Q&A: Annie DiRusso Won’t Call Off These Plans
THE WORLD GETS OVERWHELMING — especially when you’re on top of it. When she’s not playing shows for exciting crowds or writing viral songs, singer-songwriter Annie DiRusso finds it hard to keep plans.
In her latest single, “Call It All Off,” she calls herself out for being the flaky friend. After leaving a serious relationship and feeling lost on her own, she puts her self-critical thoughts over catchy guitar riffs and upbeat drums.
She keeps it real in her songs, and exposing her own flaws is part of the usual songwriting routine. If you’ve ever laid awake at night dealing with the overwhelming anxiety of growing up and entering the real world, you’ll find a piece of yourself in her songs.
“Call It All Off” is no different. The track deals with a post-breakup return to an ever-changing world that just won’t stop moving, and to plans that involve actually following through with them. In the face of change, DiRusso melts on the floor and cancels plans in her latest single, or at least calls herself out for doing it.
The indie-rock singer-songwriter has built a community online where people can relate to having too many emails to respond to, too many people to see, and somehow there’s also laundry on the floor that needs to be done. Since 2020, DiRusso has been connecting with people on social media.
This fall, DiRusso went on tour, headlining shows and supporting Declan McKenna and Briston Maroney. Read below to learn more about the story behind the single, touring life, and her creative evolution.
LUNA: How did you start out in music?
DIRUSSO: I grew up, like, 40 minutes north of New York City in a town called Croton-on-Hudson, and I have always loved music. No one in my family is musical. I grew up listening to Frank Sinatra because that's what my dad listened to and Bruce Springsteen because that’s what my mom listened to. Then when I was 10 or 11, I got really into Taylor Swift and I learned how to play the guitar (I had just been singing before then). I then started writing songs when I was [about] 12 and started playing around New York and upstate NY, and then in high school in the city… I started making folk-pop music. Then I moved to Nashville in 2017 for school and that's when I started making music that sounds a little bit more like me. I released “Jonathan” and “Don’t Swerve” my sophomore year of college and [have] kind of just been making indie rock-music since then, and [I] started touring this year. It's been really fun.
LUNA: What do you think is the biggest difference before and after Nashville?
DIRUSSO: I think it's a mix of my age and the different places. When I was in high school, I was listening to Maggie Rogers and stuff in that vein and a lot of older music like The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell. I was playing on the acoustic guitar, so I was writing kind of very folk-pop stuff. Then when I moved to Nashville… people in Nashville are so focused on the craft of songwriting in a way that wasn't as apparent in New York, and I feel like I learned so much about the importance of storytelling and songs, and that had a huge impact on my music. I also studied songwriting in college, and I started listening to a lot more indie-rock music my freshman year — Big Thief, Jade Bird, and Lucy Dacus — and I feel like the lyricism in indie-rock music inspired me a ton. Then, my freshman year I just started playing electric guitar, and that totally changed the way I write. I feel like my songwriting became a little more story-oriented and my sound became a little more indie-rock. The whole thing, I think, felt a lot more authentic when I finally found what I was supposed to be doing here in Nashville.
LUNA: What’s the biggest lesson you learned about songwriting?
DIRUSSO: My biggest lesson that I've learned about songwriting is to be brutally honest. I think the thing that makes it sound good to me is when I hear someone say something and I'm like, “Okay, I’ve felt or thought that exact thing before, but I either wouldn't have the courage to say it out loud or I haven't said it out loud,” so I try and just be really, really honest and expose myself in my music.
LUNA: Totally. When I listen to your songs, I feel like I’m listening to a friend talk. How did you get to that point where you feel comfortable having that voice in your writing?
DIRUSSO: I think being very conversational in my music is something that is much more natural to me than saying more poetic things, I guess. I just write things down throughout the day that I think of and that ends up being the song after a while. I collect a bunch of those thoughts and write a song surrounding that. I think that's why it feels so conversational.
LUNA: What does your songwriting process usually look like?
DIRUSSO: It is a little different for every song, but typically I have to start with lyrics because that's the hardest part for me. So I'll collect these kinds of notes on my phone or in a notebook and then when I feel like I have an idea or a concept that I'm working around with all these different phrases, I'll sit down with the guitar and I will work on either writing a first verse or a chorus. I can figure it out from there, but it definitely has to start with an idea from a lyric rather than, like, a guitar idea.
LUNA: Do you remember what the first lyric you wrote for “Call It All Off” was?
DIRUSSO: The first lyric I wrote for “Call It All Off” was the first verse, which is “I guess you graduated, moved to Copenhagen / but honestly I bet you didn't / I guess there's things I'd like to talk to you about / like the redistribution of wealth / I guess I could just think about it myself / feels like I don't know anything anymore.” I wrote that in one sitting with my guitar in November of 2020, and then I didn't touch it for a really long time.
LUNA: How would you describe the song?
DIRUSSO: Visually, I would describe the song as feeling like Alice in Wonderland, and that I've fallen down in this hole and I can see the whole world but I can't touch it or be a part of it. Just that feeling of complete isolation and disconnection from the outside world is what the song means to me. I was in a relationship and very encapsulated in it, and then when I got out of that relationship and I reentered the world, I just was so out of it and disconnected. Everything had changed, and I'd missed a lot of it. Then trying to put all that work to rebuild those relationships was a big undertaking, so it almost felt like, “I can't even do this. Let me just call this off. This is, like, too much.”
