Rusty Anderson

Посмотреть снимки с Live at the Roxy (April 29, 2004)
можно на сайте:
http://www.geocities.com/younggerl/index.html

А ещё можно зайти на сайт www.rustyanderson.boom.ru

Ремикс на песню Hurt Myself Расти Андерсона с альбома Undressing Underwater можно послушать на этом сайте: http://www.bluepie.com.au/hurtmyself/

А есть у кого-нибудь этот альбомчик в МРЗ или просто комакт ? Если есть, то очень хотелось бы его заполучить. Если поделитесь, я его выложу у себя на FTP, что бы всё могли послушать.

Rusty will be performing at a George Harrison memorial show at The Knitting Factory in LA on Monday night. There will be a screening of “The Concert For George” at 6.30pm and Rusty is one of the artists performing afterwards.

Rusty Anderson UK Tour 2005

Paul McCartney guitarist Rusty Anderson has set a tour in the UK starting in January. (see below). Tickets for all shows are on sale now.

Friday 14th January
The Stables Milton Keynes http://www.stables.org/

Saturday 15th January
Riffs Bar Swindon
http://www.riffsbar.biz/

Sunday 16th January
Birmingham Carling Academy 2
http://www.birmingham-academy.co.uk

Wednesday 19th January
The Cavern Club Liverpool
http://www.cavern-liverpool.co.uk/cavernclub/

Thursday 20th January
The Lion Inn, Blakey Ridge, North Yorks
http://www.blakeymusic.com/

Saturday 22nd January
The Village Venue Dublin Ireland
http://www.thevillagevenue.com

Monday 24th Jan
The Farm Venue Lincolnshire
http://www.thefarm-online.co.uk

Tuesday 25th January
The Underworld Camden
www.theunderworldcamden.co.uk

Thursday 27th January
The Cooperage Plymouth
http://www.thecooperage.co.uk/

Friday 28thJanuary
The Old Market Brighton
www.theoldmarket.co.uk

Questions about Undressing Underwater and Rusty's other bands

Martha Rubenstein: When writing songs, what comes first - the lyrics or the melody?

Rusty Anderson: It can happen any way. The songs on this record go both ways. For me, it goes back and forth. Hurt Myself started off lyrics first. I wrote the lyrics then I went back and put music to it. Pretty quick, really. It's a good way to do it. Sometimes you can tell. When you listen to the song, the melody may be really strong and the lyric may be good but might not be as developed as the melody. Or the lyric takes precedent. Usually the lyric is written first. That's my way of doing it. Whereas on Coming Down to Earth, I wrote the melody and the lyric at the same time. Damaged Goods, the melody was written first, that's a very melody-driven song.

Martha: How easy/difficult is it to actually finish a song - to know when to stop and finally say 'OK - that's it!'

Rusty: That's kind of a ridiculous question because there's writing a song, arranging a song, recording a song. In each of those you make discoveries about the degree of finish-ness. Or even after recording it. With Coming Down to Earth, all of a sudden, I had these revelations about stuff that should be in there that isn't.

Martha: When putting the album together, did you instinctively know which instruments to play in particular places or did a lot of experimenting take place?

Rusty: Both. Like on Damaged Goods, the vibes were the first thing I wrote. I was fooling around with them and that was the beginning of the song. So it was a given that I would play them on the song. Where as there's a pedal steel bit in Ishmael. Andrew (Murdock), who co-produced it with me, saw it sitting there. He said, why don't you play pedal steel on the chorus? So we did and I thought wow that's cool, a pedal steel on the heavy rock song, I like that. I always like mixing things. To me, you may not be able to do new music per se but you can do new combinations. Which I guess is the same thing.

Martha: Speaking of Ishmael, have you always had strong feelings about the issues in the book, or have they developed as a result of reading the book?

Rusty: I was ready to concur with the statement of the book before I read it. But I thought it was a fresh way at looking at those issues. Good read, very inspiring.

Martha: Ednaswap: how much of a creative input did you have into that band?

Rusty: Not enough (laughs). Ednaswap was five people all trying to write. It was sort of a cool band because of that. I liken it to the movie The Producers where they go: here, you can have 30%, you can have 30%, you can have 70%, you can have 90%, you can have 90%. It will bite you in the ass eventually, like it did in that band. But we had some good times, played some good music, played some cool shows and I learned a hell of a lot.

Martha: I think you've said it was too many type A personalities.

Rusty: Exactly. Astrologically, it was a mismatch. But it was a fiery thing while it lasted.

Martha: Eulogy: any chance of a reunion?

Rusty: Probably not. It's been a long time and everyone's in a different place. We were all really young. I started that band when I was 13. The strengths of that band probably wouldn't apply any more.

Martha: Is any Eulogy or Living Daylights music (like their versions of Electric Trains and Catbox Beach) available to buy anywhere online?

Rusty: I doubt it. I am hoping that the Eulogy stuff will get out there one day. There's a band called Soldier too, that I really didn't mention much. Eulogy turned into Soldier with different members. Dirk (VanTatenhove) and I were the only ones from Eulogy in Soldier. Both those bands have some really cool recordings.

Martha: Are those available anywhere?

Rusty: Not to my knowledge. I would think that eventually we'll want to get some of that stuff out. They're mostly demos that were never released.

Martha: Which song do you play on the new Courtney Love album?

