Aussie band sets sights on headlining NZ show

Australian band The Rubens have headlining a show in New Zealand this year on their agenda.

Support band now, next time headliners, writes Paula Yeoman.

A support slot for Imagine Dragons is bringing Australian alt rockers The Rubens back to these shores in September. It'll be just enough to give Kiwi fans a taste of their new album, Hoops, and whet appetites for more to come, promises lead singer Sam Margin.

"This will be our third trip but we haven't done any headline shows there before, so we're trying to get to that point this year. These Imagine Dragons shows - you know, they're big shows and the ideal thing would be to win over a few fans from that then try and come back. We're trying to make it another thing for us. We've got Australia, and obviously America and UK/Europe are important but New Zealand is right there. It should be a place we can go and play a show. For us, it's just like flying to Queensland."

The band, made up of Margin, his two brothers Elliott and Zaac, and childhood friend Scott Baldwin, struck success in 2012 with the song My Gun. Their self-titled debut album followed and so did a load of accolades and critical acclaim touting them as Australia's "next big thing".

With that came a certain degree of pressure, says Margin, explaining that to deal with that, they retreated to a popular childhood haunt south of Sydney to nut out songs for their just-released second record.

"We rented an old falling-down weatherboard house on the beach. It was really cool. It was a bit of a cliche but it worked."

The band wrote 35 songs in the six months they were holed up on the coast, eventually whittling that to 11. "It was hard. You have to work out whether you want to be safe and deliver the same sound because you're hoping fans will take it in again, or whether you want to push yourself. I think we did a bit of both."

Margin describes Hoops as a mixed bag in which the band delivers epic rock numbers, but also pulls it back with the odd ballad, does a few hip-hop-flavoured numbers, like the title track, which is his current favourite.

He says it came down to thinking about how each of the songs would sound live and he's now raring to go, hinting that the band might have had a little too much down time in the last year.

"We drank a lot of beer, it was really unhealthy, I put on about 5kg, I reckon. I looked at photos after that period and thought, 'Wow, that record really took it out of me'," he laughs. "But I'm all good now. I just can't wait to get out on the road."

Hoops is out now. The Rubens are supporting Imagine Dragons at Vector Arena in Auckland on September 8.