SAM RUSSO
PHOTO BY PAUL SILVER
INTERVIEW BY JOSHUA MARANHAS
F
ive years on from 2015’s Still do most things the long way friends. Writing as Sam Russo is Greyhound Dreams, U.K. ’round, and still love making mu- usually isolated and kind of lonesinger-songwriter Sam Russo sic, writing, singing, reading and ly, so I was keen to see if showing is bringing a new record into hanging out!� people what I was working on the world. Back to the Party is out would have a positive effect on now via Red Scare Industries, and Russo is masterfully articulate my writing, and, for the most part, with it, Russo fills in the blanks on his and exceptionally capable of it did!� life since the last album.
“A lot has changed, but day to day my life is pretty similar to when I put out Greyhound Dreams,� he says. “I still work a lot, still live in the same place, still play a bunch of shows and tour as much as I can, still skate early in the mornings when it’s sunny, still play football with the same team.� A great deal of Russo’s life involves community and his connection to friends. Back to the Party plays like a celebration of tiny moments. “[I] still get together with friends for D&D at the weekends, and still always get a booth by the bar,� he says. “Still got love for the streets.
60 NEW NOISE
setting these activities to song. Like tiny lights in a night sky, his Russo describes a lasting picdaily routines move closer to ture of the scene inside Half his audience, then further away. Ton Studios in Cambridge, U.K., He works with his guitar and his where the album was recorded, words to capture scenes on wax, taking in the temperature of the the way a child might capture room, as well as the temperafireflies in a mason jar and light ture outside. up the mind of listeners. “It was during the heat wave, so Russo explains the time and care I’ll always associate recording he folded into creating this latest those songs with being blisswork. fully hot and lucky enough to be spending ten hours a day “I’m not one to rush or write filler, tucked away from the world so I just took my time and grafted, playing and singing with two slow and steady,� he says. “I wrote people I bloody love,� he says. about 20 songs and trimmed “It was tough, and we had a redown to ten that I loved. I exper- ally tight schedule, but I loved it. imented a lot too. I wrote in way This record is drenched in sweat, I wouldn’t normally. I collaborat- and you should be able to hear ed a bit, and I took advice from me smiling at times.�
Russo is interested in people interpreting his work for themselves, but he has a strong point to make with Back to the Party about life’s everyday vignettes, the personal times. This work takes the listener on a journey. “The main theme of the record is the things you share with the people you navigate life with,â€? he says. “Thematically, friendship was cropping up a lot in my early demos. For the most part, Back To the Party is about the journey you go on with your friends from 15 to 35. How you stay close to people you had sleepovers with when you were kids when you’re in your 30s, and life is almost unrecognizable and everyone’s off on different paths. It’s not nostalgic, but there’s glances over the shoulder for sure. The title says it all really - depending on how you interpret it.â€?đ&#x;’Ł đ&#x;’Ł đ&#x;’Ł
