UNDISTORTED TRUTH

On her distortion-drenched debut, Annie DiRusso says what you would never say out loud

BY DARYL SANDERS

The sound of distorted guitars speaks to indie rocker Annie DiRusso. That sound also speaks for DiRusso on her new EP God, I Hate This Place

“I feel a lot of emotion from a distorted guitar, so I think that’s pretty reflective on the EP,” DiRusso says, speaking to the Scene in advance of her show at The Basement East on Wednesday. “I highlight more heavy and emotional moments with that sound.”

God, I Hate This Place is full of heavy and emotional moments. Working with her longtime producer Jason Cummings on the record’s five tracks, DiRusso sets a darkly honest mood, magnified with fuzzed-out guitars .

“I’ve always been very guitar-driven,” she explains. “That’s what I write all my songs on. In the last few years, I’ve been mostly using electric guitar.”

DiRusso was inspired to experiment with distortion by other female artists working that sonic landscape.

“When I got to college, I started listening to Margaret Glaspy and Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers and Mitski, Adrianne Lenker and all of these people who were being so incredibly honest,” she recalls. “It was like they were being conversational, almost, with their honesty over these distorted guitars. And I absolutely fell in love with it. I was like, ‘This makes me feel so much.’”

DiRusso also drew inspiration from these artists’ dedication to unvarnished lyrical truth.

“That feeling of hearing something and being like, ‘Oh my gosh, I felt that so many times, but I would never say it out loud,’” she says. “That was a huge moment for me, of just realizing that honesty and vulnerability is the