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Ruthven by Buster Grey - Jung

RUTHVEN shares ‘Thru The Walls’ from new album

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14 mins read

Ruthven has released ‘Thru The Walls’, the latest single revealed from his hotly-anticipated debut album Rough & Ready ( out this Friday, 25 October 2024 via Paul Institute / XL Recordings). The track premiered on BBC Radio 6’s New Music Fix show last night and is now available worldwide.‘Thru The Walls’ is one of Ruthven’s earliest creations, written and produced during his time working for the London Fire Brigade.

After losing a significant amount of his early material due to technical mishaps, Ruthven used the setback as motivation to create even moreimpactful work, with‘Thru The Walls’ being a prime example. Refined in collaboration with A.K. Paul, co-founder of Paul Institute, the track is a captivating blend of sensuality and funk. It features smooth, sultry melodies intertwined with groovy, infectious rhythms—all elevated by Ruthven’s flawless vocals. Accompanying the single is a self-directed music video, co-created with his wife, Francesca Nelson which captures the essence of urban life’s close-knit, intimate nature, further enhancing the song’s inspirations. Speaking on the new music, Ruthven says “’Thru The Walls’ is a deep cut! It was one of the first songs I ever wrote and recorded. It has grown with me over the years, and evolved with collaborative sessions with both A.K. Paul and my wife, Francesca, who also helped create the video.There’s a pretty amorous nature to the song but I think conceptually that it became a bit deeper as time went on. The fact that we have neighbours who can hear the most private moments of our lives every day because of thin walls (be it our phone calls, arguments, the media we consume or even our sex lives) is jokes. We all usually just pretend that they never hear anything and just say ‘hi’ when we see them. Kind of mad.”

BUY / LISTEN TO ‘THRU THE WALLS’ HERE

Ruthven – Thru The Walls

PRE-ORDER / SAVE ROUGH & READY HERE

Ruthven-aka Sean Nelson-has always had a certain fervour associated with him. He first broke in 2017 as a founding member of Paul Institute, the label founded by A.K and Jai Paul, while also working as a member of the London Fire Brigade. In the long hours awaiting call-outs, when the truck was fully serviced and his breathing equipment was ready for the next job, Ruthven wrote the foundations of his debut album, Rough & Ready which includes the previously released ‘Itch’  ‘I Can’t Go There’, ‘123 Days’, ‘Don’t Keep It To Yourself’, and ‘The Window’. Having gently unraveled his unique blend of classic R&B-influenced soulful maximalism with careful consideration, Ruthven has found himself supporting, touring, and collaborating with Sampha, and electronic music sensations Overmono. Now ready to step into the spotlight, Ruthven releases his debut full-length on 25 October via Paul Institue / XL Recordings. Across 12 tracks-which feature collaborations with A.K. Paul and Francis Anthony ‘Eg’ White-Ruthven seamlessly blends classic songwriting with lush, modern instrumentation.

Praise for Ruthven:

“The gorgeously voiced Prince-channelling funk anger dances around shuddering orchestral fanfares as if in a ghostly ballroom” -THE GUARDIAN

“South London’s Ruthven is beguiling listeners with his genreless and gregarious sound…. the vocalist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist offers a fully-realised and succinct style that bursts with emotion and cinema” – WONDERLAND

“(Ruthven) createsPrince-like jams with the contours and sleekness of sports cars.” – THE FADER

“Paul Institute signee Ruthven makes feather-light 80s-inflected pop that gives off a warm, endearing glow” – PAPER

Ruthven

Rough & Ready

Paul Institute / XL Recordings

Friday 25 October

Tracklist:

1. Cautious

2. Indulge

3. Don’t Keep It To Yourself

4.Itch

5. Thru The Walls

6. Afterglow

7. 123 Days

8. POV

9. Space = Time = Money

10.I Can’t Go There

11. The Window

12. Drive It

 

ABOUT RUTHVEN:

INSTAGRAM|X|YOUTUBE

Ruthven aka Sean Nelson has always had a certain fervour associated with him. The South London musician first broke onto the scene in 2017 as one of the first signees to Paul Institute, the label created by enigmatic brothers A.K and Jai Paul. With a distinct mode of expression underpinned by infectious playful hooks, he quickly caught the attention of critics-Pitchfork called him “an antidote to lazy, laid-back pop music” adding that “’Hypothalamus’ packs as much punch as they do dulcet melody”, while The Fader said he “creates Prince-like jams with the contours and sleekness of sports cars.”

