The Born Ruffians Say It on new album

For a band whose sound and attitude is consistently being defined, compared and likened to everything under the sun, Born Ruffians have a clear mission to create music that will make you want to sing along.
Formed in 2002 in the quaint northern town of Midland, Ontario, Born Ruffians have had a relatively swift rise in the music world appearing on Pitchfork Media and in every eager music blogger's updates almost overnight. The band was quickly picked up by UK electro label Warp and was soon playing with some pretty impressive acts, including Franz Ferdinand, Caribou, Vampire Weekend, Cat Power and Hot Chip.
Though the success of their 2007 debut album Red, Yellow and Blue is nothing to scoff at, the band still see mores steps towards true success.
"It depends on how you define success I guess," said frontman Luke LaLonde. "It changes as you get more successful. If I look at myself five years ago and could travel back in time and show that person what I'm doing now, he'd be like 'Wow that's really successful', but as it happens, it all starts to feel normal and your goals start to change. We have a long way to go until we're truly successful. I have high hopes."
As far as Canadian artists go, the Born Ruffians have achieved something special. But what makes them truly different from the struggling musicians who spend five years only performing monthly gigs at the Horseshoe Tavern, really going nowhere?
"I'm sure being on a label like Warp is a huge leg up and, as a Canadian band, it's pretty exciting," said LaLonde, somewhat insecurely. "I hope the popularity is still growing. That would be a great thing. As the new record approaches you start to worry about those things, [thinking] 'who's going to buy this', 'will it be better than the last time', 'will our shows get bigger'."
Despite their popularity, stage antics and rowdy music, Mitch Derosier, Steve Hamelin and LaLonde are nothing if not humble and appreciative.
"I don't know if we strive to be [humble]. It's just maybe part of who we are. I don't think we've ever really felt like we deserve any of it. It's not like we feel entitled to it. So, it always comes as a pleasant surprise when people are interested enough to come up and talk to us and have us sign things," said LaLonde.
"We have created a kind of community around our band. It owes a lot to Mitch. He's really involved in things going up online. We're aware that that's the way you keep your fans listening and interested in what you're doing next. I often go on there and just read people's comments. It's nice to see people enthusiastic enough to write something on our Web site."
Much to the relief of the Born Ruffians followers everywhere, this year's follow-up, Say It, will be out June 1, and is set to be more impressive than Red, Yellow and Blue.
"I think it's better than the first [record]. I really, truly think it's better. The songs are better written and we just got better at - and maybe a lot more focused on - doing what we do and knowing what kind of music we want to make," said LaLonde. "The real motivation when we were writing and playing these songs was always 'what's the most fun to play?'. Those were the songs we stuck with. The ones that we didn't get into and didn't have fun playing in the rehearsal space, those ones would just fall by the wayside."
"It's definitely not a huge pop record but we're all definitely really into what makes pop music so great and what separates a really great pop song from a really bad pop song [.] I definitely think this album is a lot more centered around my vocals. I'm realizing that that is my instrument more than guitar I guess. I focused a lot more time on crafting the melody. It's definitely going to be a sing-along record."
Though pop is not always the first descriptor that comes to mind when listening to the Born Ruffians, their sound has proven difficult to typify into any one genre.
"Maybe I don't really know what the Born Ruffians sound is," said LaLonde. "If it's the case that our music is hard to pin down, I think it's more a case of absorbing influences rather than reflecting them. It's more like absorbing influences and then using them and putting them back out without ever trying to sound like something specific. Working with two other people who listen to completely different kinds of music will bring different attitudes into the music as well."
With their second appearance at Canadian Music Fest (CMF) - their first being an opening slot at the Silver Dollar in 2006, and this being a headlining slot at The Phoenix - the band has everything to prove.
"I'll be very surprised if we sell the Phoenix out. It's always been a goal of mine to play there, so it's pretty exciting to actually have a show there," said LaLonde. "This is our first [CMF] show since 2006. Every time someone tells me they saw me play in 2006, I'm always like 'please come see me play again'. I don't know what we were like then, I just know it wasn't as good as it is now. I always want people to come see us who haven't seen us in a long time."
The Born Ruffians play The Phoenix Concert Theatre on Sun., March 14 as part of Canadian Music Fest.