2010-Tyrone LindqvistVocals, guitar2010-
Jon GeorgeKeyboards2010-
James HuntDrums2010-
Hailing from Sydney, Australia, Rüfüs Du Sol established themselves as a unique presence in the electronic-music scene by combining live and electronic instrumentation with evocative lyricism and a danceable beat. Their first full-length album,
Atlas, debuted at #1 in Australia in 2013. For its followup,
Bloom (2016), the band headed to Germany and found inspiration in the textured electronic strands coming out of Berlin's techno clubs, which influenced their seminal masterpiece, "
Innerbloom," and their breakthrough hit, "
You Were Right."
The band originally went by the name Rüfüs, which felt mysterious and foreign but familiar. As it turned out, it was a little too familiar. The trio was forced to change it to Rüfüs Du Sol in North America to avoid confusion with the Chicago funk band of the same name. In 2018, they officially became known by their new name worldwide.
Rüfüs Du Sol place a lot of importance on their live shows, where they consider the staging as a fourth band member who dazzles the audience with lighting and visuals that enhance the emotional feel of the music. Keyboardist Jon George's brother, Katzki, is their longtime creative director. He's taken inspiration from several electronic and rock acts, but for the band's global Inhale/Exhale tour, he adopted a stripped-down industrial aesthetic modeled after Spanish pop star Rosalia's shows. The Inhale/Exhale tour made history in 2025 as the biggest-selling electronic tour of all time.
Among their most enduring musical inspirations are the bands Trentemoller, The Chemical Brothers, and Booka Shade, as well as fellow Aussie acts Cut Copy and The Presets, who also combine live instruments with electronic music.
Frontman Tyrone Lindqvist grew up in Lightning Ridge, a rural town in New South Wales, Australia, where his parents worked as opal miners, but he was sent to a boarding school in Sydney for his education. He started a band with two fellow students and by default became the lead singer when the other guys proved too shy to sing live. That band did not become Rüfüs Du Sol, but it made him want to continue pursuing music. He found a musical kinship with his best friend's older brother, Jon George, who was attending audio engineering school. Calling themselves Rüfüs, the duo added drummer James Hunt to the lineup to round out their sound before the project went live.
According to Lindqvist, Jon George has an aversion to the number seven for reasons he won't divulge. He doesn't make a big deal about it, but the band routinely leaves the number out of their session files. It's not so serious that they have to skip it on their tracklists, though; in fact, one of George's favorite tunes, "Hyptonised," is the seventh track on Bloom.
After years of being on the road started wearing them down, the trio started incorporating therapeutic and holistic practices to make touring a healthier experience. Part of their pre-show ritual involves doing deep breath work to calm their minds and help them feel more present (a practice that also inspired the name of their Inhale/Exhale album). They also traded whiskey shots for ginger shots, which consist of ginger, lemon and cayenne pepper, to warm up their bodies as they launch into their first song.
In a
2016 Records In My Life interview, Rüfüs Du Sol explained how they each got into electronic music. Jon George first became enamored with the genre listening to Moby's 1999
Play album, while Lindqvist credited The Offspring's early albums, particularly 1994's
Smash with the track "
Self Esteem." Hunt's awakening came via Armand van Helden's 1999 single "
You Don't Know Me."
Lindqvist is a big fan of film scores and particularly loves Thomas Newman's minimalist composition for the 1999 movie American Beauty.
Rüfüs Du Sol covered Nirvana's "
Something In The Way," adding their signature electronic spin, for Australian radio network
Triple J's Like A Version segment in 2022.
The band grew up on Nirvana's
Nevermind album, and when it came time to choose a song to cover, they were drawn to the vulnerability of "Something In The Way." Its haunting string motif inspired them to bring in a string quartet for their version, which is something they'd never done before on their own songs.
