Rene Russo

Rene Russo news, related photos and videos, and reviews of Rene Russo performances. According to Wikipedia: Rene Marie Russo is an American film actress and former fashion model.

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Interview: Randi Russo

Written by rollzroyce6 on

From: www.thankscaptainobvious.net

Conducted by Capt. Obvious

Obvious: When did you start playing guitar, and why'd you opt for the upside-down right handed guitar rather than a lefty guitar?

Russo: I started playing guitar when I was 19 years old. It's a long story how I came about playing guitar upside-down. Basically, I'm a lefty and when I wanted to play guitar, the salesman told me that most lefties play righty -- it's just easier, in the sense that usually stores don't carry a lot of lefty guitars and if they do, they are more expensive. Since this was my first guitar and I never played guitar before and wasn't sure how interested in it I'd be, I decided to follow his suggestion and bought a cheap righty electric.

But something didn't feel right about playing righty, so I flipped it upside-down and played it lefty; however, I DID restring the guitar so that it was the same as if I bought a real lefty. A few months later, I was at a street fair, and I saw a used guitar... this was a small body classical right-handed guitar. It had those little tie-strings and I thought to myself, "oh, I don't know how to restring that." And, for whatever reason, it never occurred to me that I could take it to someone who did know how to do that -- I'm a very DIY kind of person and sometimes it never enters my mind to ask anyone for help. I also was kind of a lazy person back then, and if something was too much trouble, then I just left things as they were.

So I started playing this guitar upside-down and my electric the "correct" way. But, this classical guitar was always next to my bed, leaning against the wall, while the electric was in its case and under my bed. Again, my laziness comes into play... since the classical was next to my bed, I kept reaching for that one and started writing songs on it. For a while, I still played the electric the right way, but when the bulk of my material was written using this upside down style, then I switched the electric back and played that one upside-down as well. I played only that way for several years.

Recently, I started playing real lefty guitars, so I now play both ways again. However, most of my songs are written and played on the upside-down guitar.

Obvious: Do you think that your unconventional style of guitar playing gives you a fresh perspective as a songwriter?

Russo: Absolutely. Being self-taught and playing upside-down fostered a style that was based on coming up with unusual chords that just sounded good to me. I didn't care what the chords were called or about any kind of typical song structure.

Obvious: You're also a painter. How does the creative process when you paint compare to your songwriting process?

Russo: In some ways, they are similar. When I paint, I rarely have a specific idea in mind. I just pick up a brush and go. Then when I start to see a face or figure, I try to bring it out to the surface. It's like my guitar-playing, in that I go by my gut instinct, of which I am always aware that this instinct is fueled by my heart and not really my mind... my mind comes into play when I work on lyrics or when I'm trying to pull that image out from the swirl of colors or lines.

Obvious: You seem to be conscious of the dichotomy between personal identity and outside perception on Shout Like A Lady. Describe the feeling of putting yourself out there in front of an audience, and was it intimidating when you first started performing?

Russo: Getting out in front of an audience was very difficult for me in the beginning. I was such a shy and private person... shy enough to only play super quietly in my own apartment because I didn't want neighbors to hear me. I was self-conscious to an extreme and it's taken me years to get over it. Now, I feel very comfortable performing and I enjoy it. I wouldn't say that I'm completely uninhibited, but I'm certainly exponentially less self-conscious and much more confident. But yes, I am still aware of the dichotomy of the inside self and the outside self. I still struggle with the fear of other people's judgments, and I still work on bringing the inside self to the outside world. I consciously challenge myself to be unashamed about what I feel/what I'm thinking/what I'm saying -- this has been a work in progress and I have noticed quite a huge improvement there as well.

Obvious: You get a lot of comparisons to Patti Smith and PJ Harvey. Do you find the comparisons flattering, and do you ever think that comparisons box you in as an artist?

Russo: Both. I'm happy to be compared to such amazing artists and feel empowered by it. But sometimes it works against me. A big-time music attorney (his firm reps Lou Reed and David Bowie) was interested in my stuff on some hearsay alone and then read my press. Being a huge Patti Smith fan, he went on and on about wanting to hear my music and how much he loved Patti Smith and how he went to all her NYC shows. Then after hearing only three of my songs, he said, "I like your songs and you're very talented, but I cannot shop you and say that you're the Patti Smith of 2006." So, my press worked against me. It kind of set me up for a fall because he was expecting something completely different. It's true -- I am not Patti Smith, nor would I want to be because I have something of my own to say and I definitely have a different bent on the way I play my guitar and write songs. It seems like people in the business, especially those "in the big leagues," want to market someone as "The Next so-and-so." I'm hoping that whatever makes me unique will be admired and someone will want to take a chance on it.

As far as PJ is concerned, she was a huge influence on me, whereas I didn't hear Patti's music until after I was getting comparisons to her. Upon hearing Patti's music, I became a fan and have been influenced by her since then, but her music was completely unknown to me when I was first writing songs and singing... I just knew about her through Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs. At one of his exhibits, someone said that she was a poet, but never mentioned anything about her being a musician. It was years later that I heard "Horses" for the first time.

Obvious: I noticed some ink on your arm, what's your tattoo?

Russo: It's a gargoyle. But he has no wings... it didn't occur to me at the time to give him wings. I keep saying that one day he'll get his wings. Not sure if he's earned them yet.

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/randirusso

Listen:
MP3: Randi Russo - Cobwebs
Tags: Randi Russo, Shout Like A Lady

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