There are times in everyone’s life when they reach a crossroads; professionally, personally, and/or spiritually. Often it is at these times when fate or synchronicity steps in. Perhaps we stumble onto a TV show or book that speaks to us or even meet a stranger who says just the right thing at the right time and inspires us to continue on the path we have chosen, or even strike out on a new one. These moments are fleeting and rare and yet are essential to our survival as human beings. When I sat down to talk with Dave and Joe from Rubyhorse before their mind-blowing performance at the Roxy in Hollywood on June 10th, I had no idea the impact this interview would have on me personally. It is the same kind of profound impact that Rubyhorse’s music has had on music fans for years.

OT: Ok. I left all of my questions back in the green room, so what do you guys want to talk about?

Joe: Well, what we’re noticing right now is that people are very interested in our story. You know, our music is very new to people I guess. We came over here four years ago, landed in Boston. We had about $1,000 between us. We didn’t really know anybody over here and we didn’t really know what we were doing. When we got off the plane in Boston, we just started rolling up our sleeves and trying to make it work, you know? We took away our safety net, found ourselves in a corner and we just fought to play.  And what we found was; as we were playing we were building a fan base. It was just one of those things that is almost bigger than us. Six months previous we couldn’t even imagine that it would be like that six months after we arrived.  So we really felt we made the right decision coming over here.

OT: So what do you attribute that surge in popularity to?

Dave: I have no idea. I think it was our honesty and enthusiasm, a naivete people saw in us that was charming and endearing. It was intoxicating, it was contagious and people just wanted to be around the story, you know? Wanted to be around the music. It was just a very natural, organic kind of a rise.

Joe: Yeah, people always say to us ‘you were so brave.’ but doing something brave is when you know that you’re doing something brave. We had no clue. We had no fear, we weren’t afraid. We were just gonna give it a shot. Half the reason we came over was to fail so we could get it out of our systems and go home and be bricklayers. As it grew and it became apparent that we wouldn’t have to do that, we got more excited about it. Then the industry started to take notice of us and we got a record deal and we found our way through it over a couple of years. We made this record, Rise that we’re very proud of. We feel it’s a record with a lot of depth and the lead single is “Sparkle” and that’s just one song of 11 songs that we’re very proud of. And we have a live show that speaks volumes, I think, especially since Nick McFlair came on board. We just feel that we’re a real kind of a band. We started playing music together when we were 14, we went to kindergarten together. We never got out of kindergarten.

Dave: That explains a lot.

Joe: We kind of have evolved into a band that has a kind of a chemistry that all great bands have. You know like the Stones, Radiohead, U2 and all that. I’m not comparing them, either I’m just saying it’s a similar kind of a working process in what we do.

OT: So, those are your influences, then?

Dave: Well, the first bands that we played when we first started playing together, the first songs we started playing together, were the Stones, the Beatles you know covers, the Cure and U2, bands we grew up on. That was our inspiration. But everyone in the band has very different tastes in music anyway.

OT: Does that help with the writing process?

Dave: Absolutely, that’s what makes it interesting.

OT: So, you’re all equally involved in the writing?

Dave: Well, Decky’s the chief lyric and songwriter as such. And he’ll write a barebones song and we’ll go into a room and just in true Irish fashion we just beat the crap out of it until it’s in such a form that it is pleasing to us.

Joe: We have a kind of unusual way of working together. If you listen to some of the songs on our record and you take the song out and just listen to the instrumental it’s probably interesting in itself. Y’know, it’s a piece of music. There’s a song always behind the song. Obviously, the most important part of the song is probably the lyric because that’s what connects you to the people. But musically we drive it in a way that is kind of something of our own. I mean, I’m sure that when someone sits down and writes a song, where it ends up is probably far away from where they thought it was gonna be. But that’s the great thing about being in a band because it’s not just one vision; it’s like four or five people working in a room together trying to push something, and we consider our performance to be a huge part of what we do. So when we think in terms of the song we think, OK how is this going to translate live and what’s the show gonna be like? So that’s in the back of our minds even when we’re writing. ‘Cuz there’s some great songs we write but you know they’re not gonna work in a live situation. And we feel we’re a live band, primarily; at the moment, anyway. That could all change in a couple of years. Right now it’s all about people coming to hear the show, which is what having “Sparkle” on the radio is all about. It’s amazing ‘cuz we’re going to cities and seeing people sing back to us in cities we’ve never been in. And our goal is to have 11 more songs people begin screaming back to us.

OT: Exactly, and it’s very likely, there are a lot of great singles on this album. Is Jay Joyce the first producer you’ve worked with?

Joe: Yeah, we’ve been very lucky with him.

OT: Has the music evolved working with him? What has he added to the album?

Dave: Absolutely. Craziness, probably. You know, he’s like a sixth set of eyes and ears. He’s a visionary. He was the person who saw what we wanted to achieve. Finally we met someone who understood what we were trying to go for with the music. He was just like a soul mate really, you know? And he had a great understanding of our music, where it should be. And we had the most enjoyable time in the studio, it was a pleasure. We were rushing in there every morning and had to be dragged out every night at dinner time.

