{"id":497823,"date":"2026-06-13T13:20:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T13:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/497823\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T13:20:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T13:20:23","slug":"ruels-kicking-my-feet-screaming-album-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/497823\/","title":{"rendered":"RUEL’s ‘Kicking My Feet & Screaming’ Album Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tRUEL<\/a> rose to prominence as a teenager and achieved early success with breakout hits such as \u201cDazed and Confused,\u201d off of his debut EP Ready, and \u201cPainkiller,\u201d off his second EP Free Time. With continued success across the Australian charts, he\u2019s since cemented himself as a rising global pop<\/a> artist.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tExplore\t\t<\/p>\n

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See latest videos, charts and news<\/p>\n

\n\tHis 2025 album Kicking My Feet, peaked at No. 36<\/a> on the Album Sales Chart \u2014 and was just the beginning of what he called part one of a two-part project. Today (June 12), that second half has arrived with Kicking My Feet & Screaming.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt its core, Kicking My Feet & Screaming is about embracing every aspect of a relationship \u2014 not just the joyful moments. While Kicking My Feet captures the excitement of being infatuated and, as RUEL describes it, \u201cleaning into the cringe,\u201d Kicking My Feet & Screaming takes on a more restless and emotionally charged tone. The album explores the full spectrum of love, from the giddy, obsessive highs to the overwhelming and complicated emotions that come with deeper vulnerability. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn between wrapping up his Kicking My Feet Tour and celebrating the release of\u00a0Kicking My Feet & Screaming, RUEL sat down with\u00a0Billboard<\/a>\u00a0to talk about the new album and what he\u2019s most excited for as he steps into this next era.<\/p>\n

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\n\tYou\u2019ve described this album as Kicking My Feet part two. Do you see it as a companion piece or the second half of the same story?<\/p>\n

\n\tI think of it as a sequel. That\u2019s the best way to put it because I wouldn\u2019t say there\u2019s a super clear narrative that goes between them. I think they work together sonically and musically.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYou released two connected albums within eight months. When did you realize the story wasn\u2019t finished and you needed a sequel album after Kicking My Feet?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI was writing both of them at the same time. When you listen to them back-to-back, it feels like you\u2019re in the same world, but I think I really like how Kicking My Feet, which came out in October, is focusing on the happy stages of love and talking about love in a positive way and leaning into the cringe. The idea of kicking your feet is exactly that. Then when you add \u201cand screaming,\u201d it completely changes the meaning.<\/p>\n

\n\tWas there a moment where you thought, \u201cThis particular song belongs on a second album instead of the first album\u201d?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI was writing so many songs and when I was starting to make the tracklist, even though I was kind of halfway through writing, I realized that there were two\u00a0worlds that were building up. I also love 10 song albums and there was no chance I could have picked ten songs out of everything I wrote. So I was like, let\u2019s just do two 10 song albums.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you recall the moment you realized you were going to do two albums? <\/p>\n

\n\tI think that the first trigger was realizing how many songs I wanted to put out.\u00a0After the fact is where I saw the difference; 10 of these songs are about love, and then 10 are not.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMaria Alvarez<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s the biggest difference between Kicking My Feet versus Kicking My Feet & Screaming?<\/p>\n

\n\tKicking My Feet & Screaming feels a little bit more agitated, a bit more passionate. There\u2019s some frustration, realism, and a little bit more nuance in relationships, whether it\u2019s romantic or friendships. It\u2019s every part of my life\u00a0and I think that\u2019s where both records sit. It feels like the same world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did you come up with the second album name?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt came pretty immediately. Kicking My Feet came first after the song. The & Screaming add to this new album\u2019s title was an immediate realization because Kicking & Screaming is a great film and I thought adding the & Screaming would tie the second album into the first one.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was the process like for writing this album?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt brought out different sides of me that had been hard to get out and I think that\u2019s where Kicking My Feet & Screaming stemmed from, being so open in these rooms where different people would draw out different sides of me. The main difference was that I was the only common denominator in every song, which added a bit more responsibility because I was the one making it feel cohesive. I had to take a lot more control and I had to think of where the songs were heading after they were written as a whole.<\/p>\n

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\n\tIf you could choose one song off your new album that you\u2019re most excited for your fans to hear, what song would it be and why?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCan I Have It Back?\u201d That\u2019s going to be my prediction as the fan favorite. I usually don\u2019t get the predictions right, but it\u2019s been one of my favorites for a while and I think it\u2019ll translate well live and is easy to understand.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was your favorite song to write and what was the hardest song to write?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCan I say \u201cCan I Have It Back?\u201d again? It came the quickest and was a direct thought child from a dream, and then the next morning I wrote it very, very quickly in my living room. It didn\u2019t change much from how it started so that was really satisfying. \u201cSince The Day You Let Me\u201d is one that took a bit to write because it took a while to get the rise of the bridge. We wrote five different version of the bridge, and I ended up just using the vocal sketch tape from the first session in the final version.<\/p>\n

\n\tAre there any others that s changed from the initial concept?<\/p>\n

\n\tA lot of them, honestly, had a massive switch up. The last track \u201cWhat It Sounds Like\u201d had layers of drums. It was a massive thing that we ended up stripping back down to just keys to keep it simple. \u00a0\u201cIn Your Mind\u201d was a track from 2021 that I ended up revisiting five years later, so that was bound to go through many changes as well.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you have a favorite lyric off this album that is the most meaningful to you or you hope resonates with your fans?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI really love the bridge of \u201cFaking Smiles.\u201d It\u2019s really dumb, but it makes me laugh every time. The lyric goes, \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure I\u2019m the best on earth. I probably deserve some kind of award.\u201d I really like singing that lyric in the context of the song.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou announced a Kicking My Feet & Screaming UK\/EU tour. Do you have any plans for U.S. dates?<\/p>\n

\n\tI just came off a big U.S. tour for Kicking My Feet. I don\u2019t know\u2026. maybe I will, maybe I won\u2019t\u2026 I definitely want to tour the rest of the world and will hopefully have plans to by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you have any favorite cities that you would love to go back to on tour?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe craziest crowds are quite unexpected. Salt Lake City was craziest out of the U.S. \u00a0Florida goes hard and is pretty rancid, in the best way possible. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAre there any festivals you would love to perform at?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI have a massive bucket list. Coachella would be amazing. Lollapalooza in Chicago is one of my favorite festivals in the U.S. There\u2019s a festival in Australia called Laneway too.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you have any dream collaborations for future songs?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m a massive fan of Mark Ronson\u2019<\/a>s stuff and James Blake<\/a> \u2014 versatile producers as well as artists where there\u2019s magic. Those two have been my favorites for a while.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf someone listens to Kicking My Feet and Kicking My Feet & Screaming back-to-back, is there a message you hope fans take away?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s hard to give one message because both albums can contradict each other\u2019s message. Kicking My Feet broke down a barrier where I don\u2019t have to seem cool or deep or layered or dark. With Kicking My Feet & Screaming, it was the exact opposite, and I think this record falls into the whining about things going on and where I tend to sit when writing. I\u2019m never going to box myself in, and with both albums it\u2019s the whole picture.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RUEL rose to prominence as a teenager and achieved early success with breakout hits such as \u201cDazed and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278,633,1206,641],"class_list":["post-497823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-music-news","tag-new-releases","tag-pop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}