.png)
With releases on Elrow, Stashed, Toolroom and Criminal Hype, Ruze is already turning heads with his infectious productions. Although the Birmingham duo appears to have emerged out of nowhere, it is clear that Ruze has been honing his studio skills for some time, honing and elaborating on their sound. Supported by DJs from MK, Wade, Latmun, Format: B, David Keno, Prok & Fitch, Hector Couto, Russ Yallop, The Golden Boy & Mad Villains, to name just a few, and are already drawing crowds at clubs around the world. UK, including Egg London, the future looks promising for Ruze.
We've had the pleasure of talking to them about their current single and upcoming album, and this has been the result. Enjoy!
Hi Guys, thank you for answering these questions. For those who don't know you, can you provide a little information about who you are and where you come from?
Hey, thank you for having us! Sure, we’re Jimmy & Curt, collectively known as RUZE, a house duo formed just over 10 years ago. Our friendship started in secondary school through our love of music.
Have you always produced music? If not, what did you study and have as your first jobs? How did this migrate to music?
As previously mentioned, this has been an ongoing project since we were teens, experimenting with many different genres & aliases. We’ve been through Dubstep, Deep House (for the 1st time), Progressive House & Tech House. We’ve finally found our home back in Deep House the 2nd time around! Jimmy studied a BTEC Music Production Diploma back in 2012, but we both currently work full time (neither in the music industry) & get together in our spare time to work on RUZE.
You are from Birmingham in the UK, how is the music scene there (pre-covid)?
If we had to describe it in one word, it would be “Vibrant”. Everyone who lives in Birmingham will know a location called Digbeth. It is the epicentre of music & creativity. There's always a new venue or event happening! Digbeth caters for everyone, whether you’re into industrial DnB, funky Reggae or Jazzy House; the creative people of Birmingham will have you covered.
Have you managed to tour and play elsewhere in and out of the UK? If so, where and what parties stood out for you?
We’ve been UK bound so far and we can’t wait to play our first international gig! One place on our bucket list is to play in Japan.
In the UK we’ve mainly played in London, however for us one gig that we always find ourselves re-living actually happened on chance. We used to play at a monthly residency for one of our good friends Paul Morrell in a town called Corby. Our duties were the warm up set, playing mainly to the bar staff! However, one night we got the opportunity to play at peak time. We jumped at the chance and took control of the booth once more. The venue was intimate & the atmosphere was electric! We continued to play well after normal closing time!
What are the last albums you each bought? What surprises you about them?
Jimmy – We’ve been following a super talented artist from the UK called Conor Albert, who’s recently released a unique album on SoundCloud which comprises short 2-minute sketches of ideas he’s conjured up over the UK lockdown. His style spans across so many genres but almost all encompasses a groovy undertone which we absolutely love!
Curt – The last album I personally bought was ‘Blue Note Re:imagined’. It’s an album full of reworked Blue Note Jazz tracks that have been re-recorded fresh by young UK talent. I was particularly impressed by the way the artists managed to capture the essence of the original pieces & also coat them with their own flavours, bringing the originals back to life to be enjoyed once more by a younger generation.
Could you explain the story behind your EP on PIV? What is the direction of your current sound and how has this changed over time?
We first got in touch with PIV through our manager at the time. Chris Stussy was our first point of contact with the label, who swiftly signed “Bolt” which got released as part of PIV’s 5-year anniversary. After this release we have been in constant talks with Prunk, who has been a huge supporter of our music ever since we first approached them. Through Prunk & the PIV team road testing a number of unreleased tracks, they handpicked those which they felt suited the label and so the Chapters EP was born.
Throughout both of our childhoods we were exposed to a lot of genres such as Jazz, Soulful House, Rock, 90’s Hip Hop, Northern Soul and many more in which we take great inspiration from in our current sound.
Being relatively new, what are your goals for the next year ahead? Now we are hopefully back to playing shows.
To get people dancing as much as possible! The past 16 months have been absolutely terrible for pretty much every single person globally. As music is the universal language that everybody can understand, we want to do our part in getting people back on the dance floor and having a good time.
In the next year we want to keep our release schedule flowing and consistently play at events weekly across the UK and worldwide!
Any other release you have on the cards after this one you can tell us about?
We have a release coming out on Josh Butler's label, Origins, later on this year. We will be announcing more details on our socials soon!