Having gently unravelled his unique blend of classic R&B-influenced soulful maximalism with careful consideration, Ruthven has found himself supporting and touring with Sampha (including a performance on NPR’s Tiny Desk and Later…with Jools Holland). His recent work with Sampha and Little Simz on ‘Satellite Business 2.0’ sits neatly alongside his collaboration with electronic music sensations Overmono, who sampled ‘Hypothalamus’ on the new single ‘Gem Lingo (ovr now)’.
Now, with his debut album Rough & Ready, Ruthven further enters the rarified air of these artists. The album’s title is a play on words on how Ruthven is pronounced-“Rough’n”-while introducing listeners to his intimate world. Across the 12-track project, he leans into classic songwriting while maintaining lush instrumentation to create a portal that traverses decades.“It’s jazz-influenced, but it also takes from so many genres,” he says, “even Yacht Rock artists like Michael McDonald and Steely Dan, deeply influenced me.” The result is an album that blends all the sharp angles of early Prince b-sides like ’17 Days’ with the smokiness of Voodoo-era D’Angelo’s ‘Africa’.
Growing up in Catford, South London, Ruthven was surrounded by music: he can list off with ease the many relatives he has who are musically gifted. His mother’s jazz lessons to her students provided the soundtrack to his childhood with these formative experiences setting him on a path to explore his musical talents. Thanks to his family of pianists and multi-instrumentalists, he was influenced from an early age to create, compose, and appreciate the intricacies of music.
His connection to his father’s side of the family came later in life. Ruthven’s father wasn’t a major part of his childhood but they managed to reconnect before his passing in 2020. Ruthven would go on to discover his father was part of Sun Ra’s Arkestra and he had 28half-siblings. The album opener, ‘Cautious’, reflects this experience, incorporating family sayings and the rich history of his father’s side.
Ruthven’s lyrics, often narrative-driven, are sometimes autobiographical, but usually draw instead from his imagination.“When I started writing songs,” he said,“I was making up these scenarios and trying to tell stories through this fictional character in my head. Some of the stuff was relatable, and I put myself into someone’s shoes and tried to empathise with this made-up character.” While much of the album is open for interpretation, the Lewisham-born artist acknowledges that the lyrics found throughout were written under the pressure of external forces, from the sense of a looming deadline (‘123 Days’) to imagined scenarios he created as a new father trying to make ends meet (“POV”).
Despite the weighted lyricism, there is a lightheartedness that cuts through his work. The 32-year-old credits A.K Paul’s support in helping him to lean in that direction. “We work well together,” Ruthven says. “We bounced off each other and found that out pretty early on when we did our firstsessions together… Plus Anup is a bad boy guitarist-He just gets my taste! ” Ruthven and A.K Paul would sit in the studio together laughing attheir musical choices, finding various musical flourishes they were creating humorous. Recording so much of the music, specifically the myriad ofinstruments himself, this bit of collaboration, of stepping outside of himself, became an important full-circle moment for Ruthven.
Ruthven’s introduction to the Paul brothers came in 2016. He was serving as a member of The London Fire Brigade at the time, experimenting with production and recording tracks at the fire station during the long hours awaiting a call out. Balancing the demands of the job and spending quality time with his young family led to Ruthven making the tough decision to step away from music, promising himself that when his childrenwere old enough he would come back to music seriously.
After hearing Jai Paul’s early singles, he saw the potential to create music that resonated with his influences but with a unique twist. He followed the Paul Institute closely and reached out with some early demos. This led to a pivotal meeting in West London where Ruthven felt a sense of breaking free from his routine and embracing the creative opportunities before him. In 2017 the Paul Institute released the debut Ruthven single ‘Evil’, meaning Ruthven was a musician once again and so began the journey to his debut album. The process of creatingRough & Ready was not without its setbacks. Ruthven lost a significant amount of material due to technical mishaps, including a lost laptop with early demos on it. He viewed this loss as a catalyst for creating even more potent work like ‘The Window’ whichemerged from sketches that survived these challenges. Despite the uncertainty of recent years, including the impact of COVID-19 and financial instability, Ruthven remained committed to creating deeply personal and universally relatable music.
Ruthven has admittedly taken the “long way around” to get to the point of releasing his debut album. He draws inspiration from artists like BillWithers, who also made significant life changes to pursue music, leaving his job in the Navy at age 27 and releasing his first album, Just As I Am,at 32. In an era where creativity is often rushed, Sean Ruthven Nelson exercised patience, and the album is in a better place for it. “I figured outthat I wanted to do music full-time after having spent the better part of a decade in a career thathad nothing to do with music,” he admits. “I’m ready to step into it.”
Throughout Rough & Ready, Ruthven’s presence is strong, even though his voice, at times, just adds light touches to the scenery. He skates between sounds without ever sounding disjointed, structuring his work with precise, intentional moves. Rare is a debut album that sees a musician control their image and an audience’s investment, yet Ruthven has managed to do just that.

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