Rubyworks Records is an

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small and medium-sized enterprise, small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels ...

and music management company created in 2001 by Niall Muckian and based in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. Rubyworks owns two subsidiary labels, Gotta Run Records and Model Citizen Records. The second subsidiary label Model Citizen Records creates rearrangements of their artists songs to be used for PD (Public Domain) In May 2012 Rubyworks merged with UK independent record label Ark Recordings.

History

Formation

Rubyworks was formed by Niall Muckian in Dublin in 2001. Muckian was initially working with

Damien Rice Damien George Rice (born 7 December 1973) is an Irish musician, singer and songwriter. He began his career as a member of the 1990s rock group Juniper (band), Juniper, who were signed to Polygram Records in 1997. The band enjoyed moderate succe ...

, helping him with the formation of his solo career when he saw Rodrigo y Gabriela supporting him at Vicar Street in Dublin. He decided he wanted to work with them. Rubyworks released '' re-Foc'' in September 2002, and continues to manage Rodrigo y Gabrela to this day. Over the course of the last fourteen years, Rubyworks has released albums with Irish artists like Hothouse Flowers,

Sinéad O'Connor Shuhada' Sadaqat (born Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor; , ; 8 December 1966 – 26 July 2023) was an Irish singer, songwriter, record producer and activist. Her debut studio album, ''The Lion and the Cobra'', was released in 1987 and achieve ...

, Mary Coughlan and

Moving Hearts Moving Hearts is an Irish Celtic rock band formed in 1981. They followed in the footsteps of Horslips in combining music of Ireland, Irish traditional music with rock and roll, and also added elements of jazz to their sound.Harris, Craig''Movin ...

. In more recent times the label, which also includes offshoot imprints Model Citizen, Ark Recordings and Gotta Run, has developed a new generation of Irish talent including

Hozier Andrew John Hozier-Byrne (born 17 March 1990), known professionally as Hozier ( ), is an Irish musician. His music primarily draws from Folk music, folk, Soul music, soul and blues, often using religious and literary themes and taking politica ...

, in partnership with Columbia Records in North America and Australia and Island / Universal for the rest of the world, Ryan Sheridan (in partnership by Universal Music Germany), O.R.B. (The Original Rudeboys), The Minutes and Funeral Suits.

2004–2006

Rubyworks took its next step by releasing a new Hothouse Flowers album (''Into Your Heart'') in early 2004. Developing an international presence, the label helped established Irish acts like

Aslan Aslan () is a major character in C. S. Lewis's ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' series. Unlike any other character in the Narnian series, Aslan appears in all seven chronicles. Aslan is depicted as a Talking animals in fiction, talking lion and is ...

and Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club release their music outside Ireland. The next major break through came later in 2004, when the second Rodrigo y Gabriela album, '' Live: Manchester and Dublin'', became the first wholly instrumental album to debut in the Irish album chart Top 10. Rodrigo y Gabriela's and Rubyworks' local and international profile started to increase from this juncture. In 2005, Roger Quail joined Rubyworks from the UK, having previously had long spells at 3mv (

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment Suede Suede (pronounced ) is a type of leather with a fuzzy, napped finish, commonly used for jackets, shoes, Textile, fabrics, Handbag, purses, furniture, and other items. Suede is made from the underside of the animal skin, which is softer and m ...

Ministry of Sound Ministry of Sound or Ministry of Sound Group is a multimedia entertainment business based in London with a nightclub, shared workspace and private members' club, worldwide events operation, music publisher (popular music), music publishing busin ...

) and Sony's SINE independent label development wing with a view to developing Rubyworks' international profile. The label enjoyed further critical success with Dublin rock group The Devlins. In early 2006 the label enjoyed its greatest success to date with the third Rodrigo y Gabriela album, which charted at # 1 in the Irish album charts in February 2006. The label also released new albums from Leya and Koufax in the same year

2007–2008

In 2007 and 2008, Rubyworks released: a new album from

in June; a live CD/

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

package from the re-formed

; the debut album from

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

singer/songwriter

Foy Vance Foy Best Vance (born 18 November 1974) is an Irish musician and singer-songwriter from Northern Ireland, signed to Ed Sheeran's Gingerbread Man Records, Gingerbread Man record label. Vance has toured as a support act to British singer-songwrite ...

