Charlie Russell

What genre do you officially claim, and what genre do you secretly belong to?

Great question! I think my music is officially pop-rock. Secretly, I wish I could pull off R&B.

What's your creative process like? Do you write from life, from imagination, or somewhere in between?

I write most songs from what I call seeds. A seed is usually a little snippet of words and music that I like, that feel like something I want to develop. It might show up when I'm playing guitar, or singing in the car, or reading, or in the shower, or sleeping. I write it down or record it, then keep going back and working on it.

Do you make music better alone or with other people in the room?

I LOVE playing with other musicians. Love, love, love it, even if it's not always better.

How do you know when a song is finished, and have you ever gone back and changed something you thought was done?

There are usually bits that are just meh, where I think I can do better than that. I like to come up with stronger choices for those bits. Then it feels done.

Was there a specific moment, song, or artist that made you think, "I need to make music"?

Listening to the radio growing up! When I was 12, I asked my parents for a guitar for Christmas. They gave me a guitar and some lessons with a local player. I've never looked back.

What did your younger self think your music career would look like, versus what it actually looks like now?

Younger me thought I would be in more music videos by now.

What's the best advice you can give another artist hesitant on releasing their music for the first time?

I've been there. It feels overwhelming, intimidating, scary, hopeless. It looks like a deep dark cave of a thousand unknowns, with a thousand monsters waiting in the dark to bite you. My advice: light your torch and walk into the cave yelling "bite me!". Suddenly it's not that scary. And trust me, once you've done it, once you've lit up that darkness and walked back out into the sunshine with a record released, the second time feels a million times easier. Bonus advice: the best way is to do it with a group. I was lucky enough to find REDLUX Academy Release Club. With great leadership and great comrades, we walked into the cave together yelling "bite me". That was pretty fun.

What does success look like to you, not in the industry's eyes, but in yours?

Right now, success in music is twofold. With Charlie and the Hustle, it's the joy of performing with great bandmates, seeing people enjoy what we do, feeling positive responses to my original songs. With my new journey releasing music, it's the act of applying the seat of my pants to the seat of the chair in my home studio. Putting in the work gives me tons of positive results: the joy of creation, the pride of listening to a record that I made and thinking that's a pretty good-sounding record, the satisfaction of having released a record and accomplished what I set out to accomplish.