Rusty: I play on a bunch of them. But the thing is that Courtney, bless her heart, didn't credit any of the musicians except the people that she wanted to pretend were in her band. I think that's a bit too Hollywood, don't you? I bought the record just to hear it and I listened to the first song, which I played on. I'm not listed on the credits but sonically I can hear myself unless someone played exactly like me on a song I played on, which I doubt. Then I noticed that Josh Freese, who's an incredible drummer, he plays with Perfect Circle and many others, didn't get credit and Justin (Meldal-Johnson), from Ima Robot, who used to play with Beck's band for years, didn't either. So then, I get a call from her guitar tech. He says Courtney wants to know how you played the guitar part on Hold On To Me. We're rehearsing for a show in Atlanta tomorrow. Man, she lives by a strange code of ethics.

Questions about playing and working and gear

Martha: What advice can you give young guitar players who have dreams to do what you do?

Rusty: First I have to say that I was blessed with ignorance. Playing the guitar for a living does not look good on paper. If you talk to a rational person, they'd say, what are you, high? Go get a real job. But for me, I just never had those people around me.

Martha: Your parents didn't say that to you?

Rusty: No. My mom said it to me once, right after high school. I hadn't gone to college yet. I knew I didn't want to go to college and get a degree and have this big collegefest. I ended up going to college and learning things I wanted to learn and taking classes that I wanted to take. Those were some good times. I think that going to classes and learning becomes harder as you get older, especially for a freelancer like myself. At one point, my mom says, what if this music thing doesn't work out? I said it will. And that was it. My parents were very passive and hands off when it came to that. I think it's because I'm the youngest. For the youngest it's like, whatever, do what you want. It made no sense on paper but it ended up working out, I think, because I followed my bliss. My passion. Somehow I was able to do that.

I did have some weird jobs as a teenager. I was a Fuller Brush salesman, door to door. I worked at Yamaha and Fender, doing sweeping, picking parts. I got fired at Yamaha. I thought, I really have to start kicking ass, so I started going at a brisk pace taking these parts off the shelves and putting them in plastic containers. I thought, this is pretty cool, I'm racing through the day, doing this for 8 hours a day for minimum wage. Then the guy calls me in and fires me for going too slow. All the people around me were just ripping, apparently. They were thinking this is a real job; I'm going up the corporate ladder. For me, it just wasn't my style. I taught guitar for about 5 years, I had about 50 students a week at one point. That was really cool, a luxury in a way because teaching guitar enables you to get better at your own skills.

Martha: Did you like teaching?

Rusty: I did, although sometimes it was a real grind. Especially teaching beginners. My favorite thing was, towards the end when I started playing on peoples' records, we did a workshop. The record thing wasn't constant. I was living in LA half the week with my girlfriend and going back to La Habra to teach at Whittier and going back and forth. At some point I said to myself, you know what? I'm just going to go do this record and quit teaching. So, I had this big workshop, everyone learned a song or two. They were really focused on the song, got their leads and rhythms as up to snuff as possible. My bass player and drummer friend came in and they all played. It was probably the first and last time half of them had ever been in a performance situation. Everyone was watching. It was really cool. I had the greatest time. That was the end of my teaching days. Of course, on the record that I was supposed to make ten grand doing, which at the time was a lot, I got fired. But it worked out. That's when I jumped off the lily pad. I haven't looked back.

Martha: So, any words of advice for a young person?

Rusty: I think that if you follow your bliss and focus your energy into something you really care about at least you'll enjoy life. One thing I've noticed on the road with Paul is that there are a lot of specialists that are very sharp at some specific skills. I don't think that it's a coincidence. That's probably the best advice I can give. The musician road is certainly not a straight line. I would hate to base something on my life. My life has been really random. The only thing I can say is that I was always incredibly focused and very tunnel-visioned about playing the guitar. I loved it. I forwent a lot to play the guitar. I was obsessive about it. I guess now you'd consider it obsessive-compulsive to avoid the pain of growing up, of pubescence. That's a very prolific time.

Martha: I think a lot of artists have that quality.

Rusty: That's right. Be a freak. Be obsessive-compulsive and do everything wrong and maybe then you'll stand a chance. It took me a long time to turn it into a career. There were times I would make money, then I wouldn't, then I'd make a little. But I was always sort of ignorant and blissful about it. My cousin Karl gave me some letters that I'd written to him when I was young. One of them said, wow, we're going to make it, we have this song on the radio, blah blah blah. Of course it was the local little show, recorded in a bedroom, but I was so excited. Then after that came another letter where I was all depressed and a realist. I said, you know that last letter I wrote you? That was all bulls**t. We may never make it, I realize that now, we're so far from it. Really interesting reading it. I was very self-absorbed, I'll tell you that. All I thought about, talked about, was music and myself and my band. I guess not much has changed! Ha ha.

Martha: But don't you think that you need that focus and absorption to get to your level?

Rusty: You probably do, but I don't know if those are good things to encourage in people. Social skills are really important as far as connecting with other artists. In one way, I think that being a really good musician works against having social skills. On the other hand, getting along with others and providing a good vibe for people when you're working with them means everything.

Martha: What FX pedals did you use on the Back in the World tour? Is there a certain pedal that is your favorite?

