new album motivated by group therapy
Formed in 2010 by Australians Tyrone Lindqvist on vocals, James Hunt on percussion and Jon George on keyboards and synths, RÜFÜS DU SOL —initially called RÜFÜS , the ‘ du sol ’ illustrating the same feeling of exotic, foreign escapism being added in 2018 so as not to confuse the band internationally with a namesake—flourished, undergoing a metamorphosis from an experimental Sydney outfit into one of the most recognisable electronic bands on the planet.
Since forming in Sydney’s experimental electronic scene in 2010, they’ve pushed the boundaries of house, techno, indie and psychedelic rock, reimagining the possibilities of the live set while forging new paths for dance music. On their debut album, Atlas (2013), and its clubby follow-up, Bloom (2016)—which would deliver their most iconic track, “Innerbloom,” at the end of the album—they established themselves as underground innovators unafraid to pair bedroom melodies with the force of rave. Their expansive albums, Solace (2018) and Surrender (2021), were ethereal, artful and massive, euphoric soundscapes from a once-in-a-generation band riding high.
Group therapy
In some ways, they had it all — hundreds of millions of streams, stadium shows that sold out in minutes — but after years on the edge ( Solace was written at night on the fringes of the L.A. rave scene), the band’s reckless lifestyle was taking its toll. When the pandemic hit, they retreated to Joshua Tree to slow down and repair some of the damage. “At first, it was almost a decision made out of necessity for us to survive,” James says . “Then we realized how much we needed it as a creative unit.”
Unlike many bands, who have broken up throughout history (for multiple reasons, sometimes incomprehensible to fans), Tyrone, James and Jon made the decision to take group therapy. “We’ve been in the band for 14 years and we’ve had the best time, it’s been a roller coaster. I think, throughout our friendship, being in a business and in a band together for that amount of time, people change along with the dynamics we’re in, the band changes a little bit as well. So group therapy was a safe place to, interpersonally, be able to talk about anything that had built up over those years; to communicate and learn tools that would allow us to change the dynamics within the band and thus improve; so that when we were in the studio, we could write more freely; so that we could have more fun along the way, be happier and be closer as a group of friends from a healthy place,” the vocalist openly shares.
The result was a fundamental restructuring of their process, trading flexibility and spontaneity for structure and routine. They adopted a rigorous wellness routine —ice baths, saunas, ginger shots, breathing techniques, group workouts, and consistent sleep—and committed to group therapy .
Joshua tree
During that time they performed Live from Joshua Tree (specifically at AWE Ranch), a live set that they recorded and streamed on YouTube (which has now accumulated 29 million views) and simultaneously released on music streaming platforms, with a commemorative track called “Valley of the Yuccas” referencing the yucca brevifolia tree endemic to the region. The creative concept was a proposal from Jon’s brother, Alexander George , better known as Katzki. “He was there when the band started,” Jon clarifies and continues, “We had been touring for two years after releasing Surrender, we were towards the end and we were really at the top of our game, as far as putting on a show, and we wanted to document the experience of being able to perform that album and the rest of our catalog, filming it in an environment that contrasts nature with electronics — an example of this is the video for “Alive” — a world that we love to inhabit. So we went there and recorded the whole thing. It was a really special moment for us.” In the end, we screened it in a theater in Los Angeles and went to see it, enjoying the music in Dolby Atmos.”
“But that time was also a tragic time for the world, when the world was shutting down due to the pandemic. (The live show) turned out to be a relief for many people, quite fortuitous that we could offer them the opportunity to see us perform live music, especially when there was no possibility of enjoying concerts.”
After this period, after working through group therapy, things almost immediately started to click. They got along again. They thrived on stage. In 2022, the lead single “Alive,” from their fourth album, would win them a Grammy in the Best Dance/Electronic Recording category. The following summer, they proved their unique place in the dance music ecosystem by selling out Red Rocks, headlining Coachella , and performing at Circoloco Ibiza over the course of a few months.
A new album: Inhale/Exhale
“There was a lot of positive momentum ,” James says of the lead-up to their first studio session for Inhale/Exhale . “We found new ways to relate, both creatively and as friends. It was a rebirth.” Unlike their previous albums, which tended to reflect the city in which they were written, the latest offering represents an entirely new way of working. For the first time, the band is living apart—Tyrone in San Diego with his wife and 5-year-old son, while Jon and George are in Miami—and the project was recorded in a series of intense periods. They’d gather in a studio in Austin, Los Angeles, or Ibiza and jam for two weeks at a time. It was wildly productive. “We’d go into the studio more prepared and open because we knew our time together was limited and precious,” George says. “You want to make the most of it and take advantage of the fact that we were creating, here and now, together. That’s magic for us.”
