Review Fix Exclusive: Ruin Frontman Rich Carey Talks ‘Rite of Passage’ And More

Review Fix chats with Ruin frontman Rich Carey, who discusses the band’s origin, creation process and goals for their new album “Rite of Passage.” Preparing for a September tour, the band is excited about the future.

For more on the band, click here.

Review Fix: How did the band get together?

Rich Carey: My brother and I wrote music together while growing up, particularly metal music, simply because we came from a musical family and had access to drums and guitars. I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with my life at 18 years old. I had just graduated high school, so I had to start a project. It wasn’t until late in 2004 that I got an offer to fill in with a local band on bass. The show was at a place called the Ale House in downtown Portland (RIP). Anyway, I took the gig, and my brother Craig (drums) was at the show in the audience. I believe that show played a major role in motivating my brother and myself to really put together a band of our own, and start performing live.

We brought a guitarist Ken Vought into the band, we met previously back in high school, and we had some mutual friends. We knew he had the talent and we first entered the scene as RUIN, a three piece metal band without a bassist. After pounding out some shows in different venues in the local scene, our friend from the neighborhood Kevin Whitman joined us on the bass. This solidified our initial four piece lineup.

We kept this formation for the next 5 years until Ken departed from the band. This change inevitably made it so Kevin shifted to the guitar side of things. It also prompted us to be on a hiatus from playing live for a couple years while we prepared to record our album. Meanwhile, we were joined by another friend Todd Bidwell on bass. Todd was a former member of another local band we played shows with over the years, and even worked in restaurants together at one point!

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Carey: Like most bands, we all bring something a little different to the table. For instance, Craig (drums) is sort of a never-ending source of ideas for song structures and concepts. I have structural ideas for songs and concepts of my own, as well as Kevin and Todd, but the whole band will blend everything. We filter through what we each find to be each other’s “best” ideas when moving forward. It’s a lot of bouncing ideas off each other. As things narrow down, it turns into a selective process. We debate and hash out the direction of a tune. We play them over and over and over at rehearsal, to find either what’s missing, or what needs to go. We do keep in mind a theme of some sort when developing a song, something to draw out of ourselves.

In the process of writing, experiencing the written lyrics can sometimes help me learn about myself. On “Rite of Passage”, the lyrics were finished after all the basic tracks were all recorded. So we were able really dig into what the album meant to us. What we felt we needed to say. It was something we wanted to fine tune. Spending time helped to focus on different aspects. That way the song wouldn’t be unbalanced by having a weak link. We wanted something solid and impactful. We tend to already know what we want to hear when we are writing. The songs over time unfold naturally with us. Our music has a way of building off of itself and lot of times we have a straightforward approach to our songwriting. We stick to our guns, while still holding onto our unique sound and everything works out.

Review Fix: What’s your standout song? How was it written?

Carey: I notice that “Along The Way” has caught attention at the live shows. It was the most rushed song in preparation for the studio. All the other songs were a lot more developed by the time we were scheduled to record our drum tracks. The song is pure and vast. Some parts seem like an example of how simplicity in metal can sound solid. The whole song flows throughout the different riffs and sections in a way that makes methodical sense. Even the way we fade it out on the recording, while the guitars and drums seem to never end in their riffing cycle. Plenty of room to bang your head, clocking in over nine minutes. Some parts in that song lean on simple bar chords in guitar and bass behind a lead part, we tried to write the song so all the instruments could really breathe. We wanted to make a stripped down epic song to close out the album and this really worked out for us!

Review Fix: What are your goals for the rest of 2016?

Carey: Well right now is mostly preparing for our tour in September. That’s our main focus. After that we will see what shakes up. We want to make some new friends and fans along the way, as well as meet cool bands and build new connections and relationships. If we accomplish that, then everything is going as planned! It is good for us to also always work on ourselves and how we can always become better at what we do. And then, WORLD DOMINATION! That would be cool too….

Review Fix: How do you want your music to affect people?

Carey: Our music always comes from a real place. So the people who take the time to dig into what we are saying, might feel these very human thoughts and emotions in the same way…..the music can be empowering, it can be a mindset through hardships and loss. Also, there is more than enough common ground for lamenting in poetry and in music. Our sound is great if you really just need to blow off some steam and release some energy. Whether that be positive or negative. For me, writing songs is what helped pull me through a lot of my experiences. Essentially a reflection of where I have traveled in my thoughts. Still, like anything there is a lot of room for interpretation. I have found some of my own strength through this musical outlet. If this is ever the same for any of our fans, that is all we could hope for when making an album.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Carey: You can probably expect to see more shows. We are going to see what shakes up for us after the North East United States run in September. We are just going to go with the flow and what comes our way after that. We appreciate the support that we have been given by everyone. We look forward to being on the road and connecting with fans, and making new friends along the way.