Rusty: I have millions of pedals. I have 2 racks and a stand alone pedal board. There are different things in each. I use my stand alone pedal board when I'm doing my own show. For the Back in the World tour, I used the rack.

Martha: What type of amp and cab do you use?

Rusty: Live, I've been using Divided by 13 amplifiers. When I'm in the studio I also use old amps, like Fenders, Laneys, Gibsons, Voxes, Matchless, stuff like that.

Martha: What picks?

Rusty: Fender extra medium.

Martha: On the Back in the US DVD, you were using a strap that looked like leather, about 2" wide. Where did you get it?

Rusty: It's not leather! It's vinyl. I got it from my friend Nick who finds cool things. I got a set of vibes from Nick, a Trans Am car from Nick, all sorts of stuff. He's a friend I've known forever and he's really in to collecting and trading unique things. He played with Ben Harper for awhile. Very good guitar player and friend. I've been thinking about getting another strap made. I only have one. It's an old, vintage thing, who knows where he got it from?

Martha: What's your fave guitar? And what models of SG and Explorer do you use?

Rusty: Well, I used to play a 335 a lot and I have kind of gone back to it. I have an old 59 blonde one that I played on the last tour and that I'll play on this tour too. The SG that I am restringing as we speak is a new-ish one, a 2001 model that Gibson made for me. When I play with my band I've been using the SG, a red 64 335 and an old Silvertone U2. I use different tunings for different songs. Also sometimes I have gear shipped to Europe while gigging in LA for example so I can't use the same instruments. The guitar I used a bit on the second tour leg was not an Explorer but a Firebird. Twas made by Paul Cummings and Doc (I forgot his last name.) Anyway, luthiers in Orange County. Overall, I'm primarily a Gibson guy - and I don't mean Mel.

Martha: What gear did you use on Vagabundo with Robi Draco Rosa?

Rusty: A lot of it was rented actually. We went to London to record. Phil Manzanera was producing or co-producing so we recorded in his studio out in the countryside. Me, Paul (Bushnell) and Carla (Azar) from Ednaswap were the rhythm section, guitar, bass and drums. I might have brought my guitar and maybe a pedal or two but not much. I remember getting a really cool Plexi Marshall and a Dallas Arbitor fuzz, things that are easier to rent there and harder to rent here in LA.

Questions about touring, Paul, and The Beatles

Martha: Do you plan on touring on your own anywhere besides California? Like the UK or Europe?

Rusty: I'd really like to and I hope we do. No plans right this second.

Martha: Having spent so much time touring with Paul and performing his music, how did it feel to finally perform your own music live?

Rusty: At first it felt a bit overwhelming. I was starting from scratch in a way and wearing a lot of hats. At the same time, I felt like I got myself in too deep to blow it off. Now it's getting really fun. One of the great parts is that when you're doing shows to support a record you have that specific body of work just waiting to be brought to life. There is some built-in glue. As we've been doing more gigs, it's starting to feel a little more like a playground. You start to feel the texture and the pulse of the band and play with the arrangements, actually have an effect on the music. So in other words were having an incredible time making music together.

Martha: What about making the record - did you have a hand in every aspect of it?

Rusty: Absolutely. That's when I first started noticing it. You have to pay attention to every single detail. Unless you're working with people that you can completely give up everything to, it's really not even a reality, unless you let everyone else insert their style in to your music, which can be great to a point or can be a disaster, I find that music needs definition. It really depends on your approach and the chemistry of whomever you're working with.

I had these songs. Parthenon (Huxley) and I got together and did the first productions, then I got together with Andrew (Murdock) then David (Kahne). I think because I've worked in so many different ways already, in different roles with different producers. I could say, well this song would be good with this producer, this song I think Ill produce myself. I also used it as a way to find out what it was like working with different groups in different capacities. It was a lot of fun. Maybe it's just my personality to be that way, to experiment with different people.

There's so many random elements to this thing anyway. If you're going to bother to make music, you've got to go after something, it's got to be special, with an artistic focus. That's the approach I try take anyway. On artwork, recordings, playing live, everything. Whether I reach that goal or not is in the ears of the listener. Sometimes it feels like the gold at the end of the rainbow, an unreachable goal, but it seems to be how I want to spend my time. Sometimes it's hard work and sometimes it just magically comes together. When that happens it's the best!

Martha: Do you think you'll get a chance to perform any of your own music during the tour, maybe at sound check?

Rusty: It's Paul's show. And that's pretty much that. Although, whatever we jam at soundcheck usually starts off random.

Martha: Which do you enjoy the most: performing in front of large stadium audiences or in smaller, more intimate venues?

Rusty: The huge gigs are an incredible buzz. I can sit here and tell you about it but the experience is really indescribable. With my own band we've done some cool clubs and that's been an equally rewarding experience yet much more vulnerable. Basically, it's a bit more reckless, at the same time personal.

When I played with Paul at the last Land Mine benefit, we hadn't played in a few months and we got up and played maybe 7 songs and it was so fun. It wasn't just fun, it was this roller coaster ride, this thrill, this adrenalin. It hit me - you cannot get that feeling any other way, especially when the bands fine-tuned. Your fingers know what to do, your whole being knows how to flow with it, you can just enjoy it.

Martha: We know you like Paul, how do you feel about the other Beatles?

