Photo credit: Eliot Lee Hazel.

RÜFÜS DU SOL is a band synonymous with tension. The Grammy-nominated live act came together through the push-and-pull of the dancefloor, whose passion lies in dance music, and whose lyrics spill their personal pain for thousands to dance to. The Australian trio—composed of Tyrone Lindqvist, Jon George, and James Hunt—have globally renowned for its live guitar, vocals, electronic synths, and percussion into the dance music world. Today, October 21, the Rose Avenue bosses raise the bar on their distinct sound with Surrender.

From the opening keys of already-released tracks like “Next to Me” and the propulsive chug of “On My Knees,” the full 11-track LP reminds listeners over the importance of the human need to surrender. When we fully do so, we open up the space for vulnerability and for our own humanity. Thematically, this is space around which the album sits. Cohesive, profound, and tightly-knit in terms of offering pure, raw emotionality, lead singer Tyrone Lindqvist really lays out his joy and his pain in an authentic way only he can muster.

Surrender was created during lockdown, with several of the tracks made during a six week studio trip the band took to Joshua Tree. Much like their Live from Joshua Tree experience, the record inhabits a world that is deep, lush, organic, and yet electronic at its core. During this time in the desert, the trio started each day with group meditation, intention setting, and working out every day as a group. Learning to trust each other, healing old wounds, and surrendering that trust was a main thematic of their trip.

It’s this type of “world-building” that has been RÜFÜS DU SOL’s focus since its inception, its name meant to evoke an otherworldly destination, a future point the band dreamed of arriving at from their bedrooms in Sydney, and, later, recording studios in Berlin and Los Angeles. This vision was vital to Surrender, as the band wrote songs to transcend the intimacy of the world they built together, in a DIY ground floor Hollywood apartment studio. The result is a record that is bolder, braver and more far reaching than anything they have done before.

An album written on their own terms, Surrender sees RÜFÜS stridently building their own world. The band’s electronic roots offer a proud point of separation from other stadium-selling live artists, even as they write songs and play to crowds that break the traditional glass ceiling for dance acts. Stream Surrender, out now on Rose Avenue and Reprise/Warner Records. 

RÜFÜS DU SOL – Surrender LP