Ruby James Sings of Love and Faith

Ruby James just released her debut CD, entitled Desert Rose. Her song "Everything Good Goes Away" is featured in Diane English's upcoming film "The Women," starring Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Debra Messing.  We caught up with her while on the road touring the east coast.

Ruby, can you share a little bit about yourself and how you got started?

I'm pretty sure I came out singing. I was a pretty big ham when I was little girl. I don't really remember too much, but they say I would always get up and sing with the bands in restaurants or wherever I'd go with my family. I was always trying to put on a show. Then I sang with a friend of mine in high-school. We would practice after school and work on our harmonies and perform at school assembly's. It wasn't until my last year of high-school that I started writing songs. I tried to go away to college for a couple of years, but I convinced my parents that it was a waste of money and that all I was really meant to do in life was be a musician and write songs. I decided I needed to learn how to play the guitar in order for the right songs to come out and so I would sit in my room and practice for 4 and 5 hours a day. I took guitar lessons for a little while and in the first lesson I started writing my first song on the guitar. That was sort of how I learned to play. I was writing much faster than I was learning the instrument so I would spend all those hours trying to learn how to play these songs I was already writing. It was a pretty exciting way to learn because I was so motivated to hear them sound right. That also helped with singing and playing together because I was learning how to do both at the same time; which can be quite tricky I hear if you don't know how.

Where do you draw inspiration for your music?

I think I am a very emotional writer and a lot of the time I am inspired by the pain of life's journey. I'm very sensitive and I have an innate ability to feel other people's emotions as well, so I tend to write about my perception of what someone else may be going through. I have a wild imagination so I can create all kinds of scenarios in my head. I used to get more inspired by stories from books and other people's lives, but now the inspiration has come closer to home. With this new album, Desert Rose, much of the inspiration came from very personal stuff to do with love and family and the immediate journey I was on at the time.

 

Can you tell us about Desert Rose?

 Desert Rose, the album, is actually dedicated to my grandmother and grandfather on my mother's side. This album is for them. Desert Rose is a title I've had in my head for the past couple of years as I've been touring around the country. It's funny, as a child, how we reject certain things about our life, like I never wanted to live in the desert with my family.. I loved to see them, but I hated how hot it was, and how desolate. I chose to live with my father in Los Angeles instead. Now that I've started to grow up. It's like I'm being called home to where I come from, where my roots have really been planted, many worlds before I was even born. Desert Rose, the album and the song are both about a journey and possibly a homecoming. It's a story of survival through the toughest of terrains and about a quest for self.. but mostly it is a story of love and faith...

What are your future plans?

Well.. I think I have about a good 40 year career in me so I'd like to be doing this for a very long time. I want to be like the Rolling Stones when I grow up.. (well at least open for them :) But I want to be able to do this forever and I want to be able to do this well. I would love to be as successful and well known as some of my idols, but I would be happy to be doing this at level that is just affordable as well. I do really want that tour bus though! But for now, I don't really know what else to do, other than continue what I'm doing and taking things one step and one day at a time... 

Visit www.rubyjames.com.  Los Angeles, California