Velvet Dream by Rujen released on Broc Recordz in 2025

Transmission 252: Interview with Rujen

Rujen is an American psychedelic rock band from Atlanta, Georgia. The five-piece space rock outfit consists of frontman Ryan Miller, lead guitarist Creighton Perme, keyboardist Nick Hanchey, bassist Charlie Brady and drummer Ryan Barrett.

Title: Velvet Dream
Artist: Rujen
Release Date: 2025-06-27
Genres: Indie Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Space Rock
Label: Broc Recordz
Description: Interview with Atlanta’s psychedelic rock band Rujen on Velvet Dream, released by Broc Recordz in 2025 and recorded with Drew Vandenberg.

The band has released three studio recordings: their debut EP “Elsewhere” in 2019, their first full-length album “Feel It’s True” in 2022, and their sophomore record “Velvet Dream” in 2025, which marked their debut release on Broc Recordz.

What drew you into creating music together in the first place?

Creighton – I think most of us had previously played in bands in high school or college, but we were all friends for a good bit prior to playing together. We shared a similar taste in music, but I think the idea of forming a band just to jam and come up with ideas was the biggest draw. We played to ourselves for about a year or more before we ever tried booking a show or even recording anything. Most of our early songs were quite long, like 7-8 minutes as a result. We just loved coming up with some structures and riding them out, jamming really loud, and then listening back to blown out iphone recordings after.

Which records or artists had a lasting effect on your approach to songwriting and sound?

Creighton – We’ve gone through a lot of various influences throughout the years, but some foundational records for us are some of the obvious ones in the genre, early Tame Impala records, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Dungen, as well as some more underground stuff like Gold Celeste’s The Glow and The Gentle Maverick or Chaz Bundick Meets The Mattson 2’s Star Stuff. Most of those records focus heavily on the production side, with 60s and 70s influences through a modern lens. Recording a lot at home and experimenting with tones and textures is certainly a result of digging into those records and how they were crafted. We also listen to a lot of soul and funk records that have had an influence on our taste and style.

How did your surroundings influence the earliest stage of your work as a band?

Ryan M. – Living in the south sort of had an opposite effect on our sound from what you might imagine. Our songs have always had this beachy, west coast vibe even dating back to our very first songs we wrote as a band. I think one of those was literally titled “Beach Song” before it eventually became “Deep End” on our first EP. It wasn’t something we set out to intentionally create, it just happened to come out that way. We explored some more indie sounds and directions during those early sessions and even later on with our first album, but over time have consistently inched closer and closer back towards that psychedelic surfy vibe with a more matured and refined pallette.

We were also all cooped up in our small apartments after first moving to Atlanta, so when we’d get together and play I think it was a way for us to break out of that confinement and make really big and epic sounding songs that were larger than life.

When you started recording as Rujen, what challenges did you face in shaping your identity as a band?

Nick – When we first started recording for this band, we really weren’t thinking too much about identity or what we were trying to sound like. I think we had a healthy dose of that blissful naivete that we all have when you throw yourself into something you don’t really know anything about.

We were all having our first recording experiences together, which I think allowed us to sort of just let the ideas flow out and learn as we go. The sonic identity came naturally as a result of just experimenting and having fun trying new things.

What moments from those early sessions stand out when you think back to how it all began?

Ryan M. – The dedication we had to the music. It was a crazy time where four of us had graduated college and moved from Milledgeville, GA to Atlanta. Our bassist Charlie still had a year left of school but would drive up on a couple random weekdays to make practices/writing sessions with us which was like 4 hours+ of driving there and back. Nick had also just joined the band as our keys/synth player with no prior experience playing either instrument but put in the work to match his abilities on guitar. To make matters worse, we also didn’t have a practice space in Atlanta as we were all in apartments so we’d get off work and hop straight into rush hour traffic to drive up to our bedroom rehearsal space in the suburbs. In all honesty, it totally sucked to do that after a full day of work but we were all so invested in playing music together that it didn’t matter and we’d hash out new songs and jams until close to midnight before driving back home to Atlanta or in Charlie’s case, Milledgeville. 

The excitement we’d feel when a song would start to click and come together was unmatched. We were playing super loud and raw because we didn’t know any better, but it was often a really visceral experience to feel our creations come to life at a maximum volume. It was a really collaborative and democratic workflow with everyone giving their input, so we all felt highly connected to the songs. We keep that same dynamic as a group today and to still be making music together under the same shared vision for the band after almost 10 years is something we don’t take for granted. 

What was the atmosphere of the Atlanta and Athens music scene when you first started playing live?

Ryan M. – We started playing shows around Atlanta back in 2016 and it was a time where the scene felt pretty exciting with a healthy amount of up and coming bands to check out on a regular basis in the music hub of EAV (East Atlanta Village). I think what was most enticing as a new band on the scene or for anyone making music at the time was that the city seemed to welcome all kinds of genres; it wasn’t like you had no opportunity if you weren’t playing to the latest trends. There was everything from twangy indie-rock to post-punk to new wave and people were down to support everything in between whether it was at a house show or a proper venue. 

