Going from Kingston, Pennsylvania post-hardcore act Title Fight to his own project with Glitterer while living in New York City, Ned Russin has had to make some adjustments. Parlaying ideas off of a group of people can be a whole lot easier than deliberating by yourself. It’s also a lot more difficult to get out of your own way when you’re creating your own art rather than collaborating with someone else. While dealing with these things, Russin has managed to fine tune a minimal punk sound with his sophomore LP, Life Is Not A Lesson, which is out on today via Anti- Records. There’s a raw tone that’s consistent within the album along with their being driving riffs and intense vibes.
We recently had a chat about what he’s been doing differently with this project than his previous band, taking techniques from other producers to form his own style, fostering creative energy, and working on being relevant this year.
When you were forming the vision for Glitterer, what do you aim to do differently with this project than what you did with Title Fight?
In starting a new project, there’s a lot of things that go on. There’s a lot of questions that need to be answered and a lot of decisions to be made that I think are too difficult to answer at the beginning of a new endeavor. When I was deciding to do Glitterer and I was starting to write songs, I had an idea of what I wanted to be which is a minimalistic kind of thing that would just be me and a shapeshifting idea that didn’t have a concrete form. Then I wrote some songs, I played some shows and I started to figure it out at that point. Then I released an EP, played some more shows and I followed that up with Looking Through The Shades in 2019 while really getting a hang of what the project was.
There’s nothing set in stone and I think that’s the nice thing about it. It’s a little bit more difficult to decipher with only a single person along with it being a little bit difficult to decide on things. Some things are easier to decide on without four people talking about it but certain things are much more arduous to decide just on your own. For the most part, it feels like I’m doing what I’ve always been doing, which is trying to play music that I like and try to accurately represent myself through the music that I write. It’s a difficult goal but it’s something that I think is important.
Artistic identity can be refreshing, and you also don’t want to come off as being a ripoff of someone else. What was the experience like producing Life Is Not A Lesson by yourself and how much did you learn from Arthur Rizk, who produced Looking Through The Shades?
It was something that I decided I wanted to do before I went into the recording process. It was something I had never done before but I felt that I was capable of doing but it was also something that was kind of confusing. Ever since I’ve worked with a producer, I have never understood what the term actually means because everyone has the wrong interpretation of it. Some people take it to mean that they coach you along in the recording process, some people think it’s about the logistical end of it and some people are very hands on while putting themselves as a member of your band to try and help you improve the songs. I tried to kind of fulfill all those roles that I feel like needed to be filled.
I picked up a lot of things from people that I worked with in the past. Will Yip, Alex G, and Arthur each are people that I’ve worked with in producer roles and I think the things that I’ve picked up from all those people look out for the song’s best interest. It can be hard when you’re so close to the music and that’s why it’s nice to have an outside perspective and opinion during the process from someone that you trust. When you’ve been working on a song for extended periods of time, it’s hard to hear it as the listener would hear it rather than as the songwriter. Taking those people’s perspectives into consideration is something that colored the way that I treated the recording process.
It was also different in a lot of ways. I didn’t record everything in one single go, I spread it out a little over two months. I also wasn’t there for mixing the recording of drums because of the pandemic and quarantine locking down everything. When I was working on the music, it was literally just me while the other things I couldn’t do were passed on to people and I would receive the finished product. That was kind of a weird thing but I feel content with how it turned out and I’m happy with the final product.
I don’t think of myself as a great engineer but I’ve watched some really amazing ones work and I try to pick up some of the good habits that they have. Overall, I focused on writing the songs and getting good takes more than anything.
From listening to it, the quality is really impressive. Musically there’s an abundance of electronic lo-fi beats and fuzzy guitars in the album. How did you go about clashing these styles together? Did you take from two different worlds and put them into a singular sound?
I don’t really think of it as two different worlds. The electronic elements had a presence early on in the project because it’s something that I enjoy messing around with. Playing around with synths and drum machines and even Ableton is a brand new thing for me. Diving into something new will always spark a creative idea or change the way you approach a song, it’s a good way to start a concrete process that I’ve had for a long time. I don’t put too much thought into the direction that I’m taking, I never really sit down and plan out what I want to do.
The songs from the beginning of Glitterer sound a certain way because I was fiddling around with instruments I’ve never used before. I was getting comfortable with changing my style but I was also listening to new bands and having new life experiences. Those things also colored the songs and as I got more comfortable I changed the process a little bit. I brought more guitars in and I did all of these things but to me it all comes down to trying to write a song. That’s really all I’m concerned with.
The process changes and the instruments change but the goal has never changed for me. It’s ultimately not something that I really think about.
What do you hope people take from the album after they listen to it?
The world is in a really weird, screwed up, dark and depressing kind of place. I understand the need for escapism through entertainment but I’ve never viewed art in that way. I like to think of art as something that can not only assist in helping any issues a person can have but it can also offer community, solutions and a lot more than having a good time. That’s really important and it’s something that I’ve always focused on. Given all that’s going on in the world, I don’t want to tell people how to engage with the record.
I’d like to think that there is a lot of emotion on it that I hope will come across and will be comforting to people that may be feeling a similar way at the same time. I also understand that this is coming out at a time when people just want to have something to engage with to get their mind off things. I want people to use the record however they want to use it and I think ultimately the fact that music is still coming out and things are still being made is a good thing. To feel how other people are interacting with the world they exist in is very powerful and important, especially when it feels like everything has slowed down and there’s a lot more to focus on. It’s something that I’m happy to be a part of.
You’re totally spot on with how art can offer more than just an escape. It can offer a whole lifestyle and it’s a lot more than a door to open and walk through. With live music still being nonexistent because of COVID-19, how do you plan on marketing and promoting Life Is Not A Lesson? Do you plan on doing anything virtually or do you plan on habitually sharing it on social media?
I don’t know, I really have no idea. I’m going to leave that up to the intelligent people at Anti-, they’re people that I trust and I think that they know what they’re talking about. Even though this is uncharted territory I’m just flying by the seat of my pants at this moment. I’ve played one virtual show so far and it was kind of weird but it was for a great cause and I enjoyed doing it. To me, live music is about as close to a sacred, spiritual thing that exists on this Earth and I respect it so much that going virtually feels like doing it a disservice.
I don’t think people are trying to replace live music by any means but I want to just wait until I can really do the thing. With that being said, if the right opportunity came around I wouldn’t say no to anything but it needs to be done well. Other than that I’m just going to try to put music that people can listen to while being available for conversation and existing anyway I can in 2021.
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