Over the crazy course of the global pandemic, songwriter Sam Russo has regularly experienced a number of emotions. This has included periods of anger and frustration at the current situation, but also optimism for what lies ahead as well as gratitude for everyone who listened to his last album, Back to the Party, which was released in March of last year, just as the world was coming to terms with its new, frightening circumstances.
To express this gratitude, Russo released Refuse to Lose in late April, a surprise EP made up of three singles from his last album that were re-recorded as much louder, electric versions.
“I wanted to say thank you to those who listened to [After the Party] for sticking with us through the mess… for having the energy and mental bandwidth to digest a new album during the pandemic,” he says, via Zoom from his home in Haverhill, England. “I’m very grateful for everyone who listened to that album in spite of the circumstances— this was how I wanted to show my gratitude.”
While it may be only a trio of tracks, Refuse to Lose packs emotional and sonic punch, the perfect example of how quality triumphs over quantity and how a small but incredibly focused piece of impassioned art can have a big impact. A combination of online collaboration as well as some socially distanced studio time, Refuse to Lose was recorded with some of Russo’s musician friends and peers, including Chris Stockings on guitar, Garth Vickers behind the kit, and Alkaline Trio bassist Dan Andriano.
While at first, he was a bit uncertain about how the remote recording process would unfold, Russo was surprised at how much he enjoyed the unconventional, creative experience.
“It’s not something I’ve ever really done before,” he admits. “Writing my stuff is always quite isolating… it’s very personal and you just do it on your own. But when you’re collaborating over a distance, people come at it at such different angles, and I found that even miscommunication and mistakes could turn into something great. I found it really stimulating to work on arrangements over distance, bouncing ideas off each other. Some people find the back-and-forth quite laborious, but I loved it.”
Russo reveled in the organic nature of the EP’s fruition and says he “couldn’t be happier” with what they created.
“It was great to be able to let go of these songs and let people, who I completely trust and respect creatively, just go with it and do whatever they want with it— that felt amazing,” he says. “By letting go and not being precious about it, the songs turned out exactly how I wanted them to. If I was prescriptive and told people what to do and how to play it, that would have felt totally wrong to me.”
He laughs.
“Also, who the fuck am I to tell Dan Andriano how to write a bassline.”
In addition to letting go of the steering wheel artistically, Russo also wanted to surprise people by turning up the volume on these songs, which listeners have never had the privilege of hearing in a live setting. Where in most cases, an artist will strip down their songs, revealing the tracks’ bones and intricate structure in the process, Russo ventured in a different direction, adding more sonic layers and compositions, challenging and therefore demonstrating what he’s capable of vocally— and it’s impressive.
“It was the last thing anyone expected,” he says with a smile. “A lot of artists are doing stripped-down, acoustic versions, and it’s just in my DNA to do the exact opposite. I also had a real desire to hear that— to hear something really energetic and dynamic and textured. I just made the songs sound the way I always wanted them to sound, basically.”
“I do feel a bit pigeonholed sometimes, in that people just see me as an acoustic guy. But I never really felt that way,” he continues. “I’ve always felt that I do the acoustic stuff out of necessity because I’ve never really been able to put together a band that sounded the way I wanted it to. This was an opportunity to do that, and I jumped on it.”
The album title stems from a long-running inside joke amongst him and his friends, which has become a mantra of sorts, especially in difficult situations.
“We just developed this attitude where we would say ‘refuse to lose’ in the worst possible situations,” he says, laughing. “Like, if we got ourselves in a real pickle and somebody was about to be arrested, one of us would be like, ‘refuse to lose.’ But it’s kind of universal, in that everyone has a different application of that phrase in their lives and they pull different meaning out of that.”
As mentioned earlier, in spite of a crippled music industry, Russo is cautiously optimistic about what lies ahead for him and his fellow artists. He hopes that from the smoldering ashes, live and recorded music, of all genres, will return stronger than before.
“I’m not a fan of the corporate live music model— I don’t think it serves the arts community at all,” he states. “I think we can burn that down and start again. It might take a horrible tragedy to create that change and all you can do is find some positivity in it… try to build something better than what was there before.”
“I can’t way to get back to playing shows— to get back to doing what I love and seeing the audience again,” he says. “I want to get back to the party, man!”
Check out Refuse To Lose below, and hear the tracks in their original, acoustic form on Back To The Party here.
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Images courtesy of Sam Russo.
