Written by Madison Boyce
Two years ago this week, New Jersey native Chris Russo dropped his debut EP “How’ve You Been?” under his project named Highwind. In these past two years, he’s made great strides towards making Highwind a known name in the alternative music scene, including opening for pop-punk favorites Homesafe at the end of 2019.
Russo decided to open the EP with the hard-hitting “Wednesday, 2 O’Clock”. The raw vocals provide almost four minutes' worth of pure agony as the narrator opens up about the struggles within their own mind.
Things pick up with “Look Alive”, sonically reminiscent of classic pop-punk songs. Everything about this song makes it flow perfectly, especially in a live setting
“Bi-polar (ft. Nina Schrimer)” brings a heavier vibe to the EP and is a standout track in Highwind's discography. Schrimer provides raw screams towards the end of the song, truly making it special.
“Synchronicity” has to be my favorite track on this EP. Russo's voice radiates pure agony as he sings of one-sided love, and the execution is so perfect that you almost feel like you're going through it with him.
“Afterlife (How’ve You Been?)” is a song about loss, as Russo speaks to someone from his past who is no longer in his life. This serves as a title track of sorts, making it a fitting closer to the EP.
To celebrate "How You've Been?"'s second birthday, we were able to sit down with Chris Russo and ask him some questions about the release and the role it has played in Highwind's growth.
Since “How’ve You Been?” was your debut EP, how has Highwind changed since then?
It's definitely a lot poppier of a project now. Like, the focus is to make things catchier, or make things a little more, not dancey, but have a pop influence to it.
I'm incorporating a lot more synths and I'm incorporating a lot more of the radio pop influence. It's still as honest as ever, so as brutally me as ever, but the focus is definitely more writing pop-rock, as opposed to, heavy post-hardcore music.
At first, that's what it was, it was so influenced by like Hidden In Plain View, Set Your Goals, The Used, and you can definitely hear a lot of that in the beginning. Now it's more like, take that sound, but make that sound inspired by like Chvrches, Now, Now, K. Flay, and The 1975.
Can you explain how you came up with the name of the EP?
I was just trying to search for an EP title and “How’ve You Been?”, seeing as it's part of the title track, kind of fit. I had [that song] first and I was trying to figure out a name so I was like, “Okay! How’ve You Been?”
It's a little introduction, I'm saying, “Hey, how are you? Nice to meet you.” It's a good introduction to Highwind.
How did the cover art come about?
I kind of had the idea of wanting people involved, I want the conversation to be opened up. So, why not actually open up a conversation and get a bunch of my friends involved in it?
It's just us hanging out the day of our first show, having a conversation. I'm like, “Hey! You come here, you come here, you come here, you come here and, you come here. Let’s hang outside for a second so I can get an album cover.”
It was really just us talking garbage outside on the deck of the place we played in Atlantic Islands. It was just a chill night.
Now for the track-by-track questions! What was the writing process like for “Wednesday, 2 O’clock”? How does it compare to the other songs?
“Wednesday, Two O'clock” is one of the oldest songs on the EP. I was very nervous writing that song because I wrote it lyrically the night before my first therapy session, and I'd never [gone to therapy] before.
So, I was very nervous, very scared, not knowing how things were gonna go. I just kind of took a pen to paper and wrote how I was feeling in as poetic of a form as I possibly could.
As far as musically, I had the verse and the chorus idea to build up, build up, build up, build up, but when CJ and I got to the studio, we're like, “Okay, how are we going to end this song? What are we going to do?” So, we're like, “You know what? Solo time....let's write a rip-roaring solo, let's make it big, long, and dramatic and go nuts and then just scream at the end and hope for the best. ”
CJ helped me put the pieces together for that song, and it turned out awesome. I am very thankful to have him, in that song particularly because I don't think it would have been as emotional and as heavy-hitting as it is without his help.
Where did you draw inspiration from for “Look Alive”?'
So, the cool part about that is that the guitar riff was supposed to be a bass riff at first, but I didn't have a bass to play it on at the time. I was sitting writing that in my bedroom, just replaying that little lick like, “You know what, I’m gonna make this a guitar lick” and I wanted to make like a really cool funky, dancey kind of rock song based around that.
Lyrically, it was just kind of like a buildup of what I had been feeling emotionally over the past few years up until that point. It was kind of my release of, “Hey, this is how I’ve been feeling. I gotta stay strong for everyone else. I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. I’m not crumbling or anything, no big deal.”
It revolves around that one lick, even though it never shows up in the song except for that first verse. I thought, “Hey, I have this lick. Let's write a cool little funky dance song based around that.”
How would you say “Bi-Polar” fits in with the overall theme of the EP?
Musically it doesn’t. That was very much just me wanting to be like “Hey, I like post-hardcore. I'm listening to a lot of it. I'm gonna write my own take on it, and I’m going to get my friend Nina to do some screams on it, let's make it just a heavy track for no reason.”
