Ria Rua: Freedom in difference [Interview]

From accordion orchestra ... to breakthrough alt-rock

From the first moment I got lost in the swirling vortex that is Ria Rua’s ‘I Love That For You’, I was intrigued. As her follow-up single ‘Black and Tan’ proved, this is an artist who has lots to say and a genuinely unique way of saying it. She’s traversed a far from ‘conventional’ path to becoming the breakthrough artist she is today — as I found out when I caught up with her last week. (Photo credit: Just Chris)

Thanks for going out to your car to talk to me!

Yeah I'm in the middle of nowhere and the internet is terrible! I'm only an hour away from Dublin but once you start getting an hour away from Dublin it starts turning into the sticks as we call it, or “the bog”.

I’ve read some tantalising things about your background and how you got to where you are: can you tell me a bit about your journey?

I'm the youngest in my family and I just was always very different from them. I think that's just being kind of neurodiverse or something, but I just never did the things that I was meant to do And it’s actually kind of to my advantage now.

Lots of people pick up on the the social norms and I never picked up on those. All my family used to go and sing in the choir at mass and I remember, when I was a kid, my mum brought me to mass in the choir thinking that I'd be the same as the rest of them… we ended up just running around the church and my mum said she was never bringing me again! So that was my first introduction to the church and mass… Even though I enjoyed the music, it just took me the wrong way.

I was the percussionist in an accordion band. I started drums at — I think it was 12. I started in a classical accordion orchestra and they also did marching. So it was a real mix and it was really super — I made loads of friends and stuff like that. So I did classical percussion with that and then I did marching snare, which I loved and I absolutely fell in love with marching bands. I got obsessed with the Blue Devils in America and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I'm definitely going to go to America and be in these marching bands.’ But anyway, I went into the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland and I was in there for, I think, five years.

So it was very much a weird upbringing, a lot of classical music and that was what was expected of me in some ways. Even though I absolutely loved it, I was always rebellious and I was just like, ‘Listen. We're not going be the perfect daughter here.’ I loved and was really inspired by bands like Sonic Youth — Kim Gordon was always just so cool to me.

There were a couple of moments that I had as a teenager where I was just [asking], ‘What am I doing to trying to figure out what other people want for me the whole time? I just can't do it anyway because I'm neurodiverse, so let's just stop this.’

So then I went to try to be a composer for film and then started writing my own stuff and singing. That was in 2020. I fell in love with singing and writing music. I was a professional drummer and percussionist, but I always felt like I had more to say. Once I started writing and doing all that, my life changed.

So that moment when you decided just to be yourself, it kind of opened things up by the sound of it?

Well, I always was myself — people always knew that I was a bit different — so I think it was accepting who I was, and just kind of leaning into it and becoming more and more me.

The accordion orchestra was epic, but I was always bullied in school and bullied here and there. Just because I was different. Now as someone in their 20s, being different and being an artist is cool. It's actually a good thing now to not fit into the normal.

Did writing your own material come easily or naturally to you, whether it's music or lyrics?

Yeah, it did because I was writing poetry, but just kind of randomly inspired poetry — it wasn't really connected to anything.

I practised the drums three or four hours a day. I was always very regimented in that sense. I started writing poetry as well, just kind of randomly — lyrics actually didn't come that hard to me.

What’s your writing process like?

I don't really know I'm writing anything. It's kind of a weird sensation. How I write a song is I go to the computer, in Logic, and I create a soundscape. I mainly start with drums, and then I get this feeling from it and then just start singing gibberish, basically, and get melodies… and then it just kind of flows out of me. I don't really think at all. When people ask me, ‘How do you do it?’, I have no idea. It just kind of happens, and then I find out what I'm actually saying in the lyrics afterwards. It’s quite therapeutic for me, writing, and it's detangling whatever the hell is in my head.

Artwork credit: Just Chris

Do you use a notebook, or make voice notes of ideas — that kind of thing?

I never really write anything… it's just in the moment. And if I write half a song, I'll find it hard to come back and write more because it's not that same feeling. So if I'm on to something that I think is good, I'll just keep going until I get all the words sorted.

I do a lot of producing and stuff like that and I was always really inspired by movie scores. That's why I wanted to be a film composer … And then I just completely fell in love with writing and singing. This is my dream and I don't really care if I don't get famous.

I think people can sense that passion in your music! Is the film thing still something you’d like to do?

Yeah, I mean I’d love to do it. I think my favourite thing would actually be to get my songs in films rather than writing for film. Actually, one of my songs — a remix of it — is in the new Nicholas Cage movie called The Surfer! [Due for release on 2nd May in the US and 9th May in the UK]

Let's just come back to your music. Your most recent release was ‘Black and Tan’ in February, and before that it was ‘I Love That For You’. How are you feeling now these songs have been out a while?

Yeah, I mean ‘I Love That For You’ was actually kind of hard because it was really personal … but the response to it was amazing so I was really really happy with that. Then with ‘Black and Tan’ that kind of took on a world of its own. It didn't necessarily get the same response, but what it got was a massive interaction on social media. I've been more political online and I kept tying in that song, because that's what it's about. And from me being more political and active and trying to fight for this world that the oligarchs and the narcissists are trying to destroy, people just went to it and just felt something from it.

I get that. For me, music is a great thing to turn to when stuff's going on in the world, or personally as well.

A lot of people say to me, ‘Oh, I can't look at the news anymore so I'm just going to retreat.’ But the Trumps of this world are going to keep going. So I feel like we’ve got to fight for this world basically.

Now, I’ve heard there’s an album coming — ‘Scapegoat’ …

So, I think there's three songs out from it already. But the album itself — the inspirations are basically what I was saying before. It’s how I experience the world, and what's going on in it around me, and what I want to change, and what I fight for and stand for.

A lot of the songs are about breaking down barriers. I guess that's one of the pervading themes. And also resisting or pushing back against control, and then the escapism side of it as well.

It’s hard being so honest sometimes because it is really exposing … But it’s quite therapeutic to write about this stuff and to process it, you know, and I think for artists that's kind of our job. To process the world that we live in and hopefully help others process it, too.

Be sure to check out Ria Rua’s recent releases, and follow her on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Spotify.