Band Interview: Ruetz

Ruetz are a two piece post-black metal outfit, one part drummer (Kieran Brindley) ex: Bastions and one part guitarist (Matthew Watts) ex: Give Up, formed in Melbourne, Australia in 2016 but are originally from the UK and New Zealand respectively.

Their latest EP, Melanoma was released on December 16th 2016 & can be picked up here.

You can read our review of the excellent Melanoma right here.

1. How did you get started as a band?

We both needed to fill the void of our previous bands coming to sudden ends and my mental health was in disarray. We initially started writing the songs that eventually became Melanoma thinking we would find other members to fill in the gaps in our lineup, but after working as a two piece for the better part of a year we started to think of ways we could utilise pedals to emulate a full bands sound with just the two of us.

2. How would you describe your sound?

Prog influenced blackened hardcore with elements of black metal.

3. What bands/artists would you say have influenced your style of music?

Gopsel, Celeste, Plebian Grandstand, Indian, Dead in the Dirt, Jai Paul.

4. Has the rise of YouTube & music streaming helped or hindered you as a band?

I try not to give it to much thought. I suppose it would be easy to get lost as a new band under the sheer weight of music that is already at listeners fingertips so we are looking to prove ourselves by playing as many shows as possible and let people judge us by the quality of our performance and work ethic.

5. What do you enjoy doing when you’re not making music?

Running up tabs at bars, staying awake for long periods of time and trying to find our next meal.

6. What are your future plans musically? Tours?

We’re playing France, Spain and Portugal next month and are flat out booking shows for most other European nations in the months after.

We’d like to thank Ruetz for taking the time to do this interview with us. Make sure you pick up the new EP over on their Bandcamp page here. You can also like & follow the band on Facebook & on Instagram.