Naarm-based singer-songwriter Ruby Gill (she/they) is leaning all the way into their truth with Some Kind of Control, her second album dropping March 28. Alongside the announcement, Gill unleashed her most audacious single yet, ‘Touch Me There’—a defiant, sensual anthem with an accompanying video that was shot in Naarm’s iconic queer community space Pony Club Gym.
Described as “cheekier, looser, gayer, and even more raw,” the album showcases Gill’s evolution, tackling topics of bodily autonomy, queer identity, and political self-awareness with a wit and fearlessness that could only come after years of emotional excavation. The journey to Some Kind of Control has been marked by co-headline tours through Aotearoa with Mimi Gilbert and captivating headline gigs in Naarm and Gadigal Land.
“This record is a coming-out album of sorts – not just in terms of being gay, but also in terms of being an imperfect body, a person in a fucked political landscape, a human with human needs and desires – to be held, seen and respected; it is in some ways a study about who controls what – and where we can have a say over our sex, time, policies and pleasure. Even though everything I’ve made has always been in pursuit of honesty, this album is so much more true and reflective of me, and carries a very distinctive voice and set of experiences borne of fighting very hard to accept myself, my body and my place in the world. All that facing myself freed me in some ways to be cheekier, looser, gayer and even more raw. I wanted to capture its intimacy by recording it powerfully with Naarm musicians who have helped me see those things in myself and welcomed me into an empowering community where we can figure this stuff out.” Ruby Gill
‘Touch Me There’ is an intimate self-examination that emerged during a moment of solitude on a riverbank—a song Gill never intended for anyone to hear but has now become her “most special creation.” Supported by a backing choir of her found family and a haunting analogue-shot video, it’s a tender yet powerful statement on reclaiming desire, intimacy, and selfhood.
Catch Gill live at the Northcote Social Club on April 17
Pre-Order Some Kind of Control.
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