Rubyworks Records is an independent record label and music management company created in 2001 by Niall Muckian and based in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Rubyworks owns two subsidiary labels, Gotta Run Records and Model Citizen Records. In May 2012 Rubyworks merged with UK independent record label

Ark Recordings Ark Recordings is a London-based independent record label, run by Jamie Davis (of Transcopic Records) and Russell Warby (VP of WME Agency UK, Music Power 1001). The label was launched in 2005 after Transcopic Records went on a hiatus, and Dav ...

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 singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He began his career as a member of the 1990s rock group Juniper, who were signed to Polygram Records in 1997. The band enjoyed moderate success ...

, helping him with the formation of his solo career when he saw

Rodrigo y Gabriela Rodrigo y Gabriela (Rodrigo and Gabriela) are a Mexico, Mexican acoustic guitar duo whose music is influenced by a number of genres including nuevo flamenco, rock music, rock, and Heavy metal music, heavy metal. The duo's recordings consist large ...

supporting him at

Vicar Street Vicar Street is a concert, performing arts centre and events venue in Dublin, Ireland. Located on Thomas Street, Dublin 8, Vicar Street has capacity for 1,050 people for seated performances and 1,500 people for standing gigs. The venue is own ...

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 Hothouse Flowers are an Irish rock band that combine traditional Irish music with influences from soul, gospel, and rock. Formed in 1985 in Dublin, they started as street performers. Their first album, ''People'' (1988), was the most success ...

, Sinead O’Connor, 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 Irish traditional music with rock and roll, and also added elements of jazz to their sound.Harris, Craig''Moving Hearts'' AllMusic ...

. 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, 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

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, he appears in all seven chronicles of the series. Aslan is depicted as a talking lion, and is described as the King of Beasts, the ...

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,

Suede Suede (pronounced ) is a type of leather with a fuzzy, napped finish, commonly used for jackets, shoes, fabrics, purses, furniture, and other items. The term comes from the French , which literally means "gloves from Sweden". The term was firs ...

, Ministry of Sound) 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 The Devlins were an alternative rock band originating from Dublin, Republic of Ireland, although the eponymous Devlin brothers were born in Newry, County Down.Koufax in the same year

2007–2008

In 2007 and 2008, Rubyworks released: a new album from Sinéad O'Connor 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 kind ...

package from the re-formed

; the debut album from County Down singer/songwriter

Foy Vance Foy Vance (born 1974) is a musician and singer-songwriter from Northern Ireland signed to Ed Sheeran's Gingerbread Man label. Vance has toured as a support act to British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran and his music has been featured on numerous ...

; and an album from Mary Coughlan. Due to international licensing deals in North America, Australia,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, Japan and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

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

2009–2012

In May 2012 Rubyworks merged with UK independent record label

. 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 a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. 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 Hozier to a more mainstream audience. He released his debut music video track, "

Take Me To Church "Take Me to Church" is a song by Irish singer-songwriter Hozier. It was released as his debut single on 13 September 2013, originally featuring on his extended play of the same name, before being featured as the opening track of his 2014 debut ...

", in September 2013, when it peaked at number 2 on the Irish Singles Chart. 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 "All We Are" is a song composed by the German Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Warlock (band), Warlock, from their 1987 album ''Triumph and Agony''. It was released as the band's fourth single and published by Vertigo Records. A music video f ...

'') and Rodrigo y Gabriela (''

9 Dead Alive ''9 Dead Alive'' is the fourth studio album by Mexican guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela released on April 25, 2014, in Ireland and on April 29, 2014, internationally. According to their Twitter, "each track is a personal celebration of individuals w ...

''), and also Hozier'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 time ...

for Song of the Year in 2015, losing this award to

Sam Smith Samuel Frederick Smith (born 19 May 1992) is an English singer and songwriter. After rising to prominence in October 2012 by featuring on Disclosure's breakthrough single " Latch", which peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart, they ...

. 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 The Irish Albums Chart is the Republic of Ireland, Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA). The charts were previously compiled on behalf of IRMA by Chart-Track, and have ...

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 just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

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

Otherkin Otherkin are a subculture of people who identify as not entirely human. Some otherkin believe their identity derives from reincarnation, a non-human soul, ancestry, symbolism, or metaphor. Others attribute it to unusual psychology and do not h ...

Artists

Current

* Hozier * Ryan Sheridan * Josephine * Vladimir *

Hudson Taylor James Hudson Taylor (; 21 May 1832 – 3 June 1905) was a British Baptist Christian missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission (CIM, now OMF International). Taylor spent 51 years in China. The society that he began was respons ...

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

* David Keenan

Alumni

* Leya *

The Devlins The Devlins were an alternative rock band originating from Dublin, Republic of Ireland, although the eponymous Devlin brothers were born in Newry, County Down.Mary Coughlan * Sinéad O'Connor *

Wallis Bird Wallis Bird (born 29 January 1982) is an Irish musician, living in Berlin since 2012. As of 2021, she has released six studio albums, including ''Architect'' in 2014 and '' Home'' in 2016. Career Bird performed at the Eurosonic Festival in 20 ...

* 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 Friday was born in Dublin and attend ...

* Nigel Mooney * Alberta Cross *

Little Roy Little Roy (born Earl Lowe in Witfield Town, Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican reggae artist.Bush, NathanLittle Roy Biography, AllMusic, retrieved 2011-02-14 Biography Little Roy began his career at the age of 12 years in 1965 recording a few ...

* John Murry * Koufax *

* 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