Meet Ruby And The Thorns | Teen Rock Band

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ruby And The Thorns and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ruby, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
We would have to say that our band, Ruby and the Thorns, has a very strong community following. We engage with our supporters regularly and make them feel like they are part of the ride we are on. We have had so many young people say that they want to be in a band and that we are their inspiration and that feels pretty awesome. We hope to be a positive inspiration to young people. To show them that it’s still fun to get in to a studio or a garage and jam on instruments with friends. That there’s more to life than just sitting in front of a screen.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
So we are a teen rock band based in the South Bay of Los Angeles. We range in age from 12-14 years old and we’ve been together for nearly 3 years now. We’ve played at festivals such as the Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair, the Santa Barbara Fair and Expo, The Goleta Festival, Fiesta Hermosa and Springfest Redondo Beach, to name a few. Most notably though we were invited to perform with Kids Rock for Kids at The Bitter End in NYC in December 2024 and that was just a super cool experience. It was amazing to play alongside a bunch of East Coast Kid and Teen bands. They definitely had a different vibe to us – more grungy. A lot of comments were made that we looked like California kids (probably the blonde hair and the way we dressed). In terms of our music, we play a mix of original tunes and also covers like Celebrity Skin by Hole, Psycho Killer by Talking Heads, Where is my Mind by The Pixies, Jolene by Dolly Parton and Mony Mony by Billy Idol – so quite a mix of music. We are super excited to be recording our originals this summer. In terms of what we are proud of, it’s probably just that we’re pretty young and following a different path to a lot of the kids in our age range. It takes a lot of dedication and because we’re still young, our peers don’t really get it yet. They’re not out there going to watch bands just yet – that will probably start when they are 16 or so. So we are proud to be doing something different to the norm (Baseball, Basketball, Swimming etc). We’ve had some ups and downs as a band – we’ve lost two members along the way and though it was hard at the time, it turns out to be for the best for everyone and I guess one has to always remember that in life. Everything happens for a reason. That’s been a big lesson to learn. We’ve all gained a lot more personal confidence because of our social media presence and then just having to get up on stage and entertain people. Our parents often comment on that because they can see the difference – I guess that will help us in life as we grow. In terms of what we want the world to know about us – well we’re just 5 teens from SoCal trying to keep it real and be a band and make music. There’s a big debate about whether we should carry on as a band because most of what you listen to now is solo artists singing to computer generated tracks but we think there will be a revival of bands, especially with AI. Robots will not be able to replace us as performers and people will seek out authentic experiences and so we are going to stick with playing music together and hopefully something comes of it.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Ok well Universal Studios definitely has to be up there. We love that place. Disneyland and California Adventure too. Adventure Lagoon is pretty fun and is a lot more affordable. We love going up to Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead, both in the Summer and the Winter. You can often find us either tanning (Ruby) or surfing (the boys) in Torrance or Redondo Beach. Or hanging out in the Riviera Village eating at L&L Hawaiian BBQ (that’s a good spot). We went to Hollywood to play a show recently and it was really fun to be on the Walk of Fame at night with all the street performers and there was just a vibe there. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and that was pretty cool. We also love all the Korean and Japanese restaurants that are opening up in the South Bay – Cream Pan in Lomita, Unico Pasta in Redondo Beach.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Well we have a few people to shoutout and hopefully that’s ok. Firstly, to our OG Band Coach, Perk – he’s such a great down to earth guy and we feel so lucky to have had him shape our beginnings as a band. Second to our Band Director, Blake Baldwin, who is currently working with us to fine-tune everything about us being performers. We also definitely need to thank an awesome non-profit that does so much for young musicians in the South Bay of LA – and that is South Bay Music Connection (Kimberly and Melanie). Thanks for giving us all our first shows and believing in us! And then lastly, to our Momager, Tam who really is the driving force behind the band and does so much for us.

Website: https://www.rubyandthethorns.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rubyandthethorns

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RubyandtheThorns

Other: TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@rubyandthethorns