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The Rubens’ U.S. Tour

Australian rock band The Rubens (Sam, Elliott, and Zaac Margin, and Scott Baldwin) have been in the U.S. this fall, touring in support of Grouplove, their label mates on Warner Bros. They’ve played a combination of rock and acoustic clubs, which their engineer, Clint Stagoll, says has opened up the band to playing the songs on their eponymous debut album in new ways.

Photo: Cybele Malinowski

Australian rock band The Rubens (Sam, Elliott, and Zaac Margin, and Scott Baldwin) have been in the U.S. this fall, touring in support of Grouplove, their label mates on Warner Bros. They’ve played a combination of rock and acoustic clubs, which their engineer, Clint Stagoll, says has opened up the band to playing the songs on their eponymous debut album in new ways.

“The rock venues have been exactly what you’d expect, but the acoustic venues have been interesting—a theater/dinner show-type feel with a lot of mono P.A.s,” Stagoll says. “I would say it’s been a huge success for the band, and we feel it’s definitely something we’d like to do again.”

In Australia, The Rubens travel with more of their own gear, including Stagoll’s preferred Avid Profile console, but on this tour, Stagoll carries backline and a mic package. “It’s the same mics I carry with me everywhere—mostly pretty standard fare except for my vocal mics. I use the Earthworks SR40V. It’s a hypercardioid condenser that doesn’t behave like most condenser mics, where the high end can get a little brittle. The SR40V remains quite flat—so much so that it reproduces the voice honestly, allowing for not only cutting of some frequencies, but [also] pushing some in. With Sam [Margin, lead singer], I tend to highpass up to 125 Hz, scoop out a bit of 400 Hz and push in some 8k for a bit of shimmer, and that’s it. It also impresses me that there’s not as much spill as you’d expect in a condenser, and what spill you do get sounds quite musical.”

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