Tiny Ruins

Overview

The last time I saw Tiny Ruins (real name: Hollie Fullbrook) play in Wellington I had her melodies and words running through my head for days afterwards. Channeling my lyrics-obsessed teenaged self, I looked up Tiny Ruins' website to try to fill in some of the missing words of the songs stuck in my head, which directed me to email Hollie to ask.

Tiny Ruins' songs are intimately connected to Hollie's lived experience and her lyrics hold a very real meaning for her and for her listeners. In an interview with stuff.co.nz last year she observed, "Every line has to ring true, and trigger something in me every time I sing them night after night. They can't just be words I learnt."

Emailing Tiny Ruins to ask for the words to her songs felt like asking for a scanned copy of her journal. Hollie responded a few days later with a PDF attachment that didn't remove the Tiny Ruins earworms songs from my head, but at least meant I knew the words. And what beautiful words they are.

Before releasing a third album, Hollie, with bassist Cass Basil, drummer Alexander Freer, and guitarist Thomas Healy, will embark on a winter tour of small venues across Aotearoa to play some of this new material along with old favourites from their previous albums.