The Ruby Suns choose the dark side for Fight Softly

Original article at Consequence of Sound

On March 2nd, 2010, the pride and joy of New Zealand, aka The Ruby Suns, will look to followup the release of 2008’s Sea Lion and a 2009 that has included a massive U.S. tour with The Dodos by releasing their third full-length effort, Fight Softly.

In a recent interview with Pitchfork, Ryan McPhun, the group’s singer/songwriter, revealed that the direction of the band’s third album will be far different than experimental summer effort that was Sea Lion.

For starters, the release, Fight Softly, will deliberately explore darker themes: “With this new album, I just wanted to do something different because doing the same thing would just be boring to me. It’s probably the opposite of what I did for the last one.”

McPhun went on to explain that he’ll be drawing closely from his personal taste in music, namely pop: “I was trying to incorporate more classic pop stuff. A lot of the reverbs on Bad were really inspirational to me– though that might sound silly. In the last year or two, I had a break from guitar music. I’ve just been appreciating pop music.”

And it seems the influences might run deeper than that, as McPhun would like to work with a renowned pop producer: “We were just talking about working with other producers, and how Teddy Riley– who worked on Michael Jackson’s Dangerous album– might be available.”

Of course, all will be revealed on March 2nd when the record hits stores via Sub Pop.