Irish singer-songwriter RuthAnne exclusively talked to Flavourmag last month on what it’s like being a female artist in 2018 and why we should be ourselves not what others want us to be.
RuthAnne known for her incredible songwriting skills, writing for the likes of Britney Spears, JoJo and Niall Horan is currently embarking on her own musical journey with the release of her new single ‘The Vow’.
RuthAnne is one of those artists that you have to see perform again and again! I’ve seen RuthAnne twice now since interviewing her and it never gets old.
Can you tell us about your new single ‘The Vow’?
The Vow is one of the most love songs that I have on the album, I don’t know where it came from but I was talking to a best friend of mine whose also an artist called Patrick Droney and he’s been a male friend in my life that I have a bit of a dating history with but we decided to be friends and what I love about our relationship is he’s one of the only men in my life that I feel like isn’t just texting me to have sex, he actually just wants to call me and it’s consistent! He’s like a Casanova, talking to him is like a romance novel but not the fifty shades kind of but the really real 1950s male gent. I got off the phone with him and he said something like “When we’re eighty, we’ll be playing in Irish pubs together” and I woke up in the middle of the night and wrote all the words to ‘The Vow’. This is really cringe but it wasn’t called ‘The Vow’ in the beginning, I went to the producers and I told them how cringe it was and they told me it was great and the reason I chose this as my first single was because I wanted a statement that sounds different to everything else that kinda has my bit of Celtic/Irish roots with a little bit of Damien Rice folky roots mixed with the soul with is the main core of my album. I feel like ‘The Vow’ really represents me in a real authentic way and I want it to be at everybody’s wedding.
How would you describe your style of music?
It has a root of soul, it’s soul with pop and folk… oh and also hip-hop
Who was your main musical influence?
Alicia Keys and Lauryn Hill for sure
What is your songwriting process like?
I normally will have a bunch of lyrics on my phone because I’ll always wake up in the middle of the night, I have titles and I’m in situations with boys that I’m going through at the time! When I go to the studio, I normally let the producers start playing cords and I find something that inspires me and then it’s like I black out! I normally start from a story point of view; I’m Irish so I’m a storyteller and I want the stories to be real.
What was it like working with Niall Horan on his album?
It was amazing! I love Niall! Niall and I are good friends and what I liked is that Niall brought in friends; people he knew and trusted and he kept it really tight so for a year it was whenever he was in town we’d write for a few days! For example when you’re thinking of a Simon Cowell X Factor Boyband gone on to be a solo phenomenon, you think is he gonna come in a want a radio hits that are like pop and EDM but no he came in with his guitar and a lyric book and said he wanted to do Fleetwood Mac/ Eagles scene and I said that was right up my alley! We got on so well, we wrote the song so quickly and to have five on the album is just incredible! I was so shocked when I saw all of them on there, I was like “Omg I wrote these” and it was so easy! I love Niall to pieces.
I love every single one, I think there’s something very genuine about the whole thing!
Yes, I just love how they’re all Irish musicians as well!
You’ve also worked with other great artists such as Britney Spears, do you have a favourite?
ThirdStory! I absolutely adore them! I also love them because they want to be artistic and watching them made me really want to work on my own artistry and not worry about numbers, pop and hits and As a new artist it can be hard not to compare yourself to Niall for example, you can feel “how am I going to compete with his streaming” and it can freak you out and with ThirdStory they’re building a really solid fandom with their music.
If you could collaborate with one artist, who would they be?
Lauryn Hill, if Lauryn and I did a song…
You’d basically die?
Yes!! Totally!
What have you learnt in the past year as an artist?
To be yourself! I think being in LA can be hard as people everywhere can try and change you and be like “oh you’re Irish, you can’t do soul” and tell me how I need to dress and that I need to be more sexual and the thing is if you’re not yourself, people can see it! The minute I started being myself and started telling my stories is when this all started happening
What advice would you give someone who wants a career like yours?
You’ve must love music a lot! If you’re in it for money or for fame, do something else! The music industry is so saturated right now that you’ve really gotta love music and be ok with writing a great song and that being the reward and it not being about the money
You can catch RuthAnne here next month:
23rd of May – The Academy- Dublin, Ireland
25th of May – The Courtyard Theatre – London
Follow RuthAnne on instagram @ThisisRuthAnne
Images via Barry McCall
