In early 2015, just two years after taking home the Best New Artist GRAMMY Award, Fun. formally announced plans for an indefinite hiatus. The band explained to fans that the time off was scheduled to give the three members a chance to focus on their own individual endeavors. Andrew Dost set off to try his hand at scoring films, Jack Antonoff had already began touring with his new project Bleachers, and Nate Ruess was anxious to get into the studio and work on his own material.
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This June, Ruess emerged with his debut solo album, Grand Romantic. Though he misses life on the road with his Fun. family, Ruess has been enjoying the opportunity to rediscover himself as an artist. “I’ve been in bands for over 15 years – probably more like 20,” he explains. “I got home from the last Fun. tour and was enjoying my alone time and wanted to extend it further.”
Just before headlining Starwood Preferred Music’s 2015 Concert Series in Miami, Ruess took some time to talk with GRAMMY.com to discuss his current fondness for writing slow songs, what he learned in the studio with Pink, and how taking a break from Fun. to go solo is like “marriage versus being single.”
Where did the title Grand Romantic come from?
I always start an album with a title — usually two words that I think sound really good together — and it’s amazing what that can inspire as far as content thereafter. So I had “Grand Romantic” and I looked back and I thought, “I want to try and do something positive, make love songs and stuff like that.” I realized that halfway through the writing process that sad songs were starting to creep in. And I think that’s what it means to be a grand romantic anyway. If you’re going to be willing to give up that much for love, you have to be willing to fall for it.
What makes your solo material different than what that you’ve been doing with Fun.?
It’s just a natural progression of my songwriting. I think that sometimes [the new material] does sound a little bit like Some Nights. It’s got the same producers and a lot of the same elements. I was just looking to continue my songwriting evolution and find inspiration for the music. And I found myself writing a lot more slow songs. I feel as though I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to enjoy more emotional and slower songs.
After working with him on Some Nights with Fun., you teamed up with producer Jeff Bhasker again on Grand Romantic. What made him the right choice for your solo material?
I think Jeff is just the most underrated aspect of Fun. He’s been a co-writer on any song that I’ve ever had major success on — whether it’s “We Are Young” or “Just Give Me A Reason.” And Jeff heard it before anybody else. It went straight from my head to Jeff. We just have a special relationship. We just finished an album and I want to get back into the studio with him. We have a really special thing going between the two of us.
What is different about writing and recording on your own versus working with Jack and Andrew?
It’s just the people involved really. You get used to having a certain family. It’s like marriage versus being single, there are great things about each. I’m still finding differences along the way.
With [Jack and Andrew], I’m lucky. They are extremely talented songwriters in their own right. Having their opinions with the songs is always welcome. The good thing about us is we never put ourselves in a corner in terms of what we are going to sound like stylistically. But at the same time, I made this as an opportunity for me to spend some alone time. I’ve been having a blast so far. No offense to anybody else. It’s not like, “Oh my parents are away. I can have the time of my life.” It’s just a totally different thing. Generally the songs from Fun. would come from me presenting them to the guys. So [with this album], it’s just working with different people with different ideas really.
Outside of Fun. and your solo work, you have collaborated with major artists on their projects. How did some of those opportunities with people like Pink and Brian Wilson come about?
They keep reaching out, which is nice because I wouldn’t call myself a hustler. It takes a long time for me to write music. But when someone like Pink or Brian Wilson or Eminem reaches out and is a fan of your work and your writing, you have no choice but to be like, “Oh s***. I have to learn how to write a song again.” It’s amazing and I’ve made a conscious effort of trying to work with people who I can really learn from. Even starting with Pink, I wasn’t so sure but then looking back at her body of work and how she’s done it — and she’s done it on her terms for the last 15 or so years — that really was inspiring to me.
What did you learn from working with artists like Pink and Brian Wilson?
They are unrelenting in their creative process and what they want to put out there. I’ve always been the same way. As an artist or as a songwriter, you have to go with what you know. You can’t base it on what you think people will like. When I wrote “We Are Young,” I wasn’t thinking, “This will be heard by everybody.” I thought, “Well our fans are going to hear it and they are going to like this song on the next album” and all those things happened afterwards. And even when me and Jeff and Pink sat in a room together to write a song, we weren’t thinking “We need a big hit song.” We just wrote a song.
