MANILA, Philippines — Ruel is hopping from one country to another, or should one say living out of a suitcase, these days for the 4th Wall World Tour. The singer-songwriter and pop star, whose name is pronounced as “rule,” kicked off the musical treat in his homebase Australia and then proceeded to New Zealand.
From there, Ruel went to Korea and was in Bangkok when he granted The STAR a virtual chat. After performing before his Thai fans, he headed to Singapore. Come May 26, Ruel will sing songs culled from his debut album, 4th Wall, and perhaps pepper them with familiar, old tunes. The performance venue is the Samsung Hall.
Just a quick rewind: Ruel started in the entertainment industry at the age of 14, with the knack for singing and clear storyteller perspective that caught the attention of personalities like Elton John and music enthusiasts. He has performed with artists like Khalid and Shawn Mendes. Ruel has released singles, EPs and an album in the form of 4th Wall, which was conceptualized during the pandemic.
“Well, I just hope I keep making it more and more me,” said Ruel of where he intends to bring his music, that is coming up with more personal curated music endeavors, in a brief one-on-one. “I think each project I’ve put out just has been the more authentic or certain version of myself.”
This resonates with his statement about the album in the piece of information given to local media. Ruel said, “It’s exactly the music I wanted to write… what I had in my head. It’s me executing my ideas, instead of trying to execute other people’s ideas in my way.”
What one could glean from his train of thought is, Ruel appreciates having his artistic voice in every work he does, with “the truest representation” of who he is and what he pursues to do. “I think this album (4th Wall), for example, is me as you can get,” said he. “For these next projects I wanna put out, I just wanna get more and more authentic. So, I just feel more and more certain with who I am as an artist and who I wanna be perceived as.”
As for his sources of inspiration for 4th Wall, Ruel had this to say: “It was a mixture of, you know, what’s going on in my life, what’s going on in my friends’ life and movies, taking scenes from movies and writing about them, Yeah, I feel like anything that makes you slightly emotional, like anything that makes you feel, you should use for an inspiration because that’s where you get true stuff.” Artists like him couple that with writing from an honest standpoint.
His creative process usually sees Ruel from picking up the guitar and playing something to finding some chords and melody and writing lyrics for the melody.
As a singer, Ruel has no strict rules or rituals to follow before hitting the concert stage. He does warm-up exercises for his voice and plays some cute and fun games with his band. After that, Ruel is ready to perform and sing songs.
“For the first few shows of this tour, I was pretty nervous ‘coz (of the) new songs and I hadn’t played shows in a while in Australia,” said he and talked about the “autopilot” phase in headlining a show. “What I mean by autopilot is like when (you have) 25 to 40 shows like in the tour and you’ve just done (a certain thing) over and over again, it just becomes second nature. You can do it with your eyes closed and that’s really relaxing and you can actually enjoy it. I’m excited to reach that point for the show.”
At this point in his career, it’s safe to say that his music genre and style are evolving.
“Everything is so genre-bending now, like taking in influence from another genre,” said Ruel, who is not doing “a straight-out R&B” and “singer-songwriter.” “It’s like everything is gonna (have an) influence of pop in it, but everything kinda ends up like in the pop world I think because that’s just the way my melodies are.”
Where does he get his energy come showtime? Well, Ruel’s answer is “from the adrenaline of meeting fans and playing shows.” With that, artist-performers will never get tired and have enough energy to deliver the goods.
Ruel also shared that he tries to sleep as much as possible in his downtime and relax. That’s how he saves his energy for upcoming performances. Ruel also appreciates and enjoys moments like when fans sing along with him and know the lyrics of his every song. This happened in his showcase at Venice Grand Canal in Taguig last February.
“You know when you’re doing your show and you’re across the globe from your home, and these people (are) singing the lyrics… that’s ‘the-pinch-yourself moment.’ The last show in Manila was incredible. And that’s why I keep on coming back.”
As for career feats and milestones like playing shows and meeting fans abroad he has achieved, Ruel is simply grateful and said, “take every opportunity as it comes, take every opportunity like it’s your last, that’s kind of what I do.”
In his spare time, by the way, Ruel does the following: Watching football games, playing ping pong and soccer and surfing. “I just like to stay active and see my friends as much as possible because we all like doing the same things,” he said.
For now, Ruel is completing the Asian leg of his world tour. Again, on May 26, he and his Pinoy fans are in for another enjoyable and remarkable musical night.
(Tickets for Ruel’s show, presented by Wilbros Live, are available on SMTickets.com and SM Tickets outlets nationwide.)