Born Ruffians (Photo by Vanessa Heins)
Born Ruffians — Luke Lalonde, Mitch DeRosier, and Steve Hamelin — will release PULP April 16 on Yep Roc Records. The digital-only album is the band’s final release in a trilogy that began with the release of JUICE and SQUEEZE in 2020.
From the new album, the trio share “Heat Wave.”
With an abundance of good material, following the recording of the Richard Swift-produced Uncle, Duke & The Chief, the band still had a batch of songs that they wanted to record. “We didn’t set out to write a trilogy,” frontman Luke said, “we just wrote a lot of songs that we liked and it seemed a shame to bury any of them. So, early on in our recording process we looked at this great big list of all the songs and said ‘let’s break this up into three records: JUICE, SQUEEZE, and PULP’. These are a group of songs who have, “been patiently waiting their turn.”
Stream “Heat Wave” by Born Ruffians on YouTube:
“Just this past week a work of art by Banksy was digitized and put up for sale as an NFT, and the original work was burned. Large chunks of the world are going through a (less dramatic or performative) transference from physical to digital,” Luke said.
“We wanted to trigger a desire to reach into your screen and interact with the artwork for JUICE, SQUEEZE, and PULP. To bridge the gap between the two worlds and beckon you to touch, squeeze, and consume the album. I went on a long hunt for art that felt relevant to the current digital age but also provoked other sensory desires, specifically the desire to touch and squeeze — similar to toy advertisements from my ’90s childhood — bright, shiny, and gooey. Eva Cremers ticked all the boxes. Her work is playful and fun and makes you want to touch it and interact with it.”