We never made it over to Athens much besides catching an occasional show at The Georgia Theatre or 40 Watt but there was definitely no shortage of amazing touring bands coming through as well as local acts to check out. One of our all-time favorites was a band called New Madrid and they’ve had a huge impact on our sound ever since meeting and seeing them play in Athens and in our college town of Milledgeville, GA back in 2011-2015. We were thrilled to actually be able to collaborate with their bassist, Ben Hackett, who played some flute and saxophone on the new record which felt like a big full circle moment for us.

What ideas or feelings inspired the songs on your upcoming album Velvet Dream?

Ryan M. – At its core, I think Velvet Dream embodies this crossroads between where you are and where you want to be. That was certainly something I was grappling with at the time and it undoubtedly bled into the lyrical content. I’d say a lot of us had a shared experience of feeling this dichotomy in the back of our minds where we were kinda living this split life between trying to maintain a career/do the things you’re supposed to do as an adult all while having this preoccupation with our music and wanting to find ways to level up and get it out to more people. At the onset of writing these songs, we had set a couple lofty goals to plan our first tour as a band and to also release the album on a label. I think that determination made its way into the songwriting and it’s pretty cool and humbling to look back now and say we successfully accomplished both of those goals with this record. Shoutout Broc Recordz for seeing the vision and giving us a chance!

Does the album follow a thread or concept that ties the songs together?

Ryan M. – There are definitely some loose themes flying around in there for sure. For better or worse, I don’t often go into writing lyrics with a super specific idea or concept in mind – I try to keep things open and just follow my stream of consciousness wherever that may take me. Not to say these songs all began that way, but often I’ll finish lyrics and have to decipher the meaning of it after the fact. It’s like entering into a really intense daydream and when you come out of it you’ve seemingly pulled together a song out of thin air. I tend to see these songs as memos to myself to lock in and feel more confident to actively go after my dreams and the things I want out of life. 

Were there external influences, books, films, personal events—that influenced the writing?

Ryan M. – Totally. In every writing session I was very much trying to channel some of my favorite records into the overall vibe and feel of whatever track I was starting up. For example, when I was writing ‘On The Run’ I had Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions on heavy rotation at the time. The song ‘Golden Lady’ off that record is one of my all time favorites and always brought strong blissed-out feelings and visuals of this magical place to my mind when I’d listen. I thought it might be interesting to try and channel that feeling and live in that space while I wrote the song. I was hoping to capture the emotion the song gave me rather than trying to emulate it in any way. Some more modern albums that I feel had some impact on this record would be Grizzly Bear’s Painted Ruins, Toro Y Moi’s What For?, and New Madrid’s magnetkingmagnetqueen. 

A good bit of the songs channel a sense of nostalgia which looking back makes good sense as I had just entered my 30s and was in a pretty reflective state of mind. Like how the hell did I get here and how has it already been 30 years? Am I doing this right?

Did the recording process for this album differ from your past releases?

Nick – It did! Our first EP and album were all recorded from our homes and were really our first experiences with recording music intentionally.

For Velvet Dream, we spent some time at a studio in Athens, GA called Chase Park Transduction where we recorded the basic tracks live as a group. We worked with Drew Vandenberg who we’re all big fans of, and he was a joy to work with. We then took the sessions home and overdubbed everything else. It was a really fun hybrid approach that allowed us to get a super solid foundation to build everything on. We also mixed the record with Drew later on. 

How do “Psychic Sister” and “Spider Silk” reflect the overall tone of the record?

Nick – I feel like both of these tunes are the two poles of the record. “Psychic Sister” is super cosmic, fun, and overall very positive whereas “Spider Silk” takes on a more serious / darker tone.

Production wise, both tunes get pretty wild, and they’re both psychedelic in their own ways. Releasing those two first felt like a cool statement of what the record was going to be. Sort of like these are two sides of this world, and we’re going to be exploring the whole thing throughout the record.

Was there a specific piece of gear or technique that became central while recording Velvet Dream?

Creighton – Recording with Drew at Chase Park was certainly an essential part of the recording process and end result. He had us running through a lot of analog gear while tracking live, so everything sounded really great out of the gate. He had a neat two mic setup with ribbons and condensers on all the amps, we did our best to replicate that at home when doing the overdubs to try to keep a similar feel. We also used a bunch of analog effects at home as well, there’s a lot of Space Echo 150 on the record, as well as some 80s BBD delays like the Roland DC20 and Yamaha E1010. We tracked most of the synths through the E1010, the preamp alone gives a really nice texture to synths and the subtle delay added a nice space to everything.

Nick – Around the time when we were writing songs that would be on this record, I became the proud owner of a Prophet 6 synthesizer. It’s such a beautiful and powerful instrument. A decent amount of the pads and textures on the record are sounds I designed on the Prophet. From a sound design perspective, it felt like a pretty significant leveling up for me.

Are there unexplored directions you’re curious to pursue after this release?

Ryan M. – When we were first approached by Broc Recordz, this album was already fully completed and it had a different sound than what the label was typically known for. We’ve been toying with some new demos that mix their highly curated soul/groove discography with our sound a little more closely, so maybe that’s something we’ll dig deeper into. Velvet Dream also was our first time exploring some dancier tracks like ‘Psychic Sister’ and ‘Present Past Futures’ than we’ve typically put out in the past and is definitely a sound we hope to build on with future releases. 

Photos courtesy of Roujen

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others