Music

'I left after year 10': Ruel discusses his decision to drop out of school to pursue music

It turned out pretty well for the award-winning Aussie artist.

If you haven't already heard of Ruel, he's on track to become a household name.

At the age of only 20, the Aussie artist has broken records becoming the youngest ever artist to win Breakthrough artist at the ARIA awards and the youngest musician ever to sell out the Sydney opera house, which he did twice.

He's shared stages with Khaild, and Shawn Mendes played Tyler the Creators Camp Flog Gnaw festival, and released collaborations with Denzel Curry, JVKE, Omar Apollo, and Cosmo's midnight.

If that wasn't enough, he just released his long-awaited debut studio album '4th Wall' and announced an Australia/New Zealand tour after selling out three world tours.

The five-time platinum artist will be visiting Auckland and Wellington in May to play his new album, which was executively produced by M-Phazes (Khalid, Noah Cyrus, Remi Wolf).

During his time in the country to announce his tour, he dropped by The Edge studios to sit down with our Edge nights host Sean Hill.

The pair chatted about the process of creating his new album, the kiwi artists he wants to collab with, how he left school early to pursue music, and more.

During their chat about collaborating with kiwi artists, Sean mentioned Six60 and called bass player Chris Mac to see if they could set something up.

Watch the moment unfold below.

During a quickfire round of fast facts, Sean asked whether it was true that Ruel left school after year 11.

"That's not true, I left after year 10" he revealed.

He explained further that after he began touring during year 10, it became difficult to keep up with school, and decided to leave.

"It was pretty strange" he admitted.

When Sean asked whether he did exams, he responded "I did exams I just didn't do the important ones because I don't have that kind of clutch".

"A lot of teachers would target me because of it and be like 'You just don't care do you'". He explained.

Watch the chat below.

Looks like it turned out pretty well.

If you want to watch the full interview with the rising star, take a look at the full interview above.

To listen to his brand new album 4th Wall, click here and for all the information on his upcoming New Zealand tour click here.