Ruby James was born and raised in Southern California, a place that most people come to find their dreams, but for this fiery girl, who sings country, with a twang of a southern girl, and can hold a mighty punch of sex appeal that I don’t think she even realizes she possesses, it took leaving the land of sun and riches to find herself in order to find herself and her musical roots. A little weary to open up when we had spoken a few times, I sent her a mixture of several types of questions, and said choose what you would like to answer within your comport level. Upon receiving the answers back, I was taken by surprise by her openness and the way she put herself out there. She has not had an easy life, like most of us, but for Ruby, she is used to letting it go in her music, not in song. So I personally thank her, as does All Access Magazine for her willingness to be candid with us and all the readers, and let us take a peek into her past, present, and a glimpse at what she hopes her future will be like. Like a Nomad as she is, she can blow in the wind, making the music she loves, and entrancing audiences for years to come, with songs from her heart, like the Desert Rose Ruby James is.
AAM: You’re a CA girl, but prefer the life of a nomad, why do you think that is, your present life and music, any insight to why this happened?
Ruby James: The CA girl will always be present in me a little bit, I don't think she'll ever leave, but growing up in LA, I always felt a little lost, like there was much more to life than what I was surrounded with on a daily basis. I never really felt at "home" or at peace until I left home and started playing and writing music. I have a very close bond to my mother's side of the family and they're basically modern day gypsies. My grandfather grew up travelling "grapes of wrath" style in a horse drawn wagon, from job site to job site, through the western desert. My mother definitely inherited a watered down version of this gypsy blood. I don't know how this happens exactly because I grew up with geographical stability, for the most part. My parents divorced when I was very young, so we did move around a lot but I definitely inherited the gypsy blood, it's just imbedded in my soul... I don't really feel comfortable unless I’m moving... and playing music
AAM: You’re Native American, what tribe, and what does that mean to you on an emotional and spiritual level?
Ruby: My grandfather's great grandfather was a full blooded apache Indian and my grandmother has a lot of Cherokee in her. I'm not sure exactly how much, but I did inherit the facial bone structure and a lot of it in the eyes and the cheekbones. I don't know enough about it all... I've just started to feel really interested in learning more about my heritage because I've started to feel like something is missing for me. The making of this record was sort of like a channeling of the subconscious and many different elements. I have the belief that really we know everything, but maybe we forget it all when we're born so we feel drawn to certain things and we're not sure why but we might feel like we've done it before..
AAM: Desert Rose is named after your parents, would you like to explain why and how the name of the song came to be?
Ruby: Desert Rose, the album, is actually dedicated to my grandmother and grandfather on my mother's side. This album is for them, Desert Rose is a title I've had in my head for the past year as I’ve been touring around the country. It’s funny, as a child, how we reject certain things about our life, like I never wanted to live in the desert with my family. I loved to see them, but I hated how hot it was, and how desolate. I chose to live with my father in Los Angeles instead. now that I've started to grow up, it's like I’m being called home to where I come from, where my roots have really been planted, many worlds before I was even born. Desert Rose the album and the song are both about a journey and possibly a homecoming. It’s a story of survival through the toughest of terrains and about a quest for self, but mostly it is a story of love and faith...
AAM: You worked with John Avila on this CD. Did you in your wildest dreams ever think your music would be produced by a former Oingo Boingo member, best known, for their Wild pop tunes, and strange sense of style and lyrics in the 80’s?
Ruby: Well, I wasn't really that aware of Oingo Boingo until I met Rene Reyes and started talking about working with john. Of course when I hear the songs, I know some of them, but Oingo Boingo was a little bit before my time, but it's cool to see what a rock star John really is and I feel very blessed to work with somebody like that. first of all he is the most amazing bass player you'll ever see in your life and he has such an incredible ear with vocals, string instruments, groove, and tone and that's just to name a few. And then to top it all off, he's the biggest little kid you'll ever meet with a heart of gold and he's so energetic and excitable. My favorite thing about working with john is that he has no sense of self, for such a well known musician who's toured all over the world and would sell out the universal amphitheater three nights in a row in their hay day, he has absolutely zero ego and when he's working with you, he is completely immersed in the project at hand and he has this incredible way of making you feel like the only thing that exists at that time. He’s a very special soul and I feel very blessed to even know him.