Rusty: The Beatles to me were like the perfect science experiment, the perfect organic combination, the stars aligning magically. The serendipity of it is just unbelievable. When I was a kid, I remember digging all of them a lot, especially John and Paul, and George too. The harmonies, all of it was just so resonant. They were this perfect balance, this prefect harmony, I mean as perfect as a band can get.

I just recently saw The Beatles First Visit and there's so much symmetry going on, it's amazing. Paul's told me how John was nervous that first Ed Sullivan Show. I could really see it, because John is such a leader type, but in that, Paul was really the leader. Paul was doing all the talking, John was kind of sweating and his eyes are darting around looking kind of nervous and he wasn't saying anything. He took more of a backseat role, which freaked me out. I always thought of John as a super outspoken, clever, sort of edgy guy and he was not that at all. And Paul was just unbelievably good-looking, almost like a mannequin, how could his facial features have lined up so perfectly? It's weird.

Ringo, the way that he was so relaxed, that's one of the things that blew me away. Johns feel was great and he sang great, but Ringo was obviously having a good time, along for the ride, propelling the band perfectly. The tempos, which, when a drummers nervous, go out the window, were flawless. His feel, the playing was impeccable. For being - how old was he at that time? Twenty-three or something? And on TV for millions of people. Ringo was amazing.

George was fantastic. All his voicings were great. On the guitar, I never noticed his early-days playing so much. He has this Chet Atkins style. I really liked Taxman, If I Needed Someone, I thought that was brilliant. I Need You is a great song. Something. In Japan, George did a show. I saw a setlist for that show. Eric Clapton and George were trading off songs, it was one of the few live shows he did because after the Beatles he hardly played. They played mostly George songs and some Eric songs. What a great concert that must have been. But when I was a kid, John and Paul were art, they were my muse, they were my idols, they were my purpose for living, they were everything, the reason I started playing music.

Martha: Do you remember where you were when John died?

Rusty: Yeah, I had just come over to my girlfriend's house and she said, did you hear about John? I literally cried for two hours straight. I wept. I couldn't believe it. It just floored me, just f**ked me up. He was my man, you know, him and Paul, all of them but John - it's almost like I absorbed him into my roots, like a plant does water. I lived and breathed his personality, his melodic ideas, his lyrical ideas, his style, you know what I mean? To me, the Beatles as a whole were so much greater than the sum of the parts, which is the oldest discussion in the book. Anyway, he was one of my musical fathers. He was such a powerful figure for me. He was this living legend and he was a vulnerable guy that someone could just walk up to and shoot with a gun, a little gun. Bam. Just flesh and blood, no protection. So raw, so raw. As far as I can tell, Paul feels the same way. How could some freak just show up and shoot my best friend? That's what he said. He went and shot my best friend. It's still unbelievable, though I guess you get used to the idea of anything after awhile. That's not my favorite thing to get used to.

Martha: Do you read the message boards and forums for you or Paul?

No. I wouldn't mind it, I just haven't figured out how to do it without spending way too much time. You have to sift through a lot.

Martha: Are there any particular parts of Paul's solo career you like better than others?

Rusty: Of course. To me his early seventies stuff was great. I thought Calico Skies was a really nice song, very cool. I have all these songs on my iPod and I had it on shuffle mode and all of a sudden a song came on and I thought, this is a great song, who's this, and I realized it was Paul. I've never heard it before or since. I don't even know the name of it. By the time I got to the iPod, it changed songs. It was really brilliant. It made me realize that studying Paul McCartney can be a life's work.

Martha: Are you a morning person or a night owl?

Rusty: Mornings are pretty rare for me to be awake.

Martha: What kind of books do you read?

Rusty: I just read "Harpo Speaks," the autobiography of Harpo Marx, and I loved it.

Martha: What made you choose that?

Rusty: I had some time off and I was wandering about London and there was a used bookstore and I was sick of not having a book. I saw it and I thought, well, it has to be stupid because these are all the books that nobody wants any more, you know how you can have that mind set? Like this is a bunch of used junk. All of a sudden, I looked at it and thought, I want that! My mind was saying, why do I want to read this dumb thing but something deeper was pulling me towards it, going buy it, pick it up, read it. I just sort of did without thinking much about it and, oh my God, this is great. One of my favorite books I've ever read. I'm starting to see the point now. The nice thing about vintage clothes stores or bookstores is that they're not trying to sell you anything. There's no marketing involved. These are totally random things that are there for you to select at your own will. That's what is so great about them.

Martha: You were reading "Cats Cradle" last time I talked to you.

Rusty: I'm on the last few pages. I liked it. It's the first Kurt Vonnegut I ever read. "Breakfast of Champions" is next. I meant to read that but they didn't have it. It's good. His style of writing is very influential, not so modern now because he's one of those great writers that influenced so many people. It's like Deep Purple, they're my favorite example of this. They were so good, but you go back and listen to them and everyone goes, oh they were a heavy metal band. They associate them with Motley Crue or Judas Priest - no offense to either one of those bands, "Living After Midnight" is one of my favorite songs of all time. Deep Purple was incredibly innovative and incredibly unique but because so many people borrowed their sound, it became passé. They are credible, they still sell shows, there are a lot of people that like them. But they don't get the respect that they should because people cheapened their sound by taking bits of it in this banal, cliché way that typecast it into this uncool stereotype. I guess I inadvertently stumbled upon one of my soapbox concepts and got sidetracked. Yes, I liked "Cats Cradle."

