a kid named rufus Talks His Latest Single, "wasting time"
Summer is right around the corner, and while it’s nice to dream of days spent doing nothing, the fear of letting those summer months slip by is sinking in. Cue a kid name rufus’s “wasting time,” the first track off the artist’s upcoming summer EP. The song discusses the artist’s experiences while graduating high school during a pandemic and fear of losing out on opportunities. I got the chance to ask a kid named rufus a few questions about the track. Read our interview below.
YOUR SONG “wasting time” IS THE FIRST SINGLE OFF YOUR UPCOMING EP. WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO START THE PROJECT WITH THIS TRACK?
I personally think “wasting time” is the catchiest. There’s just something about how bass driven and energetic it is. I felt like it would be a really good way to re-introduce a kid named rufus. From the moment I wrote “wasting time,” I knew it had to come out before everything else.
HOW IS THIS SONG DIFFERENT FROM YOUR PREVIOUS RELEASES?
I think everything about the new music is different from what’s out right now. The songs that I initially put out Spotify were pointed in a very electro pop direction. When I was writing these set of new songs last year, I was being truer to what I was listening to at the time. I was listening to a lot more indie pop and a lot of alternative music. I felt like I related to that more. I was writing the type of music that I liked and I think that’s translated into my music.
WAS “wasting time” THE FIRST SONG THAT YOU WROTE WHEN YOU WERE WRITING FOR THE EP?
It wasn’t the first, but it was one of the first. I wrote the entire EP with my friend Mimika. She’s from Toronto. We spent the whole summer writing together. We finished “wasting time” at the end of May. The song came together in about an hour. I had the baseline on Logic, then we added keys and wrote the lyrics. We wanted the song to talk about being in quarantine and feeling like we were missing out on life experiences.
DO YOU PREFER WRITING WITH OTHER PEOPLE?
Mimika is so talented. She’s one of my go to writers to work with. I typically start ideas on my own. I’ll write a few lines or I’ll mess around on keys in Logic. Then, once I have an idea, I’ll bring in other people to help. I’m big on collaboration. If I feel that a song needs something I call in someone to help. If not, I try to do it myself.
WHEN YOU WERE PITCHING THE IDEA FOR “wasting time,” HOW DID YOU DESCRIBE WHAT YOU WANTED THE SONG TO SOUND LIKE?
I just had the bassline. I had no ideas for lyrics. During our writing session we came up with the melody for the verses and choruses. It was very much just us bouncing ideas off each other. I think we have really good writing chemistry. We’re not talking about the direction of a song beforehand. We very much just schedule a session and start.
WHAT’S THE OVERALL FEELING OF THE SONG?
It’s really energetic. I almost want to say that it’s a throwback to house EDM music from 2014, but with a really left of center sound. I think it’s a good combination of the two. The whole song is centered around being in quarantine and trying to figure out what is going on with the world. I was graduating high school, but I couldn’t do anything because I was stuck at home. I just felt like I was wasting time. That’s the feeling.
THE SONG TALKS ABOUT HOW YOU HATE WASTING TIME. WHAT DOES YOUR MOST PRODUCTIVE DAY LOOK LIKE?
There are so many answers to that question because a productive day could look like so many things. For me, productive days are when I’m doing a lot of things that I enjoy. Sure, it can get stressful, but I think it’s also fun and fulfilling. I also think that wasting time is not about doing nothing—it’s about being held back. I think it’s totally ok to do nothing. I do nothing a lot. But being restricted and not physically being able to do the things you want to do is the wasting time that I talk about in the song.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE WAYS TO WASTE TIME?
Family Guy. That’s a great way to waste time. YouTube too.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE LYRIC FROM “wasting time?”
It’s, “I’m not afraid of some high expectations. I can’t wait to start.”
WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF ABOUT THE SONG? HOW DO YOU HOPE PEOPLE REACT?
I just really hope people like it. I am a huge sucker for indie pop. It’s all I’ve been listening to for the past year. I’ve completely fallen in love with the genre. I think there are a lot of things that are different about this song. I recorded it alone in my bedroom and I did it in such a short amount of time. I used to spend months on a single, but the initial foundation of this song came so fast. I mixed it by myself too, which is something that I’d never done before. I think this is a real proper DIY project. There’s so much that’s new about this song and I’m both nervous and excited to see what people think.
YOU CAN LISTEN TO “wasting time” ON STREAMING SERVICES LIKE SPOTIFY AND APPLE MUSIC. LOOK OUT FOR a kid name rufus’s UPCOMING EP IN AUGUST AND MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW @twentyminuteslater TO STAY UPDATED ON FUTURE POSTS.
