John Lennon's when it was warm and gave him happiness, but musically it's slick and sweet, with a simple slowburn. Is it a tale of tragedy or triumph? Selflessness or total egotism? Keep listening and we dare you not to hum along and play a little air keyboard as you go.

Fresh-faced, gangly and not typical rock star fare, Sam is tall and a bit awkward, a bit like a singing version of Doctor Who's Matt Smith, while Elliott is warm, curly haired, cheeky and charming. When talk moves to local record shops in their home town (there are only a couple – and they answer quickly and confidently), it becomes clear that they can walk the walk as well as talk the trash talk. This is a band whose opinions are formed through experience rather than on message boards. Of course, the music and band dynamic is also kept honest by the members' close relationships – three brothers (Zaac on lead guitar is the third sibling) and a close mate (Scott Baldwin on drums) make up this foursome from Menangle. As Elliott put it, laughing, “We could never go that far because we keep each other grounded; we know when someone's being a dick. It's like, 'What are you doing dude?'”

The Rubens have never been scared to get up and get what they want, rather than just sitting around and waiting for it. Case in point: going to the US to make a record without a deal, real jobs or any clue of what the music industry machine really looked like. “We'd already had meetings with labels and stuff before we went to America; the triple j thing kicked that all off,” Sam begins the story of his trip to the US to 'set up the new life' as professional musos. Following a relatively chance encounter – and long-distance musical love affair – producer Kahne offered to record the band in the US and help establish them in terms of industrial kit. Knowing not much other than the opportunity sounded too good to ignore, Sam hopped on a plane to seal the deal, with the others due to follow once he'd signed.

“We thought it was going to be a really quick process because we had all these offers. We just thought, 'Alright, we're going to take one, then we'll have the money to make one,' but it's not like that at all. So [from the States] I was telling the boys, 'It's okay, the deal's going to be done soon and then you guys can fly over as soon as it's done.' Then we realised that was going to take a lot longer than we thought. And at that point mum had had enough of the boys at home twiddling their thumbs – and apparently they were being really annoying because they wanted to get out so badly – so mum was like, 'You need to go to America, you have to go to America.' So yeah, sent them on a plane pretty much the next day, right?”

Elliott confirms, “Yeah, so Zaac, Scottie and I were working every day and then getting home every day and checking email and Facebook to see if there was any news about when we were going over and, you know, the longer it took the more antsy we got. And so finally mum finally said, 'That's it, you're getting on a plane.' We called up Scottie and were like, 'What are you doing tomorrow? You're getting on a plane with us – we're going to New York.' It was so exciting.”

Heading to the US with pretty much no industrial or monetary safety net must have been a pretty epic leap of faith. There are some things you can ask your parents to spring you for financially (a car, a uni course, even, perhaps, help with a gap year), but getting them to hand over dosh so you can follow your dream to be a rock'n'roller must have been a pretty big ask.

“The idea of me coming back to Australia because it didn't work out and the boys didn't get to go over at all – the idea of the whole dream being over, that was horrible, but it was a reality. It could have happened. So yeah, it was a big leap of faith,” Sam says. “Even though it seemed… well one thing I've learned about the music industry is that even when someone tells you something's going to happen, until you're actually doing it, you can't be sure. And now that I've learnt that, now I realise, 'Wow, we really did take a big risk.' And the thing about it is, why should it have worked? There's a million things that could have gone wrong, you know? So we were just lucky that it paid off. I would have been so depressed going back to Australia without a record. The funniest thing as well is that we didn't know, back in Australia, how iffy it was while Sam was over there. We thought it was all sorted, we'd be there soon, no issues or anything, everything was on board,” says Elliott. “We just saw pictures of Sam in the pub and stuff, thinking, 'Why are we not there?'”

Instead of just living it up, Sam was busy playing Poppa Bear, keeping calm and carrying on. While speed was picking up at home (triple j was giving single, Lay It Down, a good run, closely followed by Don't Ever Want To Be Found), it was more of an uphill battle on the other side of the world. “I wasn't telling [the rest of the band] how much crap I had to go through, stress and stuff, trying to make it happen,” he recalls. “It's hard trying to make an album with a massive producer in a massive studio that's going to cost a fortune, all of that stuff has to be talked about, dates have to be locked in. You can't just say, 'Wanna do it? Let's do it' – you have to sort out specifics. So that's what I was doing, just working out how the hell we were going to do it, from start to finish.”

