Sean Fay: Hello, hello, you’re listening to 89.1 FM, that’s WNYU, and we’re online all the time at WNYU.org. I am Sean Fay, here with Michael Ruth of Rich Ruth. How would you like to introduce yourself?

Michael Ruth: I guess I’m kind of a multi-instrumentalist, composer, I make jazz-adjacent music with a lot of other elements involved.

S. F.: Awesome, and who are you on stage alongside today?

M. R.: My band of guys, mostly from Nashville, but it’s my project called Rich Ruth.

S. F.: Awesome, and before you get on stage, do you have any ways to get in the right mindset, or meditate, or any way to prepare to just go for it?

M. R.: Honestly, not really. It’s kind of a just, like, go for it situation, but the music we play, we’re very patient, and we take our time kind of, I guess, kind of laying a peaceful foundation for where we start. So I think there’s a lot of drones and kind of meditative elements with how we begin most of the sets we play, and so I think that kind of takes the place of any, like, pre-show centering, I suppose.

S. F.: Okay, yeah, that counts. And how does Newport compare to some of the other tour destinations you’ve been to in the past?

M. R.: It’s beautiful. I love it. I mean, I’ve been here before to the Folk Festival, and yeah, it’s, I mean, you can’t really, there’s nothing really negative to say about it.
It’s idyllic, it’s a great audience, it’s an amazing space to get to just enjoy playing in and attending the festival in, so yeah.

S. F.: And do you have any other locations on your bucket list that you would still love to perform at?

M. R.: Oh, man. That’s a great question. I mean, I’d like to perform in Asia more.
That’s been a consistent one. It seems like everyone I’ve talked to has been really excited to perform out in Asia. It’s a tricky one.
I’ve played one show in Japan last year, but I’ve never done, like, a tour over there, and yeah, if there ever becomes a feasible way to do that, that would be high on my list.

S. F.: And how or where did you begin performing?

M. R.: I’m from a small town in northern Ohio, and I grew up playing in just, like, loud bands when I was in high school, and then eventually made my way to Nashville, and that’s kind of where I’ve learned the most and done the most of that.

S. F.: Loud bands of what type? Are we talking punk, rock, heavy metal?

M. R.: Like, yeah, somewhere in the, like, just, like, rock garage band punk world, yeah.

S. F.: Yeah, that’s kind of, that’s the scene that WNYU is sort of built on. I’m one of the only jazz shows we do, I’m the only jazz show we do, so I try to bring a different sound, but I focus on fusion, and I try to get a good mesh of elements, and I feel like you’re a good example of a fusion artist.

M. R.: Yeah, I mean, my background is way more in, like, psychedelic music and indie rock and things like that, and so playing in, like, louder, maybe heavier bands, and so, yeah, so, but there are a lot of jazz elements to what I do, so I guess that’s, you know, what lets me fit in in a place like this, but yeah, but my background is way more that than jazz.

S. F.: And where did you find mentorship? Was it in that scene, or sort of outside?

M. R.: I would say, more than anything, it’s been through being on tour, for getting to open for bands that are a lot more successful than I am, and getting to kind of build relationships with kind of folks that are a generation above me, and kind of see how they carry themselves and what they do, and get to know them, and yeah, and kind of a lot of different types of music and acts that I feel like I’ve been in many times, many situations, but my vision’s been kind of taken under the wing of a lot of great people that have, you know, showed me a vision of how this can manifest itself.

S. F.: Cool. Then the next set of questions I have are about soundscapes, which is sort of a word I invented, but it refers to the general ambient surroundings you find yourself in. What sort of, how would you describe the soundscape you grew up in, and how has it evolved over time, how has it changed, and what sort of soundscapes do you find yourself attracted towards?

M. R.: Yeah, that’s a great question. You know, I grew up in a place that was very rural, and I think, I haven’t lived there in a long time, but when I look back on it, and when I go back home and visit, it’s extremely flat, and there’s large horizons, and a lot of, a lot of just kind of vast agricultural space, and I think that that has in some way crept into my subconscious in terms of writing and composing. Music that’s, you know, related to ambient music or to kind of spacey or ethereal things, and so I think, I think drones and longer tones are maybe some manifestation of that sound, visual soundscape, I guess, that I come from, but if that makes sense, I don’t know.

S. F.: It definitely comes across. No, I get that idea of, like, at least when I heard you perform, it sounded like you were shouting to a horizon you can’t even see, like you’re in the middle of the place.

M. R.: That’s a great way to put it.

S. F.: Yeah. And then, what’s your favorite non-musical soundscape? If you have to put yourself in a place, it can be electronic as well, but it may be a factory or in the middle of the woods.

