Ruby Rodgers Announces New EP ‘Sixteen’
Ruby Rodgers announces her forthcoming EP, Sixteen, and shares its title track – listen HERE. Set for release on November 6, the EP follows her recent Environmental Music Prize People’s Choice Award win for Hits the Heart and news she will serve as Lead Youth Patron of the Next Up Music Awards.
Written across five songs, Sixteen pairs richly textured, immersive arrangements with lyrics that explore identity, power, adolescence and the complexities of growing up. Throughout the EP, Ruby places deeply personal experiences alongside broader social questions, allowing intimacy and observation to exist in equal measure.
At the centre of the project is lead single Sixteen – a song that reflects on girlhood and the expectations placed on young women. It considers the contradiction of being told you’re “just a kid” while simultaneously being viewed through an adult lens.
“The song came from thinking about what it means to grow up in a world that’s constantly trying to tell you who you are,” Ruby says. “I wanted to write about this uncomfortable obsession our society has with young women – the idea that innocence and youth are somehow the most desirable things a girl can possess. So many girls grow up feeling that tension, and I just wanted to put words to it.”
As the EP’s opening track, Sixteen sets the tone for the songs that follow. Its themes of identity, vulnerability and changing perspective reappear throughout the record, introducing a body of work that sits as comfortably in personal reflection as it does in wider social observation.
Drawing inspiration from artists including Phoebe Bridgers, Radiohead and Ethel Cain, the Sixteen EP unfolds through rich, textured arrangements that create an immersive backdrop for Ruby’s songwriting. Written alongside collaborators Alex Hope, Aubrie Mitchell, Rhys Lewis, Nick Kingswell, Jem Cassar-Daley, Jessica Mauboy, Shane Nicholson and Benjamin Rodgers, with production by Benjamin Rodgers, the EP broadens Ruby’s songwriting without losing the intimacy that defines her writing.
“I think the thread connecting these songs is growing up and realising the world is a lot more complicated than you thought it was,” Ruby says. “The EP is about becoming disillusioned with the world without becoming cynical. It’s choosing joy, staying connected and believing things can still change.”
Beyond the title track, Father’s Daughter, For You, Suicide Doves and I’ll Be In The Sun move between family, identity, human rights and the search for optimism in an increasingly fractured world. While deeply personal, the songs consistently widen their lens, placing individual experiences alongside broader social and political realities. Across its layered arrangements and intimate songwriting, Sixteen returns to questions of identity, power, human rights and what it means to grow up in a world that rarely offers simple answers.
The announcement comes just days after Ruby was awarded the latest Environmental Music Prize People’s Choice Award for her 2025 single Hits the Heart. Written following her participation in Damon Gameau’s youth-led documentary Future Council, the song explores climate anxiety through the perspective of young people and was chosen by public vote from listeners across 61 countries.
Alongside the release, Ruby will also serve as Lead Youth Patron of the Next Up Music Awards, working alongside a national Youth Council to help ensure young people play a central role in shaping Australia’s newest music awards platform.
Alongside her own artist project, Ruby has become an increasingly sought-after songwriter and topliner, collaborating with artists across Australia and internationally. Earlier this year she featured on SWEATBABY’s Switch, while her recent TEDx talk explored songwriting as a way of making sense of an increasingly complex world – an idea that also sits at the heart of Sixteen.
RUBY RODGERS – NEW EP SIXTEEN RELEASED NOVEMBER 6 – PREORDER HERE
