WOODWINDS
PHOTO: THATGOODGRAPHIC
Born in Toronto, Mike Ruby moved to New York at 19 to pursue a career as a jazz musician, and then signed to a
subsidiary record label of Universal Music. While in college, he began playing sax with Brooklyn-based synthpop
band St. Lucia, and after opening for Ellie Goulding, realized he had a lot to say as an artist that was being
left unsaid. He picked up a guitar and fell in love with songwriting, moved back to Toronto to hone his skills,
and soon after moved to Los Angeles. His new EP, You Wrote These Songs, is available now.
www.mikeruby.com.
By Mike Ruby
Laying the Foundation for
a Fruitful Career
My name is Mike Ruby
and I’m a singer/songwriter
that just released
a debut EP. Before that,
though, I was a professional
jazz musician.
Jazz musician turned pop singer/songwriter?
Really?
Getting into Jazz
It’s been a long, winding path that has led me
to where I am today. It all started when I was
three years old. My mother, an amateur classical
pianist, would play sonatas, concertos, and
variations on the piano as I would listen from
my room and lose myself in the music. I started
taking piano lessons but was not ready for the
disciplinary demands of my classical teacher,
who was way too strict for a three-year-old!
Fast forward eight years. I was 11 and went
to see my oldest brother jamming out on tenor
saxophone at a show. I thought it was the
coolest thing ever. I picked up the sax with no
disciplinarian this time, and the story started
writing itself.
Music was a hobby, but when I started falling
in love with blues and jazz in grade nine,
it became more than that. That same year,
though, my dad was diagnosed with cancer.
I found it extremely hard to cope with the
reality of his illness and turned to music as
an outlet.
During those years, I practiced nonstop.
I was lucky to have a great music teacher in
Alex Dean, Canadian jazz tenor saxophonist
extraordinaire (and for those who know him,
human being extraordinaire). I needed to
practice harder in order to understand the
theory Alex was trying to teach.
In order to execute the theory of jazz and
truly improvise, you have to be a virtuoso on
your instrument. It’s simply a prerequisite. I
was forced to start learning how to discipline
myself sans the ghost of the dreaded piano
teacher of my past. I worked on my rudimentary
skills for hours on end, one major and
minor scale after another, then thirds, fourths,
triads, chords, quintuplets, you name it. If I had
a weakness, that’s what I worked on.
Right before my father passed, we had a
heart-to-heart. He said: "This ride ends before
you know it, so please, do something you
love every day. Be present, and find a way
to make a living doing it." I took his words
to heart and have lived by them ever since.
Instead of going to school in the U.S right
away, I stayed at home with my family for
those first two years after he passed and
studied at the University of Toronto. After I
found a new balance in life, I transferred to
the Manhattan School of Music to complete
my undergrad and master’s degrees in jazz
performance.
It was here where I really learned to play. I
had incredible teachers who were all legends
themselves, but the most valuable lessons
came from playing with my classmates. Jam
sessions every night, gigs every day. Tours
across the U.S. and Europe during school
break and over the summer. I learned so
much on the road.
When did the transition to pop artist happen?
Fast forward four years. School was a
bubble and it took up a big chunk of my life;
once you’re out of that bubble, you learn a
lot about the real world.
Pivoting to Pop
I had just graduated. I had a gig at Smalls Jazz
Club in New York with the Ari Hoenig Quartet.
It was one of the highlights of my life. I
had never made music with such incredible
musicians, and after the gig we received our
payment for the show. I thought to myself: “I
loved that experience, but how am I going
to make a living?”
I started taking every gig I could. I started
touring and sublet my apartment when
I was on the road. Then, I started playing
sax with a synth pop band called St. Lucia,
and that was the game changer. There was
something about the energy of thousands
of people having the time of their life in a
crammed room, singing the lyrics and going
ham. It changed me. I had fallen in love
with music again, but this time with pop.
From that point on, I picked up the guitar
and started singing from scratch. I wrote
hundreds of songs and applied the same
discipline from my jazz training.
Now, here I am – a “new” pop artist. My
first single on the EP, “Close,” went top-40
on Canadian radio and the Billboard charts,
and I’ve had millions of streams on my first
few singles in less than a year. I can tell you
one thing for certain: if I had never learned
the skills and discipline to become a great
jazz musician, I would never have been able
to have switched careers from scratch so
quickly, and with the necessary discipline
to do so.
No matter what we do in life, we need
to have that work ethic ingrained in us to
be successful. Learning an instrument at a
high level is an amazing way to do that, and
regardless of what we end up doing, those
skills transfer to whatever we aspire to be.
A lot of people ask me: "Do you miss playing
jazz?" My answer, truthfully, is not at all. I still
enjoy listening to jazz every now and then,
but I have found something that makes
me happier in writing songs and touching
people with their lyrics. I think no matter
what we end up doing, if it makes us happy,
that’s what counts.
CANADIAN MUSICIAN 29