Ruen Brothers Take Ten Paces (From Vol. 4: Death by Stereo)
by Roberto Guevara
“There are these two British chaps,” says Henry Stansall, one-half of the sibling duo known as Ruen Brothers. “One of them has two cats. He loves those furry things! And they’ve got this record coming out and it’s this weird, western-noir sort of thing full of dark wholesome goodness,” he says with a smirk as Rupert, his brother and musical partner, chuckles.
“See, I almost went in that direction,” Rupert says, previously unsure of how he’d pitch the upcoming project, “I was like: people are going to think that’s crazy.” A fair assumption that may only be true of new listeners. As for those familiar with Ruen Brothers music — a confection of crisp harmonies and catchy hooks rooted in a foundation influenced by 50s rock — there’s only comfort and excitement in knowing when their third album Ten Paces arrives on June 2nd, it was crafted by capable hands.
“LIKE A SCI-FI DREAM OR A STORY IN THE WEST /THAT I DON’T WANNA SEE / THOUGH I WANNA KNOW THE END”
- “Don’t Know What’s Come Over You” by Ruen Brothers
“Don’t Know What’s Come Over You,” the lead single off Ten Paces, opens with a melody so lovely and enchanting you’re shielded from the heartbreak Henry’s pensive vocals foreshadow. With little warning, the song accelerates into a pulsating engine of romantic grief. “Need you there, I need somewhere / I need you there to hold,” a heartsick Henry sings. Despite its forlorn narrator, “Don’t Know What’s Come Over You” is a three-minute gallop, primed and ready for a dance remix. The highlight of the track comes at its midpoint when Henry and Rupert deliver a dizzying and euphoric instrumental break. Like Dorothy and the tornado, this swirling interlude at the heart of the album’s lead single feels like the introduction to a new world — the inverse of Oz. There, the brick road is monochrome, the score is ten tracks long, and every corner is steeped in melodrama and adorned with Western flourishes. “Is this a desert dream or a story in the West?” Henry asks. In the case of Ten Paces, I suspect it’s both.
The Ruen Brothers’ musical catalog has always consisted of work tethered to the silver screen. “Throughout our creative process, [film] has gone hand-in-hand with us writing music,” Henry says. “Aces,” the first single they released as Ruen Brothers, was accompanied by a high-contrast, shadowy video that collaged Henry and Rupert with snippets of black-and-white film scenes. The track harkens back to Old Hollywood’s rich tales of crime and glamor — stories that could exist within the reality of The Night of the Hunter, a 1955 crime-thriller Rupert and Henry cite as being a major inspiration for the upcoming album. The movie is a stylistic triumph that trades in the hard-boiled detectives and femme fatales typical of film-noir, for the inhabitants of a town in Depression-era West Virginia. With that landscape and genre in mind, the vision for Ten Paces becomes all the more clear. “We know what we like and that’s basically the keyhole, which [our influences] fit through,” Rupert says; influences that began in the English countryside.
Before becoming Ruen, Rupert and Henry Stansall grew up in the industrial steel town of Scunthorpe, England. Their father’s love of music gradually became their own as the pair consumed the likes of Johnny Cash, The Everly Brothers, and Roy Orbison — all musical acts you’d hope Pandora radio would incorporate when listening to a Ruen Brothers station. It’s an addicting blend the sibling duo have mastered: music that feels classic in style but reinvigorated for modern audiences. It’s a sound with massive current appeal if the recent success of Stephen Sanchez’s “Until I Found You,” a ballad dripping with 50s rock sensibility, is any indicator. “We don’t try necessarily to be vintagey or retro but sonically our interest certainly aim towards the early, middle of last century,” Rupert says. Beyond their aesthetic appeal, it’s smart production, bewitching harmonies, and soaring vocals that make their act worth noting. “Summer Sun,” their most popular single to date, is an impressive display of beautiful instrumentation and vocal proficiency elevated by impassioned performances. Qualities that emerged after years of work.
Their journey as performers began when an adolescent Rupert picked up guitar. A few years later, Henry followed suit. Between guitar lessons, school choir, and hymns sung at morning assemblies, it was only natural the pair would take the next step. “It was an easy gel, really,” Rupert says. “Henry was a little more outgoing than me so he decided to sing.” Henry recollects the moment this decision occurred — a meeting in which Rupert, Henry, and a young man named Pete gathered to discuss their first band. They sat in a circle and questioned who would step up to the mic. “It was sort of like: well Henry you’ve got the biggest mouth or something along those lines, so it fell on me.” They began playing shows throughout town, then the surrounding villages. “[It] blossomed into us playing our own pub shows and making money on the weekends as teenagers. We were doing weddings and all sorts of things. Funerals! Any gig that we [got] we did,” Henry says. By their early teens, there was always a booked show on the horizon keeping them united and committed to a dream that would become a reality. Eventually, Rupert and Henry Stansall became the Ruen Brothers — an amalgamation of their first names, suggested to them by their sister. “Because of where we’re from in the UK, the northern accent typically drops the ‘H’ off the front of things,” Henry says, leading to the unification of “Ru” and “En,” — a stage name that has carried them from their 2015 EP Point Dune and through their subsequent albums: All My Shades of Blue (2018) and ULTRAMODERN (2021).
