We recently connected with Ruby Dice and have shared our conversation below.

Ruby , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I’ve been lucky enough to build a full time career off of my music. Starting out I was just a bass player touring around with any band that would take me. After a few years I started making the transition into booking my own project. I played over 300 shows a year between the 3-8 bands I was in at a time. Not counting pickup shows locally in Austin. My typical weekend off the road usually started with an early brunch gig somewhere downtown and ended at clubs like the White horse and Continental Club. By the end of the day I could fit in three bands and three completely different styles. It was the best way to learn as much as possible. But in retrospect not a career that could have longevity to it for a lot of reasons.
During the pandemic I decided to pull back from most of my bass gigs and really focus on writing.
The feeling of excitement playing live was losing my interest pretty quickly. I became obsessed with learning the art of songwriting. At first is felt rocky and new. I’d write something and immediately throw it in the lyric scrap yard. Trying to never take those, “failures” to heart because 9 times out of 10 I’d write a song I fell in love with. I started writing everyday. I was listening to any podcast I could get my hands on about song structure, meanings behind lyrics, literally anything having to do with songwriting I was listening. During the week I’d play little shows around town. Mostly duo song swaps with my partner Calloway Ritch. It was a great way to take the songs I had written that week and try them out in front of audiences that weren’t really interested in music. If I could get a reaction out of a crowd when I was just meant to be background music I knew it was a keeper. And it worked! I really did help me weed out the dead weight from my songwriting. The more I did this the more I realized that the best songs are a conversation. Less personal. Make the music about the listeners! What an Aha! moment, and one I continue the explore.

One of the biggest hurdles of being an independent artist is money to be honest. It’s not always the best paying career choice lol.
The biggest jumps in my career have come from the help of local club owners like Marshall and Dennis from the Sagebrush. Those relationships with clubs have been pretty priceless to me in a lot of ways.
Another thing that’s been a huge help is social media. Throwing out consistent interesting content and taking the time to build an audience has been huge. It’s the fans and friends that make all of this possible! I’ve gotten some of my best material writing about the stories I see from the stage.

Ruby , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

There really was never a point in my life where I didn’t play music. I grew up playing in my family band. We’d sit around and play musical chairs but with instruments. Play a song and swap. See what sounded good on ya. After highschool I ran a local dessert shop for a few years. I figured out pretty quickly that I was not a fan of being in charge of people. Especially people twice my age. I ran the shop until it was moved into a bigger location and decided I needed some life experience outside of the tiny isolated town that is Gunnison, CO.
I moved to Austin with a band and things took off from there. After a while I was playing bass in 3-10 bands at a time. I had some incredible experiences while getting to travel around with bands. I got to share stages with legends that literally changed the direction of music. I got to talk to people from all over and learn from their stories.
But this journey hasn’t been all goodtimes. Sometimes you’d put years of your life into a band only to watch it dissolve for a number of reasons. I still have boxes of CD’s from bands that will never play again lol. It’s a hard industry to make it in.
I learned the best thing I could do after time was to just invest in myself. After a conversation with one of my favorite bass players I knew I didn’t want to back up other artists purely because it didn’t make sense financially.
This man had played all the big stages with all the big acts, but because there was no royalties coming in he didn’t think he’d ever be able to retire. The thought of HAVING to tour in my 90’s was just not an option.

So I’ve became obsessed with writing songs. Learning about what makes a song good. I started writing with everyone.
I like to shed the new tunes live to see the reactions of non biased audiences. It’s been fascinating seeing what people react to. What beats are contagious. Make a sad song sound happy and push for everyone to leave with good vibes. Music is healing. A good song can take over a whole room and suddenly people that have never met are singing together.
Once I made songs less personal and more conversational I saw the reactions change. That to me was pretty special.
I figured out I could make someone’s day just by singing about a hard time in a positive way. It almost feels like those songs belong to the listener more than myself when that happens. That’s kind of the best feeling, and what writing songs is all about.
Songs give us courage, confidence, and community. Why wouldn’t they be letters to the human experience.

My music is hard to nail down into one genre. It’s a little rock, country, and disco all combined into what I like to call the Denim Disco. I like to make people move. I’m a bass player so the groove has to be a little funky. I just like to have fun and write things I think people can relate to.

I’m so excited about my upcoming full length album. My crowd and I just successfully raised over $22K so Gordy Quist from Band of Heathens can produce my first record!
These are songs that I’ve crafted over a number of years. Taking new versions out to see a live reaction. I’m really excited to show the world what I’ve been working on! I’ve had quite the team of talented musicians and fans helping me out along the way. It’s an album created by the people of Austin, TX.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

There are so many resources for artists in Austin. I’ve just scratched the surface of the incredibly kind and community driven organizations here. My best advice to my past self would be, to be as involved as possible with the local scene. We’re a force of positivity here in Austin and our music community is so fast to help.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I’d like to get a publishing deal at some point. It would be incredible to write as a main source of income. While playing gigs all the time is fun… we’re going for quality over quantity. (I think that’s what you call manifesting) (Cough, cough) BMI,(Cough, cough) Hire me. ;)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rubydice.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rubydice/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rubydicemusic
• Linkedin: linktr.ee/RubyDice
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/RubyDiceMusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvnVla9ggs5jCkkEEUOp70g

Image Credits
Image Credits Christopher De La Rosa Amberly Russell Catherine Davis