Sarah Ruba
Sarah Ruba, who hails from Dundas Ontario Canada began her journey in music at the age of 12 when she discovered her gift for singing in a middle school talent show and there was no looking back. Sarah pursued a career as a vocalist, landing a featured vocalist spot with the Hamilton All Star Jazz Band. She cut her teeth singing big band jazz standards and uproarious gospel numbers which led to touring with the group at the age of only 17 years old.
At the same time Sarah joined a group of young jazz musicians going by the name of Flatt Street, based in Hamilton Ontario. The group began playing more funk and soul with Sarah's addition as the lead vocalist, gigging in Southern Ontario for a number of years and wowing audiences with Sarah's huge vocal range.
The group independently released an album in 2004 entitled "This Dog Is Big". Through word of mouth, the Canadian Idol judge and music manager Zack Werner became aware of Sarah and travelled to Hamilton with the artist Esthero to catch her performance. After the show, the pair offered Sarah a back-up vocalist position for Esthero's upcoming US dates. Sarah knew if she wanted to pursue her dreams further, relocating to Toronto would be a wise move.
While under the wing of Zack Werner, Sarah was introduced to the group Down With Webster where she was given the opportunity to write, record and workshop new song ideas with them in their recording studio. It was here that Sarah learned she had top-lining skills that would come in handy later.
Simultaneous to Sarah's working with Down With Webster, she met Adam Pavao, a producer from Mississauga, and began writing and recording using analog synthesizers and drum machines, discovering a love for electronic and dance music along the way.
The duo formed an act called New Look and relocated to New York City where Sarah would pursue a modelling career that would support the two's musical ambitions.
While in New York, New Look began to find community and collaboration with the likes of Detroit-born Jimmy Edgar, the producer Machinedrum (Travis Stewart), and a 19-year-old Theophilus London.
New Look's MySpace page was garnering some notice around 2008, and they were offered management by Ian Montone of Monotone Inc in Los Angeles. This was a huge deal to the pair because Monotone managed The White Stripes, Jack White's solo career, M.I.A. and Vampire Weekend (to name a few!)
In 2009 it was time to record and complete a full-length album, so New Look relocated to Berlin Germany for fresh inspiration. Whilst there, they completed their album and signed to the highly esteemed dance label K7! Records. At the same time The XX came calling looking for an opening act for their Scandinavian tour of sold-out shows, and New Look obliged.
The New Look self-titled album came out to rave reviews from critics, with huge praise from the BBC, popular music blog of the time The Line of Best Fit, and Vogue magazine. They had a particularly strong response in the UK where they toured a number of times. A huge highlight came when New Look were asked to play a Boiler Room set in London.
Back in New York, New Look again had the opportunity to open for The XX, this time to thousands of fans at a sold out show at Manhattan's Terminal 5. The pair were also featured models in the 2012 CFDA awards with Anna Wintour, Diane Von Furstenberg, and other fashion luminaries as judges, and Sarah was given a full-page feature in American Vogue.
In 2013 Sarah had begun to wonder about striking out on her own and working with other producers, so she decided to take a trip to Los Angeles where she met Dave "Switch" Taylor, a producer to M.I.A., Beyonce and Christina Aguilera, and who, along with Diplo, founded the group Major Lazer.
This pairing proved to be a highly prolific duo and Sarah was churning out song after song, building material for her first solo project. Things took a bit of a detour though when an opportunity to work with Chaka Khan arose. Sarah And Dave pitched an album project to Chaka, using Sarah’s solo project songs, which Chaka recorded 7 of the tracks in a short span of time.
The Chaka album Hello Happiness was signed to Island Records UK and had a huge hit with the song Like Sugar, which was originally Sarah's song on the soundtrack to The Get Down on Netflix. Although this meant that Sarah’s solo project was put on ice, the Chaka project gave Sarah a fantastic learning experience, with writer and producer credits with a major artist now on her resume.
The success of the Chaka project however did not lead to anything further with Dave Taylor, and it was time for Sarah to abandon LA and strike out on her own again.
In 2020 during the Covid 19 pandemic, Sarah decided to settle back in Canada after 15 years away. Now, fully settled in Toronto, Sarah is preparing to record and release her long-awaited solo material… good things come to those who wait.