Grammy-winning group Rufus Du Sol open up on whirlwind global Surrender tour
Grammy-winning group Rüfüs Du Sol is opening up on life on the road during their whirlwind world tour.
The Australian electronic band, known for songs such as "Innerbloom" and "On My Knees," is currently on their Surrender tour for their 2021 album of the same name -- and this time around, they say they're doing things a bit differently.
In an interview at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday -- their first time ever playing at the iconic venue -- band members Jon George, Tyrone Lindqvist and James Hunt spoke to "Good Morning America" about their immersive set, how they're shaking things up on this tour and what their devoted fan base can look forward to from them.
Hunt told "GMA" that one of the most fun aspects of the tour "is reimagining how we do the songs for the stage, like fleshing out who plays what."
"The live show has a different aesthetic and sound because we're playing live drums, actual synths on stage, guitar, vocals… and then we also have a lot of fun with extending songs out and creating little jams that are slightly different from night to night."
"It's been like a dream," Lindqvist added on playing their music across the globe. "We're obviously playing our new songs, and we love working on the lights. We have a very creative artistic director, he's like [Jon's] younger brother, actually, and he just dives deep into the visuals and the lights."
The Surrender tour kicked off in June in Chicago, Illinois, and has sold out several venues, most recently the Hollywood Bowl and their upcoming shows this weekend at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.
"This is definitely a special one," George said about performing at the Hollywood Bowl. "It's around a couple of blocks away from where we wrote a bunch of the last record. And we have friends and family here too so it's very exciting for us."
Over the course of their decade-long career, the band has created a global fanbase by reaching audiences with their unique electronic sound and mesmerizing DJ sets around the world, including shows in Ibiza and Barcelona, Spain; and Mykonos, in Greece.
A fixture on the festival set, George, Lindqvist and Hunt have sold nearly 1 million tickets in their career and have headlined major musical events like Coachella, New York City's Governors Ball Music Festival and Lollapalooza.
In April, the group won their first-ever Grammy for best dance/electronic recording for their song "Alive" from their album "Surrender." The group was nominated twice before that win -- at the 2020 Grammy Awards for best dance/electronic album for their third studio album "Solace" and best dance recording for their 2018 hit "Underwater."
"This year has definitely been a whirlwind," Hunt reflected. "We played some of the best shows of our life. We toured through Europe, we played in South America, we put on our own festival, Sundream, in Mexico… Winning the Grammy was really surreal and I still can't really process that."
He added, "It's nice to reflect and take it in and process some of these amazing experiences that we're really lucky to go through and that we get to live our dream."
Offstage, the group said they're also prioritizing fitness, health and self-care in order to give their fans the best show possible each night.
"Whilst writing the last record, 'Surrender,' we had a good chance to re-vision how we want to operate as friends first, how we want to go about making music and rediscovering that love for music and then how we want to tour," George said. "And a lot of that came back to us looking after ourselves a bunch more."
He continued, "We have our trainer on tour basically, and he's taking us through breath-work before we go on stage, we do ginger shots and we do an ice bath to sort of help [us] calm down a little bit. So yeah, it's a new way of touring, but it's a much more sustainable way than the regular rockstar."
Through it all, George, Lindqvist and Hunt say creating music for their fans has been a meaningful experience -- especially after learning from some that their music has brought healing to their lives in some way.
"We're making music in a therapeutic way for ourselves and we're sort of putting ourselves as the audience members," George said. "And then you've like put it out into the world and you hear this communication back to you, how it's helped someone else. And you know, that's a huge thing."