Joe: Jay told me once that music is God’s language. The thing about God’s language is that it has no words, so when you’re communicating musically, it’s very hard to explain… even with each other we can’t. You can’t sit and talk for hours about music ultimately it just has to be there. But the cool thing about Jay was he was tapped into what we were hearing in our heads you know what I mean? So you can’t express it in words, you have to express it in music, in sound. And he kind of helped us channel our vision through a mixing console, because he was tuned into where the spirit of what we were trying to achieve lived. And I think in many respects, Jay almost embodies each member of the band. There’s a bit of all of the individuals in him. You know what I mean? ‘Cuz he’s a musician, he’s a producer, he’s a writer, a guitar player, a drummer. He’s everything and he’s a performer. So I think each individual member of the band is connected to him on their own level and he was able to bring out the best in each of us because of how talented he is. So, for me as a guitar player, when I was standing in front of who I think is one of the best guitar players I’ve ever seen, I’m thinking I better come up with something good or he’s gonna do it. It was a really cool thing and we’re looking forward to having a long working relationship with him.

OT: That’s great. How did you guys hook up with him?

Dave: Tom Wally used to work with us and he did the Wallflowers record, Bringing Down the Horse with Jay.

OT: Pretty lucky to hook up with someone of his caliber right away. It sounds like you guys have had a lot of synchronicity.

Joe: We’ve had synchronicity because we had long gaps between the synchronicity that works. You know we have all…, sometimes the journey we’ve taken has been longer than what we anticipated it would be, but when we look back at them, the length of time it took to get there makes sense as well. I sound like f*ckin’ Garth Brooks, there.

Dave: It’s true, so true. We’ve always taken the long route. Things having always happened at the last minute for us, which kind of leads us all to believe that there’s a greater force - some description of it is destiny - written for the band. Because things have always happened out of our control. Outside of one or two things, things have just happened of their own making, at the strangest times, at the last minute.

OT: The breaking point.

Dave: Really, really. In the darkest hour. In a way it’s kind of a secure feeling because when things get dark, at the last possible second you always know that things are going to change, things are going to turn.

Joe: That’s faith, if you have faith in anything, in a person or an idea, it’s not gonna happen automatically, you have to kind of make it happen; you have to take the disappointments along with the success because that’s part of the journey. Music is a metaphor for living, in many respects, and if you’re gonna make a career out of having faith in your music and sticking around when times are bad, it all has to come back to music; if you write crap music then it’s not gonna happen. If you’re makin’ good music that connects with people, you’ll be alright, it’ll find its way because it’s bigger than the people that are makin’ it and it’s bigger than the people who are listening to it. So you have to sort of understand the responsibility you have as a musician and as a band and as a songwriter. And also not take it too f*ckin’ seriously, just be able to go and enjoy and just be a rock and roll band for all it’s worth. And if you can write a cool song and connect with people like Decky who wrote “Any Day Now” and this girl, she was like 15, she sent an e-mail and said that she listened to “Any Day Now” and it made her feel less alone in the world. And he was just completely wiped when he heard that because that’s kind of what it was supposed to do. The fact that she was so young and could connect with it on that level was pretty cool. I don’t think we try and consciously achieve that affect but I think that our music comes from the bottom, up. You know we’ve never really looked at the world from the top, down.  So we’re all still aspiring and that’s why we called the record Rise because we’re still trying to get to that point. We don’t really know what the point is yet, but we’re still aspiring. And I think that’s a great energy. To move forward and to feel like you’re moving forward and that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, is a great drive to have. That’s what drives this band, a sort of blind faith that you don’t really know where you’re going but you know it’s somewhere good.

OT: Hope is very important. You need that in life, in anything.

Joe: Well, that’s what “Sparkle” is about. Because you will feel like shit some days and you will feel it’s at the end of its tether, and you kind of have to force yourself sometimes to look on the more positive side of things even if you don’t feel like it. I think a lot of that is just about rolling up your sleeves and just trying to get out there and take it on the chin and try to create something positive. David Gray who’s someone we admire because he’s kind of been through a similar situation as us, said the whole point to the record he made was to try and make something beautiful in the face of adversity, because that’s how you can rise above anything that’s complicated or difficult. And I think if you consciously make an effort to go into that part of your psyche it’ll probably come out that way and that’s the way it’s gonna effect people.

OT: I have to ask you guys about “Punchdrunk.”

Dave: That was probably the greatest solo that was played in this band, and ever will be. It was a very simple thing, we finished recording the song and Jay suggested using slide guitar to finish it off and someone said we should get George Harrison, you know he’s the best slide guitar player in the world and the part we wanted was a George-style. So, we just got a cassette to George and got a letter back three weeks later saying he got the song and he had a part in his head that he wanted to put down so we sent him the reels and he recorded in England. He sent back his part with a beautiful letter wishing us the best of luck with the song and our careers. And it was jut the greatest honor that will ever be paid to the band. Just the best endorsement. And all the talking in the world will never do it justice. The part in the song speaks for itself. So we really try not to make a big deal of it, it was a beautiful experience.

