What's in your bag, RÜFÜS DU SOIL?

What is in your bag? is a recurring feature in which we ask people to tell us a little more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and their hearts. This week we have an alternative dance group RÜFÜS DU SOL.

The Australian trio RÜFÜS DU SOL creates the kind of music that slowly takes you to heart. Composed of Tyrone Lindqvist, Jon George and James Hunt, the band's songs are built in layers, each element of another world and nostalgic infiltrating and guiding you, transforming the three of a group into temporary shamans.

Although the RÜFÜS DU SOL group has been in existence since 2010, this nickname has only been around for a year. Previously, they were simply known as RÜFÜS, but they had to change the name of the group in the United States because of an already existing American trademark – the funk band Chaka Khan claimed the Rufus title in America several times ago decades. As the trio stated in a Facebook post at the time: "The trademark is a serious bitch."

The change was necessary because the talent of their music to invoke intimacy had attracted them to an international audience. They now have several albums, EPs and nominations that see them on tour, ranging from Lollapalooza in Chicago to Colorado's famous Red Rocks Amphitheater. They will also be at Coachella and will begin a special short film to accompany their single "Underwater", screened in HP's 360-degree, 11,000-square-foot Antarctic Dome.

Stop by The edge In front of Coachella, RÜFÜS DU SOL emptied its suitcases by giving a glimpse of how to stay focused on its performance, and a life of planes, trains and cars undermines any sense of stability. For all, personal care is essential and a trait that presents itself to each member of the group in a way both expected and totally surprising.

It's Jon with the brown bag.

I have my MacBook Pro laptop, which I carry everywhere. We make changes to the DJ sets and we make fun of little things for our live show. And I have this Jackery power supply – it lasts so long and loads things like headphones many times.

Do you feel able to do most of your work on the road?

Yeah. We write everything on a laptop, and the possibilities are endless from there, whether we have a full studio with synths all connected, or just headphones, getting on the road and playing with different sounds. We use Ableton to work on our laptops.

Speaking of headphones, I see you have Bose.

Yes, QC35. They are so good. I just flew from Los Angeles and I have them all the time without music. And I also have this silk eye mask, which is essential.

You must get your beauty rest where you can!

It's a good combo – the Bluetooth headset, the silk eye mask and this aircraft humidifier. In flight, they do not reject all the oxygen you should get. They just recirculate the air and it dries wildly. So, it helps to keep the air moist with a filter. It's supposed to be very good for singers and for jet lag.

Did you notice a difference when you use it?

Oh yes. Especially on long-haul flights. If we go to sleep for eight hours, I just put that on it and I feel much better. You are not crispy.

Do you all have one of these things humidifier?

Tyrone: Yes, I did not bring mine!

Does any one look when you fly and do you think "Oh my god, my oxygen mask did not fall"?

Jon: Exactly! And that I look like a monster with everything. Very Darth Vader. Very scary.

There are more headphones here.

I actually wear two pairs of headphones. The Sennheiser HD 25 is used to mix and play with music, the other for leisure. Sennheisers are high-end DJ headsets, you would say. And they are good as audio engineering headphones all around. I went through several pairs of these. They are so good at the club and we are just used to how they represent bbad. I know exactly how this music will sound on different systems.

No headphones?

Yes, I also have Bose SoundSport headphones. And then there is in the ears. Oh my God, there are so many helmets. Jerry Harvey Audio has specially molded those ears in my ears.

James: They are for shows, but we always forget them.

And they dampen a lot – it's the amount of volume they reduce. I think we chose a pretty extreme version.

I also have another small tech bag inside my bag. It has a headphone splitter, a jack-jack cable and USB sticks for the DJ. This five-way splitter is especially useful when we mount tracks together on plans. Then my girlfriend packed me this other little bag before I left. There are a lot of little trinkets in it.

Okay, and we have sunglbades and a sweatshirt.

Yes, you need a nice, comfortable sweater.

Why did you change the name of the group from RÜFÜS to RÜFÜS DU SOIL?

Once we started touring internationally, we realized we had to change our name in America for a variety of reasons, some of them boring. Once we understood this, we added SOIL on, which means the sun – and different variations – in many languages. SOIL is like his own little planet.

Tell me about your bag.

James: Well, I've had some Burton bags for most of my life on tour, and they're great. It's a pity I do not have one with me now. I think during the last tour, I spilled shit in my bag and ended up having to dump that Burton bag. I may have caught this one from Ross on the way to the airport or something of the sort. Ross has the goods. Nice and simple. But Burton bags are the solution.

This backpack is really good for compartmentalizing things, which helps. It's a North Face Access Pack. I have it for two years now. The tour was quite difficult and it is still in very good condition.

Let's start with the hard drives.

These are Seagate and LaCie drives. Some are my personal hard drives and some are RÜFÜS backup hard drives. Our entire album is saved on these discs, as well as on all our sample packs that we have ambaded. While we were writing the album, we generated a lot of data only from sound effects. We would run the sounds found through all the plug-ins we acquired. All of these records take up a lot of space, so we had to continue unloading.

Do you make all your own samples?

We download samples on the Internet, but we record a lot in the studio. We basically built this small playground with a group of synthesizers that we wanted to have for a while. There are many badog synths with amazing sounds, as well as many different microphones. We recorded different sounds, like tearing a shrimp cracker, then slowing it down and subjecting it to a lot of delays. We would stay there for an hour to adjust the different settings of the plug-ins to create crazy effects. We might only use two seconds of that in a song, but it could be a really interesting time. We certainly did a lot more of that on this album – let things happen and see where that led us. So, the excesses of everything on these discs.

