Ruby Fields Reflects On Sophomore Album ‘Small Achievements’

Hailing from the suburbs of Sydney’s South Coast, singer, songwriter and modern-day storyteller, Ruby Fields, writes catchy indie-rock riffs and lyrics that are so self-aware and relatable that they cut deep. Her sophomore album, Small Achievements, expands on this signature sound with some deeper themes and grittier, guitar-driven production layered with raw, anthemic hooks and moments of stripped-back vulnerability, which she’ll perform live around the country this May.

Small Achievements at its core represents the last four years of Fields life in the NSW’s Northern Rivers, where she lived through COVID, intense floods, breakups, death, the band falling apart and picking up the pieces again, falling in love and connecting with the environment through the beauty of the local surrounds and community. Ruby talks to Hi Fi Way more about the album and tour.

Congratulations on the second album. Is it true what they say, that the second’s always the hardest?
Given the fact that I’m releasing this one independently, it’s been a lot harder, and the fact that this is, you know, post-COVID as opposed to the first one kind of being recorded and everything wrapped up with it before COVID hit big time. But, I’d say, in other ways, it’s been a very freeing experience.

Is that also because you’re having to pretty much, you know, run everything yourself? Every little moving part sits entirely with yourself?
Yeah, big time.

How did you feel when you finished the album?
Yeah, I think it’s funny, that moment didn’t come until a little while ago, because one of the songs, I was listening to it on the record and going, this just doesn’t feel like the rest of the record, it doesn’t feel like it’s caught up. Then I told the boys that I’m really sorry, I think we have to go back into the studio and completely redo it musically. So… we went back into the studio, I came up with this riff and a new kind of chord progression for the song, and then we just kind of reimagined it. We only did that, like, this year in February or something, so, like, two months ago, there was still a track that wasn’t even mastered for the record yet.

Was that hard letting go?
I guess so, but in a way that moment was almost the opposite of letting go, it was me going, “Oh no, we have to go back and change that song.” But for everything else, now I’m finally at that point where I can let go. It’s mastered, it’s coming out on Friday, there’s nothing more I can do. All I can do now is sit back. There’s a Nick Cave quote, I can’t remember it verbatim, but it’s essentially about how your work stops belonging to you once it’s in the hands of the public and that’s how it feels once it’s out there, the meaning isn’t mine anymore, the love for it isn’t mine anymore. It’s completely up to the audience to decide how they feel about it and what it becomes for them. So, yeah, there’s definitely a part of letting go in that.

Was the vision for the album clear in terms of what you wanted to do with it?
I definitely knew I wanted this album to move in a different musical direction. That feels natural for me, because I’m so directly shaped by whatever I’m listening to and whatever’s happening in my life at the time. Obviously, as a twenty eight‑year‑old, what I’m going through now is very different from the twenty‑year‑old who made the last record. So I’ve been really excited about this new creative direction. I had a vision for it early on, and I think I’ve got an even clearer one for the record that’ll come after this. It’s not a concept album, but it does feel like this neat little snapshot, a pretty, self‑contained package of my life in the Northern Rivers over the last five years.

Did you feel the pressure to at least level up having such a strong debut album to go out and top this one?
I think everyone feels that pressure, and if someone says they’re not bothered by it… maybe that’s true for them, but I know I’d be lying if I said it didn’t affect me. It’s hard not to compare, but the two albums are so different that it almost feels like comparing two completely separate things. I honestly can’t predict whether people will hear it and think, “This isn’t the Ruby Fields I grew up with,” or whether they’ll appreciate that I didn’t stay the same and chose to evolve. Like I said, once it’s out there, it’s in the audience’s hands. The one consistent thread through all my music is my writing, that lyrical style is always going to be there, but musically this album has a very different feel. Sonically it’s its own thing. So yes, I feel the pressure, but I’m also at a different stage of my life now, and what matters to me has shifted a bit.

Is the song writing process for you, personally very much like a cleansing process?
I think I’m not the best at it in person I’m a pretty big over sharer, but online not so much. Musically, though, that’s where I bear everything. I don’t think I’ve ever released a song that wasn’t basically a diary entry. So for me, I can imagine being eighty and looking back, instead of photos, it’ll be the music that tells the story of everything I went through when I was younger. It really is like keeping a diary, and in that way it’s pretty therapeutic.

Were there any songs that once they were finished, really surprised you compared to the original intention of how you wanted them to be at the beginning?
I think all of my music starts the same way, just me and a guitar, writing the softest, saddest song ever and then some of them come out the other side as these bright, vibrant things. On the record, a good example is Tackle Box. The first version I did with our producer, Chris, was just piano, violin, and me, a completely different vibe. It still carried the same feeling, but now it’s this full‑band production with multiple strings and everything else layered in. Then there’s Muscle, which I had absolutely no idea how it would turn out. It’s ended up being one of my favourite songs on the album, the one I keep going back to. I couldn’t picture what it would sound like with a full‑band arrangement, and then suddenly it just rolled into existence and made perfect sense. Now I can’t imagine it any other way.

Is there any particular song that you would think is the emotional centre of the album?
I think Muscle musically feels that way, but I think topically, Tacklebox and Mikey Echo are two strong ones. Tacklebox being about our friend Connor that passed away about eight years ago, Mikey Echo being about the man that lives at the pub that I wrote all of the Small Achievements about and the album itself. Then there’s songs like The Floods that are all about the 2022 Lismore Floods, and yeah, so there’s a lot, actually, in there. But yeah, I’d maybe say Mikey Echo really ties everything together in terms of intense music, intense lyrics, and about the environment up there, about the people up there, but I suppose Muscle does that a little bit too.

Did it all go to plan once you got into the studio?
I mean, this record, we kind of did a bit differently than usual, and we kind of broke it up into little bits and pieces. And, you know, like, I think for maybe a bit of a block of them, we did, like, a few, like, a day of rehearsal, and then kind of got it all done. And then after that, we slowly did, like, song by song, the boys would fly up to Byron, and we’d do a day rehearsing and writing, and then we’d do a day in the studio recording it, and we kind of did that a couple times, which is cool, because every song got to have its own moment, instead of kind of rushing through writing and rehearsing and then rushing through having to get two songs done a day or something when you’re trying to record on a budget or whatever. So yeah, I think for the time that we were given, and the budget constraints that I had, like, I think the way that it fell together just felt really positive and creative, and yeah, it feels like something that we’ve never tapped into before.

What was your reaction when you actually played the album start to end with the headphones on for the first time?
The funniest thing is that I’m notoriously bad with technology, so I hadn’t actually heard the mastered tracks because I didn’t know how to open the zip file. I ended up getting the test pressing from Suitcase Records, and listening to the vinyl on my friend’s record player, that was the first time I heard the whole thing mastered, front to back. I was like, sick, okay, it’s formed, it’s real. Before that, I’d only heard the mixes, mostly while driving, which I think is always a good test of how a song makes you feel because you can’t distract yourself, you’re just driving and listening.

I think people underestimate how much thought goes into track listing. When I was younger, I didn’t think about it much, but now I’ll only listen to an album start to finish, at least for the first few plays. Me and the boys sat down and wrote out our dream version of the track order, and it was surprising how often we agreed, like, “This should go here,” or “That one needs to follow this.” You start thinking about how the end of one song flows into the next, or whether two tracks sound too similar back‑to‑back. You want the whole thing to make sense, to feel right, to lift you up after a low moment. It’s a crazy process, but I’m so stoked with how it’s come out.

With the tour in mind, are you looking to play pretty much the entire album start to end maybe?
I wasn’t sure if we were meant to keep that kind of thing secret or not, but I honestly don’t care, musically, I’m an oversharer. We’ve been doing some production days, and we’re going to play the album top to bottom, but in designated blocks so the audience doesn’t get fatigued by a bunch of songs they don’t know yet. So we’ll do it in order, but break it up with some of our classics and the songs people love to hear. I’ve had a bit of feedback about what people want in those moments, too. The idea is to make it a really cool show where everyone still gets the songs they know and love, while also giving the new music space to shine.

Beyond the Australian tour, what’s next for yourself? Are you looking to head overseas, or get back to writing again?
Bit of both, actually. It’s so annoying that when you finally feel ready to do something, the world seems to start falling apart again. But I think we’re ready to try going overseas, and I’m really hoping it works out. We’re looking at doing a UK–Europe run and finishing in Prague so we can record an album there. My goal would be to get that done this year, come home, do a regional run through summer, and then release another album.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Ruby Fields on the following dates, tickets from Destroy All Lines…