{"id":80040,"date":"2020-08-05T13:51:18","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T12:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/?p=80040"},"modified":"2020-09-09T12:23:28","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T11:23:28","slug":"a-gently-meandering-neo-soul-offering-introducing-uk-singer-songwriter-ruti-and-her-effortlessly-summer-anthem-closer-to-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/2020\/08\/a-gently-meandering-neo-soul-offering-introducing-uk-singer-songwriter-ruti-and-her-effortlessly-summer-anthem-closer-to-you\/","title":{"rendered":"A gently meandering neo-soul offering: Introducing UK singer-songwriter Ruti and her effortlessly summer anthem &#8216;Closer To You&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-80043\" src=\"https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Ruti-press-shot-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"909\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Ruti-press-shot-1.jpg 700w, https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Ruti-press-shot-1-308x400.jpg 308w, https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Ruti-press-shot-1-400x520.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Closer To You&#8221; is a gently meandering neo-soul offering with Ruti\u2019s dulcet tones backdropped on bed of breezy production at the hands of Wayne Wilkins, known for his work most notably with Beyonc\u00e9 and Leona Lewis. The single is the first track of a 4-track EP to be released later this year and it stands as an impressive entrance into the project, allowing Ruti\u2019s name to sit comfortably amongst fellow female risers Celeste, Pip Millett, Arlo Parks and Mahalia.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the track, Ruti explains;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201cI had the guitar riff for closer to you saved as a voice note for literally months, I was just completely stuck for concept and lyrics. Then I brought it up in a session one day and everyone really vibed with it and we wrote to it so easily. It feels like Closer to you has been on it&#8217;s own little journey but I love where it is now and can&#8217;t wait to share\u201d<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fdJI5AsXg1c\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Arriving a year after the release of her 2019 iTunes chart topping debut EP, Racing Cars, and two years after her similarly successful debut single, \u201cDreams\u201d, Ruti returns with a fresh collection of reflective and intimate neo-soul flavoured jams. A self-described \u201cseasonal person\u201d, Ruti\u2019s laid-back summer-infused new tracks glow with confidence, providing a rich soundscape for her leftfield melodies and soothing soprano.<\/p>\n<p>Ruti\u2019s story is all about finding her voice. It\u2019s seen her go from Sixth Form student, to prime-time TV and the top of the charts in a flash. Practically overnight millions of people knew the sound of her celestial tones, but they hadn\u2019t properly been introduced to the real Ruti &#8211; until now.<\/p>\n<p>Born and raised in Essex &#8211; her Dad is Nigerian, her mum from the UK &#8211; growing up, there was plenty of gospel and ABBA playing in the household. Ruti sang solo in public for the first time at 11 years old, during a nerve-wracking open mic event singing Adele\u2019s \u201cRolling In The Deep\u201d. Adele\u2019s 21 was the first album she sought out for herself and actually paid to download for her iPod Touch. That year Ruti only sang Adele songs in front of people. Later she\u2019d shake off her nerves about performing live, playing Motormouth Mabel in a theatre group production of Hairspray. \u201cIn life people would probably describe me as a nervous person,\u201d Ruti says, \u201cBut on stage it all goes away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Studying music during Sixth Form, Ruti\u2019s confidence began to grow as she made her first forays into playing electric guitar and songwriting. The songs she wrote at that time would later form the foundations of future releases. In fact, the track \u201cRacing Cars\u201d was developed from \u201cFall Asleep\u201d, the very first song Ruti ever wrote; \u201cThe song was about finding yourself in a hectic, fast paced world, overthinking and anxiety &#8211; a lot of things that I was experiencing at that age,\u201d Ruti explains.<\/p>\n<p>During her second year at Sixth form college, Ruti\u2019s world had flipped from part-time carer in full-time education, to prime-time television. Everything changed when living legend Tom Jones &#8211; who describes Ruti\u2019s voice as a \u201cbreath of fresh air\u201d &#8211; hit the buzzer and spun his chair around, landing her a spot on popular TV singing show The Voice. \u201cI knew I was going to spend my life performing, but I thought I\u2019d be part of an ensemble in musicals or a backing dancer,\u201d says Ruti still in disbelief. Even though she gave it her all, she\u2019d never imagined even making it through the auditions, let alone being crowned winner of the show&#8217;s seventh season at 18.