Last week, Ruby Fields released her long-awaited debut album, Been Doin’ It For A Bit.
As it stands, Drake is currently topping the ARIA mid-week charts with his milquetoast Certified Lover Boy (sorry Drizzy, not your finest, you’ll always have ‘Tuscan Leather’) and the luminous debut from Lil Nas X, Montero.
It’s all love for Lil Nas X (and Drake to a certain degree), but wouldn’t it be satisfying if Ruby Fields comes up on top with her resounding debut. Staking out chart territory as one of the most cogent songwriters in the Australian rock sphere.
There is so much depth and duality to Ruby’s debut. It strikes a balance between tinnie-crushing larrikinism and hard-earned stoicism.
Ruby Fields was fresh out of high school when she released her debut single, ‘I Want,’ coolly uploaded to the triple j Unearthed site. It struck an immediate chord with an Australian audience, and triple j played the track that very evening.
In the years that followed, Ruby Fields released two EPS, 2018’s breezy Your Dad’s Opinion for Dinner, and 2019’s Permanent Hermit. The latter spawned the Hottest 100-dominating single ‘Dinosaurs.’
“Since I was 17 I’ve been doing the Ruby Fields thing, but I gave myself a break last year to finally come to terms with who I am as a person,” says Ruby of Been Doin’ It For A Bit.
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“Making mistakes is part of life, but in 2020 my self-worth wasn’t validated by who I was on stage. So I’ve been working on being a better friend, partner, bandmate; just a better person.”
Ruby and her band of best mates—guitarist Adam Newling, bassist Tas Wilson, and drummer Patrick Rogers—shared dwellings as the album began to take shape. There’s this untouchable sense of camaraderie, a divine, scrappy friendship that tides through the record.
The troupe crossed the Tasman to record the album at Revolver Studios in Waiuku, New Zealand; but were forced to cut the sessions short when the pandemic hit, relocating to The Music Farm in Byron Bay to finish the album.
Ruby Fields’ Been Doin’ It For A Bit is out now via Space 44. You can listen to it below, and cop merch here.
Listen to Been Doin’ It For A Bit by Ruby Fields