M. R.: Yeah, I mean, you know, last summer, we had this, this like very rare kind of convergence of these cicada, like super blooms, I don’t know what you call them, but essentially, there was like, you know, this, these certain cicadas hatch every X amount of years and there was a 13 year brood, that’s what they’re called. It’s a 13 year brood and a 17 year brood. And they, they happened at the same time last summer in middle Tennessee, especially.
There was other zones in the southeast where it happened, but I’ve never experienced anything like it in terms of a natural soundscape. And it was to the point where I’d be recording acoustic instruments in my small home studio shed, that’s pretty well sound treated. And you could hear the cicadas from outside with the doors closed with a close mic.
They were still bleeding into the recording. I think the decibel level was like 80 or 90 dB. And, you know, was like comparable to like a rock show.
And so the way that these cicadas, like for about a month in Tennessee, just kind of, it was like this three dimensional sound that you, in the afternoon, I mean, it was like, it was oscillating and breathing and it was like almost like when you’re near like the Atlantic Ocean or something and you can just constantly hear the waves. It was, it felt like that, but something completely different. So that’s a recent example of something, a soundscape thing that has like made me think a lot and kind of blew my mind when it happened.

S. F.: Yeah, I feel like I had heard that that was happening, but I’m up in the northeast. And it’s, it’s super regional the way they, they hatch and that, and there was just cicadas like everywhere.

S. F.: Cool. And then next I have, this could be a difficult question. I get a lot of different answers.
You can just list adjectives if that’s what you got to do. If you had to name your own subgenre, what would it be?

M. R.: Man, I would say like, like psychedelic ambient jazz with a lot of minimalism and touches of drone metal.

S. F.: Hell yeah. And then I’m going to shift gears again. Do you have a preferred service for sharing your music? Is it Bandcamp? I know there’s a lot of stuff going on with Spotify right now. People are, there’s a mass exodus.

M. R.: Yeah.

S. F.: Do you have a preferred way you like for your audience to interact with your art?

M. R.: Honestly, I just want people to hear it and have it find them. So however that happens, that’s cool with me. Spotify sucks, but yeah, whatever, man.
CDs, vinyl, Bandcamp, it’s all great. Just any, any way you find music, I’m there. Awesome.

S. F.: And then I noticed on stage you had, was it two different synths up there? What’s that setup? How has that setup changed over time and how do you choose what you’re going to bring with you?

M. R.: A lot of it has to do with kind of like the economics of traveling with the synthesizers. You know, I fly to places. I have toured in Europe a lot.
I’ve, I tour in vans primarily. So it’s like space is usually an issue or you’re paying for checked bags. So you can’t just show up with as many full size keyboards as you want.
So I’ve kind of pared it down to two pretty powerful, compact synthesizers that I use and have really just kind of found my own little language with each of them and they can kind of pack into like a carry on almost. So yeah.

S. F.: Cool. And then I feel like, especially with synthesized electronic music, there’s this big wave of AI that’s coming in and there’s a lot of different reactions towards it. I don’t know if you have any prescient future predictions of where you think it might go and your own opinions of how you like to use AI or not at all.

M. R.: Yeah, in general, I’d say I’m pretty anti AI in every form. I think it’s getting increasingly scarier. And it’s only going to get scarier.
You know, I’ve talked to I have a good friend who’s like an amazing astrophotographer, very in tune with tech stuff. And, you know, his quote is that like, at every moment, it’s the worst it’s ever been, because it just keeps getting better. And, you know, even just recently, with the passing of, you know, the, you know, the the first year of Ozzy Osbourne, I saw people I know people that are my age, sharing these AI videos, thinking it was like Ozzy talking and it kind of freaked me out a little bit in the sense that like, you know, it’s one thing when like our parents generation is like seeing that stuff on Facebook and sharing it. In the musical realm, I don’t, I don’t know what’s coming. And I think it’s potentially terrifying.
But I also don’t think it can do what we’re doing here. You know, maybe it can rehash a recreation of these prompts and elements to make music that people will exploit streaming services and things like that. But I think, you know, inevitably, I think the foundation the music world is built on right now is not very sustainable in that regard.
So if it pushes us further away from this kind of, you know, disposable music world we’re living in where art’s not very valued, I think maybe it could push us in a better direction where more human elements are celebrated. I hope. I guess that’s my hope.
Yeah, I have no intention or care to interact with AI really at all in my life. At this point, it’s hard enough to do this stuff, so yeah, no, I try to avoid it.

S. F.: I think that’s the right answer. I feel like it’s it’s terrifying. And the only I’ve only heard one good answer as to why AI might be good in music, and it’s to prevent copyright claims by using AI to make everything imaginable already, which yeah, it’s possibly yeah, yeah, I know.

M. R.: I know. It’s hard not to think of, you know, the like Blade Runner realm of it all, but yeah, but I think, you know, I think like what what I’m doing with my band and what so many people are doing at festivals like this, it’s like we’re creating something that is a conversation in real time that I think is important and is becoming increasingly more, I don’t know, present and emotional. And I think it’s partially a reaction to the changing, rapidly changing landscape we’re in with technology.
So yeah, I feel like optimism, I guess, is that it’s not going to do what I just did on stage.

S. F.: No, I feel like I feel like all these events are grounding. They reassure me that there’s still hope in real music.

