With David Kahne's skill and experience, the band's undeniable song writing talent, and their desire to put themselves on the line all forming a powerful combination, The Rubens have made one of the most ambitious and exciting debut records you're likely to hear for some time. You can see them live on their album tour in September/October - be quick as tickets will go fast!

THE RUBENS

It was only last year that Sam Margin was sitting in his bedroom in the rural New South Wales town of Menangle waiting for his younger brother Elliott to come home from school and work on a new song he'd just written. After recording the bones of the track on his laptop, Sam put it on a loop, walked out of the room, and left Elliott to jam on it for a while. The track was then handed to their brother Zaac and good friend Scott Baldwin to add their input. The song that resulted was My Gun, one of a handful of demos The Rubens recorded at home and put online in the hope that a few people might hear them. 

What they didn't expect was that this home recorded demo would find its way to the ears of David Kahne, a New York based, Grammy Award winning record producer whose impressive client list includes the likes of Paul McCartney, Regina Spektor and The Strokes. The strength of those demos was enough for David to consider producing The Rubens' debut album, even though at the time they had no record label and had only played a handful of live shows. 

Sam then spent a month in New York trying to lock everything down and turn the prospect of recording with David into a reality. Meanwhile. Zaac, Elliott and Scott were back home working to save enough money to get to New York, should the plan all come together.

The Margin brothers have their parents to thank for much of their musical heritage too. Raised on a diet of Van Morrison, Fleetwood Mac, Tracy Chapman and Led Zeppelin as well as old soul, hip hop and gospel records, they were all 'forced' to play musical instruments at a young age - 'forced' meaning encouraged with chocolate treats. Sam and Elliott played piano while Zaac had a brief dalliance with the violin. Their parents, both teachers and piano players, have always encouraged their musical endeavours. Drummer Scott, the only trained musician of the four, is also a skilled pianist.

Holed up in a tiny apartment together in Manhattan, where the combination of construction site jack hammering and a neighbour's penchant for 'La Cucaracha' provided a powerful wake-up call every morning, they were surviving on $10 each a day and sampling an array of New York's finest hot dogs and burgers. 

The band had an extraordinarily productive time in New York. The first five weeks were spent rehearsing and in pre-production. Working with David proved to be a huge learning experience for the whole band - they'd never been in a proper studio before let alone worked with someone so closely on finessing their sound.

While David was working on the record in New York, the band was back home playing sold-out shows across the country, including four shows at Melbourne's Northcote Social Club and three at Sydney's GoodGod Small Club. 

One of their home recordings, a track called 'Lay It Down' had struck a huge chord at radio and found itself sitting at #57 in triple j's 2011 Hottest 100 poll. With Sam's soulful, bluesy vocals, Scott's swinging, hip hop beats, Zaac's swaggering guitar lines and Elliott's organ tones, it's a song that perfectly encapsulates The Rubens' signature sound. 

"I love the combination of deep rhythms, loud clanging guitars, powerful lyrics, and Sam's haunting voice," says David when discussing The Rubens. "It was so much fun to work with the band." 

With David Kahne's skill and experience, the band's undeniable song writing talent, and their desire to put themselves on the line all forming a powerful combination, The Rubens have made one of the most ambitious and exciting debut records you're likely to hear for some time. You can see them live on their album tour in September/October - be quick as tickets will go fast! 

www.therubensmusic.com www.facebook.com/therubensmusic 

THE RUBENS' SELT-TITLED ALBUM IS OUT FRIDAY 7 SEPTEMBER 2012