He started his career in 2002 with the indie band The Format but eventually left to join fun. in 2008. After fun. went on a hiatus he would release his debut solo album in 2015, though it received mixed reviews despite being hyped and he never released another solo album afterwards. He would reunite with The Format in 2025.
He has also co-written various songs such as "Die Young" by Kesha, "Stay the Night" by Zedd and Hayley Williams, "Walk Me Home" by P!nk
Discography:
- Grand Romantic (2015)
I am nothing without tropes:
- Call-Back: He is arguably the callback king of modern music:
- In addition to the callback in "Dog Problems", Ruess calls back to "The First Single" (which included the line "let's cause a scene...") in fun.'s "Take Your Time (Coming Home)", referring to the breakup of The Format as "I'm through with causing a scene."
- In several fun. songs ("Take Your Time (Coming Home)", "Some Nights" and "Why Am I the One?") "the desert" and "the sun" are used to refer to Arizona and California, respectively. This is a callback to The Format's "On Your Porch".
- A callback to two songs from fun.'s debut album is present in the song "Stars", with the line "Some nights I rule the world with "Barlights" and "Pretty Girls"." The titles are even in quotations in the lyrics, so it's a pretty obvious reference. It's also probably not a coincidence that the debut had a song called "I Want to Be the One", while Some Nights had "Why Am I the One?".
- Face on the Cover: Grand Romantic shows him surrounded by a skull, mask, and roses while holding a bunch of different colored balloons.
- Solo Side Project: After fun. went on hiatus, which they insist is NOT a break-up, frontman Nate Ruess embarked on a solo career as an Indie Pop artist. If fun. hasn't truly broken up, it can be assumed that Nate's solo career is this.
- Special Guest: Beck in "What This World Is Coming To".