LUNA: I feel like that’s a common theme, at least with our generation — if something takes too much work, I’m just gonna give up.
DIRUSSO: I know, exactly. I'm happy I don't feel that way anymore.
LUNA: How did you reconnect? What steps did you take?
DIRUSSO: I think it was a slow build. Still working on kind of rewiring thoughts about myself. But just having conversations with friends and being honest, expressing what was really going on in that relationship and how disconnected it truly made me. Just having honest conversations about it and putting in the work to reconnect. It's worth it for sure.
LUNA: You were teasing this song for a while on TikTok. What response did you get from those videos?
DIRUSSO: I love dropping little pieces of the song before it's out to give people a little teaser of [it] and so it's really cool to see how people react. Especially the people who have been listening to [my] music for a while. TikTok also shows stuff to people who don't really know my music or who I am, but I love seeing from the listeners who've been waiting for new music or heard the song on tour to get really excited about it. It was super sweet seeing all the different posts on TikTok.
LUNA: How did your friends react to the song?
DIRUSSO: I think it's funny because they're very nice about the more dark parts of it but the chorus is just me saying “so we'll call it all off, canceling is my thing and I never did get any better” and they're like, “You're truly being very honest.” I am someone who will be a little flaky with plans, and some of my friends thought it was really funny. I actually think releasing this is gonna make me not do that as much because I don't want it to really become my thing just because I spoke it into existence.
LUNA: Yeah, totally. You have to stop it from becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. How would you describe your sound?
DIRUSSO: My sound is very authentic to me. It's just a curation of things I like, if that makes sense. Sounds I like, words I like. It's got some rock in it, and I tend to write pop-like melodies. It just kind of grows and evolves with what I like at any given time. I'm very influenced by different things I see and hear.
LUNA: Where do you find inspiration?
DIRUSSO: I find inspiration everywhere: a lot of times and people in my relationships with friends and the beauty of emotion and specifically love and how powerful that is. Just the people around, their actions and aesthetics. Also a lot of music — there's so many days I just listen to music and I think it can be daunting some days because you're like, “How can I ever make something as good as the stuff I'm listening to?” but other days it's like, “It is so remarkable that good music exists,” and that in itself is so inspiring to me.
LUNA: How is tour going so far?
DIRUSSO: Touring has been really cool. I've dreamed of touring my entire life. It's been something I've always wanted to do. I didn't start touring until October of 2021, so it's been almost a year, and it's been incredible. Touring is always high highs and low lows because it's exhausting and it's a lot of work — but playing shows is so incredible, and getting to hang out with incredible people in my band is really, really rewarding and sweet.
LUNA: What’s your favorite part of performing live?
DIRUSSO: It's like getting to embody and reimagine the songs that I wrote years ago and connect them with the audience. Also when I was opening tours earlier in the year, it's crazy to see the people that have just been on the screen for me for so long. I haven't really played live before a pandemic and I built a lot of my following during the pandemic, so playing live after doing that was so incredible to see people singing these songs. It makes the songs mean something totally different to see someone else living and connecting to the song in person. It's the most incredible experience ever to get to meet all the people [who] are listening to my music.
LUNA: What type of people do you usually see in the crowd?
DIRUSSO: Just the coolest people ever. They all have such cool style and such beautiful, emotive reactions. It was crazy to see people that I knew were just there and had bought a ticket to see me and have been listening to our music for a while and kind of get to put a face to the name. During the first leg, I was super overwhelmed and confused about what was happening because I felt like, “Wait, everyone is singing these lyrics and they show up just to see me? I'm so confused right now.” And then the second leg, I felt like I was able to be more like, “This is really awesome, and I need to take it in a little bit.”
LUNA: You’re going on tour with Declan McKenna — how are you feeling about that?
DIRUSSO: I am so excited about that. I'm such a big fan of Declan and have been since I was, like, 15 years old. It has always been a dream of mine to open for him. I've loved his music since “Brazil” came out, and then I really loved his first record — like, waited that night for it to come out and stuff like that — so it's definitely a full-circle moment.
LUNA: What are you looking forward to?
DIRUSSO: There's so much I'm excited for I’m getting butterflies talking about it. I forgot how much I truly love playing music with my friends. I'm just so excited to be with my friends and meeting the listeners again, and I'm excited to see what Declan’s fans are like. And I'm really excited to see Declan on set every single night. I've been so truly lucky to open for some of my favorite artists of all time, and one of the coolest things about it is that I get a free ticket to the show.
LUNA: You’ve had a crazy two-year run selling out venues and building an online community. How does it feel to live that?
DIRUSSO: It’s all so crazy and it's all so sweet. There's like a lot of times I’m not really processing what's happening because it always feels like things are moving so quickly in music… Every once in a while I stop to just get a glimpse of what's even happening here; I almost look at it from a younger perspective of how much I always wanted all of these things. It's, in so many ways, better than I would have anticipated. Meeting the people who listen to my music it's been one of the coolest things in my life, and seeing how people connect with the songwriting is so much cooler than I thought it would be. It makes me really emotional and makes me want to do it for a really long time. I can't wait to see what the next year or two looks like, and I'm so, so excited.
LUNA: If you could talk to your younger self, what would you say?
DIRUSSO: Just keep working, keep writing and playing and learning about music and business and listening to a lot of music — and things will work out. I am a believer in that things work out. I think something I would say is “Try and enjoy the journey,” which is something sometimes I struggle with.
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