See Ruth B Recall Journey From Drake Cover to ‘Lost Boy’
In April, Ruth B, who got her start posting cover songs on Vine, broke through on the pop charts with her tender, Peter Pan-inspired original “Lost Boy.” The 20-year-old Canadian singer spoke about her journey during an interview with Rolling Stone inside of New York City’s famed Strand Bookstore.
B’s path to releasing original music began with her creating a Vine account, which she did three years ago after wrapping high school. On it, she posted silly videos with and for her friends, who were her only followers at the time. One day, she posted a cover of Drake’s “Shot for Me,” which won her more followers and encouraged the singer to post even more clips of her singing.
“Almost a year and a half ago, I was watching a TV show called Once Upon a Time and it was all about Peter Pan, so that night when I went to go play on my keyboard I was in this fairy-tale headspace,” the singer-songwriter says of what inspired “Lost Boy.” She ended up posting six seconds of her original track, which got her over 80,000 likes on the video. Given the feedback, she posted the full song on YouTube.
“‘Lost Boy’ was kind of that switch for me where writing and singing became one,” she says. “Now the thing I’m obsessed with is writing songs.”
The singer also discussed her songwriting idols, including Lauryn Hill and Stevie Wonder.