Born Ruffians wsg Twin Peaks
The Pyramid Scheme, Grand Rapids
Oct. 28, 7 p.m.
$12; Ages 18+
pyramidschemebar.com, (616) 272-3758
Indie rock band Born Ruffians will play in Grand Rapids for the first time during its upcoming fall tour. The tour will feature numerous songs from the band's latest album, Birthmarks, released this past April.
The writing process for Birthmarks began immediately after the band's last full-length release, Say It (2010). Vocalist and guitarist Luke LaLonde exclusively revealed that the band's steadfast writing process has continued, with an acoustic release having been in the works since the summer. The currently unnamed album is anticipated to contain alternate renditions of tracks from Birthmarks and artwork personally crafted by LaLonde. While no release date can be provided yet for the incomplete project, LaLonde hopes to distribute the album for free as a token for fans.
"I wanted to do something a little more simple. I just had these versions of songs that I thought were really good and really different so I thought I'd share them with people," LaLonde said.
Birthmarks was not a simple overnight studio session for the band. While Say It and previous albums took the band a matter of weeks to record, Birthmarks took a year. The change of pace stands out in the album's sound, driven by moodier overtones of varied instrumental effects.
"It was mostly in the production — where we were focused on making it sound a certain way — that was different than the first two records," Lalonde said. "You do things a certain way long enough, and you just crave something different. Even doing [Birthmarks] that way where it took a year to record, after finishing that, I just felt like doing a record where it was a little more instinctual, a little less calculated in the studio, and a little more letting things come out quickly."
As the tentative EP transpires, new original Born Ruffians content is also expected to develop by the tour's end, to be fine-tuned in a similar fashion to Birthmarks.
"I'm excited to keep going back up to the rehearsal space to write, demo and try to hone in on the next record and what it's going to sound like," Lalonde said. "That's what I was doing over the summer basically in tandem with this acoustic EP thing."
