Name: Born Ruffians
Members: Mitch DeRosier, Steve Hamelin, Luke Lalonde, Maddy Wilde
Interviewee: Luke Lalonde
Nationality: Canadian
Current release: Born Ruffians's new album Beauty's Pride is out via Yep Rock.
Recommendation for Midland, Ontario:  Go to Little Lake Park.
Topic that I am passionate about but rarely get to talk about: Drawing and reading. Take it from someone who was NOT a lifelong reader, who had to train themselves to read more than 3 or 4 books in a year - it is by far the finest, most enriching and mind blowing form of entertainment. It blows everything else out of the water. It uses the software built in to your own brain to bring multi-dimensional reality to words on a page - amazing!  

If you enjoyed this Born Ruffians interview and would like to stay up to date with the band and their music, visit their official homepage. They are also on Instagram, and Facebook. 



There can be many different kinds of emotions in art – soft, harsh, healing, aggressive, uplifting and many more. Which do you tend to feel drawn to most?

Yeah, I suppose art can help us feel and define emotions without necessarily using language. Expressing the inexpressible, and all that.

It depends on the day for me. Some days I want to exorcise aggression out of me, so I will put the Clash or something on.

I think if I had some kind of statistician observing me they’d probably say the largest percentage of my time is spent seeking out calming, soothing energy in art. Things that tap into a peaceful feeling.

I have had a hard time explaining that listening to death metal calms me down. When you listen to a song or composition, does it tend to fill you with the same emotions – or are there “paradoxical” effects?

Sometimes a guitar solo will make me cry, which feels paradoxical.

I like that death metal is calming to you, and similarly I think heavy music can have a calming effect on me because it provides a passageway for aggression and anger to leave my body and merge with the music, outside of me. Art is like this incredible support system that if you can hand yourself over to it, will always be there.

And it’s so subjective and even inconsistent within the same person … some days I will love something in the morning and then hate it after lunch.

In as far as it plays a role for the music you like listening to or making, what role do words and the voice of a vocalist play for the transmission of emotions?

It’s very important for me. When people say lyrics don’t matter to them, it’s like people saying the ingredients in food don’t matter as long as it looks good.

If I get a crush on a song, it’s often the overall vibe and feeling that pulls me in. Maybe a lyric or two will jump out but it’s really more about the overall aesthetic and broad emotions of the song. Then when I go on a couple “dates” with that crush-song, maybe I start to realize that it lacks the emotional depth and intelligence I require for a real relationship.

Instrumental music can obviously be profound and life changing, I don’t require a vocalist … But if someone is singing words in a song, I’m going to need it to really do something for me to fall in love with the song.

I spent a good chunk of my life not caring that much about lyrics. I think it’s only in my thirties that I couldn’t help but pat attention more for whatever reason. And if something is lyrically not cutting it for me it really holds me back from liking the song no matter how good the rest of it is.

When it comes to experiencing emotions as as a creator, how would you describe the physical sensation of experiencing them? [Where do you feel them, do you have a visual sensation/representation, is there a sense of release or a build-up of tension etc …]

Goosebumps are always a wonderful sign of inner knowledge. I love how much they can betray you when listening to something.

Like maybe I will try and cover my forearms to hide that this ABBA song is giving me big goosebumps.

When it comes to composing / songwriting, are you finding that spontaneity and just a few takes tend to capture emotions best? Or does honing a piece bring you closer to that goal?

Depends on the song! I think doing this for so long has taught me to know when I’ve got something, or if I have to keep working on it.

I’ve had so many times where I thank myself for pushing through and working on something I thought was dead in the water but turned out incredible because I kept at it. There are also times where it’s almost complete right out of the gate.

For me the key is not being strict one way or the other and to learn to listen to your intuition.

What role do factors like volume, effects like distortion, amplification, and production in general for in terms of creating the emotions, energies or impressions you want?

Production is like fashion. Even a non-decision is a decision.

If you choose not to dress anything up with fancy reverbs or microphones then you’re going for a stripped down, minimal aesthetic. You can’t escape it. So you learn to be very intentional with things, even if you want to come across as if it was not intentional.

Then you wait for the happy accidents to happen and run with those too.

In terms of emotions, what changes when you're performing live on stage, with an audience present, compared to the recording stage?

Yes, they are two verrrrrrrry different things. The song almost has to be reborn when we play it live. It becomes like a cover of the recorded song, especially when it’s part of the 90% of songs that we write and record before ever playing live.

Quite a few songs have all the parts written by me, so we literally have to learn them as a group to record it and play it live. Gone are the early days where we are touring material before recording it.

So yeah, I have to find the emotion again within the song and then learn to sing and play it well enough that I can lose myself in it again.

How does the presence of the audience and your interaction with it change the emotional impact of the music and how would you describe the creative interaction with listeners during a gig?

If I look out and see people’s faces lighting up, singing, smiling and bopping around, it’s almost indescribable how good that feels. I can call to mind many of those faces right now.

And it’s weird because in those moments it doesn’t feel like it’s for me or for us. In those moments I feel like I am a part of it with them, which is why it’s so special I think.

Would you say that you prefer to stay in control to be able to shape the emotions or do you surrender to them and allow the music to take over? Who, ultimately has control during a live performance?

I don’t know actually, that’s a hard question. I think there are times where maybe the person on stage (myself included) is sort of acting, or overly performing, and then there are moments where they are genuinely lost in something stirred up in them.

So there’s a push and pull between those things, between control and loss of control.

The emotions that music is able to generate can be extremely powerful. How, do you think, can artists make use of this power to bring about change in the world?

Going back to what I said earlier, I think it helps confirm and define emotion. So maybe there’s knock on effects there. Like maybe a song or band helps someone find their sexual identity, and through that music they feel free to become themselves and then that allows them to change their life and other people’s lives by proxy.

Artists can make use of this power by striving to make the best shit they can, for others, yes, but also for themselves. I think most art starts as self exploration and because we are all so connected, that exploration has benefits for all of humanity.