AAM: Your Music is very meaningful, soul stirring, and heartfelt, how draining was it to make this CD?
Ruby: Well, perception is a funny thing, this record has a lot of emotion in it and you do live that out in the writing and recording of the record but I don't look at it as draining. It was a very emotional process but one that was very rewarding as well, when you actually get to the point where you're getting it out on paper, there's a great sense of reward and relief in that, nothing is better than being able to take a memory or an experience and either relive it or write about it in a song. Especially if the song is good, it kind of makes the whole pain of the experience worth it at that point. I'm very sensitive and I have an innate ability to feel other people's emotions. To me sometimes it feels like more of a curse than a gift really because the feelings and emotions that go into the songs can be quite draining and painful at times. But when we actually got to the place of making the record, there was no pain involved in those sessions. It’s almost like for the 12 or so hours you're in the studio, you just shut the door on pain. It doesn't exist. I can't say it would be like that for everyone, but with the dynamic of the musicians in the studio and everyone involved, the desert rose sessions were mostly full of enthusiasm and positivity, where the music and lyrics come from may be a different story.
AAM: Some songs are very sweet and heartfelt and loving, some you are a vixen and very sexy. Do you feel there is a bit of both of these types in all women?
Ruby: I'm not sure about all women. I think some people are very one dimensional in many aspects of their being and then others have many different sides and layers to their make-up. I definitely have both of these sides you mention. There's a big part of me that is and probably always will be 12 years old, I'm very young at heart, very playful and loving. I guess I come from a "broken home" so they say and so I guess I'll always be this little kid who's looking for acceptance and trying to keep the peace and be a people pleaser. I have this very submissive kind of quality and it's very noticeable when I’m dealing with my friends on a personal level. But then there's definitely this other side that's a very dominant, living, breathing, mature sexual being, but it's something that I feel has always been there that I'm just now starting to become aware of, I've heard for many years that I have this sexy quality to me and I think I exude it without the awareness of it. It's something I always thought I would shy away from more than tried to show it, but I guess it's just there.
AAM: Tell us about your special bond with your grandfather, and how he would get around when he was alive?
Ruby: There's always been a very strong bond between my grandfather and me. He calls me his "teardrop" :), it comes from a very special, and what feels like, otherworldly kind of place. I credit my grandpa for my interest in music. He only knew like three chords on the guitar, but I grew up listening to him play old cowboy songs. He'd play Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash and these old songs that I have no idea where they come from, like red river valley, and he loved Elvis... it's funny, 'cause he doesn't even know who Bob Dylan is, even now but he loves Elvis and Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis, all those old timers. When he was young, they would travel around in a horse- drawn, covered wagon through the western desert because they were so poor, they would travel from job site to job site. A lot of the time they were working in the old mines, or setting up tents off the banks of the rivers. Grandpas stories are un-like any I've ever heard, his only real education in life was the living itself. He's a pretty special character and I blame him for my wanderlust, gypsy-like spirit. My mother and I obviously got his spirit.
AAM: You mentioned that you knew that you had a thing for singing at around 2 or 3; at what age did you start singing in front of audiences that were not your family?
Ruby: I was 2 or 3, and I was a pretty big ham when I was little. They say I looked like Shirley Temple, with my big blonde ringlets. My parents took me out with them a lot and I had a favorite Mexican restaurant that would always play that song 'Isn't She Lovely" when I'd walk in the room. I don't remember it at all but I guess I would always want to get up on stage with them and sing. I was always putting on a show wherever we'd go, whether it was in a restaurant, or if we were camping. I can remember being about 10 and we would always go camping in somewhere in the sequoia's and I would gather other children from the other campsites and put together these big productions and then all the people from the campsites would gather round and watch.. I had an amazing amount of self-confidence then, up until about the time I was 13. That is when it all went out the window; I became extremely shy and introverted after that. I didn't really start singing again until I went away to college for a couple of years. My friends made me go audition for this accapella group and I was so nervous, I had to turn around in the audition with my back to the group... I was so terrified, luckily they accepted me. For the two years I was in college, being in that group really helped me come out of my shell and build a little self-confidence to start singing in front of people. I started writing songs when I was still in high-school but I wouldn't play them for anybody. It wasn't until my second year of college probably that I really started to sing and play in front of people, then I took off with it, I dropped out of school, convincing my parents I was just going to take "a year off". I had met a couple of musicians, formed a band and well. That couple of years has now amounted to what is my life.
