Boston-based band Ruby Grove (2022- current) is an indie alternative musical project rooted in trip-hop and neo-soul grooves, informed by lofi hip-hop, electronica, rock, and world music (especially middle eastern music). Ruby Grove’s core driving force is to soothe anxious hearts and minds during the post-pandemic era, create an alternately funky, soulful, and mystical atmosphere, and aim for the “formation of new genres through multi-genre synthesis madness”, which is reflected in the band’s diverse sonic palette and focuses.

Lead singer and keyboardist Melissa Nilles brings an eclectic and extensive musical background to Ruby Grove from years of fronting indie bands in New York, California, Japan, and Massachusetts (including Boston’s notable art/alternative rock project Miele). Nilles’s vocal style has been described by the Boston Survival Guide as “travelling effortlessly through many moods- frantic and biting, forceful and determined, melancholy and dreamy, exotic and magical”. Bassist, session guitarist, and backup vocalist Cedric Lamour hails from previous projects Miele and Teardrop Tank, and brings a masterful, lively, and unifying rhythm bass to the band. Ruby Grove also includes live drummer Sage Gibbons, previously of NYC-based band Funky Toona.

Ruby Grove members Nilles and Lamour first met during their time moonlighting with epic, edgy Boston-based band Miele (2014-2020), whose music was described by the Boston Hassle/Compass as a “a call to local music everywhere to get risky, develop a deeper understanding of the listener, and in the end, truly explore the complexities of being human.” Miele disbanded like many similar local bands during the pandemic, leading Lamour and Nilles to collect the echoing ashes and form a new project based around the increasingly soulful, intricate, melodic, soothing, and groove-based sonic landscape they were heading towards pre- and post-breakup with Miele. Their aptly-named new single “Maybe It’s Time” (2023) ironically mirrors the creative pressures and delays which so many other musicians and artists have experienced during this time, as they navigated periods of collaboration and isolation during the pandemic with the single’s drummer and producer Nick Zampiello (also linked with projects Party Bois, Man Trouble, and This Bliss).

Part trippy magic, part empowering balm for the soul, Ruby Grove’s hypnotic new single “Maybe It’s Time” serves as a powerful, funky anti-anxiety anthem in a post-pandemic world. Described by frontwoman Nilles as “the sonic lovechild of Beats Antique, Portishead, Jamiroquai, Gnarls Barkley, and Gorillaz”, the track features sassy and soulful vocals where Nilles both teases and encourages the listener to release oneself from inner traps and experience creative rebirth and expansiveness with Patti Labelle-esque refrains and harmonies. The funky, vibey jam layers intricate Spanish-inspired guitar riffs with bouncy bass grooves over drums, synths, and production clearly influenced by electronica, trip-hop, and the boom bap drum styles of the “Lofi girl” era.

Vocals, Keyboard / Melissa Lee Nilles
Bass, Guitar, Backing Vocals/ Cedric Lamour
Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals / Sage Gibbons
Guitar / Sergio Romero
Guitar, Saxophone, Keyboards / Dan Garrity