Martha: Do you collect anything besides guitars?

Rusty: Well, I got some chotchkies here in my house. This is my Saddam dollar (points to a dollar bill from Iraq with Saddam's picture on it). You can bet your Saddam dollar!

Martha (looking around): And your wounded army men.

Rusty: Yeah, my wounded soldiers I love them. And this cat I got this cat from Creep on the tour.

Martha: It looks real.

Rusty: It's not real. You know those old ladies' cats where they're curled up, haven't you seen those? I kinda like this because Creep is this real nice guy on the tour. He's from Budapest originally and he was tutoring Paul on how to speak Hungarian. He gave it to me so it has a special meaning.

I've been buying some art here and there, mostly prints. I collect musical instruments, guitars, amps, vibes, hammer dulcimer, pedal steel, but I use those. They're tools. I don't collect salt and pepper shakers. As far as clothes, I try to buy clothes that I wear, that I'll like. You could kind of look at it as collecting vintage clothes but I'm looking at it as something I can wear.

I used to collect chemicals but they were tools too. I used them for chemistry experiments and to make explosives when I was a teenager, like 8 through 15. I had tons of them, potassium chlorate, powdered Magnesium, metallic sodium, pure phosphorus, red phosphorus, sodium dichromate, all these cool things. I felt like I was collecting them and then I stopped using them because I stopped blowing up things and started looking at girls. I remember one day Myles, who was the singer in Eulogy, runs up to me and goes, Rusty, Rusty, your chemicals are on fire! See, the yellow phosphorus needs to be kept in water because if it gets to the air, it will ignite. So what happened was that somehow all the water evaporated. After a year or two of it sitting in its little canister, it caught on fire. They're going, get the hose! I said no, you can't do that because if you have a chemical fire, don't ever use water on it or it will spread.

Martha: What happened to the fire?

Rusty: You need sand to put out the fire but the only thing I could find was a cat box. I dumped kitty litter from the cat box all over it. It smelled really bad but it put the fire out. I thought, I have to get rid of all these chemicals. It was a sad day. It was also kind of cool, kind of freeing. I was like, okay, I can take all this knowledge and all this work and say, this is the end of this chapter. I think of it that way now. At the time, I thought I'd better do this before I catch the house on fire!

I had all these different chemicals, this reacts with this, this with this. In fact, I have a scar on my leg. I had this powder, from the fertilizer bomber, the Timothy McVeigh formula, mixed with zinc dust. You grind it up and mix it all together and if it gets wet, it ignites. Well, I put it in my pocket to give to a friend and it blew up in my pocket. It was third degree, blood, it was awful! I still have a scar from it.

Martha: Oh my God. You were really lucky, you know that?

Rusty: Yeah. I think I was 10. I read that Frank Zappa had some very close calls too. He was into chemicals. His dad was a chemist. He had balls of mercury floating around the corners of his house.

Martha: Have you ever been arrested?

Rusty: Actually, that ties into the chemicals. It was some event, the 4th of July I think. I made up a whole bunch of fireworks and bombs, had stuff in my pockets, and was with my friends and we were hanging out with all the cool kids. I think I was in 8th grade. My big grand finale firework was a banana bomb. I took a banana and made an explosive, a novel idea I know, and this guy Rick Sharpentier who later became a dynamiter for a living, said he wanted to light it. He was a real tough guy, he was cool but very tough. I said okay. He goes into the middle of the street, lights it off, and just as he's lighting the fuse and it starts to spark, a cop car comes. Everybody runs, it explodes, the banana goes everywhere and the cop runs after us. Of course he catches me. He says, what's in your pockets? They take me home, they're looking at my laboratory with flashlights and going oh my God. We went down to the police station and my parents had to come and get us out, me and my friend Dirk who was in Eulogy also. That was pretty funny.

I think that's the only time I've really been anything close to arrested. Well, there was a riot when Eulogy played. The place held 2000, there were 4000 people there. It was crazy, all the cops came, crashed the whole thing. I looked over and saw what looked like this big beehive, like a honeycomb, it was all the helmets, shields and face guards from all the cops. They maced the place and all of a sudden I couldn't see or breathe. I ran outside, I was holding my guitar and this cop goes, get back inside. I said, I can't breathe and he started bashing me with a billy club so I ran back in. That was a crazy night.

Martha: What tunes are in your CD player right now?

Rusty: Skip James, the old Blues guy. I really like the Flaming Lips, The Soft Bulletin. Raw Power by Iggy Pop is incredible. Todd Rundgren, some of his stuff is amazing.

Martha: I wore out a copy of Something/Anything.

Rusty: Something/Anything's a great record. Hermit of Mink Hollow's really great. I really love old Genesis, Nursery Crimes and Foxtrot, Selling England by the Pound. Nursery Crimes especially.

Martha: You've mentioned that you listen to Gershwin - which of his pieces is your favorite?

Rusty: I like the melodies of his tunes, like The Man I Love is incredible. Prelude No. 2 is really great. Rhapsody in Blue, Someone to Watch Over Me, but I think I've heard Rhapsody in Blue too many times, sort of like some great Beatles song or Stones song, like Satisfaction, you've heard it so many times that if it catches you in the right mood you love it but it's hard to hear freshly.

Martha: Where is your favorite place to write music?