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-80045\" src=\"https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Ruti.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"938\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Ruti.jpg 700w, https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Ruti-299x400.jpg 299w, https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Ruti-388x520.jpg 388w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Essex pavements were pretty much all Ruti had had been chasing up until that point, but music was rapidly expanding her horizons and she found herself getting the train alone into central London for writing sessions. \u201cI felt I was growing up really fast,\u201d Ruti exclaims, joking that, \u201cFiguring out how to work the tube was a big life moment!\u201d A year of writing sessions validated her skills as a songwriter, as she embraced the beauty of simplicity in her writing.<\/p>\n<p>A year after the release of her debut single \u201cDreams\u201d, hit number one on the iTunes chart, Ruti\u2019s 2019 iTunes chart topping debut four-track EP, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/album\/6vRYDHT0ny4wsqnCWJCTPN?si=NWomKNj6RHebcps58t27Bw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Racing Cars<\/a>, pulled up. Her ethereal vocals float over the pulsing and euphoric title track. Elsewhere the EP features the glorious \u201cChanging Places\u201d, \u201cThe Swan\u201d and \u201cI Couldn\u2019t Do This Without You\u201d &#8211; genre blending tracks that take in folky and soulful influences.<\/p>\n<p>It seemed like Ruti was living the dream &#8211; she\u2019d earned a platform, signed to Polydor records, and been given a unique opportunity to define her sound, but it came with a lot of pressures that were a \u201cshaky moment\u201d for her mental health. Her world was changing at hyperspeed and the lyrics of \u201cDreams\u201d articulated the complicated reality of the big things that were happening and the new places that Ruti found herself stepping into: \u201cOh, my life \/ Is changing every day \/ In every possible way \/ And oh, my dreams \/ It&#8217;s never quite as it seems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the release of the Racing Cars EP, Ruti broke away from the management and label deal she\u2019d inherited from The Voice winning package. She took her independence without missing a beat, choosing instead to build her own team in a more organic way, on her own terms. There\u2019s a sense that with her new material Ruti has captured her sound &#8211; Ruti\u2019s found her voice.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>\u201cI thought I would write only sad music. It\u2019s easier to write sad songs. Music mainly makes me happy, so I didn\u2019t really want to just write songs that would make me sad. I wanted to enjoy it,\u201d Ruti beams. \u201cI\u2019ve realised that my voice is the thing that ties it all together.\u201d<\/em><\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Spotify Embed: Closer to You\" width=\"300\" height=\"380\" allowtransparency=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"encrypted-media\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/track\/2dZT33UcrNTJLZIDlN89O2?si=kCnMEfeCQb-dGjWRf1anjw\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Closer To You&#8217; is available now via all major platforms.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Connect with Ruti<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/rutimusic\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Instagram<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCc-LWHvThiBwC-qsgvl6c1w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">YouTube<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rutimusic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/rutimusic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Closer To You&#8221; is a gently meandering neo-soul offering with Ruti\u2019s dulcet tones backdropped on bed of breezy production at the hands of Wayne Wilkins, known for his work most notably with Beyonc\u00e9 and Leona Lewis. The single is the first track of a 4-track EP to be released later this year and it stands [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4080,1],"tags":[10887,1258,10688,190,593,10672,587],"class_list":{"0":"post-80040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-introducing","8":"category-music","9":"tag-closer-to-you","10":"tag-introducing-tag","11":"tag-neo-soul-2","12":"tag-new-music","13":"tag-rb","14":"tag-singer-songwriter-2","15":"tag-soul"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Ruti-press-shot-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80040"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80381,"href":"https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80040\/revisions\/80381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nijimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}