Diandra Interviews Russell James: Finding Who You Are To Find Your Sound

There are moments when you need to hush and listen. Russell James has this affect in music and words. While we all have suffering, Russell has earned wisdom and compassion form it. Not all of us walk away from tragedy and life’s harder punches stronger from it and willing to heal. In understanding that moving forward and on is the biggest option people do not choose, Russell James’ interview left me taking notes on how to listen to music and what I need to choose better.

Diandra: Depression, PTSD, and hyperacusis; what have all these diagnosed conditions taught you about the human condition?

Russell: We’re fragile beings, quite fragile. The schemas holding our lives together are razor thin and can break at any moment. Each one of us is walking these lines, working hard to keep them from breaking. Otherwise it’s living hell. My schema lines break routinely, and it has allowed me to observe when this is happening in others.

When I was in grad school I was fond of saying “everyone has trauma” and I meant it. There are these little things that have happened in your life that contribute to angst later on. Remember having serious money trouble for like, 8 years in your 20’s? Now you’re in your 40’s, but the fear of losing it all is still there. It makes for a scary world when everyone is on edge and doesn’t know it.

Diandra: How do you feel your traumas mold your artistry?

Russell: I’ve always struggled with this question because I’ve never seen the guitar, or songwriting, as something cathartic. I can’t play myself out of a bad mood, nor would I want to. With Wave/Water I’ve decided to let people in on my trauma, the dark sides and the light. Much of 2017 was spent in suicidal depression and also much of the year I was working on this record. I’m amazing at what came out of the worst year of my life.

Diandra: You truly emphasize that no one is alone in their battles, despite feeling lonely. What helped you discover this distinction?

Russell: Psychologically speaking, I operate under the umbrella of humanism. One of the tenets I’ve come to understand deeply is, in the end, we rely on ourselves. The transitive property would say we always have ourselves, even when there’s no one else around. I find profound truth in this, especially as someone who is kind of a loner these days.

Diandra: Having hyperacusis, how do you rework your creative process, and redefine what sounds attract and support your lyrical messages?

Russell: Really great question! My hyperacusis is quite severe and also tied to Asperger’s so there is a lot to work through. Our house is silent most of the time, other than typical running appliances. I have special earplugs I wear anytime I go to a store or a restaurant, let alone play a gig. I also have some very expensive noise cancelling headphones for when I want to watch a movie or something, but the sound needs to be down.

I think as my ability to ignore, or control my hyperacusis diminished, I was drawn to dreamy, ethereal, and ambient sounds. I went back to my roots of shoegaze and dream pop and began crafting elements in my songs reflecting the need for relaxing sounds. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some burners on the record, but most will notice the shift towards mellow.

Diandra: Looking out on the trajectory of your life what is one lesson you learned from your past, one lesson you have learned in your present, and one lesson you wish to learn in the future?

Russell:
You can’t trust anyone
You can’t trust anyone.
I’d like to learn how to trust people.

(I laughed too hard at this response! I love when truth and sarcasm make a response!)

Diandra: You seem to use music as a healer, what about music allows you to heal and speak upon spiritual wounds that could, otherwise, go ignored?

Russell: Another great question. OK, I’m going to give this a shot, but it’s kinda off the top of my head and I’m thinking out loud. Music has always been natural. I never struggled with it like I did with everything else in my life. Furthermore, music has always been there with me, sitting next to me, creating a nest. What I’m saying is music is one of the safest things in my life and because of that I can process my grief, my woe, my anguish, in a safe place. The fact that it’s in front of people is moot. My hope is that they go away feeling a little better. Fuck, man. Too many people play the blues.

Diandra What is your happiest, musical memory?

Russell: Discovering U2 when I was 11. Hands down. It was like I found what I was looking for. See what I did there? My wife loves U2 as well, and another amazing moment was when we finally got to see them together in 2013.

Diandra: Which of your songs, of your upcoming album Wave/Water, most represents your creative growth? Why?

Russell: “That’s Enough” is my favorite song on the album. I wrote the beat first with a drum machine and thought it sounded dope, but it was also a pick strum so it had a little country feel to it and I didn’t like that. I gave the beat to my drummer, who amazingly had this weird rhythm picked up in minutes, and we dropped like that in the studio. The following day, when I was doing all guitar tracking, I told my producer to take the acoustic guitar out and I was going to play swells instead with lots of reverb and delay. It totally changed the song and shows how I’m starting to thinking outside the box in the studio.

Diandra: Can you tell us some of the messages and inspirations behind Wave/ Water?

Russell: The title comes from a saying by the Buddhist monk Thich Naht Hanh, “For a wave, enlightenment comes only when it realizes it is made of water.” I read this to mean we become enlightened in some way once we realize who we truly are: impermanent beings in an impermanent universe, perfect and flawed at the same time. Now think of the power of the waves, picture the Pacific slamming into those rocky, jagged coastlines with enough pressure to smash a car. That’s the power we have once we realize who we truly are.

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