Adelaide, also known as “The City of Churches”. Compared to the monikers that some other state capitals have, I think the place is in sore need of a rebrand! How about “The City of Punk With a View? or “The City of Cheer and Cracking Beer?”. Well, if you’ve ever been to A Nice Day To Go To The Club held at Port Noarlunga Football Club in this fine city, you’re probably nodding in agreement. This is one of the best curated and coordinated music events in the country, for both punter and artists alike.
But before I hit the festival, Jacob Butterfield, drummer of Steal Capz and our photographer for the weekend, gave me a guided tour through the home of Coopers, West End, Bad Boy Bubby, and Bad//Dreems. Speaking of Baddies, I reached out to Alex Cameron to enquire about the festival, who in turn invited me to come see Ruby Fields perform the night before at The Scenic Hotel, a charming pub that overlooks Adelaide. Ben Marwe was also kind enough to tee up an interview with Ruby for us, how good!
With beers in hand, we sat on the sloping garden opposite the stage, watching the talented Ricky Albeck (Ruby’s most trusted sound tech) warm up the crowd at dusk. Ruby was like a proud parent seeing him perform, while also ensuring the PA was just right for his smooth voice. The sunset drew down on us, filtered through the dry, overhead canopy on a scorcher of a day, with cool sips of Coopers as the perfect accompaniment to our Five Quickfire Questions.
1. You’ve Been Doing It For a Bit now, so I wonder, do you have a favourite Australian album that you could see yourself covering in your style as a tribute to that artist?
Ruby: I think an album that is super eclectic and one that you could really cover again and again, not exactly in the way that it is, but in new and interesting ways that give you a lot of opportunity to do that, would probably be I Want That You Are Always Happy by The Middle East.
You know they sort of like put out an album, and then an EP, and then fucked off forever. That album goes from A to B and everywhere in between and it’s just such a perfect example of the Australian landscape to me. It’s beautiful, they’ve got songs that are called Sydney to Newcastle. And all the songs on that album are so fucking devastating, and then upbeat, and beautiful, and heart breaking again. It’s just an incredible album.
OB: And that’s just your style, right?
Ruby: Yeah, I love meaningful lyrics that are… I’m an emo girl at heart but you know I do what I need to still make a bit of money but I’m an emo girl at heart (laughing). But I think that album would probably be the one that would give you so much freedom to express yourself in and do differently. Have you heard that album?
OB: No, I haven’t. I will now though.
Ruby: Dude! Listen to it, it’s incredible.
2. Is there a time that perhaps you, your band, or your fans have caused a bit of Trouble that makes for a fun pub story?
Ruby: There was a funny one when someone was on heaps of pingers, broke into our hotel room, and did a poo in the shower… So that wasn’t…
OB: Ha-ha-ha! A band member or fan?
Ruby: Noooo! It was a random person, so that wasn’t necessarily us, but it was pretty crazy!
(Ruby is greeted by friends who then realise we’re in the midst of an interview but we reassure them it’s fine)
OB: It’s a community of love here tonight, don’t worry about it!
Ruby: It is… So yeah that wasn’t us being Trouble but it was another person. But look, there’s been times when we’ve been little shits and we’ve learnt our lessons. And there’s things that we would ever do now that we did when we were kids. And when I say kids, you know, early twenties, when you put a bunch of kids in front of the world with a megaphone, you just carry on a bit. But we’ve definitely been up to a lot of Trouble, but usually harmless, things like crank calls at 3AM, and teepees in a hotel room, but then cleaning it all up. I think we are pretty good at cleaning up all our messes too.
OB: Alex was telling me about crank calling a local radio station host when he was younger.
Ruby: Alex Cameron? Really? I don’t know about that one, I feel like I thought I knew almost everything about him.
OB: Ha-ha-ha, you’ll have to ask him to tell you, it’s worth it.
3. I took a chance on this one. With your track 92 Purebred, I’ve joined some very, very distant dots: You were born in 1998 in Cronulla and that same year, the Brisbane Broncos won their first Grand Final. Again in 1992 the purebred Broncs win against Cronulla. Alfie Langer was the captain of both those teams in 98 and 92. So in summary, is this a tribute to the greatest footy player of all time; Alfie Langer, the 92 Purebred?