AAM: What has been the best place your nomadic lifestyle has taken you, and the worst?
Ruby: Hmmm… let’s see, I don't think there is just one, but I’d have to say the best place my lifestyle has taken me is in the past year or so I’ve been touring around the country and so I’ve got to meet so many new people and see so many new cities and so much new music that I would otherwise never be able to see. Travelling is the best thing about what I do... I love to travel and play. I think in life, it's a real struggle sometimes to figure out what it is that makes you happy, and what that really means. It seems like it should be simple to figure out but it's really not. We're conditioned or programmed to think certain things by whatever our influences are around us, but many times those things are not right for us. So many people spend a lot of time being unhappy because we're trying to mold to something we're not or please people that we never will, many times I think we're trying to live the wrong dreams. I pretty much gave up playing music for a year or so, I thought, you know what, this is really a waste of time… where has this gotten me? It was a very dark and lonely time and place. Growing up in Los Angeles, everything is so fast paced and so prosperous and sometimes it can feel like there's only one way to do things. It can feel like unless you make this amount of money or drive this kind of car that you're not successful, so I really had to take a long hard look at myself and what I wanted from life to realize that maybe these dreams, were just somebody else’s, maybe they weren't mine. Once I realized that, a whole world of endless possibility kind of opened up to me, once I looked back to when I was 2 or 3 and what got me into this in the first place was just that I loved to sing. That was it, once I realized that, I realized I could do anything, it was an epiphany. Realizing that being a musician was then no longer about getting a record deal, being a millionaire, or having an island in France, those things might be nice, and again I'll say maybe, because I think that money can sometimes, really make people assholes. I think that fame and or fortune on any level, can be a very dangerous thing. I just realized that I had to sing and write songs in order for my soul to survive and that's it. It didn't matter anymore how many people heard them, it's just what I needed to do for myself and for my time on this place, once I realized that, everything became clearer, though no one can remember every moment, it’s become much easier because with this realization, there became a purpose... so in a long, thought out way I think this should answer the question of the best and worst places, this life has lead me to that conclusion.
AAM: If you had to choose a place and were forced to settle down, where would it be?
Ruby: well so far, my favorite place I’ve traveled to and played has been Austin, TX. So I've been fortunate to set up an alternate home there to travel out of. I’ve made a lot of really great friends and the music scene in Austin is really inspiring, plus you can’t outdo the food, the Tex-Mex food is un-beatable, but if I could afford it, Santa Fe, NM is probably the greatest place I’ve. The one issue with settling there is that it's not so happening for the music thing. One day I have this little dream to have a ranch or something there...
AAM: You did a cover of Chris Isaac’s Wicked games, It is a very haunting and in many ways possessive song, when recording it or performing it, what are you feeling?
Ruby: There was a lot of magic to that recording. Rene and I went into John to work with him, for what would be my first time. We went in to record a couple of my songs and as John was getting set up at the board, Rene and I just started playing that song out of nowhere, we'd never covered it together, we just started playing it... and the way we were doing it, just goofing around really, I think everyone in the room kind of got the chills, so I remember saying, "hmmm, maybe we should record this one" and John turned around and said, I've already got a drum groove up for it, and so we did... in one night, we did that recording and it was pretty amazing! The energy between Rene and John and I was pretty magical, but there's something to his studio as well, it's a home studio and the vibe in there is kind of something else. There is nothing fancy about it, it's pretty basic, but there's an amazing energy to the place. I have a feeling I'm not the only one who's recorded a record inside those walls, and John has felt that way, and as far as what I feel when singing that song, I'm not really thinking about the literal meaning of the words, I'm just more involved into the overall vibe and mood that the music is creating...
AAM: It seems like two Ruby’s exist, and can be heard on your CD, one is very sweet, and nostalgic like we hear on Desert Rose, and a sex vixen that we here on Wicked Games and Mistress of the devil ,which is closest to you in your reality?
