Interviews: Fields still Fertile: An interview with Russ Rankin (Good Riddance)

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In continuation with our collaboration with Italy-based punks at the Persimmon Collective, we have an interview with Russ Rankin of Good Riddance. Contributor Renny T sat down with Russ to discuss his bands and Good Riddance's latest release. See below to che…

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In continuation with our collaboration with Italy-based punks at the Persimmon Collective, we have an interview with Russ Rankin of Good Riddance. Contributor Renny T sat down with Russ to discuss his bands and Good Riddance's latest release. See below to check out the full interview.

We were lucky enough to catch Good Riddance at this year’s Brakrock during their summer tour supporting their latest release, Before The World Caves In, a record that confirms that the hardcore band from Santa Cruz does not put out bad material. They take their time between releases in order to provide with each album a stellar addition to their discography. They are also still a phenomenal live band. Their show was so good I had to go to Brescia to catch them a second time.

In Belgium a couple of hours before their set we had a short chat with vocalist and songwriter Russ Rankin about the new album, songwriting and more. Thank you to Chuck (Platt, bassist) for making this happen and to their tour manager Michele for fitting us in their busy schedule.

Hi Russ, thanks so much for doing this. Let’s start off by touching base on the new record. Are you happy with how it's going and with how the songs you’re playing off it are being received?

I think so. One thing that we've noticed on this tour and that even our bass player actually has commented on is that people at the shows are really familiar with the new songs, probably more than any time in the past. A lot of times when we come over here on a new album it takes people a little bit to learn the new songs. But our bass player noticed a lot of people singing several of them. I can't really tell because I'm trying to remember the words, but yeah, I think the reception has been good.

Great! You're one of my favorite songwriters because you always have been able to move easily between writing songs that are very aggressive and songs that are the very melodic, almost poppy (as you can hear from various choices of chord progressions in your discography). I think that on the new album the songs “To Suffer Is The Name” and “Drive Faster,” my two favorites on the record, display your melodic side at its finest.

Thank you.

I just wanted to know how did these two come about?

That's a great question. I just don't have a good answer. The process for this record was I would write songs completely independently at home with Logic on my computer. I would plug in guitar, bass, do all the singing and then I would send an email to my bandmates showing my new idea. This idea would be an intact, finished, song. Everything's there.

Like a skeleton?

More than a skeleton. It usually has backing vocals, harmonies, guitar leads, everything. What I wanted from the three of my bandmates was for them to tell me: yes, I like it, or no, I don't. Only if I got a unanimous yes, the song would go into this list where we collected the songs that all three members said yes to. So with “Drive Faster,” I think the first time we played it at practice was when the band thought it was really good. They were interested in the arrangement I had sent them (they liked it). But after we played it live, I recall them being very complimentary of it. And then with “To Suffer Is The Name”: it's funny because I wrote it and I sent it to them saying that it was probably too light for this album, probably too mellow. However, they all liked it. So, the rule was that once I sent songs to them, I released any agency from them: if even one person was not sure about a song, that song went into the garbage and I just kept writing.

That's a strict standard to follow.

Well, I thought it would be the best because that way I would never feel like I was forcing somebody or forcing a song that maybe somebody didn’t really want to play but didn't know if allowed to say so. In this way, when I presented a song, everybody knew that, even if one person wasn't sure, I would take no offense. I would just keep writing and wait until we were all happy. And that's what we did. So, we collected eventually about twenty songs that we demoed. Then from those twenty, my band picked the ones that ended up on the album.

Thank you for this answer. Going back to your songwriting style. Since it’s like a spectrum with these two opposites — the very aggressive and the very melodic — I was interested in hearing about your musical inspirations for both sides. Growing up, what did you listen to from these two worlds that you then took up in your own songwriting? I think the way you blend these is so unique to your band.

