more about rug island
Get ready to visit Rug Island, the third Bluey album is coming soon!
lean moreJoff Bush Introduces Rug Island
Get ready for the brand-new Bluey album, as composer Joff Bush discusses his inspiration for Rug Island, collaborating with King Stingray, his favourite track and more in this exclusive interview!
What was your inspiration for Rug Island?
Originally, it was going to be a ‘friendship’ album, but it sort of changed direction. We chose Rug Island because the idea of the episode is really about how we can, as adults, visit the kids’ world, but we can never really be part of it. The concept behind the album is that Rug Island is the place of children’s imagination. That may be a little bit abstract, but these are gentle voyages into this beautiful world of kids.
We used a lot of voices from the original Rug Island episode, like kids singing and stuff, and they were a little bit imperfect, but just so beautiful! We tried a bunch of different titles, but ended up going “Let’s keep it really simple and classy”. It hopefully just encapsulates that this is the kids’ world. This is their world.
How long did it take you to make the album?
The first album got done in a (really intense) month, but this album we started maybe a year ago, chipping away at it until the end, and enjoying the process a little bit more.
I work with some amazing composers who co-write with me, and producers and musicians, but there’s a sort of Bluey sound that is like my voice, my broken guitar and my old accordion from the ‘50s.
We also got to do all the things we wanted to do but couldn’t previously, as it was a small show when we started, like get a string section! I think we’ve really gone to town on it.
When you were making music for the episodes, did you think about whether they could appear on the album?
Yeah, I’ll write a whole bunch of extra music for the episode, and we’ll go “That’d be great, it’ll be cool to do that…” And Joe Brumm will be like “Save that for the album!” Something that might be 30 seconds in the episode becomes a three minute track!
And so, if kids want to play the game Octopus, they can play the track while they’re playing the game. We’re conscious of that, rather than giving everyone a bunch of 30 second tracks.
Octopus is the first single on the album, and a collaboration with the band King Stingray. How did the collab come about?
King Stingray are an iconic Australian band from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. They reached out and were like, “Hey, we love Bluey and were wondering if there’s ever an opportunity to collab” and I was like, “Well, we’re doing this album…”
They’re a hugely successful band, so for us to get them into the studio here was a real honour. When they were on tour we scheduled an afternoon together to see if we could record something. They’re amazing, and there’s something very Australian about them in a way that encompasses a very Australian sound, which I think Bluey does too. We said “Let’s jam it out and see if anything actually comes about and if it doesn’t, that’s okay.” And we managed to make the Octopus track out of it, it was really fun!
What’s your favourite track from the album?
I change it all the time! I think, at the moment, it’s Turtleboy, just because it’s so simple and sweet. I find myself really gravitating to the really simple, sweet tracks, which are not often the hits, but I really like them. That might change, but I think I’ve heard the other tracks way too many times!
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