M. R.: People need this. People need to get together and celebrate the hard work and creative visions that I mean, like the amount of singular talent literally just within a mile of us right now is crazy, you know, so like what how could a yeah, how could artificial intelligence create John Scofield, you know, exactly, or Ron Carter? It could never do that.

S. F.: And the more I think about it, the more it freaks me out. So I’m going to change gears again. We’re going to move to some more offbeat, some kind of fun questions.
What’s a movie you can always rewatch?

M. R.: Apocalypse Now, the Redux version. Yeah. And Spinal Tap and some kind of monster, the Metallica documentary. Those are like my top three movies that I can watch over and over and over again.

S. F.: Awesome. And we’re WNYU, so we’re out of New York and there’s a bodega on every corner. If you find yourself in New York, what’s your bodega order?

M. R.: Oh, dude, just whatever, like the Italian sandwiches, like a hot Italian situation. I’m like a huge, I love deli sandwiches, like truly in my core. It’s my favorite thing about touring in the Northeast, because in Nashville we have tons of good food, great southern food, great, you know, great versions of most things, but we don’t have proper delis or bodegas.
And so the availability of affordable, delicious sandwiches is something I take pretty seriously when I’m up this way.

S. F.: Yeah. And hot peppers or banana peppers on that sub?

M. R.: Both and. Why not? You know, the hotter, the more pickled, the better.

S. F.: And then what’s your favorite physical medium for music? Is it CDs, DAT tapes?
I’ve heard 8-track tapes…

M. R.: Man, honestly, it’s CDs now. I was a big record guy for a long, long time, worked at a record store, kind of built a collection that like I couldn’t make any bigger. It just like doesn’t fit my house anymore.
So now that I have cars with CD players, I just buy used CDs a lot, buy CDs at the merch table. And I love listening to CDs. Awesome.

S. F.: They sound the best. I don’t know. I’m more of a vinyl fan personally, but my dad’s got a massive CD collection. And then do you have any advice for young musicians?

M. R.: Just stay true to what you love. Don’t try to imitate other stuff and find your voice and take time and energy finding what your creative voice is and what that means to you and prioritize that over trying to sound like something else.

S. F.: When did you feel like you found your voice?

M. R.: Brother, I’m still finding it every day. But I don’t know. In the past couple of years, I think I’ve honed in on some of the elements that are becoming some of my, I guess, kind of trademarks that other people contact me for or that.

S. F.: Yeah. Was it the people that helped you get there or was it the practice?

M. R.: It was the people and less of practice, I’d say, and more of the kind of like a daily practice of just kind of trying to be creative regularly, not so much practicing my instrument in like a traditional sense of, you know, learning tunes and scales and stuff, more just like sitting down with my own gear and technology and just looping it back and recording everything I do and just building from there. But then also touring and performing with other people and being inspired by friends that are amazing musicians.

S. F.: And then the show I host is called Jazz Died and we’re at the Newport Jazz Festival. I know you might not fall neatly into the jazz box, but I got to ask some jazz questions. Is jazz dead or how will jazz live on?

M. R.: I do not think jazz is dead. I think jazz evolves constantly and I think it ebbs and flows, that there’s peaks and canyons and stuff. But I think the last five to 10 years, it’s felt pretty alive and healthy to me.
And I think the definition of it all is changing. And I think there’s room. What I see is a lot of people melding it with different elements and I feel like what I’m doing is more I’m melding like jazz is one of the elements I’m melding into whatever I do.
But like I think a lot of great jazz musicians that are very trained and have gone to music school and stuff, I think are bringing amazing outside elements and I mean, I think that’s just part of the world we live in is you have so much exposure to every type of sound where before you had to really work hard to find it. So I think younger generations are going to grow up with the same access to Apex Twin and like Morbid Angel as they have to John Coltrane. So I think we’re just going to keep seeing it morph, you know, and its relationship with hip hop and psychedelic music and ambient music and all these things.
I think it’s just the conversations never ending. And jazz is a pretty abstract thing to me, but I think there’s I think there’s infinite room for it to grow. And I think I think as a foundation, it’s it’s one of the most exciting, consistently exciting things.
And I think every era, whether someone would say some scholar or whatever would say that it was dead, I could probably find 10 amazing records from any year that you could call jazz that, you know, from 1998 or 1984 or whatever, like it’s all good. And there’s tons of amazing stuff and amazing labels. I mean, it’s like ECM is still putting out records like like, yeah.
How can jazz be dead if they’re still operating?

S. F.: And my thesis is it’ll keep going as long as we keep jamming.

M. R.: I agree, man.

S. F.: And with that, anything you’d like to promote to close up?

M. R.: Uh, I don’t know. Check out my music, check out my records. I’m going to keep touring and doing this as much as I can.
So just, you know, I think we’re doing our best to offer an immersive, interesting musical experience and come come check it out.

S. F.: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for your time. If you want to listen to music that sounds like you’re screaming your heart out over the planes, check out Rich Root. Thank you so much.

This was recorded live at the 2025 Newport Jazz Festival on Saturday, August 2nd. Broadcast on 89.1 FM on Thursday, August 14th for ‘jazz died??’.

K3FAY