The band admits that recently they thought if they knew what a risk such a venture was at the time, Sam wouldn't have gone through with it. “The risk I was taking, if I knew the risks involved and how much easily it could have gone wrong and how much pain it would have caused if it had gone wrong, there's a chance I wouldn't have done it,” Sam says. “We might have just made the rest of the album in our bedroom,” laughs Elliott. But in all seriousness, Sam pipes back, “It would have been a very different record, that's for sure.”

Silly chances, luck, hard work and mum's plane tickets are over for now and the band flash forward to The Rubens' media launches in Sydney and Melbourne last month. The gig began with Liberation Records head Michael Gudinski making a point of playing MC and giving the band his personal seal of approval. Speaking like a proud dad at a 21st, but with the unmistakable nerdy cool of someone who still works in music because they love it, it's a vote of confidence that is second only to Molly Meldrum's “Do Yourself a Favour” in terms of local industry kudos. “I think when he [Gudinski] does this with a band it's pretty rare and people take notice – and we're realising that now. We didn't know at first what a big deal it was to have him vouching for us, but now we're starting to realise because people keep telling us it's such a good thing. But I don't know… it seems like it's just, whenever he gets a chance to talk about The Rubens he will, which is great for us and I guess great for him. He is just genuinely excited; you can see he's just genuinely pumped to be part of it,” says Sam.

KICKSTARTERS

When bands are first getting their shit together, getting the dosh for kit, touring, trips and doing deals is not easy. The Rubens were lucky enough to have their mum kick in for some tickets to New York (not just because they were starting to drive her mad!), but there's been a long history of family, friends and others kickstarting future legends before they got their musical balls rolling, as it were.

U2
During their homecoming gig at Slane Castle in Dublin, U2 made a point of thanking their families for first lending them money to go to London and make a record, back in the day. During a characteristically overly epic but still quite lovable rant, frontman Bono named and thanked each of the band's families for “the loan of 500 pounds each” to get them there. While he was at it, he also thanked the crowd, who he reckoned had also all “probably given us 500 pounds by now, too.” Ah, the optimism of an arena band who made their fortunes before the internet.

The Rolling Stones
Reporting on their 50th anniversary as a band, The Rolling Stones' namesake magazine told how “the band borrowed money from [singer Mick] Jagger's dad to rent equipment” for their early gigs. No mention of who footed the 'entertainment bill' that no doubt also needed to be attended to, however.

Nirvana
According to one of the several “real stories” of grunge's holy trinity, apparently vocalist/guitarist Kurt Cobain and co initially borrowed a drum machine to explore “repetitive beats” as they were finding their feet in the late 1980s. The result was shortlived (thank goodness for you, Dave Grohl) and the rest, as they say, is teen spirited history.

Primus
Were it not for $US3000 from Les Claypool's dad, Primus' 1989 live album, Suck On This, would not have been. The liner notes for the 2002 reissue state they borrowed money from Claypool Snr to cover recording and pressing the (admittedly limited) run of LPs: “special hugs and kisses” to “Pops” for “kickin' down the corn”.

The Rubens will be playing the following shows:

Thursday 13 September - The Loft, Warnambool VIC
Friday 14 September - Bended Elbow, Geelong VIC
Saturday 15 September - Forum Theatre, Melbourne VIC
Thursday 20 September - Uni Bar, Wollongong NSW
Friday 21 September - Metro Theatre, Sydney NSW
Thursday 27 September - Republic Bar, Hobart TAS
Friday 28 September - Hotel New York, Launceston TAS
Saturday 29 September - The Gov, Adelaide SA
Friday 5 October - Capitol Theatre, Perth WA
Saturday 6 October - Prince Of Wales, Bunbury WA
Sunday 7 October - Newport Hotel, Fremantle WA
Wednesday 10 October - Hoey Moey, Coffs Harbour NSW
Thursday 11 October - Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast QLD
Friday 12 October - The Hi-Fi, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 13 October - Great Northern, Byron Bay NSW