Ruby: That is… fucking amazing! I’m a big footy girl. I love that soooo much. But the funny thing is that it’s just a song about my partner. Because he was born in 1992 and he drives a 1992 Ford Falcon.
OB: I thought as much.
Ruby: So he and his car are collectively the 92 Purebred. But damn! I wish I thought of that, ha-ha! It’s fucking awesome!
OB: Yeah “He’s a real 92 Purebred with a model to match… he will go the distance”.
Ruby: Yeah, so it’s his car! And he will go the distance, the car… And go the distance that’s a reference to Cake ,The Distance.
OB: Yes, I watched a good YouTube doco about Cake yesterday funnily enough.
Ruby: Yeah, Cake is fucking awesome. There’s a lot of references in that song actually.
4. Artists can often be Introverted Extroverts and secretly long to be a Permanent Hermit. Where’s a great place to recharge away from all the Dodgy Neighbours (and Tax Evaders) that you’d recommend?
Ruby: Nice play on words there. I guess (because) I’m such a hermit, like you say Permanent Hermit, that home is a very big one for me. But in terms of hobbies and shit, I just like cooking and doing ceramics. I’ve recently gotten into crocheting. So, I think everyone would benefit from having a little craft room. Wherever you can make that. It can be indoors or outside of your house, but I think boys, girls, and whomever should fucking make their own craft room. Even if you want to just fucking scrapbook photos of footy players, that’s craft!
OB: Of Alfie Langer of course?
Ruby: Well… yeah, ha! But it’s scientifically proven to slow your mind down when you craft things, so no matter what it is, it could be pertaining to anyone of your interests. Just to sit down and be…
OB: Grounded or mindful?
Ruby: Yeah, to ground yourself. Like again, I just love to make shit out of nothing. So that’s usually when my brain goes the quietest.
5. It’ll be A Nice Day To Go To The Club tomorrow. Who are you most excited to see perform?
Ruby: It’s sort of cheating because I saw them recently obviously (supporting Soft Play at The Triffid), but These New South Wales, are such an epic band. Such a good message. Great stage presence, and crowd banter. The guys individually are just beautiful people. They are so educated and so friendly, that is such a refreshing thing. And I think in the Australian music scene, everyone is pretty friendly, but it is always really nice to meet and become friends as a fellow musician. I’m really excited to see Clamm, they’re good mates of mine. They are awesome and also great mates of mine. CIVIC, the whole line up is full of bangers! I’m really, really excited.
OB: Have you seen Antenna before?
Ruby: No! I haven’t so I am really excited to see them too.
This was a chat I was very honoured to have had indeed. It was a serene evening at The Scenic Hotel, as Ruby serenaded the crowd on a warm sunset eve, overlooking the city of Adelaide below with a stripped back solo set.
The next day was a big one for the both of us at the appropriately named A Good Day to Go to the Club festival. For those of you who haven’t been, Port Noarlunga is a scenic seaside suburb that’s the annual host to an earthy bouquet of the best punk artists in Australia. The event is cheerfully staffed by the local footy club in a venue that provides reasonably priced refreshments, with perfectly synchronised double stages to create a continuous ebb and flow of good times.
Over sixteen bands graced the stage including many of our friends from Antenna, CIVIC, Drunk Mums, These New South Wales, Regurgitator, and of course Ruby Fields as well as her good mates Clamm. May I suggest readers start planning a short weekend away for this event in 2026? I plan on making this an annual migration as it’s just too damned good to miss out on.
A huge thanks to Benny, Alex, and Ali from Bad//Dreems for organising the interview, Jacob Buttterfield (@jacob.butterfield.28) of Steal Capz (@stealcapz) for all the photos, and to Ruby for being such a wonderful interviewee. Shout out to the Daybed Records crew for running such a great festival as well, hopefully there’ll be many more to come!
A few more tour dates for Rubes coming up, you can find them all here!
