In conversation with Ruby Roberts

Words by Martyna Rozenbajgier

For Ruby Roberts, Reading Festival was a milestone. It was her first festival appearance, and with the atmosphere of The Canopy behind her, she had plenty to celebrate.

“I had no expectations, and it was amazing,” Ruby tells Starfreak Magazine when we catch up after her set. “It feels amazing. It’s pretty much my first festival I’ve ever done, so it was such an amazing turnout.”

One song in particular was always going to be a highlight. Trampoline, which Ruby chose to close her set with, has become a favourite when it comes to performing live.

“Probably Trampoline,” she says when asked which song she had been most excited to sing. “I feel like it’s just like a festival song.”

For Ruby, though, performing it is about more than simply playing one of her best-known songs. “I just love doing that one live. I feel like I kind of connect with my fans in the crowd and kind of share the experience.”

That sense of connection runs through Ruby’s music, but so does something else: imagination. Her songs don’t necessarily exist in one fixed world. Instead, each one can become its own character, story or visual.

“I think I have so many worlds in my imagination,” she says. “I’m very creative, and I draw pictures for my songs, and I’m always kind of seeing my songs as almost like movies and worlds.”

“Every song is a different vibe, a different ride.”

It’s an approach that makes sense when you hear Ruby explain how she writes. Rather than beginning with a clear subject or sitting down with the intention of writing about something specific, she prefers to start recording and see where the idea takes her.

“I love to just go on my voice memos, and then I just press record, and I just play and sing at the same time and just see whatever comes out,” she explains.

She’ll then begin piecing those ideas together. “I usually don’t sit down like I’m gonna write a song about this. I just love to improvise and just see what comes out of me subconsciously, basically.”

That instinctive way of writing recently led to Bad Girl July, a track written from the perspective of a female assassin. The character wasn’t something Ruby had been planning to write about beforehand. Instead, the idea came from the music itself.

“The bass line gave me this… like sultry feeling,” she says. “And I was like, I can imagine like a bad girl villain, this being her soundtrack.”

But Ruby didn’t want the character to be simply a villain. There’s another side to her, particularly because of the way women in these kinds of stories can be perceived.

“Those kind of characters are often misunderstood,” Ruby explains. That idea became an important part of the song, particularly as the character’s perspective changes during the chorus.

It’s another example of how Ruby’s imagination can become the starting point for something more personal. A fictional character, a bassline or a melody can open the door to a completely different story.

And there are already more stories on the way.

Ruby has a new single coming soon, Magnetic Love, which she says she’s “super excited” about. The music video has already been filmed, adding another visual element to a song from an artist who naturally thinks about her music in pictures.

When asked which song she would choose to introduce herself and her music, Ruby immediately points to Trampoline.

“I think it’s gonna be Trampoline. It’s just kind of me all over as a song and kind of straight from my heart growing up.”

The song is rooted in nostalgia, which perhaps explains why it has become such an important part of Ruby’s live set. But beyond the festival crowds and the energy of performing it on stage, there’s something very personal about the track.

“It’s very me,” she says.

And after a first festival, a new single on the way and plenty more worlds still waiting to be created, it sounds like we’re only just beginning to see what Ruby Roberts can do.

Photos by Wiktoria Wolny