Rusty: Wherever I am. I mean, wherever that inspiration hits. I might be in traffic, in the house, in the hotel room and I'll jot down an idea. I seem to write in a fragmented fashion. I might write a part or a bit or a riff. We were jamming today and I started playing this riff and it was cool. We didn't have a tape recorder so I had to go upstairs and get the tape player out of my bag. The problem with tape recorders in your bag is that lots of times it'll hit play and it'll go to the end of the tape and you have to somehow find where you left off. Very irritating but I suppose it's the price you pay. I do have an enclosed porch upstairs with lots of windows and that's been quite inspirational.

Martha: What's your favorite song to slow dance to?

Rusty: I really used to like that song on that Syd Barrett record The Madcap Laughs, Octopus, but now it brings back some really bad memories. I don't know. Jeff Buckley, Coldplay, there's a lot of really cool music in that vein. Radiohead. There are a lot of great Paul McCartney songs that are really melodically beautiful, Nick Drake, he's fantastic. Velvet Underground.

Martha: Which instrument in a symphony orchestra do you feel best represents your personality?

Rusty: Did you hear about the cello that got stolen? Someone stole the cello from the principal cellist of the LA Philharmonic Orchestra, a Stradivarius worth $3,000,000. I think it actually belongs to the Philharmonic. Can you believe that? They'll probably get it back because I don't know how long it can really travel on the black market.

Martha: So are you saying you'd be a cello?

Rusty: Nah, that's more of a chick instrument, or a bird as they say- the curves you know? I don't know. Probably one of those Dr. Suess horns that are really complicated with this bizarre sound and doesn't quite fit into any category.

Martha: What song or classical work do you feel best describes your life?

Rusty: Nice Work if You Can Get It? No, Life on Mars by David Bowie, probably. I was at this party and all they were playing was hip-hop, but they played Life on Mars and then it went back to hip-hop. I thought, wow, that's a song that really speaks to a lot of people.

Martha: If you look at your past, what is the most important thing you have learned about life?

Rusty: There's no free lunch (laughs) That's what my Dad always said. He's that old school mentality. But he's probably right, you know? Don't go looking for a bunch of free sh*t without paying the price.

No, actually I'm still learning how to listen to and learn from others, and what it means to be in the moment.

Martha: How would you spend your ideal day'?

Rusty: I love the Northern California coast. I'd just kind of go around Big Sur. I love Yosemite, the Sierras, Santa Barbara, Utah, Zion and all that. I guess it's a long list: Hana in Maui, Ana Capri in Italy, etc.

Martha: Are you a hiker?

Rusty: I like to hike, being in really beautiful nature, riding bikes around, white water rafting, being out in it. I'm not a bungee jumper or anything like that. I climbed the back side of Half Dome once. That was breathtaking. My ideal day would be having a really great nature experience. I haven't had one in a while.

I went to Mad Ludwig's castle when we were on tour in Bavaria. It was pretty rad. I had a day to trip off so I went out by myself. It was really beautiful up there. I learned a lot of interesting things about the ruins. They still had some old relics from the Romans, who were conquering everybody. Then the Germans sort of won that piece and that became Germany. It's such a trip. Europe has all that history. The boundaries of Germany are really pretty fresh. So, a really good exploring day, seeing new things with friends, hanging out, that sounds good to me.

Martha: You didn't get a chance to do that while you were home this year?

Rusty: Part of the problem is that one of my dreams goals was to make that record. So I was doing all this stuff to get it out. The discipline involved in making a record is insane, especially when you don't have a bunch of people breathing down your neck to finish, or helping you finish it. Most of it I had to self-motivate. Even though I'm very self-motivated, my motivational skills are not natural, I have to force them. I have this desire to be organized but I don't have the natural skill. So lately it seems like I've either been touring or recording. My way is to be more of a dreamer or more impulsive, oh, lets do so and so and try something weird or experimental, that's my nature. You know, I'm on the cusp.

Martha: You're air but you want to be more earth.

Rusty: Yeah I'm always trying to be more earth. I see that things don't get done in the air- or they are created but they don't always get communicated. It's a different realm, more of an internal realm. To me, the earth is more external, the air is internal.

Martha: Boxers or briefs?

Rusty: Boxers or nothing. Usually.

Martha: You know why that was asked, don't you? There's an ongoing debate about Paul.

Rusty: Boxers or briefs? I don't even know.

Martha: No one does. It's a mystery.

Rusty: Paul's funny. In a way, he's the private Englishman guy. In another way, he comes from the crazy, free love and drugs sixties, the exact opposite. It's cool, he's this weird combination of polar opposites.

Martha: How did Russell Anderson come to be known as Rusty?

Rusty: It's actually a strange answer. My name's Russell Scott Anderson, right? For some reason, there's this trend in my family to call people by their middle names. They just assumed I wanted to be called by my middle name, which is Scott. So they called me Scotty. By the time I was 5, I said, I really don't like that name. I had this friend named Rusty so I said, I like his name, call me Rusty. By the time I was 7, no one had mentioned it to me but I realized, hey wow, my name really is Rusty. So it was completely a coincidence. However, I do have two cousins named Rusty.

Martha: How does it feel to have a song (Zallen's, aka Mike Jones, "Efinbubyo") written about you?

