We met Colin, Declan and Darren, the 3 members of the Adverts.ie Band Battle winning band Ruffus, at Windmill Lane recording studios, where they will spend 2 days recording their own material in the New Year.

We managed to squeeze a few questions in between all the technical stuff:

-Colin, telll us a bit about your background as a band:

“We formed in 2000 after myself (Colin) and our singer/bass player Declan had met while playing in another band together. During that time we became good friends and found that we worked well together and had very similar Ideas musically. When that band broke up we stayed together and continued to write and record music together. After about 12 months of writing material we wanted to get out and start gigging our new material and we needed a drummer. We began looking and tried out a number of guys but none really fitted the bill. We met Darren through a mutual friend. As it turned out he lived very close to us and was from the same area. We got together for a Jam and we all just clicked both on a musical and a personal level. We quickly progressed and soon we were all writing songs together. Our style is very heavily influenced by rock music from bands like U2, Thin Lizzy, AC-DC, Pearl Jam, Oasis plus many more and has a heavy bias towards the American market. We also started to gig as a cover band as we needed a way to fund the bands development. Since then we have had some great experiences gigging all around Ireland and have travelled to places like France, the UK and even as far as China to play gigs. We have always been an original band but getting music out there wasn’t always an easy task. Winning the Adverts.ie Band Battle comp has given us the opportunity to finally get a top quality single recorded and a chance to promote it online. This will hopefully lead on to us getting an album recorded next year and out there”.

-What does it mean to be recording at the Windmill Lane studios?

“It’s an amazing opportunity for us to get into the top studio in the country. You only have to look at the roster of acts that have recorded there over the years. Acts like U2, REM, The Rolling Stones, Lady GaGa, AC-DC, Imelda May, The Script and even Westlife. To have the chance to record some of our own songs in a studio where so many hits have been produced is unbelievable and an opportunity we are going to take full advantage of”.

-Have you ever recorded in a studio before?

“We have built up a lot of gear over the years (some bought on Adverts.ie) and have our own small production studio where we like to record our ideas and demo new songs. We have plenty of recording experience which we hope will help get the best results possible from our time in Windmill Lane”.

-What does a band need to create their own recording studio on a budget?

“These days recording your own music is quite achievable and affordable for most. Technology has advanced so much it is now possible to record a song in your own bedroom. All you need is a half Decent PC/Laptop, A set of audio monitors, Some sort of Audio interface (for getting your audio to and from your PC), a couple of microphones, a few ideas and understanding neighbours ha ha! All of this can be achieved on a very reasonable budget. I would advise to budding musicians wanting to record by themselves is to look at buying gear second hand. Musicians are always upgrading their equipment and selling on their current gear. There’s lots of bargains to be had by going onto sites like Adverts.ie where there is a full musical equipment section. You’ll be guaranteed to find what you want from the thousands of users selling on their unwanted gear. We ourselves have sold on older gear to allow us to upgrade”.

-Where can we hear you live? Do you have any gigs lined up?

“We have plenty of gigs lined up between now and the end of the year.You can keep up to date with all our gig listings by checking out or website www.ruffus.net and our official facebook page www.facebook.com/ruffusmusic“.

-What was the best bargain you ever bought on Adverts.ie?

“We have sold lots of gear on Adverts.ie over the years. We got our hands on a Soundcraft 32 channel studio mixing desk for a just over half the original price of a new one from a studio that was closing down and selling off all their equipment. We now use it in our own recording studio and it works a charm “

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