We were all kids that dreamed of being musicians, and we all saw that dream realized.

In that sense, we couldn’t have been luckier. We played a few big venues and our single, Uninvited, was on MTV for a month or two - not too bad. But we are also a product of the modern music industry. Between all of our different projects we’ve been on five or six major labels and we’ve opened for more bands than we can remember. We toured in a van over and over and we’ve been told that we’re going to “make it” more times than we’d like to admit.

When we started as Ruth Ruth in 1993, we played anywhere we could in hopes of starting a career for the band. We worked our asses off and we were successful for a while. We signed with American Recordings in 1995 and put out a well-received CD called Laughing Gallery. We were ecstatic, but we were also hanging on every move our record company made like our lives depended on it. And in a way they did. With each new record and each new record company, our band seemed to grow, die and grow again.

Ten years ago when we started, we thought the ultimate goal was to get signed and make a record. Now we are finding that being independent is better for us. The ultimate goal this time was to enjoy the process and make the best album we could. No words to hang on from the “executives”. No songs we “have to play”. And we finally got to do things at our own pace and in our own way.

Chris Kennedy has a piece of shit bass, and an amp that only turns on when you hit it. Mike Lustig has a nice old Les Paul, and he uses a Peavey amp that Chris actually owns. Christian Nakata has a thousand and one drum sets and nobody seems to know which one he is playing at any given time.