Guitarist and singer-songwriter Rudy Kelly, known as RUDY, sits down with Editor Tessa Ndjonkou and reflects on what being an artist means to her, how leaving home impacts your art, and the road since leaving UCD.
With her ambient beats and no neglect of percussion, Dublin born and London based singer-songwriter RUDY (born Rudy Kelly) has the sonorities of Lily Allen, Mitski, Willow, Clairo, Suki Waterhouse and Phoebe Bridgers, to name but a few.
This up-and-coming artist has been circling the Dublin and London scene, and this issue we were delighted for her to sit down with University Observer Editor Tessa Ndjonkou to spill the stories and secrets of her journey as an artist emerging in the coveted world of the music industry, her songwriting and producing process, and the challenges that emerge from being a solo artist in a minefield of competition.
A UCD History and Sociology student from 2018-2021, Rudy remarks laughingly that “I absolutely loved my degree but...people are always surprised when they find out I have a history degree”. A graduate from the COVID era, the singer reflects that “Sometimes I barely remember I went to College, like, so much has happened since.” The Singer-songwriter admits that her time at university was “kind of lonely”, that it is sometimes an overwhelming period, when you convince yourself “Oh yeah I’m gonna do this and it’s gonna be amazing, and I’ll do loads of cool things! Then I totally bombed it and I was like ‘I’m never doing this again’”, she jests, summarising this universal feeling of ‘Putting yourself out there’ in a new and unfamiliar environment. “I think I auditioned for like one musical!”, she laughs.
Hailing from D12, “born, bred and buttered. I even have a D12 tattoo to prove it”, Rudy was raised in quite the musical family, which she observes as a thing that ‘kind of everybody says’, “So it was always around me and something I loved and have always appreciated.” Her dad was always in bands before she was born and all throughout her childhood, her grandad played the flute and her uncles also played instruments, so everyone around her played instruments or did music in some sort of way. So luckily, music has always enveloped her life and upbringing. Owning her first guitar at age seven, ‘White Winter Hymnal’ by Fleet Foxes, her dad’s favourite album, is the first song she learned, which the artist humorously observes was “the only thing I could play until I was like...fourteen”. Through her teenage years, Rudy was slowly drawn to singers such as Lorde, and at age eighteen decided “OMG, I want to do this!”, which was around the time she started getting serious about music.
Hailing from D12, ‘born, bred and buttered. I even have a D12 tattoo to prove it’.
When Rudy was asked if her ambitions and motivations as an artist have changed since she first started, she cocks her head to the side and really takes her time with the question. In a wonderful breath of fresh air the artist comments that, “I’m not sure I actually have a specific motivation for this, I think it’s just something I like doing. I just want to do it and I always want to do it.”. Music was always a major part of her life, she has always wanted to sing, play and write. It is not about “making it”, she remarks in finger quotes, “I have no aspirations to be mega famous or that kind of thing”, for her it is solely about doing what she loves, being able to make music full time comfortably.
'I have no aspirations to be mega famous or that kind of thing', for her it is solely about doing what she loves, being able to make music full time comfortably.
Rudy was unsure about a specific target audience and whether she has ‘reached it yet’. She imagines her target audience for her music to be people like her, “different versions of me and people who like listening to the same things as me,” self-proclaimed ‘crying in the club girlies’. So, if you love a sad bop, and like Rudy will play ‘I know the End’ at Prinks and get “absolutely fucked up to a bit of Phoebe Bridgers”, then line up girls. Rudy’s dream sound at the moment is to make something as dreamy as possible, and (at the risk of sounding ‘dicky!’) between the meaning of the lyrics and layering of sound, make something you can get lost in. “There’s certain songs where there’s so much to listen to in one song between the meaning or the lyrics, but also the layers, the instruments - you can sometimes get absolutely lost in a song”. Like many artists, Rudy's Influences fluctuate fluidly, some big current inspirations are The Sundays, The Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine.
She imagines her target audience for her music to be people like her, 'different versions of me and people who like listening to the same things as me,' self-proclaimed ‘crying in the club girlies.’
Rudy delves into the growing disparity between the music scene in Dublin and London, which are very different, for separate reasons. In Dublin, the subtle gender discrimination is frustrating, to say the least. Rudy remarks that being a girl can be so challenging. She has had to deal with so many mansplainers, who can’t fathom that a girl would play guitar and want to write as well as sing. “I just think a lot of fellas just don’t expect that, which is such a load of shit because some of the greatest writers of all time have been women.” There are a lot of presumptions that women are solely singers, to which Rudy has to say; “Well yeah, but I do all the other shit as well you know. I do all the fucking writing; I do all the fucking playing”. It is such a shame to be underestimated, which was a huge challenge in the Dublin scene.
There are a lot of presumptions that women are solely singers, to which Rudy has to say; ‘Well yeah, but I do all the other shit as well you know. I do all the fucking writing; I do all the fucking playing.’
London is a whole other ball game, even getting gigs is a major challenge. Having a promoter appears to be the only way to get your foot in the door at venues. Talent and merit aside, networking is of utmost importance here, “you’d never get a gig by just going into a place like Workmans and asking. At home, you can just go in like “Hey I have this idea for tonight and I want these people to do it”.
