Sunshine pop from New Zealand. No, it’s not some weird spin-off from Flight on the Conchords, but The Ruby Suns. Their sun drenched pop anthems have improved my mood no end since hearing the dulcet tones on their latest album Sea Lion. We caught up with main man Ryan to see what he had to say…

1. Describe your sound in 3 words.
Dense, pretty, messy.
2. What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it?
Green Day Dookie, at some really shitty chain record store.
3. What’s the best cure for a hangover?
Peppermint tea, ginger, fry-ups with veggie bacon and eggs. Beer.
4. What’s on your rider?
Dark beer (Huiness or Kilkenny as an example, but NZ dark beers are the best), merlot, tequila, food, whatever we can get!
5. How do you get ready for a live show?
Practice singing.
6. What’s your favourite song to play live?
Any song that I play drums on, or whatever is the newest song. I get sick of stuff really quickly. Also, this song ‘Morning Sun’ where I loop my vocals for ages.
7. What’s your guilty pleasure?
Apocylyptic high budget action drama suspence movies. Some of them are actually good, like “Sunshine”, and who didn’t get into “Independence Day”? Then there was that one with the tidal wave that destroyed the east coast of the states. Then there was the one where they had to nuke a meteor that was going to destroy Earth, then the one where they had to nuke the earth’s core cause it stopped spinning, then there was the one where they had to nuke the sun cause it stopped giving off light or something. Fucking Americans with their nuclear bombs…… and potato chips (crisps).
8. Who would win in a fight, a stoat or a goat and why?
Well I don’t want to descriminate against the stoat, even though it is the cause of many extinctions of bird species in NZ, but i’d say a goat because it is so much bigger. Plus goats can have mean little horns.
9. What was the last album you bought?
It might’ve been Kala by M.I.A. I can’t really afford to buy albums though, so I make exceptions for the good ones.
10. If you could rid the world of one song - what would it be?
Probably none. You can’t have the good without the bad. Plus, if it’s a real bad song then you can laugh at it.
11. Who would play you in a film based upon your life?
Ummm, let’s say Matt Damon.
12. Dead or alive. What 5 acts would you have play with you at a festival?
The Beach Boys and the Beatles in 1967, Bjork, Arthur Russell, Animal Collective.
13. If push comes to shove, what is your all-time favourite album?
Can’t really answer that. Pet Sounds is pretty good.
14. What’s your most memorable on the road story?
Our fucking motorhome burnt to the ground with all of our stuff inside it.
15. If your life flashed before your eyes, what would be the highlights?
Spending time with my family and my girlfriend.
16. What’s the best piece of advice someone has ever given you and did you take notice?
I guess something like “don’t worry about what other people think”.
17. If you had to leave a body part to science, what would it be?
Depends what for. Don’t really care.
18. What’s the best book you’ve read and film you’ve seen in the last 6 months?
Really enjoyed On the Road, and Norwegian Wood was pretty good. “Darjeeling Limited” was good. I’m sure there have been plenty others just can’t think of them.
19. What three things could you not live without?
My girlfriend, my sister/mother, my father/step mother.
20. Tell us a fact about yourself we probably don’t already know.
I went surfing today and I’m sunburned.

Links
The Ruby Suns [official site] [myspace] [album review]