It’s the morning after Ruby Rodgers has stepped offstage at the Fleet Steps, opening for Australian music royalty Missy Higgins. It’s a massive stage for any young artist, but when I ask how the night felt, Ruby seemed to only be worried about one hurdle, it wasn’t stage fright, but the backdrop itself.
“I am a little bit scared of the ocean at night... I have a fear of deep water, so the ocean at night is an extra no. But I got through it, and it was fun!”
Despite this fear, her upcoming EP ‘Sixteen’ truly feels like an emotional deep dive into growing up and navigating the unpredictable and scary world around us. But as her long-awaited EP approaches its release, there's a sense of relief radiating from Ruby.
“I’m excited that it’s finally near the end,” Ruby admits. “Not because I want it to be over, but because I just wanted it to be out! Especially the last track on the EP, which I wrote earliest in the process and features some very special people.”
Even at the beginning, she already had a clear vision for how the story would unfold. “I knew [For You] was not going to be the first track. I subconsciously knew where it would be and where it would fit within the EP.”
Our conversation turns to the title track ‘Sixteen’, a track where Ruby grapples with the unsettling reality of being viewed through an adult lens while still feeling like a kid. It’s a heavy topic, and one she felt the need to express rather than let other perspectives control the narrative.
Writing ‘Sixteen’ “was very much based on one of my good friends’ experiences that I heard a lot about, and it happens to a lot of people,” she says. “It’s that risky feeling of being young, but also people looking at you, or preying on you, or seeing you in an adult way when in reality you’re still a kid. It’s that difficult thing of being young, not knowing where you stand and adults taking advantage of you and your naivety.”
That insistence on calling things out also drives ‘Suicide Doves’, a song exploring how easily empathy fades in a world saturated with modern chaos. When I ask how she navigates today’s heavy societal and political landscape as a young artist with the platform she has, Ruby shared that she has “always been very vocal about what I care for and stand for. I’m very fortunate that I started to do that so now I can keep speaking to that,” she explains. “I think a lot of artists are trapped in what their fanbase wants to see or expects of them, and they have to stay in this 'bubble' they’ve created.”
At the same time, she’s quick to remind me that she doesn't claim to have everything figured out.
“Even though I will speak about these things, I’m still a teenager. I still feel sorry for myself and I’m still selfish,” she confesses, “But writing this song” allowed “me to have more perspective on how much is going on. It's knowing that I’m allowed to feel sorry for myself every now and then, but also that I need to snap out of it. It’s almost just a reminder to myself to have a bit of perspective.”
“As much as my music is a call to action for other people, it’s also mostly a reminder to myself of things I should be aware of or work on even more.”
Given how much Ruby’s music digs into heavy themes, ‘I’ll Be In The Sun’ is a track that feels like the sun emerging in the midst of a cloudy day, in comparison to the rest of the record. I wondered if writing something lighter felt like a relief.
“I find a lot of comfort in writing and performing sad songs, but ‘I’ll Be In The Sun’ has been a really good shift because it’s easier for people to pick up on,” she agrees. “It reaches so many people, and it’s a very universal song. I forget that people do love a happy song! It’s been a really nice reminder that there is some good in the world and life can be fun.”
Ruby also shared how the track was a good reminder to herself to get offline and appreciate the small things, so I had to ask what her algorithm looked like. And it just proved that her appetite for music is endless. “My entire algorithm is just music, both TikTok and Instagram,” she tells me. “If I have free time, I will just listen to music because it’s my favourite thing in the world. It’s everything.”
Right now, her feed looks like a dream festival lineup, with “the new Phoebe Bridgers album has been all over my feed, and I love Phoebe, but sometimes I need to put my phone down because listening to her for too long can be sad!” she laughs. “That, along with old Paramore videos... It was basically the Laneway lineup before it came out, so I’m one very happy gal.”
That deep love for music stems back to her upbringing, which comes to the surface on ‘Father’s Daughter’. The track concludes with a moving two-minute instrumental layered with personal childhood recordings.
“The whole outro was played by my beautiful friends on the harp and synth, but we felt like something was missing,” Ruby shares. “Dad was getting emo and was looking through videos from 2011 and 2012 of us interacting, and he ripped the audio from those videos. It made the song super nostalgic, and he wanted to keep it there. It was very sweet but emotional.”
Working so closely with her dad across both of her EPs has been a grounding experience, though it requires constant navigation as she finds her own path as an artist.
“As I’m getting older and trying to make more of my own creative decisions, we’ve had to try and navigate the work and family relationship,” she says candidly. “It’s super easy for a very musical family to struggle to separate the two. But we’ll definitely keep collaborating because he understands what I want sonically. Even if he’s not producing my albums or playing in my band in the future, he’ll always be there.”
And she collaborates further than her immediate family with ‘For You’ featuring music royalty Jessica Mauboy and Jem Cassar-Daley. Now I wouldn’t put it past Ruby to have incredible artists willing to collaborate with her. She walks me through how the song took shape in no other than Shane Nicholson’s kitchen.
“Shane already had this idea in his notes with the lines of the chorus; ’Not everything’s for you, I won’t waste another day on you, I won’t do it all for you,’” she recalls. “I felt so aligned with it. I thought, ‘Wow, this is so right.’ It feels like I do a lot of things for other people’s sake rather than my own. Hearing that from a man who had lived a lot longer than me was reassuring. Knowing he felt that way too, and that it’s something that never really leaves us.”
The inclusion of Jessica Mauboy and Jem Cassar-Daley happened spontaneously after a writing session a month later. “My mum pointed out how Jem and Jess had also grown up in the industry and would connect with the lyrics so well,” Ruby explains. What followed was pure alignment and fate: instead of tracking individual parts, all three artists stood around three microphones, recording the track together in a single live take.
Outside of her own release, Ruby has been stretching her musical muscles with other genres and artists. Earning a co-writing credit on Lance and Rita Ora’s ‘Higher’ and featuring on Sweatbaby’s club track ‘Switch’. So I couldn’t help but ask what it was like to step out of her usual singer-songwriter lane.
“When you write your own music, you get so immersed in your feelings,” she says. “But when I’m songwriting for others, I get to see other people’s emotions and put words to that from an outside perspective. On ‘Switch’, we were still in our feels, but over a high-energy track. Instead of crying on the guitar, I just switched it up into crying in the club! There are no restrictions on what you can do with art, and it’s awesome.”
Which made me wonder if a full-blown dance album is on the horizon?
“If I did dance tracks, it wouldn’t be under Ruby Rodgers. Maybe no one will know it’s me,” she laughs. “I started pretty young, so I have time. I’m just going to do everything I can.”
Whether it’s just Ruby and her guitar, deep-diving into crucial topics or finding her way into the club under an alias, one thing is clear: Ruby Rodgers isn't interested in staying inside any box. She’s navigating the noise of growing up in real time; and giving the rest of us permission to do the exact same thing. Sixteen is out this Friday and is available to pre-save now or pre-order her vinyl here!
