Interview: Russ Rankin Talks Only Crime and Doesn’t Care About Wikipedia
With all the buzz about the upcoming Only Crime album, Pursuance, I had to talk to frontman, Russ Rankin, about the band’s third album and get in the loop more. Check out our interview below and be sure to keep up with Only Crime on Facebook n shit.
PWV: Is Only Crime the most active band for you right now, or is it split pretty even with Good Riddance and solo stuff?
RR: Hard to say. Only Crime has not played a show in years. We will do our best to get out and play with the new release. It’s tough with our schedules and other commitments but it’s important to us to get out and play again and do right by Rise [Records].
PWV: You started writing the third album back in 2009 and you’re finally able to finish it. Did you subtly work on it over the years or was it completely tabled until recently?
RR: Actually I think it was 2008 when we started writing this stuff. We have been chipping away at it through the years, long periods of inactivity punctuated by individual trips to Colorado to record a few tracks here and there. We also spent a lot of time refining the material, making changes to arrangements, key, etc.
PWV: Were any tracks finished before you started working on it again years later?
RR: I honestly don’t know. We chipped away at it pretty consistently. I know I did my last vocal in November of 2012. We were never all there at the same time by the time we started the actual tracking. It was always Bill and Matt, or Bill, Aaron and Matt, or Bill and me. Dan recorded his bass in California and sent Bill the files.
PWV: Explain where the album title Pursuance came from. Also, FYI, it’s spelled wrong on the Wikipedia page.
RR: This album has really been a labor of love for us. We have overcome a ton of obstacles and delays to get it done, so I went with a perseverance theme. I liked that it wasn’t a common word or term, and I felt like it summed up one of the underlying themes of the album. We went through several title ideas but eventually “Pursuance” was the winner. Don’t really care about what Wikipedia says.
PWV: The Only Crime website doesn’t seem to exist anymore. Is that a temporary thing?
RR: Yeah we suck at regular, everyday band stuff. Rise [Records] has been great with getting a Facebook thing up. I’m sure a website will exist again some day.
PWV: The “Life Was Fair” music video is getting great responses from fans. Can we expect another music video before the album is released in May?
RR: Definitely not before May. It depends on what Rise wants to do. Only Crime had never done a video before, it was a good experience for us and I think it’s a great way to sort of reintroduce us to people. I’m glad people are digging it, we are really happy with how it turned out.
PWV: Has it been a different experience going from Fat Wreck Chords, a label you’ve been a part of almost your entire music career, to Rise Records?
RR: So far I haven’t been as directly involved with the label as, say, Bill or Dan has. They have been nothing but supportive and really excited about the band ad the album, which is really important because, for us, it has been this sort of musical albatross hanging around our necks for so many years and, for me at least, the excitement of creating new music had pretty much been sucked out of it, just due to all the delays and things we had to overcome. Craig and everyone at Rise were so stoked and enthusiastic about the album, it really helped to sort of reignite that excitement for me.
PWV: You’ve been touring for quite some time now. Do you foresee quitting for good in your future, or are you doing this until you physically can’t do it anymore?
RR: I just got off a run of solo shows with Kevin Seconds, who is older than me. As long as people are stoked on what I’m doing and are willing to show up for it, I’ll keep going. It definitely takes a toll physically, especially with the bands, not so much with the solo stuff. I have to take care of myself which is probably a good idea anyways right?
PWV: It’s public that you’ll be touring Europe after the album release, but is there a US tour coming soon?
RR: We don’t know. Of course we’ll be doing some North American dates to support the album, and we’d like to do them sooner than later. For us, the tough part is always finding chunks of time where none of us have other commitments. That being said, supporting this record is a big priority for us and we are determined to play as much as we can, including North America.
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About the Author
Denise Borders 39, Los Angeles. Denise founded PWV in 2008 and remains the primary manager and photographer/videographer. She is not secretly obsessed with Joey Cape.
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