Since the debut of his official music video for“Don’t Tell Me”last week, 15-year-old multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriterRuelhas dropped yet another soulful pop-gem titled“Dazed & Confused,”which isout worldwideviaRCA Records.
The track comes alongside an announcement of his debut EP,“Ready”to be released worldwide on June 1.Listen to“Dazed & Confused,”the first track reveal from his forthcoming EP.
On the new track and forthcoming EP, Ruel explains: “I wrote‘Dazed & Confused’in the front room of my Air BNB in LA last November with my friends and the song has come so far. The song started with some simple, light-hearted piano chords and has since become the toughest track on the EP. I wrote over 30 songs for this EP, it has been really hard deciding which ones should make the cut, but the decision has been made and I’m really excited for everyone to hear what I’ve been working on.”
Ruel’s forthcoming“Ready”EP was produced by his good friend, mentor and collaboratorM-Phazes (Eminem, Logic, Kimbra, Zara Larsson, KYLE), who also produced his current single “Don’t Tell Me” and his debut smash “Golden Years.”
Since the release of “Don’t Tell Me,” the track has garnered an impressive15 million + streams worldwide and solidified the young singer and songwriter as one of the most exciting recording artists and captivating live performers to emerge in 2018. Last week, “Don’t Tell Me” also won first place in theInternational Songwriting Competitionin the Pop/Top 40 category.
Compared to the likes ofFrank OceanandJames Blake, “Don’t Tell Me”was written by the 15-year-old London born, Australian raised artist and was inspired by an evening spent sitting at the dinner table telling his parents and siblings about a girl he had a crush on. “My whole family was like, ‘Ruel, you don’t know what you’re talking about, you’re way too young to think about that sort of stuff,’” he recalls. “And that really frustrated me. I thought ‘they can’t tell me how to feel’, so I wrote a song about it. I never thought it would lead to all of this.”
Introduced to soul, blues, and jazz by his music-loving father,RuelcountsStevie Wonder,Dave BrubeckandAmy Winehouseas major musical influences growing up. After picking up and learning to play the guitar at 8 years old,Ruelgraduated onto the likes ofFrank Ocean,Childish GambinoandJames Blakeand started to write songs of his own, drawing inspiration from these groundbreaking acts and writing from his own experiences as a teenage boy. “All my songs are about personal experiences,”Ruelsays. “Songwriting helps me get through things, feelings that I don’t understand myself. When I write about something, it helps me figure it out in the process. But I want people of all ages, whether they’re 15 or 50, to be able to relate to my songs.”