Ruby: I think maybe I could have answered this in a question above but I'm not one thing... I feel mostly sweet and 12 inside, most of the time... but like I said earlier, I'm many other things that make me a unique little character, in reality I'm more desert rose, but my mind and imagination have traveled to many lifetimes of places... in my mind I may be the mistress of the devil, not sure :)
AAM: Tell AAM and the readers about working with Rene Reyes, and your experience working with such a great artist. Also how much you learned from working from such a seasoned pro like him?
Ruby: The addition of Rene Reyes, I would have to say, is the best thing that's happened to my life so far... musically and personally... that was definitely something magical. The story of Rene and I is kind of funny actually. I met him about a year maybe before he actually played with me. He was playing with a great friend/ co-writer of mine named Matt McCormack. I remember going to Matt's show that night and there were all these really great musicians playing that have all played with a lot of really well known great artists and the only one I think I didn't really hear about was Rene, I walked in and my eyes were glued to him the whole time. It was like "man, who in the world is this guy?" he was pretty unbelievable, so I introduced myself, he was very nice and we kept in touch on MySpace and said he would definitely be interested in working and playing with me, sometimes I can be so insecure so I spent a year saying, "oh he'll never play with me, hell no". I went through a few other guitar players that I definitely wasn't as interested in, until we we're kind of desperate on the road, and I remember telling my manager, "well there's that one guy that I always tell you is my favorite, but he'll never do it, but you can try". She called him up and he said ok, that was a funny little lesson, working with Rene has been great on so many levels. I've played with a lot of really great musicians now but there's just something magical about the chemistry between Rene and I, It's just one of those things that you can't really describe, and he has a very quiet intensity about him that has really calmed my restless spirit and given me security and confidence in my musical ability that I never had before. He's brought out the blues in me and he's teaching me how to play slide which is my new favorite thing! Really the greatest thing about our musical relationship is that we ended up writing together out on the road, the rest is history. I was actually making a different record to be my debut release and it kept getting held up, Rene and I started writing together out of nowhere, we dabbled a little between June and September and then over Labor Day weekend, we pretty much wrote what would amount to be the whole desert rose album in three days, it was pretty crazy, kismet, I believe is the word. So this album is very special because of the bond between us.
AAM: This Cd had some collaboration’s with some well known names in the business, how and where did you meet many of these artists?
Ruby: I was actually working on a record in Austin, TX when Rene and I wrote all of these songs. Rene has worked on many projects with John Avila in another band that Rene is in. and he said, “John really wants to work with you”, so we went into the studio, recorded Wicked Game and were all blown away! We knew we needed to do more recordings, so it just sort of happened like that and between John and Rene they pulled in Mitch Marine who is a bad ass drummer. He tours with Dwight Yoakum and Smash Mouth as well as bringing Mike Bolger in to do the vintage keyboards and Billy Malpede to do the piano. The way any of that stuff usually works, is through friends of the producer's mostly.
AAM: Music is very personal for each artist. When you’re writing your songs, and then sharing them with others, do you feel exposed, and venerable?
Ruby: songwriting can be very personal, some songs are way more personal than others for me... sometimes I feel completely naked and exposed and other times, I feel like I’m not exactly sure what part of my subconscious, I'm channeling this from. I don't always feel like the meaning of the song is obvious to me. There are many times, my lyrics write themselves and it's not until the song is written or even much later that I know what it's about, and then of course there are those songs that you know exactly what you're writing about from the first words. For me it's always different and not something that's easily planned.
AAM: Anything you would like to share or add?
Ruby: I've enjoyed answering these questions, a good interview makes you think about your music and your life in ways you haven't yet, so thank you for that. I guess I would just add that I’m really proud of this album, more proud of this album than anything I’ve ever done or been a part of. There's definitely something special about it, you can see it in the face of everyone that's been a part of it. I hope people will check it out at www.rubyjames.com and give some of the songs a listen. If this interview makes it in time, we're having the album release at the Troubadour on April 21st and the official album release will be the next day, April 22nd, on ITunes and world- wide. Thank you to All Access Magazine, please keep in mind Desert Rose...
much love, Ruby James
