5 QUESTIONS
RUTHIE WHO ARE YOU?
I’m Naomi, a slightly smaller than average country music fan who writes and performs sad songs under the name Ruthie.
WHAT DO YOU DO?
By day, I’m a librarian. By night, I’m a librarian who watches telly on the sofa.
WHY DO YOU DO IT?
For me, writing songs is a way of getting feelings or situations out of my head and onto paper where they can’t touch me anymore. It’s a strange kind of alchemy but it works for me, and I think that even if I wasn’t in a band I’d still be writing songs, and I’d still want people to hear them. The horrible paradox about being a musician is that you write songs because you’re so desperate for someone to hear how you feel, but then as soon as they’re out in the world
they stop being a part of you, and you move on to the next thing to feel terrible about.
songs coming out from that, and I’ll be playing some gigs around the country in the next months.
“I’M INTERESTED IN CONVERSATIONS ABOUT HOW MUSIC IS SOMETHING OSTENSIBLY FREE AND ACCESSIBLE IN ITS PUREST FORM”
The crazy thing about the world right now is that everything is going so smoothly that there really aren’t any big issues or hot topics to get worked up about. I feel brilliant about it.
I perform because it’s fun. I’m a librarian because I am an embarrassing person who loves books.
WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW?
I’ve just released The Tide, the first single from my debut EP, Universal Heartbreak Now, out Nov 22nd. I’ve got some more 30
WHAT’S THE HOT TOPIC?
For realsies though, I’m interested in conversations about how music is something ostensibly free and accessible in its purest form, but has become a hugely valuable commodity under capitalism. I don’t know how a musician is supposed to square those two things, but I’d like to find out. The EP ‘Universal Heartbreak Now’ is out 22nd November.
Photography by Felicity Griffiths