; and an album from Mary Coughlan. Due to international licensing deals in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, global sales of the Rodrigo y Gabriela rose to over 500,000.

2009–2012

In May 2012 Rubyworks merged with UK independent record label Ark Recordings. In August 2012 Rubyworks celebrated its first decade in existence with three Dublin concerts featuring performances from bands like Rodrigo y Gabriela and Fight Like Apes. Dublin band Funeral Suits released their debut album, ''Lily of the Valley'', in June 2012. One of the songs released from the album, "All Those Friendly People", has since collected over 17 million views on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. Junior label manager Eoin Aherne joined the label during this period.

2013 to present

In 2013, with the aid of Denis Desmond & Caroline Downey, Rubyworks introduced

to a more mainstream audience. He released his debut music video track, " Take Me To Church", in September 2013, when it peaked at number 2 on the

Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are ...

. The music video, recorded by Brendan Canty & Conal Thomson of Feel Good Lost, has collected over 530 million views on

across two versions. Hozier then went on to release his debut EP, ''Take Me To Church'', which included the track of the same name and "Angel of Small Death & the Codeine Scene". American Musician John Murry released his album, ''The Graceless Age'', with Rubyworks. In 2014, Rubyworks released albums from: The Minutes ('' Live Well, Change Often''), O.R.B. ('' All We Are'') and Rodrigo y Gabriela ('' 9 Dead Alive''), and also

's eponymous debut album, which was released in Ireland in September 2014 and globally in October 2014. Prior to this, Hozier released his second EP, ''From Eden'', which included the single " From Eden". On 5 December 2014, it was announced that "Take Me to Church" was nominated at the

57th Annual Grammy Awards The 57th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 8, 2015, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The show was broadcast live by CBS at 5:00 p.m. PST ( UTC−8). Rapper LL Cool J hosted the show for the fourth consecutive ti ...

for Song of the Year in 2015, losing this award to Sam Smith. 2015 saw the release of Ryan Sheridan's follow-up album, ''Here and Now'', on 28 August 2015 in Ireland, and topped the Irish Album Charts on 4 September 2015. The album was released in Germany on 11 September 2015 in conjunction with

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

, Germany. This year also saw the signing of two new bands to the label, Wyvern Lingo and

Otherkin Otherkin is a subculture of people who identify as partially or entirely nonhuman. Some otherkin believe their identity derives from non-physical spiritual phenomena, such as having a nonhuman soul or reincarnation. Some otherkin give non-spi ...

Artists

Current

* Ryan Sheridan * Josephine * Vladimir * Rodrigo y Gabriela *

Hudson Taylor James Hudson Taylor (; 21 May 1832 – 3 June 1905) was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China and founder of the OMF International, China Inland Mission (CIM, now OMF International). Taylor spent 54 years in China. The society tha ...

* Funeral Suits * O.R.B. * The Minutes * Wyvern Lingo *

Lyra , from ; pronounced: ) is a small constellation. It is one of the 48 listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and is one of the modern 88 constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Lyra was often represented on star ...

* David Keenan

Alumni

* Leya * The Devlins * Mary Coughlan *

* Wallis Bird * Fight Like Apes *

* Tychonaut (formally "The Tycho Brahe") *

Gavin Friday Gavin Friday (born Fionán Martin Hanvey, 8 October 1959) is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer, actor and painter, best known as a founding member of the post-punk group The Virgin Prunes. Early life Fionan Hanvey was born in Dublin an ...

* Nigel Mooney * Alberta Cross * Little Roy * John Murry * Koufax * Hothouse Flowers * Deap Vally

References

External links

{{Authority control Irish companies established in 2001 Companies based in Dublin (city) Irish record labels Record labels established in 2001