OT: Listening to it today, listening to the lyrics, I can imagine what it must have meant to him because I’m sure he was probably aware at the time that his cancer was terminal.

Joe: Well, we don’t really know George. We don’t know anything about him.

Dave: We’re just fans and the Beatles were a huge influence on every band. It was just a beautiful thing, he was a beautiful man.

Joe: I think you’re right in what you’re saying, though. I picked up a copy at the time, a Rolling Stone issue, to read about his life. And one of the things I found out about him is; he was a very kind of spiritual character you know? And he was on a quest to understand the higher level of goodness. I suppose really that’s what his quest was and “Punchdrunk” has that sort of. The lyrics in it are pretty much about that, now I didn’t write it so I can’t speak for the person who did, but the way I hear them is, that there’s a certain kind of center that you can have where your feet are firmly planted on the ground and your head is kind of in the clouds. And that’s a great way to be. If you can have your feet on the ground and your head in the clouds (pause) then where’s your body? (Laughs)  Hang on a minute.

Dave: (Laughing) where’s your chest?

OT: That’s what I think; it’s about transcending the body, which is something someone with a terminal illness would have to learn to believe in, in order to accept death. That we are more than our bodies, that when this body dies, we still go on. But just think of it, there’s this legend, a man whose image is ingrained on the consciousness of the world, and this song from this unknown band comes to him from out of nowhere that speaks directly to him and moves him so much that he agrees to contribute to the song.

Dave: Yeah, we’ll never know.

OT: Well, I think it’s probably just the honesty that you guys bring to the music.

Joe: That’s when we’re at our most exposed. When we’re playing our music and performing and singing, that’s when we’re being who we are at our core. That’s not to overstate who we are at all though. It’s like when you see us walking down the street, that’s just other guys, that’s just who we are. It sounds kind of cheesy, but as I’m starting to be in a band longer and make music longer and experience the whole thing, you are just kind of an instrument for something that you’re tapped into that’s nothing to do with you. And if you think it is, that’s when you turn into an *sshole.

OT: Right, or you can’t do it anymore.

Joe: Yeah, exactly or don’t do it well anymore. That’s why so many bands fail; bands believe in their own hype, and that’s a dangerous place to be. A lot of bands break up and who knows what’s gonna happen to us, we have no idea what’s gonna happen to us over the next 2 or 3 years. I mean we have an idea of what we want it to be, but there’s been so many sad cases in rock n’ roll and it’s hard for us to imagine how that could happen because right now it’s just so much fun and we feel it’s such a great opportunity for us to be out playing music for people. But I’m sure everyone felt like that at some point in their careers. It’s worrying sometimes to think where does it all go wrong? I mean it will be fine because we’ve known each other for so long and we have a cool kind of way of supporting each other as we go through this, plus we’re Irish and the mentality that’s instilled in us is definitely getting us through this. Like for example this kind of Spinal Tap situation we just had to deal with, you know, in the backs of limousines and planes and trains… But we’re having a good time with it all, we’re grateful.

OT: How do you keep the music business from tainting the music?

Dave: Just keep a separation. Good management. We’ve got some great people around us to protect us and mind us. We’ve been through a lot and we’ve learned a lot and become very experienced about how the industry works and you just don’t believe the hype, you don’t look at tomorrow too much. You just take it for the moment and enjoy the moment for what it is. We just learned to take each moment and value it and appreciate it and try to stay away from things we should stay away from.

Joe: No we don’t. We’re the first guys there and the last guys out.

Dave: I said we try.

OT: Why the decision to cross the pond?

Joe: The grass is always greener. I think that’s something that runs through everyone’s life. Everyone crosses ponds, and sometimes it’s a bigger pond. But I think we reached the point in our lives where we were really young and we were either gonna stay at home and be one of those bands that ends up breaking up after two years, or we were gonna try and make something happen. And sometimes being in a different environment just liberates you, it frees you up a bit, it makes you do things that you would never do in your hometown. So anonymity is a great mask, and when we came over here we wore that mask pretty well. We just tried to come over here and be a band and we met some great people.

Dave: We weren’t gonna survive as a band, we weren’t gonna grow as a band we weren’t gonna have a career as a band unless we came to America. So it was a case of let’s do this or let’s pack it in and we’ll get on with life. We loved music too much to pack it in so we came over completely blind to what we were doing really. We asked for advice and they’d say “what the hell are you doing?” “You have no money, no record deal, no shows, no accommodations, and no friends over here, what are you doing?”

OT: So America was the Promised Land?

Joe: It wasn’t about the success. It’s just about, there’s a kind of natural history of people coming to America and sort of believing in the American Dream because they want to make their lives better or because they have no clue of what they really want and they’re going for this big journey. I think that’s been going on for so long with both countries that there’s a historical connection to what we did. I think a lot of what it was too, was the bands that we saw from our country that were successful and had longevity came here and worked their way back. But if we planned this, we’d be geniuses. We didn’t plan it.

Dave: Well, we better getting going.

OT: Absolutely! I can’t wait to hear you guys play. Thank you so much for your time.