A Chat with Annie DiRusso + Gallery

By Peyton Mott

Self-proclaimed, “sad girl indie-rock” singer-songwriter, Annie Dirusso, has been

captivating audiences since her first releases, “Gone” and “Blue Walls” in 2017. Hailing fromBoston, Massachusetts, Annie started writing songs as a teenager, and quickly developed her honest, heartfelt lyrics and soulful voice. Over the years, she has released a series of well-received EPs and singles that have rightfully earned her a dedicated fanbase who relate to her heartfelt storytelling and viral hits. With each release, Annie has explored new themes and sounds, demonstrating the unique sonic and lyrical depth that sets her apart from other artists. Annie DiRusso recently released an EP titled "God, I Hate This Place”; a collection of five

emotional tracks exploring themes of home, homesickness, and personal growth. Annie's raw and blunt lyrics, paired with her charming vocals on songs like “Body” and “Frisco Forever”, make for a powerful listening experience for those who want to miss home, even if they’re already there. We got to sit down with Annie to discuss her current tour and the release of her new EP, “God, I Hate This Place.”

Ease Up: Hey Annie! How are you, how has the tour been so far?

AnnieDiRusso: Everything has been great, tour has been very sweet so far!

EU: First of all, congrats on releasing your EP, God, I Hate This Place I’m a big fan!

AD: Aw, thank you!

EU: What were some of your biggest influences while writing the songs for your new EP? Were there any particular artists, albs, or genres that inspired you during the writing process?

AD: Let me pull up my Spotify to see what I was listening to while I was writing. I fell back in love with Melodrama by Lorde, then Frankie Cosmos, and I got really into Alex G for the first time. I think the influences are maybe apparent on Hybrid and a little bit of Frisco Forever. I'm always inspired by the artists that I tour with. I've been very fortunate to be a fan of some of them before, but I feel like when I go on tour with artists I tend to listen to them even more. So definitely the Samia record!

EU: That’s a very wide variety of artists and it's a perfect representation of how your sound has evolved since the first releases until now. How would you say that your music has changed sonically, lyrically, or otherwise?

AD: I think I’ve gotten to know a little bit more about what I want to make and how to make it. There were some limitations when I was making some of the early stuff with what I knew how to do and what I thought was okay for me to do. When I was making this EP I realized it's way more fun to do things that I don’t know how to do and just learn about them and push myself to figure out production and stretch outside of that and make something that I wanted to make and lose the limits that I've set for myself. There’s a lot more synth and more vocal effects, I used to be really, really scared of any effects on my vocals. I think over the last year that's been exciting to me to start trying and do that. So I think sonically, I just let myself be a little more supportive and realize that anyone can be doing that.

EU: The EP contains, at least from my perspective, a lot of parallels to some of your previous releases as well. Seen in the songs Nauseous versus Nine Months. Could you talk about how your past work has influenced your creative process for the EP?

AD: Yeah. I don't like to think too much about what I make. I just try to make things and see what they become and I think naturally there are a lot of parallels between the older stuff just because they're all coming from different versions. Of me and some tastes that remain.Over the last year. Those songs have changed so much, from when I recorded them. When I record a song, it's so fresh after I write it usually that I don't have an educated view on exactly what it feels like to play it, you know, in different spaces. And which is I think sometimes really helpful to the recording process because it's a little insular. But also sometimes there are certain songs that I wish I recorded a year after I started playing it live, just because it just changed so much for me at that time.

EU: Awesome. On that note, as you are writing this EP it has references and metaphors to home and your home environment, your hometown, how has your experience with that EP shifted as you're performing songs about home while you're touring?

AD: I don't know a lot of the songs that I wrote. I think I wrote the whole EP except for Body last year and I was touring a lot last year. So I think a lot of the songs are referenced in different places, but also have references to home or that have to do with me being just hyper-aware of what home or lack era means to me. So playing the songs on tour feels very right to me cause they were born out of that space.

EU: on the same theme of, you know, a lot of the EP being about home and homesickness, lack of home, The idea of home in the EP seems to appear to be an extension of yourself with some of your lyrics. For example; All I wanted to be is everything / I cleaned my room for you and Went into my room / It still reeks of you. Can you talk about the inspiration behind those lyrics and how home spaces have influenced your creative process and identity?

AD: My room is so important to me. I love to have a room that reflects who I am a bit. When I moved into my house in Nashville four years ago now, it was my first time, basically making my own bedroom since I was a child. I got to fill the walls up with art and fill the shelves up with books and make it feel like a home. I love my bedroom in my house right now so much. I have these big windows and these bookshelves. , and it was just creating my own space for the first time, with my own taste. And that was, really, really special to me. I write basically all of my songs in my bedroom. And for this tour, we were able to get a banner that is just a huge high def picture of my bedroom. Right. And I have a bed on stage and just recreate my bedroom.