Rusty: It's very sweet of Mike to write it. We were in a band together for about 6 months to a year when I was 13. He's an old friend.

Martha: What does Efinbubyo mean?

Rusty: It's from a song that a friend and I wrote. We wrote it when we were like 15. But the tape got lost forever. It was called the Groovy Ricos, I think. The Groovy Ricos were this Mexican duo that played at Nachos, this Mexican restaurant in La Habra when we were growing up. We called the tape the Groovy Ricos. We recorded billions of songs. There were 2 tapes, one called Appraising The Phrasing and one called Groovy Ricos, both of which I lent to someone and they lost it. There were probably 50 songs on each one of those. I couldn't believe it. The implications didn't occur to me at the time. Now, knowing what I know, A - I would never have loaned it out and B - I would have made copies and C - I would have ransacked their homes. "Motherf*ker, were not leaving this house until we find it, your house, your car, your friend's car, you know what I mean?"

So, the concept of the song "Efinbubyo" is something that you never find out what it is. You listen to the whole song and you don't know what it is. I think there are some things in life like that, you spend your whole life trying to figure out what life even is and you never find out, to my knowledge (laughs) something that's an eternal mystery.

Martha: Were the Alice in Wonderland type links (eat me, drink me, humor me) on the web site your idea?

Rusty: Uh huh.

Martha: Do you have a special connection with the Alice stories?

Rusty: Obviously, I thought it was a brilliant book. I read some pieces from "The Annotated Alice." It talks about things like the mad hatter was actually a character created out of a real person. Mad as a hatter is from hat glue. They glue the felt together with some sort of mercury compound that would drive people crazy. They'd lick it, breathe it, and go crazy, so go mad as a hatter came from the fact that these people were being driven insane by the glue. The Mad Hatter was patterned after this inventor. He made all these crazy inventions and one of them was called the alarm clock bed. At a certain set time, the sleeper would actually get catapulted out of the bed, which sounds pretty brutal but I thought it was kind of fascinating.

Martha: Are you ever going to put the audience photos you took on the last tour on your website?

Rusty: I have put those pictures up.

Martha: A couple of them. I think people think that there are hundreds of them in a vault somewhere.

Rusty: Well, there are. But the problem is that a lot of the pictures I took were a bit blurry and nondescript. I realized that I needed to have the spotlight put on the audience instead of on me. They're not that worth looking at. I did finally figure out how to do it.

Martha: So do you think you'll do that again?

Rusty: Maybe. Guess I'm going to have to start thinking about that soon.

Martha: You're a part of the biggest touring band out there, you're doing your solo stuff and still fitting in studio work when you can. What else is out there that you still want to do?

Rusty: I don't know. I like writing songs, creating stuff. There's the Maltmen. The Maltmen is rad, that's something I really want to do but the development factor has taken a back burner. When it's ready, it's ready. That's something I'm really looking forward to. I love what I do. I love playing my songs. I love playing on peoples' records. I love playing with Paul. Maybe some film scoring, who knows?

Martha: Is Paul coming back to America in 2005?

Rusty: Rumor has it. That's all I can say.

Martha: You're lucky, getting to do what you love.

Rusty: I feel incredibly lucky. The hardest part is to not stress out. I don't really control any of this stuff. It happens as long as it happens. That's the trick. To somehow enjoy it without stressing out. Just go, yeah, these are good times.

Rusty Anderson will perform Thursday, May 19 at the outdoor Fullerton Market

The concert is being offered free by the Fullerton Museum Center in conjunction with its exhibit "The Orange Groove: Orange County's Rock 'n Roll History," which celebrates Orange County's (California) musical legacy and its impact on popular music.

The concert will be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the Downtown Plaza, which is located on Wilshire Avenue, between Harbor Boulevard and Pomona Avenue, adjacent to the museum.

http://www.ci.fullerton.ca.us/city_manager/pressreleases/anderson.html

BUY RUSTY ANDERSON'S "HURT MYSELF" SONG AND SUPPORT 46664 TO FIGHT AIDS

Blue Pie Productions (www.bluepie.com.au) has put together the "Hurt Myself " project to help support the great work that the Nelson Mandela 46664 foundation does every day. "Hurt Myself" is an initiative from Blue Pie Productions, Crush Management, Rusty Anderson, Dino Jag and the artists that performed on this great song including Abe Laboriel Jr, David Kahne, Probin Gregory, Brian Ray, Paul "Wix" Wickens and Sir Paul McCartney.

It is all about helping those affected with AIDS and the families of the affected, living with AIDS. As you know, Sir Paul McCartney is a huge supporter of the 46664 Foundation and we all truly believe in its cause.

You can support the 46664 foundation by clicking the links below and purchasing a digital download of Rusty Anderson's song "Hurt Myself" from his "Undressing Underwater" album. Every time someone purchases the song 15% of the song proceeds goes to the Nelson Mandela foundation. This includes the ringtones, video clip sales, all digital downloads and all compilation CD's that the song is licensed to and any advertising revenue generated.

Click the MSN link to download "Hurt Myself" for $1.69 http://music.msn.com/album/?album=41197648

Former Ednaswap guitarist Rusty Anderson, who has been a member of Paul McCartney's band for the past few years, is readying his debut solo album, "Undressing Underwater." The set will be released Sept. 13 via Surfdog Records, the same day as McCartney's new Capitol album, "Chaos and the Creation in the Back Yard."