The electric energy that Rudy brings to the stage is phenomenal, the fact that she really enjoys performing shines through her gigs. “I love it. It’s honestly my favourite thing to do in the world...even though I get really freaked the fuck out beforehand. Like, I’ll drive everyone insane beforehand, but the minute I’m onstage, I’m fully loaded. I think I feed off the audience’s energy: if they’re having fun, I am too.”
The electric energy that Rudy brings to the stage is phenomenal, the fact that she really enjoys performing shines through her gigs.
In terms of the recording process, the tracks released on Spotify have been produced in various ways, “In terms of recording it’s different depending on the kind of music”. Her first song ‘FAR AWAY’ was produced and recorded in her friend's room. Rudy comments that “I initially wanted something kind of reminiscent of Clairo and the like and it didn’t end up being that at all, it ended up as a sort of dance track. But it turned out really fun.” The other two tracks ‘Stevie’ and ‘Lily Pad’ were recorded with her live drummer Aran. ‘Stevie’ was recorded in his bedroom in Wicklow, and ‘Lily Pad’ had the opportunity to be recorded in Shire Studios, “which is owned by the people who are in the band Clannad, who are like Enya’s siblings which is just crazy.” Rudy remarks that “Everything was done by Aran Sheehy (@aransheehymusic), which is insane, he is very talented. And he makes all his own music himself and he’s all electronic music.”
Having never co-written a song before, Rudy had her first experience with this when she moved to London. She had usually written the whole song alone and got help with recording it. Co-writing was an interesting experience for her as she saw how two people could bounce off each other, and with that her own writing experience evolved and changed, “I feel like my process is evolving and in between states because I’m learning so much at the moment. Nothing is the same every time”.
After first moving to London, Rudy recalls the mental block she experienced with writing; “I couldn’t afford to bring my guitar along with me so I didn’t have a guitar for about two months. And so I bought one here and I still wasn’t writing anything. I mean like I’d written bits and bobs of lyrics and ideas but I hadn’t really written.” The artist struggled through feelings of doubt at the beginning, “I just thought “Oh maybe I just can’t do it anymore, I’ve written all there is to write”. Writer's block is a frustrating universal experience for all artists, and Rudy recalls how “one day I just got an idea for a song, wrote a song I really liked and then it started flowing again from there! Since then I’ve written a lot of things that are very different from what I’ve written before, and I’ve become much better at lyricism.”
The artist struggled through feelings of doubt at the beginning, 'I just thought 'Oh maybe I just can’t do it anymore, I’ve written all there is to write.'
A seemingly impossible question to ask singers is if they have a favourite song out of their own discography, and like many artists, Rudy admits she is sick of a few of her own. “It's so funny, all of my favourites are the ones that people don’t like. Like I couldn’t wait to get rid of ‘Lily pad’ and just get it out. I was just sooo sick of playing it live and people asking me when I’d publish it..” The singer admits that it might be one of her least favourite songs she's ever written! But keeps us on edge as her favourites haven’t been released yet...
Rudy likes to write songs inspired by events in her life, which she jests as “a little selfish and narcissistic, I kind of just want to write about my own experiences. I wrote one song about a friend’s experience one time and that was cool but everything is usually inspired by my life.” Heartbreak has been a major theme in her work. When questioned on collaborating, after a pause Rudy comments that It’s “a bit of a long shot” but her dream collab would be either Kevin Parker or Tame Impala, “because he’s such a genius and can play so many instruments. And he’s such an amazing producer and writer.” She agrees that Currents is “just one of the best albums of all time. I adore that album and the other ones too.”
Reminiscing on her past performances, Rudy speaks of her old band, the first performance with them only less than a year ago, “I was lucky to find people that I meshed well with and who supported me during gigs. And that helps me start to get going and take this seriously and think “this is possible now” I think I used to push it aside before being like: "this is what I wanna do but it’ll never happen” but it's doable.” Unfortunately, the band have parted ways since her move to London, “but they’ve undoubtedly helped me grow as an artist and as a performer in a considerable way over the last year. I’ll have to start from scratch now that I’m in London and I’ll have to find a new group of people to bring everything to life!”.
Rudy’s aesthetic draws on a dreamy, gossamer, ethereal theme. All her album covers are notably warm with saturated bright colours. She was greatly inspired by Steve McQueen’s album font when designing the cover art for ‘Stevie’. “I hate the cold, I hate cold things, colours and vibes. I need it to be warm at all times even if it's a blue or a green - and I know that sounds so silly but I just like things to be warm and to feel soft and rich, warm and saturated.”
As of now, the artist is postponing the release of some songs and going back to the drawing board. She hopes to have some gigs in Dublin and London towards the end of the year, but for now is taking a breath, “I think if I wait, what I publish will be better rather than just throwing everything out immediately before it’s ready.” Listen to her three released tracks ‘Lily Pad’ ‘Stevie’ and ‘FAR AWAY’ now on Spotify and certainly keep an eye out for Rudy in the future.