Ruby Alexander on Influences, Migration, and Future Plans
Sydney, Australia-born Ruby Alexander is full of surprises. The first one came about before I ever spoke to her. It was her voice. It is crystalline, rich, and soulful so beyond her years that I had to re-read the section of her Electronic Press Kit (EPK) that confirms her age a few times.
The second came from her citing “Sloop John B” by the Beach Boys as a song that shaped one of her first, most formative experiences with music. She was introduced to it by her father. It was the storytelling that caught her attention at a young age. “It’s funny because I don’t really know many of The Beach Boys’ songs,” she admitted on our Zoom call connecting my Atlanta evening to her early Australian morning. “But we used to play it all the time, and I remember I took the lyrics so deeply to heart. It was the story of it. I had a very hyperactive imagination.”
I don’t know what I was expecting the answer to that question to be — perhaps something that fits neatly within my own ideas of what a young singer-songwriter who recently graduated from NYU would be listening to; I definitely wasn’t braced for a Beach Boys track, though. The other song she cited? Roberta Flack’s version of “Killing Me Softly with His Song.” Alexander explained, “I was a kid, but I love her voice so much. She had the voice of a woman so grounded and confident and full.”
Alexander beautifully pulled in both of those influences in the form of bare-souled storytelling and vocal-focused performances for her 2024 EP, Anymore. The approach to uncertainty, heartbreak, and longing was introspective for her debut release. “That was a very explorational time, so I think that was more for myself. Going into this next one [Undertow], I was much more intentional about how it’s received.” For Undertow, her second EP, the direction of her expression has changed, but the bare honesty of it all hasn’t. That’s apparent from the first two singles. The title track is a full-hearted look back at a relationship to process the true feelings, like it takes place in the beats that land between the visceral heartbreak at the end of a well-worn relationship and the clear-headed contemplation of what you were truly afraid of losing. “All This Time Together” feels less concerned with dissecting or defining the relationship, and instead just grateful for the time spent in it.
Before she could say she was a graduate of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU Tisch, she was finding her love of music on the stages of her hometown in Sydney. As a child, she played Young Nala in the Disney production of “The Lion King” and was part of the cast of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” at the Belvoir St Theatre.
When it was time for college, she left Sydney for New York City. “There is a part of me that wonders if I would have continued doing this if I [would have] stayed in Australia,” she said. “I think being in New York was exactly what I needed. The culture shock was immense on a personal level, but what I took away from that… There was a bit of a wake-up call about a year into being there. I found it really hard to connect with people. If you move somewhere, you have to integrate by being open, and instead of wondering if people could change for you, you kind of have to be the one to change because you’re in a different environment. So when I let go and allowed myself to not be so stubborn, I think that kind of blew a window open with my music making as well.”
Alexander spent five years in New York, which resulted in some of her first performances as a musician in a city where there were mostly strangers in the audience.
“I actually found performing to strangers easier. Kind of relieves the pressure, and it’s easier to be vulnerable to people who you don’t know.”
She learned the hard way that not everyone cared about her on-stage vulnerability, however. “I think in New York, the music is so oversaturated,” she recalled. “There’s so much choice that everyone takes it for granted that you can go out and see an amazing show. There are fifty or more shows on a night. Audiences a lot of the time weren’t very receptive, and you kind of have to learn to stand your ground and keep going.”
Alexander is already pulling the levers and turning the cogs to put her goals for next year in motion. “I think live performance is so key. I think nothing really beats playing live, and I want to do it as much as possible in as many different spaces as possible and play around with a live setup. Different band members and different sonic configurations, that’s the main goal.”
She had one more little surprise for me: “I’m about to start recording my next project, actually. So it’s a mix of being in the studio and getting the reps in — building out the world and then sharing as much as I can.”
You’ll definitely want to be around when Ruby Alexander starts sharing more of her world. You can prepare for that by keeping up with her on Instagram, YouTube, and Spotify.
Undertow is due out in November.