Lyrically it still goes along the lines of...what it's like to fall in love, fall out of love, fall in love, fall out of love, and not know where you stand...being in love with someone and not being sure how you feel about the situation you're in. As brutally honest as the songs can be on [this EP], I feel that's probably one of the more brutal because it's very much [about] a...specific scenario, and I just expanded on that thing that I was feeling.
Musically, it doesn't fit at all, I'll be completely honest; all the songs on there kind of feel pretty similar, that alternative pop-punk kind of feel or that alternative-rock, pop-rock kind of feel. That song is just post-hardcore riffs, fight riffs to the max, with a catchy chorus over it.
The Nina Schrimer feature on that song is great! How did it come to fruition?
Oh, I love Nina Schrimer, she is an amazing human being. I texted her and was like, “Hey, I have this song, I need some heavy-ass vocals on it, can you do it?”, and she said “Yes, absolutely” and came to the studio the next week.
We tracked her vocal part and we were just sitting there like, “I can't believe you're doing this right now, this sounds insane, it sounds so good.” She was a pleasure to work with, I don't really see her doing heavy music anymore, which is so sad because she was [so talented].
Granted though, she's doing other things she's very happy with and I'm gonna support her in everything she wants to do. The fact that I was able to like snag a last feature before she kind of stopped doing the heavy music thing makes me really happy...she just sounds so unbelievably good on that track.
Next up is my personal favorite off the EP, “Synchronicity!” Can you take us through the creative process for this one?
The writing process for this was insane. I was hanging out with Tom Morse, Michael Seltzer, and Kris Khunachak from American Stereo.
I had left my old band maybe like a week before that and I was kind of just sitting there hanging out with them because I wanted something to do. I was...doing my math homework at the time, and I always have my songwriting book on me just in case I need it.
They were practicing a new song of theirs and after they got a certain part down Mike was like, “Yes, we got it! In harmony, synchronicity!” and I'm like, “What did you just say?” and I wrote the entire song in like three hours, maybe a little less than that.
I was like “Kris, give me a guitar! I need to write something.” He let me use his guitar and I just sat there in a corner by myself while they were practicing loud as hell right behind me and I wrote the whole thing [there].
[It was written in] the shortest amount of time while still being the most complex track on the record. I still don't know I pulled that song out of my ass, I really don't, but it was perfect songwriting...the entire thing came to me in my head.
Was there any reason as to why you chose to end the EP with “Afterlife”?
It’s the most meaningful, it has the most impact, and it'll always be the most special to me. It just felt right to end the record on the most personal note.
Adam is very important to me, he's always going to be very important to me, and that song is always going to have the most special place in my heart no matter how proud of a song I write after “Afterlife”, I am. This one just means the most to me; it was the first song I finished but it felt right to tie everything together with it at the end.
Any cool stories you want to share about when the EP was recorded?
I mean, realistically, it was just like eight months of meeting up with CJ every week and just having a blast. I would bring him caramel covered lattes that were prone to give someone diabetes, because literally one day he was like, “Chris, the only thing you have to pay me with is a coffee every week, kill me with caramel.”
I would bring him Starbucks frappuccinos with like 10 pumps of caramel syrup, caramel sauce, layer like two inches thick worth of caramel. I’d bring them every week and he’d sit there and drink them, even though he hated them. It was great.
It was a lot of fun, just meeting up with one of my best friends every week, going nuts and writing a five-song EP that we both love and treasure to this day that we still talk about remixing. It's still very relevant to both of us, and it lets us look back on that time of having a blast together.
To close on a bit of a sentimental note, how do you feel now that “How’ve You Been?” is two years old?
It doesn't feel like it's two years old, I can't believe it's two years old already...I genuinely can't believe it's been two years since I released it and two and a half years since I recorded it.
That's what blows my mind...the past two years went by so quickly and I've done so much since then. I've gone on a bunch of east coast runs, I've released three other songs, well, two other songs and an acoustic version of “Afterlife,” and I have five more songs ready to be released.
So much has changed, [in terms of] how I approach Highwind and our sound; so much has happened thanks to that EP in such a short amount of time. I met a lot of people that I'm proud to consider friends and people that I'm proud to consider a part of the Highwind team.
I’ve gained a solid following because of that EP and “2023”, and it feels really weird to say that. I'm just unbelievably, extremely, grateful for anyone who has ever given that EP a chance and may say that they liked a specific song off of it, anyone who has housed me and my friends during the touring cycle for that EP.
I'm very thankful to anyone who has given my music a chance since "How You've Been?", really. I will forever hold that EP as one of my greatest achievements in my entire life.
"How’ve You Been?" as well as the rest of the Highwind discography is available to stream wherever you listen to music, and you can keep up with Highwind by following them on Twitter @HighwindBandNJ. Let us know how you're celebrating the EP's second birthday by tweeting us @lgndsoftmrw!
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