“I WAS TAUGHT THAT…MEN DON’T LISTEN TO MUSIC BY WOMEN”
Annie DiRusso on living in Nashville, learning to be assertive and the limitations put on women in the music industry.
Annie DiRusso is a Nashville-based indie rock band, and is also the name of the woman fronting it. Despite leading the band, Annie, herself, is often mislabelled as a singer-songwriter, suggesting people haven’t actually listened to her music: “I just don’t think people do that to guys.” DiRusso’s 2018 single ‘Don’t Swerve’, has 750,000 plays on Spotify and has served as an anthem for teenagers who are always in the passenger seat - Gen Z’s equivalent to Lorde’s ‘Royals’. In a time when there are many talented young women emerging as writers and performers, Annie DiRusso stands out.
VOCAL GIRLS caught up with Annie about the city that started her career, forming a band and making DIY music in a male dominated scene.
Image Credit: Olivia Anzalone
DiRusso’s most recent single, ‘Judgements From The World’s Greatest Band’, continues the indie-rock sound she’s been cultivating, while subtly adding other elements. ‘Judgements’ wears influences on its sleeve, combining the alt-rock stylings of Soccer Mommy with a country twang that stems from a teenage love of Taylor Swift. With so much dialogue around women being allowed to take up more space physically, it’s exciting to hear women take up more space sonically as well. DiRusso is expanding out of the conventions of genre, which makes the prospect of a full-length release in 2021 even more exciting.
“One of the first things I was taught at school in terms of music markets was that generally men don’t listen to music by women.”
Many of DiRusso’s biggest influences are women making rock music, from newcomer Samia, to the legendary Kate Bush. Despite the success of these women, DiRusso was warned about the limitations of women in music. “One of the first things I was taught at school in terms of music markets was that generally men don’t listen to music by women. Women and men listen to men’s music. Women’s music is just for women. My Spotify is like 85% female listeners. I don’t think there is some type of overly feminine music, but if there is, it still isn’t what I make.”
DiRusso grew up in New York, spending her teens bouncing between musical styles. Her singing teacher pushed her towards show tunes and as she got older she started travelling to Hudson Valley. The folk scene there “was a 14-year-old me with my guitar and a bunch of 60 year old men”.
At 18 DiRusso moved across the country to study songwriting in Nashville, Tennessee. As someone from the UK, I was surprised to hear that DiRusso had left New York, which seems like the artist utopia. “Nashville is, in my opinion, better for music than New York.” This statement surprised me. I was reminded of Taylor Swift’s breakup track ‘Welcome To New York’, where her separation was not from a relationship, but from her home of Nashville, and the country music scene. Seeing songwriting royalty swap Nashville for NYC made me assume New York was the place to be. DiRusso explained her love of Nashville, “the community is really strong, and a bit smaller. It’s hyper focused on music, whereas in New York there’s like a tonne of industries.”
DiRusso is quick to praise her chosen home. “Being in Nashville taught me so much about songwriting. Not just because I’m studying it, but because Nashville is overwhelmingly focused on it - songwriting as a craft. I learnt so much about song structure, and how to really perfect a song, which is hard because it’s very personal to every writer. I very much stray from the typical Nashville country song formula. It’s been super valuable just being around a tonne of people whose main focus is just songwriting.”
Image Credit: Jessica DiMento
Even in an era when all six of the Grammy nominations for Best Rock Performance are women, the success does not necessarily trickle down. When I asked DiRusso about her band, she explained her difficulty in trying to form it. “I found that in school when trying to get into the cool DIY music scene, it’s pretty male dominated. Eventually I got invited to play a frontwoman-only night. It felt like that was the only way they’d let girls play, if it was girls only! Me and a few of my friends were playing that show and I had to put a band together for that. I’ve had so many members come in and out, but I think I’ve got my final band now.”
Organising the band has been a learning curve for DiRusso: “I remember a guitarist that was playing for me saying “the notes in the solo are wrong”, music theory wise, and I was like “...okay, whatever, I don’t know”, but, I wrote the solo and I wrote the song so they can’t be wrong? It’s something I created so it’s impossible to be wrong. Over time I had to learn to be assertive, ‘cos it’s my music. It took me a while to get the hang of being in charge but now I have the sweetest people in my band.”
DiRusso was finally getting into the swing of performing at the beginning of 2020, after winning a big showcase in February. Her band felt like it was in its final iteration, and they were gigging every night. Then came Covid. After six months apart, the band’s first ever sold out headline show didn’t come without its dramas: “The whole week before I thought I had Covid, and my test results just weren’t coming back. I kept cancelling rehearsals, then on the day of the show my test came back negative. I drove straight to the giant field where the show was happening, missed my soundcheck and hadn’t rehearsed at all. It was freezing for Nashville, like 45 degrees. It was the first cold of the season, and people cannot handle the cold here. It was a really weird vibe, but it was a lot of fun to finally play a show again.”
Despite the setbacks she’s experienced, DiRusso is positive about the future - particularly the end of Trump’s era in office, and the Covid vaccine: “My dad just got it.” On what happens next, she says, “I’m excited to write my album. My next single is a song I posted on TikTok.”
2021 should be a busy year for Annie, with a debut album looming and new single ‘9 Months’ on it's way, which is “about being in a really bad relationship for a long period of time”. Whatever Covid does or doesn't allow, the future's bright for Annie DiRusso.
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