23 April 2011
“Not one kid is gonna walk away and go fuck, this band wasn’t the greatest rock band ever. The next band they see, no matter who the fuck is in that room, they’re not gonna fucking feel the same way as how they did tonight with us.”
Scott Russo, the raspy-voiced frontman of Unwritten Law has just stepped off Sydney’s Roundhouse stage and is practically bouncing off the walls. In between playing DJ to an intimate backstage entourage, the 38-year-old is superciliously reaping the benefits of their highly anticipated Australian tour.
Formed in 1990, the San Diego four-piece were slow burners to fame, their early blend of punk-with-funk and post-grunge edge lead them to alt-scene success along with acts like Blink 182, NOFX, Strung Outand Lagwagon. Today, they boast a back catalogue of six studio albums and two decades of drug and alcohol goaded touring. Their latest offering, Swan, is the product of this ruinous cycle of destruction and life’s cruel miens, and would never have materialised if they weren’t so deep in debt.
“We owed money to several merchandise companies, we owed money to several record companies who had given us money. It was really hard to try and conceive getting back together just to pay people back, especially without a record label,” he admits. “But we didn’t want any karmic fucking issues. A lot of bad drug dealers got involved you know, it was that bad.“
Originally titled Swan Song, the record was intended to be just that, the band - Russo, Steve Morris (guitar), Pat "PK" Kim (bass) and Dylan Howard (drums) - planned to pay their dues and settle back into their then four-year hiatus. Russo’s first dig at writing for the band resulted in the track Swan Song, “That was about the end of my career, when I wrote that song I was like 'thank you very much, thanks for coming, hugs and kisses',” he says. However, after scrapping the following six tracks and starting over, the newfound ingenuity sent the band into an re-evaluation of what Unwritten Law should be.
“We started getting stronger and stronger until it was like, fuck! …During that process the band fell in love with each other. When we played shows we knew what we were sitting on, when we came on stage we were firing differently,” Russo is now sitting feverishly on the edge of his seat. “We meant it and that’s the difference.”
Starships and Apocalypse, the first single from Swan
Unfortunately, their new label, Suburban Noise were busy gearing up to promote the album as their very last. The band was on a conference call with the label when they begged for a change in course.
“The record company already knew that we’d written Swan Song and started pushing [the album] as our last record but we were like no ‘whoa whoa, hey, put the breaks on, it’s really good and the band’s alive and we’re not gonna come out on a negative note!’”
It was at this point when the band retitled the album Swan and settled into the 14-month long recording process. All vocals for the album were recorded at the house legendary skateboarder Danny Way gifted to Russo after his family home was burnt down in 2009. Although Russo at first struggled to comprehend paying back such a gesture, he now maintains he will use his musical “gift” to repay him in the form of the band they are in together, The Click.
“Believe you me I am mortalised [sic] and I have no idea how to even begin to pay back a favour like that,” he says, clearly humbled by the act. “All I know is that the universe works in everyone’s favour, as long as you’re a good person and I know that he’s a good dude and I’m a good dude, we’re both people pushing for what counts and I think the universe will commend me and in turn I’ll be able to pay back my homeboy who fuckin' saved me.
“We’re doing music together and that’s how I’m gonna pay him back I’m gonna give him my gift and our shit's gonna do well, he’s got it coming,” he counters.
With the bulk of Unwritten Law’s Australian tour completed Russo seems content with doing things differently. “Subliminally we’re all coming together like glue and it’s a bull charging, we’re one fucking unit pushing a certain type of energy that’s uncompromiseable [sic], and that’s the difference.”
As he has discovered on his tumultuous trek through fame, living the rockstar life can only hold up for so long and in Russo’s case, it took a few earth shaking experiences to take him down a few notches and remind him of his mortality.
“I’m a different dude than I was two decades ago, me and my band have just found ourselves now.”
Swan is out now through Shock Records
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