While their third full-length venture feels more conceptual than previous installments, it was an organic landing pad for the pair who spent time leading up to the project consuming films like The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and music like Marty Robbins' Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs. With Rupert in Los Angeles and Henry in Brooklyn at the time of development, the pair traded song ideas through voice memos and Google Docs. Though they grew up writing side by side, the pair found the distance to be beneficial to their creativity. “[Being] alone can help you sometimes get to a conclusion you wish without, as bad as it sounds, being interrupted,” Rupert says. These conclusions led to songs that naturally lent themselves to Western elements; a facet of the album elevated by their appreciation for the film. Rupert, who produced Ten Paces and mixed and mastered the Vinyl himself, aimed to build sonic landscapes more typical of movie scores rather than producing the tracks like typical commercial songs. “The clever idea Rupert had was [bringing film] elements into the recordings. When you hear ‘Slow Draw’ for example, you’ll hear things like ricochets of bullets. With ‘The Fear,’ cracks of thunder. We hope it helps put the listener in a space where they can almost visualize the sound,” Henry says. It’s a freedom they found comes with only being responsible to each other. “When you’re a duo, you’re not committed to a four or five-piece band… It’s more like: let's put the importance of the song at the fore and make the arrangement suit that the very best… that being said I think every song has some bass and drums — the fundamentals.” Rupert says as Henry laughs.
In the aforementioned song “The Fear,” the second single off Ten Paces, the brothers paint a bleak scene, “All the people outside make me want to go and hide / Laughter, love and joy and hope hanging from a shiny rope.” Over a drum beat that mirrors an anxious heart, the Ruen Brothers craft a chilling tale in which a withdrawn character, desperate to shun the outside world, begs for his love to remain by his side. “So won’t you stay here, please don’t go dear… Oh the fear you’ll leave / As the world bleeds / Feel the fear, fear in me.” It’s an unsettling sentiment — one that could easily serve as part of a ghost origin story. This haunted feeling is reinforced by the accompanying music video that features black-and-white, kaleidoscope fragments of Rupert and Henry in a claustrophobic cabin setting, both hollowed-eyed and menacing in their delivery. They play their parts well considering it’s a sharp contrast from the warmth and humor that permeates their social media and the genuine openness I felt as we discussed all things Ruen.
The Ruen Brothers' blend of artistic commitment and personability makes for a promising concert experience — one which fans can look forward to with the recent announcement of The Ten Paces Tour (Part 1). “[The record] is going to be performed in a way that suits our striped back set-up,” Henry teases, noting his excitement to play “Slow Draw” and a track titled “The Good Surely Die.” Rupert, on the other hand, looks forward to performing “Silver to Gold,” a song he was inspired to write from walks taken up Moon Canyon in Los Angeles. “I used to go on this little trail almost every day while we were making the record, I have some nice memories there. I wouldn’t mind, when we’re on stage, having some of [that] imagery running through my head.” As for the momentous occasion — the album release — Henry has some ideas for crafting the ideal listening party. “It’s certainly a twilight dusk, rolling into evening [album]. Or even a very late evening, sort of listen.” And though he’s not necessarily encouraging anyone to “spark up,” Henry does recommend a listener take steps to feel relaxed whether it’s smoking a “stogie,” burning incense, sitting by house plants, or prepping a western-style cocktail. “Something whiskey based [or] some sort of bourbon. Old Fashioned might be good!”
“I CAN FEEL THE SLOWNESS INSIDE YOU. / I CAN FEEL THE SLOWNESS INSIDE ME. / I CAN FEEL IT HOLD US / I CAN FEEL THE, CAN FEEL THE / CAN FEEL THE SLOWNESS / SLOW DRAW.”
- “Slow Draw” by Ruen Brothers
In “Slow Draw,” a familiar visual comes to mind — one we’ve read about in history books and watched in period pieces. With honor on the table, two individuals stand back-to-back, weapons in hand, and take the first of ten paces out. Over a sensuous, guitar-driven arrangement, Rupert and Henry reframe the typical duel narrative. “Tell me again that we stand on the brink / Yeah you don’t even think / The trouble that you bring / I treat you like a queen but I’ll never be your king.” It’s the sort of song that would play at the end of a movie in which a rejected man hurts the object of his obsession. You can almost hear the echoes of a gruff, transatlantic accent screaming: “If I can’t have you, no one can!” As the album opener, “Slow Draw” inherently promises certain things of the record: cinematic imagery, shadowy characters, sleek production with Western flare, and memorable hooks. With this in mind, Ten Paces can be more than just another album. It can be the soundtrack to a mystery you’ve yet to imagine or the origins of a love for noire. Regardless of whether you pour that drink, light that incense, or (in my case) take a stroll through Moon Canyon — it’s fair to assume that Ten Paces is a shot that won’t miss.
Ten Paces out everywhere June 2nd!