“When we wrote the album, we didn’t start with a concept in mind,” the drummer says of the album’s concept, adding, “We didn’t start with a specific sound, so lyrically and stylistically, everything happens organically. We work from a place of connection with feelings and emotions, that’s the most important thing. We’re all aligned with that.” This is where the personal and interpersonal work they’ve been doing for years comes into view, work that’s also physical, mental, and emotional. On the narrative structure, James explains, “We generated a lot of music for this record; it’s the longest we’ve ever released, with 15 tracks. First, that was different for us, making a slightly longer album, with a different journey. Previously, albums used to have a more singular narrative, an arc from A to B or a journey from light to dark, or whatever that form represents. For this album, we’re excited about the idea of having a broader body of work, almost like two arcs, two types of journeys, and then a reset in the middle.”
It’s natural to think that with both individual and group therapy, breathing would correlate to the name Inhale/Exhale . James shares how they came to that conclusion: “We’d been tossing around a lot of names for the album, but we were in Los Angeles in May of this year and we set up a sort of breathwork session. We used it as an opportunity to invite friends, family, and people in the industry to come hear some tracks from the album. Rather than just play them in a sterile environment, our manager came up with the idea of doing a breathwork session, like the one we did at Open in Venice Beach. The idea was that people would wear a blindfold so they could be in a space where we played some key tracks. It was a really pivotal and cool moment. We were able to share thoughts about how we’d been creating the music for the first time , starting to open up about what we’d been doing. And I think we were just getting back into the studio that day when we thought, ‘What if…? ’” “Since our last four albums had singular titles, we thought that if we did a two-word title, Inhale/Exhale , it would reflect that duality; plus, being a larger body of work, it felt fresh and exciting. We all immediately connected with that idea as a possible title, although it came about later in the process. We were just writing music first, creating melodies, and the concept just presented itself.”
“We were drawn to stuff with an older feel — soul songs , ’90s house samples , more classical strings, etc. — and went for softer sounds that felt more mature,” Lindqvist says . They spent days dusting off club tracks they loved in their youth, by timeless ’90s and early 2000s house icons like Roger Sanchez, Moby, Daft Punk, and Armand van Helden. Glimpses of Stardust’s 1998 hit, “Music Sounds Better With You , ” can be heard on the album’s upbeat first single , “Music Is Better,” a lighter, more open track compared to the dark, brooding soundscapes of their previous two projects.
A bouquet of flowers
As inspiration for Inhale/Exhale , the band adopted flowers, “The idea of them appearing at so many pivotal moments in people’s lives, like birth, death, weddings and funerals, shows how embedded they are in a person’s life experience, and that was interesting to us,” shares Tyrone, who also explains the reasoning behind the cover art – which always has an abstract tone. “They influence us in some way, all the way to the finish line, essentially where the album cover is a blurry image of a bouquet of flowers. It may look like a digital image, but it’s a raw photograph of a section of the flowers cut out, with hammered glass and it gives it a blurry, distorted look, kind of psychedelic.”
For the Inhale/Exhale cover , Katzki—who has been RÜFÜS DU SOL 's creative director since its inception, for all of its visual output, be it artwork , videos, and live shows—done a stream of consciousness imagery and palette, with the flower images being matte, hidden behind glass that would be diffused in some way. “We love the colors within the cover, the full spectrum of color, and it’s eternally interesting to us, to be in between an analog synthesized world and mix it up. Finding a middle ground between something organic and something synthesized,” Tyrone says. While they were finishing up the album in the studio, they were shooting the cover next door in the live room .
Mexico seemed appropriate
Rüfüs du Sol has shot two videos in Mexico, both for their latest album Inhale/Exhale, the first being for the single “Lately” in Todos Santos —specifically at the Paradero hotel, by architects Rubén Valdez and Yashar Yektajo and interior designers B-Huber—, Baja California Sur, and the second for the single “Break My Love” in Mexico City and Jojutla —at the Emiliano Zapata elementary school by architect Alberto Kalach—, Morelos.
Not to mention, the band has a focus on minimalism and brutalism that is identifiable in their visual elements, even in their way of dressing, to which Tyrone comments “a really interesting limitation was, let’s limit ourselves to all black and see how we can creatively express our individualism within that small frame,” adding “there’s a uniformity to it, there’s a care.”
On his visit to Mexico City, the vocalist again shares: “We had like three days there, dressing up with fake mustaches and wigs, doing our homage to Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” a video we grew up with that brought us so much joy and laughter. It’s such a cool city. It feels so unique. Over the past three years, the shows we’ve done in Mexico have been so exciting and big, and the fans seem to double or triple every time we go. There’s genuine love and joy from the audience, so it felt really appropriate to shoot a music video in a place that gives us so much love. We’re going to be there more and more, to play more shows, make more music videos, just to be present, because it’s a really wonderful part of the world.”
What's next for RÜFÜS DU SOL?
And what’s next for RÜFÜS DU SOL after Inhale/Exhale? “One of my favorite things about what we do is literally making music . I think even if we weren’t successful, we would still make music. We love making music, we love making it together. So, yeah, I’m not gonna say anything else about it, but we just love what we do and I know we’re gonna keep loving it because we have these healthy practices. We have such a good connection now, and, you know, it’s better than ever. I think as long as we’re connected, we’ll keep making music,” Lindqvist concludes .
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