McCartney and the rest of his band appear on "Hurt Myself," the opening track of "Undressing," which Anderson co-produced with Parthenon Huxley and Mudruck (Godsmack). Among other guests on the set is former Police drummer Stewart Copeland, with whom Anderson played in the group Animal Logic. He appears on the instrumental track "Catbox Beach."

"Some people seem to think it's good marketing sense to have one monochromatic sound, one statement, one logo, whatever. But I don’t feel that way," Anderson says, summing up his eclectic debut. "It’s not about being a rebel for the sake of rebelling; I'd rather let music come together organically. 'Underwater Undressing' really says, 'You know what? This is my music. If it’s too diverse, screw it. This is me.'"

http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000980764

Surfdog, Sept. 27, 2005 (USA)

1. Hurt Myself
2. Devil's Spaceship
3. Electric Trains
4. Damaged Goods
5. Coming Down To Earth
6. Ol' Sparky
7. Catbox Beach
8. Ishmael
9. Sentimental Chaos
10. Everybody Deserves An A In This Country

guests: McCartney, Stewart Copeland

Paul's sideman

Rusty Anderson alternates between McCartney and solo career

WADE TATANGELO

Herald Staff Writer


"Trial by fire."

That's how guitarist Rusty Anderson described his stage debut with Sir Paul McCartney at the post-9/11 "Concert for New York City," which also featured The Who, Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and dozens of other stars.

"Backstage I met Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, all these people, even (former President) Bill Clinton," Anderson laughed. "It was way too much to take in in one day."

It was the un-rock star hour of 9:30 a.m. when Anderson picked up the phone last week in Miami. He was there rehearsing with McCartney for the highly anticipated arena tour that stops at Tampa's St. Pete Times Forum on Saturday.

"It feels like a vacation down here," said Anderson, who lives in Los Angeles. "Well, except for when (Hurricane Katrina) came through. I'd never been through anything like that. Trees were upturned and there was a really sharp, loud howl of the wind - incredible."

Anderson first teamed with the ex-Beatle in 2001 for McCartney's "Driving Rain" album. At the time, Anderson's resume already included playing on records by Elton John, Santana, Perry Farrell, Avril Lavigne, Courtney Love, and, oh yeah, that's Anderson's lead guitar on Ricky Martin's chart-topper "Livin' la Vida Loca."

Anderson also spent the 1990s as lead ax man for the alternative rock band he co-founded, Ednaswap. An indie label act that never quite broke through to the mainstream, the band is most famous for authoring Natalie Imbruglia's huge hit "Torn." Unfortunately, penning the tune didn't win Ednaswap too many new fans and the group split in 1999. By this time, Anderson was primed for a solo career.

And then came the call from Sir Paul.

"You've got to understand what this meant to me," Anderson told his publicist. "The Beatles were the reason I'd started playing music. I used to dream about them asking me to play with them. Then my friend David Kahne started producing Paul and he invites me down to play some guitar.

"So I go to the studio, and just say, 'Hi Paul, it's me, Rusty.' I think I kept it together pretty well, although I was pretty nervous. And before the day is over I'm playing guitar, and there's Paul McCartney over there, playing his Hofner bass and singing. All I can do is think, 'This life is so so bizarre.' "

After the completion of McCartney's 2001 effort "Driving

Rain" Anderson was invited to join the superstar's world tour, which is documented on the live album "Back in the U.S." The double-disc set finds Anderson's guitar blazing through Beatles classics such as "Hello Goodbye," "Let it Be," "Hey Jude" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" along with material from McCartney' solo career.

Anderson said he is excited about the songs they're rehearsing from McCartney's new, critically acclaimed release, "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard." Other tunes that he's tickled to play include McCartney's 1970s favorite "Maybe, I'm Amazed."

So, after four years, is it still weird to look over your shoulder and see Sir Paul McCartney?

"You get used to anything - good or bad - and that's the good thing," Anderson said. "I mean, if we have a problem we're able to talk it out."

In between trotting the globe with McCartney, Anderson has found time to record his solo debut "Undressing Underwater." A varied collection of radio-friendly rock tracks rife with impressive guitar hooks, the disc also features McCartney playing bass and singing backup vocals on the hummable leadoff cut "Hurt Myself."

"I knew he had three days before he had to return to England and I just said 'Hey, Paul, wanna play on a tune?' and he agreed," Anderson said. "Everyone from (McCartney's) touring band came in and we did the song together - it was very surreal."

First jobs — Rusty Anderson

Metro: What was your first job, and what did you learn from it that you are still using today?

Rusty Anderson: I was a door-to-door salesman for cleaning and beauty products. I was about 14 at the time and I would walk door to door and go, 'Hello, ma'am. I have a free gift for you today.' I did that for almost a year — that paid for my first hi-watt amp. From that job, I learned how to get over rejection and get on with life. Knocking on people's doors cold is a hard one, but I take this advice with me — it's not considered rejection, it's considered selection.

Seasoned session guitar player Rusty Anderson, whose latest role is as lead guitarist for Paul McCartney, will re-release his first solo effort Undressing Underwater on Sept. 27. He'll appear with Sir Paul when the former Beatle stops by the Air Canada Centre on Oct. 10.

http://www.metronews.ca/worksmart_news.asp?id=10964