Like for a lot of guys my age, the album Suffer by Bad Religion was a life-changing event. So I would have to say Bad Religion. I would also say Lifetime, The Get Up Kids and Jawbreaker. Also, a lesser-known band, Crimpshrine. Bands like that. I'm not a great singer so my ability to deliver melodies is not innate. I wasn't born to be a great singer, but I feel that if you can deliver some good hooks, some good melodies, if you understand melodic songwriting and you can deliver it even with a little bit of roughness in your voice, it kind of makes it sound cooler. This made me think of other bands: Leatherface, or — and I got into them late even if they're more like peers of ours — Hot Water Music. Think of the way Chuck [Ragan, Hot Water Music, guitarist and vocalist] sings. Delivering personal or introspective lyrics with some sort of melodic hook, but also with some sort of — not negative — but pensive energy, or with sadness or emotion, I think it's effective for me as a listener.

For me too.

When I hear bands do that, it affects me. So that’s what I do.

I totally understand because that's how I feel when I listen to your music. How about new bands that you like that you think are doing cool things at the moment?

I really like the Menzingers. They are absolutely one of the bands a little bit after our time out there doing it. I listen to everything they do. It’s so good that it makes me want to quit trying to play music. The first time I saw them was in 2012 when we played Fest. I'd never heard of them. They were before us in the order. I watched them play and I thought: this band is amazing, this is my new favorite band. And I've listened ever since. With bands like that, for me, sometimes it's inspirational, it's pleasing to listen to. It also can be defeating for me because I just feel like I'll never write anything that good, so I shouldn't bother trying. But no, for sure, that band is awesome.

And I have to ask, what’s going on with Only Crime? Is that done? Or is that something that you want to pick up at some point?

I want to. I think we all do. We have a pretty active group text that has never stopped, but everybody’s schedule is insane. It's a matter of ever having the time. Also, look at the size of shows that the Descendents [main band of Only Crime drummer, Bill Stevenson] play. Only Crime plays to about 12 or 13 people usually. So, it's a hard sell.

Last time I saw you guys was at St. Vitus in Brooklyn (October, 2014).

That was a good show! There was more than 12 people there. But mostly an Only Crime show is about 12 people looking very curious and wondering: what are these guys doing? So while we all love playing together and we love each other's company, I just don't know when the opportunity would come up. But I also would not say that it's a hard no. It's open-ended. I would love to play again with them.

Talking about what you're doing now: you're on tour in Europe, you're deciding setlists and playing festivals. When you have to pick songs from your catalog, how do you balance what you want versus what the other members want versus what you think the fans want? How do all these elements come together in a band with so many songs?

In the band, Chuck is in charge of the setlist. That takes everyone else out of the equation. He figures that out.

So, there's no veto?

Well, there could be. He runs it by us. He presents his idea, but he spends a lot of time piecing it together, thinking about length of song, length of what our set is that night, mixing up different albums (when you have ten albums you want to play at least one off every one). Also, if a song ends in a certain key, then he thinks of a song that probably ought to start in that key. He also takes into account which songs are tougher for me to sing, spacing those out so they're not all right together. He puts a lot of work and thought into it. That's the first part of your question. To address the second part of your question, we generally know that if we're headlining, so if it's a show where Good Riddance fans are for sure coming, we know there are certain songs that we probably have to play or they're gonna come after us with pitchforks and knives.

Italy wants you to play “Waste” every time.

Yeah, so technology has gotten to a point now where you can ask ChatGPT what your biggest streaming songs are. You can find out more than you used to be able to about what's popular with your fans. And then you can decide how much stock you want to place in that. This time around, we're changing things up. In the past when we've had a new album, we've gone on tour and we started out the tour playing a bunch of new songs. But then people would just kind of stand there because they don't know them yet. So then, one by one, we would take the songs out. But now we've decided that we're just going to play them. It doesn't matter if people just stare at us. We feel that [the songs] are strong enough, and that it doesn't matter if people aren't reacting right away. That's okay. We've been doing this here in Europe and we have been doing so too at home at shows.

