Joburg-born, Naarm/Melbourne-based pianist, guitarist & singer-songwriter Ruby Gill (she/they) has shared her new album Some Kind Of Control, which earmarks an era of matured silliness and darker wit for the acclaimed artist, peeling back her layers to reveal a searingly intimate, body-focused, yet globally-relevant sophomore that’s “cheekier, looser, gayer and even more raw”. Some Kind Of Control is a powerful set of songs-as-explorations about control over her body, her queerness and her politic, reflecting a witty assuredness and unflinching honesty that can only come with time and a dedication to going to the end of every feeling.
Some Kind Of Control buzzes with the sparse-but-formidable intensity that watermarks Ruby Gill’s work, ironically sounding her most effortless while singing about control across themes of power, physicality, politics and pleasure. Unflinching, lyric-driven and written largely alone – often in the bath – Some Kind of Control is immediate in its emotional pull, laced with intricate hooks and meticulously-crafted one-liners to live by, inviting multiple listens to absorb the intricacies of each poem-like world.
Carried by Ruby Gill’s distinctive voice and deceptively minimal instrumentation, with lots of slow builds and swelling choirs that captivate, transport and hold you, it was recorded with renowned producer Tim Harvey (Ella Hooper, Jade Imagine) on Wurundjeri Country, featuring Gill on piano and guitar, Jess Ellwood on drums and Lewis Coleman on bass, and a heavenly backing choir recorded at the Old Stone Hall in Beechworth of her found family, comprised of queer, female and gender-diverse local musicians Annie-Rose Maloney, Hannah McKittrick, Hannah Cameron, Jess Ellwood, Angie McMahon, and Olivia Hally (Oh Pep!).
Widely adored for her ability to stun a room into hear-a-pin-drop silence with unforgettably honest – and wryly humorous – offerings that can bring even the most cynical to tears, Gill shares of the album, “This record is a coming-out album of sorts – not just in terms of being gay, but also in terms of being an imperfect body, a person in a fucked political landscape, a human with human needs and desires – to be held, seen and respected; it is in some ways a study about who controls what – and where we can have a say over our sex, time, policies and pleasure. Even though everything I’ve made has always been in pursuit of honesty, this album is so much more true and reflective of my true self and carries a very distinctive voice and set of experiences borne of fighting very hard to accept myself, my body and my place in the world. All that facing myself freed me in some ways to be cheekier, looser, gayer and even more raw. I wanted to capture its intimacy by recording it powerfully with Naarm musicians who have helped me see those things in myself and welcomed me into an empowering community where we can figure this stuff out.”
Release: March 28th, 2025, Independent