Scott Ruth – “Are You There” (audio) (premiere)

Rolling in with a moody synth and the melodic clanging of keys, Scott Ruth’s “Are You There” evokes a hearty roots rock vibe right from its opening moments. Lyrically, the song contains undertones of a melancholy yearning and sadness for a love that once shone bright, culminating with a soaring bridge where Ruth repeatedly pleads with the subject of his song, “Are you still there?”

It’s a driving piano rock track reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen, and it was produced by one of Americana’s current greats to boot.

“Noah Gundersen is such an amazingly talented musician and songwriter, so getting the chance to work with him on this track was a no-brainer,” says Ruth. “We’ve been friends for a little while now, and I’ve always thought how great it’d be to get us together in the same room for something, someday.”

He continues:

“This felt like the right time to bring him in as a producer, and I’m so glad I did. ‘Are You There’ is a pretty old song that I’ve been sitting on for a while and Noah was able to help me look at it from a different perspective and make it new again. It’s nice when someone can pull that out of you. After writing, re-writing and demoing a song so many times, it’s easy to lose touch with the original idea or emotion of the song. This was also my first time not self-producing a project, and he made it such a comfortable, collaborative working environment, it was very easy for me to relinquish control over to him and our engineer, Andy Parks. It’s nice just to sit back and play the parts and be creative and let them worry about making everything sound good.”

“The song is about that feeling you get when someone who was once a huge part of your life, suddenly isn’t there anymore and all the things that go through your head. Wondering what they’re doing, if they’re feeling what you’re feeling. That kind of thing. I’ve been on a huge Tom Petty and Springsteen kick lately, so I think that had some impact on the song. Not exactly saying that’s where I’m going with all the new material, but you’ll be able to hear those influences sprinkled in here and there. I’m very excited to get the rest of these songs out.”