Global pop teen Ruel is living in the 70s in famous restored mid-century Victorian house in new music video
Pop star Ruel gets his 70s groove on in the famous mid-century Fender House in Victoria in his As Long As You Care video. And the stunning house could be your next holiday home stay.
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Exclusive: Ruel makes living in the 70s fashionable again with the video for his smash new single As Long As You Care filmed in one of Australia’s most famous mid-century restorations.
The Fender House in Mount Martha is the global pop sensation’s co-star in the video and some of the skits filmed for his world-first RuelVision television “network”.
Ruel and his team stayed in the house – which you can book on Airbnb from $1800 a night – earlier this year and got inspired by its flashback furniture, carpet and homeware.
The 17-year-old pop star has embraced the 60s and 70s vibe for his new music and the ambitious RuelVision channel, a 24-hour online platform which will screen original content including hilarious workouts, karaoke and cooking segments to entertain his millions of fans around the world.
The TV channel coincides with the release of As Long As You Care, the first taste of his third EP, Bright Lights, Red Eyes, which is out on October 23.
Ruel said the pandemic halt to writing and recording his debut record overseas, the shutdown of concerts and his fans’ voracious appetite for content inspired his ambitious televisual project.
“I hadn’t put out any new music of my own for over a year and we knew if I was to come back, it needed to be huge, to overwhelm my fans with content because they are always so thirsty for it,” he said.
“Right now, touring isn’t possible so fans are thirsty for more connection with their artists. And artists as well are hungry for that because they can’t see their fans or perform in front of an audience, which is 70 per cent of most artists’ life.
“Content is more vital than ever.”
Fans were indeed so thirsty for something new from Ruel that when several minutes of the RuelVision leaked over the weekend, it was quickly snipped and shared around the world.
Since his debut single Don’t Tell Me was released three years ago when he was just 14, catching the ears of Elton John who spruiked it on his Apple radio show, his music has generated more than half a billion streams and sold thousands of tickets on three sold-out world tours.
Ruel and his creative team took inspiration for the look of their TV shows from Mad Men, Adam West in the original Batman series and trawled the depths of YouTube for old clips of exercise shows and cooking demonstrations.
The video for As Long As You Care, filmed at the famous, mid-century restored Fender House on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, kicked off the idea for RuelVision.
It has already generated more than two million streams and YouTube views over the weekend.
He said that era of pop culture and fashion matched the old school soul sound of his music.
Ruel, who has modelled for fashion magazine shoots and sat front row at Paris Fashion Week last year, wanted to keep all of the 60s and 70s outfits – even the camp superhero and vampire costumes.
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“Everything from that era just looks so great, on everyone. Wearing flares for the first time, I felt like a new man,” he said.
“I can’t take full credit for bringing flares back … Harry Styles is big into the flares.”
The young creative and his team would spend the night writing scripts and plotting sets for each skit over three weeks just before Victoria was put into hard lockdown.
He said many of the scenes were completely improvised as they filmed.
While music is his first love, Ruel said he hoped his 15 hours of shows could also serve as an audition tape for future television and film roles.
“I hope it does open up doors because I do love acting. I’ve done auditions for some TV shows and films over the past year just for fun, getting a great opportunity to get the scripts and film myself on my phone,” he said.
“But it is something I am getting quite serious about in terms of wanting to do it.”
You can check out RuelVision via ruelvision.tv