"Never Ever" is a song by Australian

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

group

The Rubens The Rubens are an Australian alternative rock band from Menangle, New South Wales. The band comprises the three Margin brothers, Zaac, Sam and Elliott, and friends Scott Baldwin and William Zeglis. Their debut self-titled album '' The Rubens' ...

featuring

Sarah Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a piou ...

. The song was released on 13 April 2018 as the second single from the group's third studio album, '' Lo La Ru''.

Background and release

The Rubens received an email from

Sarah Aarons Sarah Paige Aarons (born 4 October 1994, previously known as Paige IV and sometimes simply as Sarah) is a songwriter from Bentleigh, Melbourne, Australia. Now based in Los Angeles, Aarons is signed to Sony ATV Publishing. She co-wrote "Stay" by ...

who advised she was going to be in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, was a fan of theirs and was keen to write a song with them. At that time, the group were putting the finishing touches on the album that would become ''Lo La Ru''. The Rubens keyboardist Elliott Margin said "The day we met Sarah in the studio, she told us that her year 10 teacher introduced her to our song "Lay It Down" and that is what inspired her to do music in year 11 and 12". Margin said the song wasn't meant to be on the album saying "We actually thought with the album completed we would be writing a song for someone else. The main chord structure and melody was something I had been fiddling with for a while but couldn't find the words or story for. After meeting Sarah and having a chat we got stuck into the song... Pretty quickly we realised it needed to be a duet and from there the story started to take shape." The song is a tale of heartbreak that begins as a stripped back piano ballad but builds into a back-and-forth of blame shifting of a relationship in decay, voiced in a duet between Sam Margin and Sarah Aarons. At the

APRA Music Awards of 2019 The APRA Music Awards of 2019 are the 37th annual awards given in the series of awards together known as APRA Awards, given in 2019. The awards are given in a series of categories in three divisions and in separate ceremonies throughout the yea ...

, the song won Rock Work of the Year.

Music video

The music video was directed by Anna Phillips and released on 11 May 2018.

Reception

A staff writer from ''The Music'' described the song as "smooth as silk" adding "the collaboration between the Menangle band and Aarons came together as if it was meant to be."

Charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 2018 songs 2018 singles The Rubens songs APRA Award winners Sarah Aarons songs Songs written by Sarah Aarons