Hollie Fullbrook’s world is a vastly different place to what it was three years ago. Since the release of Tiny Ruins’ debut albumSome Were Meant For Seain 2011, there have been international tours, high-profile support slots, record deals and critical acclaim. Now, after the arrival of the now three-piece’s second recordBrightly Painted Oneearlier this year, the world for Tiny Ruins is set to change again.
Despite these transitions, Auckland-based Fullbrook is managing to keep her feet securely on the ground. “I think I’ve always had a down-to-earth attitude towards it because it has been a slow growing thing,” she says. “I haven’t been an overnight success or anything. I’ve kind of wanted it to be like that. I think everyone wants to be successful but it’s just slowly growing and I’m still learning a lot.”
From the moment Some Were Meant For Sea first starting making waves, Fullbrook and Tiny Ruins have been steadily building their fan base both locally and internationally. The release of Brightly Painted One is their first through the Bella Union record label in the UK and Europe and Flying Nun in North America. “I think the music industry is based on all these chain reactions and having a good team around you, which I’m slowly starting to build up,” Fullbrook says. “[Bella Union and Flying Nun] are really personable, awesome people to work with, and that makes a huge difference when you’re trying to navigate your way around the music industry. So it makes a really big difference to have your music put out into the world. I’m lucky that I’ve found these guys.”
For the recording of the new album, Fullbrook and her bandmates – bassist Cass Basil and drummer Alexander Freer – returned to New Zealand, where they laid down tracks with producer Tom Healy at The Lab. “The Lab is kind of this underground, very dusty, rusty and dated underground passageways here in my hometown, Auckland,” laughs Fullbrook. “A whole bunch of bands record there; it’s been running for many, many years and it’s one of the more approachable studios, it’s not a big, flash studio. It’s got lots of little rooms and it’s where people can set up almost kind of bedroom-style home recordings.”
It was a recording method that suited Fullbrook and co perfectly. After all, Tiny Ruins started out in a bedroom somewhere in Auckland, where the songwriter first crafted her delicate folk-pop. At The Lab, she says, “It was a very snug room; the three of us all together in a room. It was an intimate way to make a record.”
The artwork for Brightly Painted One also seems to fit Fullbrook’s vision.“The artwork was decided on before the album title and it’s kind of a coincidence that the artwork and the title ended up really suiting each other,” she says.
Next up for Fullbrook and her bandmates liesa mountain of touring, starting Down Under. “We’re heading off to Oz, then onto the US and Canada and Europe and then back to the US. So it’s kind of a five-month crazy adventure that we’re about to embark on, and Australia is a really cool place to start with because we’ve always found our audiences there to be really warm and appreciative, and we’re looking forward to being back.”
Brightly Painted Oneout now through Spunk. See Tiny Ruins at Newtown Social Club on Wednesday July 2 (tickets available here) and Goodgod Small Club on Friday July 4 (tickets available here).
