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Scott Russo - Photo credit Dey
Martin
Fame Doesn't Concern
Unwritten Law Singer
- It's the Songwriting That is Most
Important
AN INTERVIEW WITH UNWRITTEN LAW SINGER
SCOTT RUSSO
MARCH 15, 2002
BY DEY MARTIN
Fame - to Unwritten Law singer Scott
Russo - is'nt really what matters, in fact he says it's a bit scary. But
like it or not this San Diego quintet, once known as a punk-rock act,
is exploding all over MTV with their hit 'Seein Red' - the perefectly crafted
track off this January's Interscope release titled 'Elva'.
The band has been together since the early 90s - they've put out a slew of records - and now (with only one original
member, namely, Wade, the drummer) these guys are a sizzling hot
commodity.
What happened all of a sudden? When
I asked Scott about the bands new, more "pop", angle to songwriting, he
flinched, as I must surely have hit a sensitive nerve. But, to get
'em talkin' you gotta' ask the tough questions!
I do really like this band. And
non-stop touring to support this creative and diverse new
alterternative-rock record shows that they still mean business.
Yea sure, they were once a punk outfit, but it's evolution man! If
you're not busy bein' born, you're busy dyin'. Anyway, enough of
the philosophy crap. Here goes: It's my interview with Scott Russo,
the now famous singer of Unwritten Law.
PUR: I'm sitting here talking to Scott Russo from Unwritten
Law. So you guys came a long way, I mean you know a long way from
San Diego and your early punk days.
I heard through
the grapevine and maybe through press releases and things that you guys
had to cancel your show in Detroit the other night. Sounds like it was
pretty ballistic. Can you tell me what happened
there?
Yeah, well we were playing at the Saint Andrews Theater and the
floor, it's actually two clubs sitting on top of each other, and they
had a show going on underneath, and our show going on top, and the first
band that was on our tour, Sugarcoat, was on and the kids were all
jumping and they cracked the 2x6's or the 6x2's, whatever they are
called, long ways and they had to pull all the kids out because the
floor was gonna collapse.
It was gnarly I saw it myself. It was pretty sketchy because if that
shit would have happened a little bit later a lot of people could of
been hurt; so it was kinda cool. But uh - afterwards - yeah
me and Tony sang them a bunch of songs acoustically on top of the U-Haul
and the kids were gnarly and we stoked em' , and we are gonna give them
a free show too. So it will be cool.
Right on. So the Seeing Red cut is your new single off the January
release of Elva. What does Elva represent for the band in terms of what
you guys have been doing?
You know I think our band has come full circle. I think that you know
growing up you kinda brought in you know punk rock roots and I think
were all getting a bit older. Our influences in music are like different
now so its like our band as a whole is influenced.
Like we have this crazy white trash kid, Wade, who listens to all this
speed-metal and Slipknot and Deftones and all that kinda stuff. Then you
have PK who’s like an Encyclopedia, and you have Rob who listens to that
kinda punk stuff like Dag Nasty, and music in that genre. And
then you have Steve who’s full-on like kinda whiskey-rock or he likes like
Social D and all that kinda stuff. And I'm like a
freak, I’m into reggae and like crazy hip-hop stuff. I’m really into
hip-hop.
So, it's kinda like when we come together as like song writers, it's
kinda like our influences are one side of the spectrum to the
other, were not totally concentrating on, you know, making punk rock
music.
We’re more or less concerned about writing a good song. So it's like
lyrically and presentably-wise we will come across as punk. We’re not
afraid of very much. So its like you know we kinda tend to get drunk and
do drugs and you know stuff like that, and you know get in fights, so
its like I’m not really sure where I’m going with this story, but uh,
I’m not even really sure what the question was that was
asked.
Well that Elva cut happens to
be one of the best cuts on the album, in my opinion.
Cool, thank you.
But, like you were sayin’, you’ve stylistically run the gamut here.
The songs are really so different from each other, and I guess that’s
why... it's because you guys are bringing your own influences
in.
It's not really that. It's just that we don’t care about
writing the same song about fifteen times in a row. It's like also the
songs are written acoustically too so when you translate it into a whole
band its like there's only certain ways to do certain songs.
All the songs are written acoustically. Even the heavy songs are
written acoustically, so when you come to recording, in the actual
recording process, you’ve gotta translate into distortion, the drums and
a bass line, they all kinda sound different.
What we were focused on was making sure every song was good with
whatever it was we were recording. We wrote over thirty songs
worth.
It's amazing how you can write a song on an acoustic guitar and make
it into something so different by the way you throw the instruments
down. The songs are especially more pop than the stuff from the early
days obviously as opposed to when you guys were straight ahead
punkers.
Yeah quite a bit I think.
Well Hellborn is not a pop song.
Babylon is a good pop song too. (now sounding a bit
pissed-off)
No Babylon is more hard. Well, I mean it's a change from back
in the days of 619. You can definitely admit that.
Yeah, you know it's like I said, we’ve grown as a band, and have
grown with our listeners and fans, and as musicians, its cool.
Im glad whatever the direction we're going in; Im stoked to be
here.
Yeah, you don’t have to stay in the same place, and it would be crazy if
you did. Its best to just evolve, and you guys have, really, I think you
guys kick ass.
Thank you so much dude, sincerely. (continued on next
page)
GO TO THE DISCUSSION
ABOUT UNWRITTEN LAW
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