Southern California melodic punk rock veterans Rufio have released their long-awaited new EP, ‘From The Outside,’ available today, August 7, via Double Helix Records and sister label Double Felix Records. Led by the focus track ‘Another Letdown’ the five-song release represents Rufio’s first collection of new material since 2010’s ‘Anybody Out There’.
Arriving 25 years after the band’s landmark debut, ‘Perhaps, I Suppose…’, ‘From The Outside’ reconnects longtime members Scott Sellers (vocals/guitar), Clark Domae (guitar/vocals), and Taylor Albaugh (bass/vocals), and features drummer Dylan Roy (Dragged Under, ONI, Skylimit),
‘Another Letdown’ captures the qualities that have long distinguished Rufio from their peers: agile musicianship, driving guitars, soaring melodies, and an emotional urgency that never comes at the expense of precision. At the same time, the song reflects a band writing from a markedly different place than they were two decades ago, with experience lending new weight and perspective to their unmistakable sound.
Written remotely by Sellers, Domae, and Albaugh, ‘From The Outside’ emerged without the industry expectations or scene pressures that surrounded much of Rufio’s earlier work. That freedom allowed the band to follow their instincts, reconnect creatively, and make something rooted in who they are now.
“This EP was something fun to do with the dudes,” Sellers says. “We just wanted to make something that we are proud of and had fun doing. I’m at a weird point where I don’t really care what anyone else thinks right now. For me it was all about making something with the guys. We are old as hell now, so it’s not often we get to hang. So just being a bit more involved in each other’s lives felt really fucking good for me.”
“For the first time, there was no pressure to write a ‘hit,’ and there was no pressure of trying to write according to the direction of the scene—not that it ever mattered to us,” adds Domae.
Across its five tracks, ‘From The Outside’ addresses family, grief, anxiety, reconciliation, and the perseverance required to move through life’s more difficult seasons. Rather than trying to recreate the mindset of their early twenties, Rufio approached the EP as adults whose lives and priorities have evolved—retaining the speed, technical ability, and melodic instincts of their foundational records while writing with a greater sense of reflection.
The EP was produced by Rufio, mixed by JUNO-award-winning producer Sam Guaiana (Silverstein, Bayside, Neck Deep), and mastered by Grammy-award-winning engineer Jason Livermore (Rise Against, NOFX, Descendents, Hot Water Music) at The Blasting Room.
Rufio began signaling their return earlier this year with a newly recorded version of the fan favorite ‘Dipshit’, released in celebration of the 25th anniversary of ‘Perhaps, I Suppose…’. The band followed it with the soaring single ‘Maps’. With the arrival of ‘From The Outside’, what began as a commemoration of Rufio’s past has become the opening of an entirely new chapter.
More than two decades after earning a devoted following through their singular combination of pop-punk immediacy and technically ambitious musicianship, Rufio sound energized, assured, and fully present on ‘From The Outside’. The new EP doesn’t attempt to turn back time—it shows what can happen when old friends reconnect, remove the expectations, and rediscover why they wanted to make music together in the first place.
‘From The Outside’ is out now via Double Helix Records and Double Felix Records.