ZapTown

Luther Russell always been around the music biz some way or another his entire life. He’s been slapping out platters since 1991 as the Freewheelers (check the Geffen and American label roster). By the end of the ’90s he went solo and never looked back, releasing critically acclaimed albums like Repair and Spare Change.

Growing up, Russell spent his youth around legendary songwriters like his grandfather Bob Russell (who wrote songs for Duke Ellington, The Hollies, Harold Spina, and others) and great uncle Bud Green (who collaborated with Les Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, Raymond Scott, and others). Russell formed his first band called The Bootheels with Jakob Dylan.

It’s been a while since Repair hit the public eye, and Russell has had time to construct ideas and compositions for a new album. We get a taste of what’s to come with his 45 “Good Music” and the recently released EP Motorbike.

Russell talks about how it all began and what’s to come.

Link: http://lutherrussell.com/

It’s been three years since you released an album. Why an EP, and why now?

Um…Its pretty much time because I’m readying my new record The Invisible Audience, which is the length of a double album and a lot of information. So I thought I’d dort of ramp up to it. First with the 45 last year and now with the Motorbike EP. Both contain mostly tracks from the new one.

Does this mean that we are due for a Luther Russell album in the near future?

See above. I hope to have it out before year’s end. It’s actually being mastered as we speak.

Tell me about Motorbike and what it means to you musically and personally (which could be one in the same)?

Musically it was a chance to do something different in drop-D tuning. Also, it was cut in Portland at my friend Larry Crane’s studio Jackpot and so I just used whatever was lying around. In this case that meant a sitar-guitar, decent drum kit, piano, etc. Personally, it’s abstractly based on impressions of a close friend who was the first person I played music with and the first real death in my life (I was 16).

Spare Change was a different type of album for you, as was Repair. How is the band continually trying to change and grow?

Well the band is just me, but I do my best to grow in a way the new record is so epic because I wanted to get out all the different styles I’ve explored over the years so I could move on to something entirely new in the future. Also most of the key people that play with me are somehow involved with the new record.

You have had music in your family and have been surrounded by it your entire life that you could write a book on it and the musician and celebrities you have associated with and been around. What was it like to have that kind of childhood and what does it mean to you now?

I really appreciate it. It wasn’t glitzy or glamorous. My grandfather was a professional lyricist, as was my great uncle. They were craftsmen of another era. It was business as usual around the house growing up around the music business in Los Angeles. It was nothing special for that time and place. Now I’m really proud of my family’s background. I have an older cousin who is no longer with us who I was really close to. She sang on all the Bacharach/Warwick stuff. It’s amazing, and I learned a lot from her for instance. Things they don’t teach elsewhere.

When did you become aware that you would become a musician yourself and how did that develop in your own personal life?

My parents scored me a Ludwig Drumkit. When I was five — that would be in 1975 — I just had to play drums, I guess. It must have been obvious. Then I started making little songs all the time. My first was called “Down With The Waves,” which I wrote in 1977. I used that line on a song in “Spare Change.”

Doing this for so long, what matters most to you as a musician? What gives you satisfaction?

What give me satisfaction is making music with other people who I love to hang out with. And if it makes a great track or record, that’s even better. That matters to me most is when people take great care with what they want to say in a song and how they say it. It’s very cool to get into someone’s special world, lyrically speaking. When it works, it works.

You also are producing albums now. What have your learned from that, and how has that helped you in your own work?

I wish I could say I learned a lot that could help my own work, but it barely translates because it’s very hard to produce one’s self. Even for this new record, I relied on a lot of opinions I trust, and it took extra long. The music isn’t belabored, that’s what actually takes more time: getting takes that aren’t over-wrought.

You have been an important part in the Portland music scene. How do you see that scene today and where it’s heading?

Not really sure, because I moved from there in 2002 and now I live in New York. But I always imagine it will kind of have it’s own thing, as it always has. I’m actually doing a show there at the end of month…very excited about that.

What is up next for Luther Russell? What all do you have planned for 2010 and beyond?

I don’t really make plans. I just do stuff and hope it works out. My goal is to bring this Invisible Audience record out, and it would be gratifying if people got it and liked it and stuff.