Okay. I mean, I ask this because I've been going to your shows since 2001 when you were on tour with Death by Stereo and you played the Rainbow Club in Milan. That night I saw you play Trial of the Century, a song I never got to see again. But then 18 years later, in 2019, I got to see Jeannie live, which I yet had not seen. That’s one of my favorite songs ever. So it’s so cool, when you’re a fan of a band with such an extensive catalog like yours, to wait for that perfect moment to see a song that you've been longing to catch for so long. So, thank you for keeping your song selection so fresh and always evolving. Talking about your extensive catalogue, did you know that your song One for the Braves, is your number one song on streaming platforms?

I didn't know that.

It’s crazy that, even if it’s a song off of an EP, it still gets all this love.

Yeah, that's interesting.

Changing lanes here. What are your thoughts on the proliferation of AI and its use in songwriting?

I have never used it for songwriting. But if I've just finished a screenplay, I might use AI as a tool to critique it. So it would be after the fact, almost like an editor. I might ask it how something reads.

Are you writing screenplays now?

I've written four. My manager has one that's out. He's trying to shop it around. But nothing’s been produced yet. But it's fun. I'm having a lot of fun doing it. Going back to AI, I would use it as a tool to give feedback. But to use it to start creating something, it would never occur to me to do that.

Makes absolute sense. Going back to setlists and tour, do you like these festivals you do during the summer or do you prefer club shows or some more intimate setting?

I think I like both the same. With respect to festivals, over the years you get picky. Like, I might not like how far away the backstage is from the stage, or I don't like if they did this or that. We played a festival not that long ago where we did not know a single person. We had never heard of any of the bands. And a lot of times at a festival, after doing this for these many years, even if I don't know the bands that well, I'll know a tech, a roadie, a tour manager. I'll know some familiar face. But we've played these festivals sometimes where you don't know anybody. And that's sort of a bummer because it's fun and kind of cool — since I already know my band pretty well— to mingle with different people or people you don't see all the time. Like today, I hope the Adolescents show up because I'd like to see those guys. So, when we’re at a festival where you know a lot of people, it's really fun for me. Festivals where we just feel like we're fish out of water are not as appealing. We played one like that not long ago, and we were all thinking: “what are we doing here?” I mean, they paid us, we played okay, people seemed to like us, but I don't think that there's anybody there that had ever heard of our band before.

Interesting!

But maybe that's the idea: to put you in front of strangers and see what they think, and maybe you get some new fans out of it. So yeah, it also has its upsides.

Winding up, besides music, do you have any hobbies or any other activity that interests you?

I've been working a lot on screenplays. I've only been doing it for a couple years, and I found that I really enjoy it. It's a new creative outlet for me and I like the craft of it. I've been studying a lot and reading. I've read a couple books about screenwriting, obviously watched like MasterClass for screenwriters and just sort of explored this brand-new thing that I've never really dealt with before. Whether or not anybody else likes it enough to pay for the screenplays to be made [into features], we'll see. But I like writing them.

Are you writing about the music world?

Not at the moment, no. They're all different. None of them are really about music. I probably could write a good one about music if I wanted to. But I just finished one about [Ireland]. I'm a super nerd about Irish history. I’m Irish on both sides of my family. So, I wrote a screenplay that takes place in Belfast in 1983. It was fun to write, but it was also fun to do all the research because, while I know a lot, there's a lot I don't know and I wanted to get it right. For this reason, what I've done now is I’ve taken the screenplay and found academics that teach Irish history, particularly that period, the Troubles, and I've sent them the screenplay. What I'm hopeful for is for somebody not to read it from a script perspective, but to check my accuracy of the history. I really love just getting an idea, figuring out an outline, and then doing all the research because, as a screenwriter, you can write about something that you don't know nothing about. If you've got a good voice and you know how to write on the page, the rest you can just learn. I find it kind of cool to throw myself into these stories that I don't have experience with but can still make a good script out of. I do that. I also go surfing when there's waves. I play in a men's league in hockey Thursday nights.

Do you still do the scouting?

Yes.

Amazing.

That starts in the fall.

Well, Russ, thank you for spending time with us.

Thank you guys.

Photos by Matteo Bussoli @mb_punk_photography on Instagram