"If a punk heard me say I was punk, they’d be like, ‘Fuck you.’”

Photography by Ryan Shorosky

Fashion by Julia Ehrlich

Cailin Russo wants me to come to her band&rsquo;s show, and she wants you to do the same.

If the videos on YouTube are any indication, it&rsquo;s a worthy investment&mdash;Russo pogos around the stage in athleisure like an early-days Gwen Stefani, encouraging maximum sing-alongs, and roaring through powerful vocal performances.

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&ldquo;House With a Pool is [best listened to] live,&rdquo; she tells me.&nbsp;&ldquo;Live will, I feel like with this type of music, and with the band, always out-trump listening to it on record. But if you want to sit down and listen to it, I would suggest doing it while driving. I always want to make music that you want to listen to in the car.&rdquo;

House With a Pool is the first album by the band Russo (when she&rsquo;s joined by Tyler McCarthy on guitar, Hayley Brownell on drums and backing vocals, and Sean Ritchie on bass, they&rsquo;re just called &ldquo;Russo&rdquo;), and driving is precisely the sound on the record.&nbsp;That&rsquo;s not much of a shocker, considering Cailin is the daughter of Scott Russo, the former leadman of Unwritten Law, one of the most canonical SoCal pop-punk groups.

My manager was on the phone for an hour, like, ‘You wrote the fucking song. It obviously, naturally came out of you.’ I was like, ‘You’re right.’”


Though the songs on House aren&rsquo;t exactly traditionally punk, they do have a razor-sharp edge to them&mdash;much more so than the lounge music Russo made under her own name over the past few years.&nbsp;The band&rsquo;s first single, &ldquo;Lonely,&rdquo; comes in at a blistering 2:38, and has a kind of New York City&ndash;circa-Yeah Yeah Yeahs&ndash;peak vibe, complete with angular guitars and Russo&rsquo;s leopard-like growling vocals.

&ldquo;I grew up [in a] super punk rock [household],&rdquo; says the 24-year-old Russo&mdash;who got her first real taste of fame when she was featured in a Justin Bieber video&mdash;with a laugh. &ldquo;And so, naturally I was like, I&rsquo;m never going to make rock music. I went into this jazzy, neo-soul situation and made a whole project, and then I was like, &lsquo;Is this something that I think is different?&rsquo; So, I wrote this song, &lsquo;Lonely,&rsquo; two years ago, and it was a lot more pop-punk, and I was like, &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t wanna put it out.&rsquo; My manager was on the phone for an hour, like, &lsquo;You wrote the fucking song. It obviously, naturally came out of you.&rsquo; I was like, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re right.&rsquo;&rdquo;

"So, ‘Free Palestine,’ first of all,” she says. “Also, just the basic human rights: sex, age, race should never be an issue with living life."

Though she adamantly eschews the punk tag (&ldquo;I feel like a hypocrite calling myself punk, because I&rsquo;m not that punk, even though I grew up super punk, and I have tattoos, and I party. If a punk heard me say I was punk, they&rsquo;d be like, &lsquo;Fuck you.&rsquo;&rdquo;), her badass, anti-establishment side does shine through when I ask her what she stands for.

&ldquo;So, &lsquo;Free Palestine,&rsquo; first of all,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Also, just the basic human rights: sex, age, race should never be an issue with living life. Also, I&rsquo;m super against guns. If it were up to me, I&rsquo;d remove all the guns in the U.S. Guns are my least favorite thing on the face of the earth, and in America especially, because it&rsquo;s so ingrained in our culture. If it were up to me, I&rsquo;d say fuck the 2nd Amendment, because we&rsquo;re not out here loading gunpowder into muskets anymore&mdash;to be able to buy a semiautomatic weapon is the most ludicrous thing I&rsquo;ve ever heard.&rdquo;

LAFINAL03.jpg

CLOTHING GYPSY SPORT, HAT LACOSTE

CREDITS

Makeup: Charlotte Prevel

Hair: Vernon Francois

Photo Assistant: Julian Berman

Stylist Assistant: Grace Lynch

Makeup Assistant: Keely Maroney

Production Coordinator: Tim Oliver

RUSSO Wants You To Stop Calling Her Punk

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