Band Releases 15 Songs Without Meeting
The Ruby Tears formed virtually during the first lockdown and created 15 original songs over a year and a half without meeting in person.
At the beginning of the lockdown in 2020 Jeff Skellon, like millions of others in the UK, could no longer work so set about trying to find people to make music with. In March, he reached out to multiple people on Bandmix, an online network for local bands and musicians to connect. He received only one reply, from singer and guitarist John Goodfellow. As a trial to see if they could work together, Jeff sent three complete songs over to John to tweak and add lyrics and vocal melodies, which he then sent back to Jeff.
They sent the songs back and forth editing them in their at home studios, until they were both happy with the sound. After making music this way for three months, they decided to make their band official and give it a name, so in June 2020, The Ruby Tears emerged.
“That’s how we work, Jeff sends the bones of a song- ‘Can you do anything with this john?’ So I would tweak it, add some guitar and vocals. Jeff would listen to it saying, ‘I don’t like that bit and send it back.’ We would go backwards and forwards like a game of tennis until we were happy.”
The two of them continued making music this way, only communicating over email until they had released a total of 5 EPs in 18 months. They had spoken to each other on the phone once, when they decided that it was about time that they met in person. John: “Finally we met and luckily we liked each other, the way we bonded was to go to the pub and get blind drunk.”
The pair discovered very quickly that they had a lot in common when it came to the music that they listened to: “Both John and I have a rich vein of guitar pop influences from late sixties through glam rock, punk, new wave and post punk.”
If they could only listen to one song for the rest of their lives Jeff would choose God Only Knows by The Beach Boys: “It will be played at my funeral.” And John would have Jamie Jones by the Clash because: “It reminds me of the time I saw them.”
A lot of their inspiration comes from the songs that they love Jeff said: “Sometimes you pick up a guitar and it informs you what to play. Influences are always present though and they help direct your inspiration. If you listen to any songs of ours, you will always hear The Clash, Bowie, or Elvis Costello not too far away.”
John, while proudly wearing The Clash on his T-shirt, mentioned that he is: “absolutely besotted with The Clash” and he likes the music that he makes to sound like the type of music that he enjoys listening to. He even takes his inspiration from artists on stage with him when he performs: “Joe strummer became my hero- so when I go out on stage playing a lot of people say, ‘a little bit too Joe Strummer tonight John’.”
Jeff explained that they have carried on making music the same way that they did during lockdown because while it is unusual, it is the way that works best for them: “We have continued to write this way, sometimes John sends me his ideas and I add guitar parts and arrangements. It has worked well for us. I don’t think we could sit in a room together and come up with ideas.”
Both Jeff and John have been in bands before The Ruby tears but their maturity now means they have managed to get further together than they have done previously: “We’re all old buggers” John commented when mentioning that he was the oldest in the band: “so we’re all very experienced and it’s so much easier to work with people who know what they’re doing”
Jeff added: “None of us are getting any younger but I think doing this keeps us young. At our age, we’re not trying to naively change the world with our music, we’re not trying to get a deal, we just enjoy doing what we are doing.”
Even so, they were still incredibly pleased when their song ‘Change Your Mind’ got over 12,000 streams on Spotify. The song did so well as its upbeat tune and catchy chorus reaches out to a more mainstream audience than their usual listeners. It has made its way onto some Spotify playlists and even on some independent radio programmes.
When reflecting on lockdown John described it as a weird time but overall, he recalled how: “lockdown was good to us” in the way of giving them time off work to focus on making music. This gave Jeff, who was always working all around the world selling merchandise for bands and artists, time to prioritize writing music and starting his own band: “I knew that I wanted to be in a band again. Lockdown gave me the chance to work on that.”
It was not until January 2022 that The Ruby Tears did their first gig, which took place in Liverpool. Jeff found a Bassist and drummer to join the duo so they could look and sound like a band when they were performing live. Up until then the drums in the songs recorded versions were synthesised.
All of the band members are from Liverpool, apart from John, from Manchester, who “accidentally joined a Liverpool band.” But all of them, especially Jeff enjoyed their “Visits in Liverpool, they have all been special in their own way.”
The Dublin Castle in London was both John and Jeff’s favourite gig so far, for Jeff, because it was the one that he enjoyed the most and for John, it was a thrill because it is where lots of famous bands started out. But they hope for many more successful performances in the future: “We did one gig and a couple of people were singing the lyrics back to us and that was nice, you’ve made an old man really happy.”
The band do gigs for themselves and their own enjoyment so seeing people in the audience have a good time is an unexpected bonus that they humbly receive Jeff: “I think it’s weird that anyone shows up. An impromptu conga line forming at one of our first gigs was a bit weird.”
When looking towards the future, John and Jeff are confident that they will still love creating music and performing together. John: “In five years’ time I hope we’ve got to the point where we can play bigger gigs.”
The band have not appeared on stage yet this year, but they have recorded full band versions of their music and with the release of a new music video for their latest single ‘Never Gonna Be Like It Is On TV’ on 1st May and hopefully some more new tracks on the way. They are planning some appearances for the back end of this year. Jeff emphasized: “We are looking forward to re-grouping and playing live again soon.”
