On his breakthrough debut album Dying Star, Ruston Kelly took listeners through the raw, painful climb from the depths of addiction and heartbreak to a more hopeful future. But those steps toward a new life of sobriety and personal growth, which acted as a catalyst for his latest record Shape & Destroy, also came with their own set of challenges.
In 2018, Kelly had found a new level of both personal and career success, selling out headlining shows and earning critical praise. On the outside, things appeared to be coming together in a big way. At the same time, he found himself grappling with an uncertain new reality. During a stop at John Prine’s All the Best Festival that year, he had a simple realization that led him to what he calls a “spiritual transformation.” In order to work through his complicated feelings, he put pen to paper.
“I was there by myself and I was sober,” Kelly tells the Scene. “I like being around merriment, but there was something about this time that really just hit me straight in the nose. I was like, ‘OK, you’re either gonna feel this way, or you’re going to learn how to deal with feeling this way.’ … I just started writing about [Dying Star] — what it meant to me and what I needed out of it.”
That marked the beginning of Shape & Destroy. The title of his latest record — out Friday and featuring the signature blend of indie-rock- and folk-schooled Americana that Kelly has dubbed “dirt emo” — has also become a personal motto for the singer. He explains: “It means, ‘Shape things that you want in your life. Shape the life that you want to live by getting rid of the things that are obstructing your vision of it.’ ”
Just as he felt the urge to dive into creating new songs, Kelly got a call from his close friend John Carter Cash, who offered up his grandparents’ home in Hiltons, Va. (an area once known as Poor Valley), as a writing retreat.
“I went out there by myself for a week,” says Kelly. “I’m a huge Carter Family fan, so it was like being in a museum, but behind the glass. There were little handwritten notes, reminders from Johnny Cash just laying in the junk drawer.”
Kelly’s connection with the Cash and Carter family runs deeper than fandom. He recently found out through an uncle’s genealogy test that he might be distantly related to the Man in Black himself. But whether they’ve got biological ties or are simply kindred spirits, the country legends’ influence on Kelly is both undeniable and lasting.
“I was raised on the beautiful Christian principles of judging less and loving more,” Kelly says. “The Carter Family were such strong believers, and there was such a powerful energy there in the house that was truly transformative.”
At Mother Maybelle Carter’s dining room table, Kelly penned the pensive but joyful “Jubilee,” which finds him searching for signs that the path he’s on is indeed the right one. Every song on Shape & Destroy has a thread of hope weaving through, even in the deepest fog of doubt, confusion or worry. In the contemplative “Rubber,” he wonders if he’ll be able to bounce back from the bottom, while in “Closest Thing” he describes how love can revitalize and heal us, even in the darkest of times.
The magical, incredibly raw feel of the recordings developed during a stint at Dreamland Recording Studios. The former church in Hurley, N.Y., provided the perfect space for Kelly to experience recording music sober for the first time. With the assistance of creative collaborator Jarrad K as well as Kelly’s bandmates — including his father Tim “T.K.” Kelly, sister Abby Kelly and then-wife Kacey Musgraves, before their amicable split earlier this year — he harnessed a kind of creative force he’d never experienced in the studio before.
“It was a highly, highly powerful — without being overbearing — sense of energy,” Kelly says. “It was reaffirming in so many ways and like nothing I’ve ever been a part of before.”
Although they had the studio booked for a week, the crew had most of the album finished in just two days. Whether it was through fate, a spiritual force or sheer willpower to manifest a new destiny, Kelly created a record that speaks to the most mysterious and challenging elements of the human experience. The final song on Shape & Destroy — the haunting, harmony-laden “Hallelujah Anyway” — acts as a moving and hopeful endpoint.
“I would say that’s the most important song I’ve ever written,” Kelly says. “It was a way of saying: ‘No matter what pain you endure, you can still have gratitude for the love in your life. You can still have thankfulness and be humble. You can bow to whatever source that creates a sense of positivity and brings good things to you, has taught you how to be strong and how to recognize your ability to self-make through right principles and goodness.’ And that is invincible. That never dies.”