EU: Are there any specific memories or places or sounds whether that be on tour that reminded you of home that helped you write this, record or are there any, you know, places, sounds, or memories at home that were very specific and integral to writing it?

AD: In terms of sounds, I think that it was more creating sounds that represented these ideas to me. So the intro at the beginning of Emerson feels a little creepy because the first lyrics are creepy, but also very, warm. And that made a lot of sense to me there. And it felt exactly what I wanted to feel like, and then in Body, I have that really crunchy guitar for most of the song and just my vocals, that feels so personal, and I think I like the way that carries that through. And then in Frisco, we have these very, very stark moments, and then these heavy moments, what's

the word? Complimenting each other! Specifically and making each moment feel, a little more dramatic, which I think lets you feel the loneliness as feeling at the time, and then it rejects you

EU: Is there a favorite song off the new ep or even just one of, your older ones that you perform live that's one of your favorites to perform live?

AD: Yeah, I have a few favorites. I really like playing and it changes all the time. And I really like playing Frisco Forever. That's what we embody. And hybrid. Those are the three good ones I love playing. There are so many, I love playing. I love to play live, I also love playing Emerson, I love playing that song, or Nine Months, and love setting up songs. I'll just leave it at that, but I love playing all the songs. I just named half of them…

EU: Well it wouldn’t be great if you didn't like playing them!

AD: Very true!

EU: So writing about these fairly personal experiences and, and memories I'm sure is an emotional process, is there anything you've learned about your younger self through the writing process?

AD: I think I learned so much about myself, whether it was in the process of writing this or even listening to some of the songs that were at least three or four years ago. It's a very special way to be able to observe myself. I think that I just learned to trust myself and be kind to myself. Moments and also listen to my gut and tell the truth. I don't have any direct advice for myself except just, just be compassionate towards yourself and others.

EU: Great. That ,to be fair, is a loaded question

AD: *laughs*

EU: All of the songs on this EP tend to relate to loneliness, heartache, and mental health. , can you talk about how you approached writing these difficult subjects and if that process is a straight-through thing for you, or if it's one of those things where you have to take breaks and come back to it?

AD: I feel with the subject matter of each song. I didn't go into any of them planning to write about what I wrote about. And then I almost, my thing with writing songs, which I think is probably wrong, but it's just the way I've always done it, is I don't even know what I'm writing about most of the time. Then, I have moments where things start to click and I get to tie things together, but it worked for me because I know there's a reason that I'm stringing things together. It's just a little scavenger hunt to figure out why I'm doing it, and so for the ep, for instance, when I started writing Nauseous, I was like, what do these mean together? And eventually, I was able to see, where the thread was. And it wasn't like I didn't write in one sitting. Frisco, I wrote probably the fastest, I wrote 80% of that in one sitting. No, actually I didn't, I wrote 50% of that in one sitting. And then I wrote the, probably the all,

the 50% in the studio cuz the chorus wasn't hitting completely. . And then I was able to tweak it and add that last verse thing. And that last verse is where everything, and then hybrid, I wrote that song, a version of that song 600,000 times. None of them, I guess I didn't write any of these songs in a day. Actually, okay now I’m

backtracking. I wrote “Body” in a day, but I was working with two co-writers, and that was a song that I wouldn't have ever gone back to, if I hadn't finished it at that moment. And I'm really, really proud of how that came out. It's very simple but, and straightforward. And I think that's why we were able to write it in one sitting.

EU: And then also on that note, how do you hope listeners will relate to your songs?

AD: I don't know if there's a certain element that's most important for you to get across to listeners, but yeah, I just hope that it makes people feel something at all. Yeah, I think that it's really beautiful to me that words and music kinda connects like that. Whether it makes people feel less alone or maybe recognize something in themselves

EU: I just have one more question for you, what are you looking to do next? Is there anything that's on your bucket list for this year?

AD: So this headline tour is gonna stretch out pretty far. We just started it. We have about 25 shows left. Yeah, we'll be out until the middle of June and then playing Lollapalooza in August, which is so insane. Something I'm really excited about is just making and putting out more stuff.

EU: Well, I'm excited to hear some new stuff for sure. And this EP is great. , and I'm excited to see you when you come to town, thank you for taking the time to chat!

AD: Thanks so much!

Annie DiRusso at Velvet Underground