Jon: It took a lot of storage.

James: Yes, because we recorded at 96 kHz. Really high fidelity. Probably unnecessarily. I also think that all my files are stored on one of these hard drives since I was 15 years old. For some reason, I have accumulated all my computers.

Something special about your wallet?

It's a pbadport portfolio, which is essential. I recently lost a pbadport en route. It was the biggest nightmare of my life. So now, I keep the pbadport compartmentalized at all times.

Where did you lose it?

On a flight. I think it was after a show in Las Vegas, which makes a lot of sense. Never recovered.

Which phone do you use?

This phone is an iPhone 7 or 8. This is my spare phone.

Tyrone: Replacement phone?

James: Yes, I have a spare phone just in case! The Wi-Fi receiver stopped working, and then I decided to get a new phone. So, I also have an iPhone X. I have some dongles, USB drives, and then the AirPods – they are really good at picking up audio if we conduct interviews via FaceTime.

And your computer?

I have a 15-inch MacBook, which is good because I used Photoshop (poster design, graphics), so I like the larger screen.

I see the same headphones here.

I also have the Sennheiser HD 25 and Bose QC35. We have them all three. Bose headphones are very comfortable and noise suppression is the key. I sleep with them most nights, actually. They cancel all the ambient noise in my apartment or the sound of air conditioning and so on.

What is the Body High sticker?

It's a dance label. I like a lot his design and his music.

And these bottles?

It is a very relaxing essential oil. You rub a little on the palms of your hands and you take it. I find that very calming. Helps me to feel rooted. Black is a small travel-size cologne and Kiehl's Face Moisturizer keeps you soft.

I see crystals here! And it's a Burton bag.

Tyrone: Yes. All our big bags and little travel bags we travel with are Burton. It has been around for ages. I think I've had it for four years. I had other backpacks, but I came back to this one.

Tell me about the stones.

I keep the stones in a side pocket. There is a purple amethyst, a shell that my girlfriend found and a heart of stone. My girlfriend is a therapist and she gives heart to her patients. She works with the patients for eight weeks, then chooses a rock. For me, it's a fundamental problem if I'm stressed or touring. I usually take this on stage and play with it in my back pocket. During "Innerbloom", I usually take it because I have the opportunity to step back and understand everything. So it's very special.

What about amethyst?

I have been sober for several months. A close friend has been sober for a few years and she has given me purple amethyst as a sober stone.

What are Yogapaws?

These were a gift from my girlfriend too. They are designed for the feet and hands and allow to stick on any surface, such as a carpet or concrete. This way, you do not have to pack an entire carpet. I have been doing yoga for a little over a year. It is difficult to have a form of structural stability because we are so much on the road. By having this, it is easier to do yoga anywhere. I used them in green rooms before a show. I think it's really useful for singing and playing. When you go from city to city, yoga is the only thing that can center me a little.

And here are the headphones! What do you like about them?

When we were mixing the new album, we switched between the Sennheisers and the Bose, just like reference points when we were giving comments. I think the Bose have a serious bbad, so it's really there, but it's not as punchy as the Sennheisers. The Sennheisers have an amplification of the frequency range that is suitable for DJs. These are headphones that sound good, but it's more than we know them very well.

And if you use them all, you hear the same thing.

Exactly. Sometimes, if we are on tour and give feedback, we do not have the luxury of being in the same room, knowing this room and knowing the speakers. So, these are our points of reference.

Why are you using the newspaper?

This is a book of words. I scribble and write what I want. Here are the words of "Underwater".

And a real, physical book!

The book was another gift from my girlfriend! She gives good gifts. It's a very good read, but I have not finished it yet. Moving to Los Angeles was a bit strange to find my marks. You say goodbye to your family and friends, then it's like a washing machine. Music was definitely one of the only things that kept me a little upright. So this book has been really helpful. I can be tough with myself sometimes.

Do you have a change of clothes with you?

I always travel with two pairs of underwear because after a show or if we have a DJ set, I do not really know what will happen each day. And it's already happened to do a complete tour of my suitcase, that of my house when you're on the road for two or three months, with my rings, my hard drives and everything that has disappeared. I had a pair of underwear. My bag never came back. It is zero. There was a camera and two GoPros. Usually I also have a spare shirt. This is a royal blood shirt. Group of patients. It's probably my favorite rock band. They or foals.

The cologne is Sandalwood 33. We first felt this in New York by playing a show here. It's pretty delicious. My face dries when we fly, so I have this Aesop cream.

And your laptop?

My computer is the same as the guys. We do all our production there and editions. I have recently taken singing lessons and I have all recorded them. The coach is Ron Anderson. It's a legend. He worked with a lot of people. It's really cool to learn about my voice.

What's better?

I think I've developed bad habits on tour, that I'm sick and that I spend a lot of gigs. It's a bit like going back to school to learn your ABC. It's a slow process.

I'm trying to take better care of myself. I have two pairs of earplugs. I am really worried about my hearing. It's hard to hear a lot because they are so good. They block I think 30 to 50db. It's a lot. We use them when we play live in order to listen to what we want without hearing the piece, the audience and the sound. We have a little more control.

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Photograph of Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge