IN FOUR short years The Rubens have gone from forming out of boredom to having arguably one of the biggest songs to hit the radio waves.
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The five-piece alternative rock band from the small NSW town of Menangle won Triple J radio station’s Hottest 100 on Australia Day with its track Hoops.
“It didn’t feel real,” keyboard and vocalist Elliott Margin said. “Our highest in the [Hottest 100] has been number 10 [for My Gun in 2011]. We had our fingers crossed we would beat that.”
And beat it they did, taking out the coveted top spot on the annual countdown and beating big name music acts Kendrick Lamar and Major Lazer.
Not bad for a group, made up with brothers Zaac, Elliott and Sam Margin, plus friends Scott Baldwin and Will Zeglis, that got together in 2011 purely out of boredom.
“My brothers and I didn’t play together before we made a band,” Elliott said. “Sam and Will got together for a jam session one day. I was in year 12 at the time. I got home and they asked if I wanted to jam with them.”
At the end of 2012 the band released its first, self-titled album and backed it up with a second, Hoops, in 2012. It was perchance that the song Hoops even made the album.
“Hoops was written after the record was finished,” Elliott said.
The Rubens are one of the many Australian acts on the line-up for Groovin the Moo, which kicks off at Maitland Showground on April 23.
Other acts include British India, Client Liason, Boy and Bear, Drapht, Safia, DZ Deathrays, Alison Wonderland, Emma Louise, Illy, Danny Brown, MS MR, Mutemath, Odesza, Ratatat, Twenty One Pilots and Vic Mensa.
Tickets, available from gtm.net.au, cost $110. The Examiner has one double pass, containing two general admission tickets, to the Maitland festival. The competition is open to those aged 16 and above.
To win, send your name, daytime contact number and date of birth in an email titled “GTM” to ewatts@fairfaxmedia.com.au.
The winner will be notified on Wednesday, April 6.
