“IT’S DARK AND SCARY BUT ALSO BEAUTIFUL – I THINK THAT’S EXACTLY HOW WE WANT OUR MUSIC TO BE” | INTERVIEW WITH MODERN RUIN
INTERVIEW | MODERN RUIN by Bryden Churchmichael
Fresh off their headline slot at King Tut’s Summer Nights, we sat down with Glasgow’s Modern Ruin. Despite having only dropped their debut single –‘The Bloodletter’ – back in March, the five-piece is already building an impressive momentum that makes them a band to watch. We caught up with them to talk about their rapid rise, their unique aesthestic, and what’s coming next.
Going from debut to headline at King Tut’s in under two years is a significant trajectory. Was that a deliberate roadmap or did it unfold more organically, and where does a headline at Tuts sit in the bigger picture of where you want to take this?
When we started, I don’t think we had very much expectations in our first year to have such an amazing run of shows, but as time went on, headlining [King] Tuts was definitely a goal for some of us, especially with some of our favourite artists taking that same stage at points in their career. Obviously, with how fast things have come along, our goals have gotten much larger as well.
I wouldn’t say we have a set plan, but more of an idea of where we’d like to be. In the years to come, we’d love to branch out into festivals and other cities. We’d love to do shows in the likes of London, Liverpool, Manchester, Aberdeen, Dundee, Dublin and Belfast, all of which we feel have a very rich music culture.
Every member of Modern Ruin has a distinct visual identity, but on stage it collapses into something unified. Did you ever consciously decide not to have a band uniform or aesthetic, and do you think that individuality is part of what makes the live show work?
As a whole, we are very individual people outwith the band, but when on stage and in our music we like to play into separate characters such as war, death, pollution, famine and revelation. Every stage entity has its own unique style on how they’d like their persona to look, but have an overall running theme of our own post-apocalyptic world. We like to write our songs with specific characters in mind, too.
Headlining is a different psychological contract with an audience than supporting. They came specifically for you. Did that change how you approached the set, and was there a moment during it where you felt the room was fully yours?
I think that we all felt the pressure a lot more, not just to perform our best and make a show that’s memorable, but also had a lot more of a responsibility to find the audience. At times we worry that no one will come, but we always end up surprising ourselves.
I think we put a lot more into stage craft and song transitions this time, as well as having more interaction with each other as a band. There were parts of the show where I feel we were unstoppable. Watching a crowd of people sing your song back to you is such a surreal feeling that I don’t think we’ll ever get used to.
What’s one non-musical influence, a film, a book, a place, an experience, that you think genuinely shapes what Modern Ruin sounds or feels like?
To put one thing down as an influence would just be too difficult, but if I were to put what inspires us to write the way we do into anything, it would be how society is today and the world in general. It’s nothing but pure chaos, and I think that watching everything descend into madness definitely inspires us to write to try and make sense of it all. It’s dark and scary but also a beautiful place to be and I think that’s exactly how we want our music to sound.
What’s next for Modern Ruin? Anything in the pipeline you can tell us about?
Nothing is set in stone just yet, but we have been in the studio and plan to record more soon. And there may be a few shows yet to be announced.
Keep up with Modern Ruin on Instagram at @modern.ruin.band and stream ‘The Bloodletter’ now at linktr.ee/modernruin
King Tuts Summer Nights live series continues over July and August, and you can check out the line-up and buy tickets HERE.
