Miembro fundador de la premiada banda de rock Tonic, Russo es además un compositor nominado, premiado y actualmente muy solicitado. Sobre todo su trabajo en la exitosa Fargo lo ha posicionado como uno de los compositores más interesantes del momento de música para cine y televisión. Pero nada de esto es casualidad, lo que subyace en el éxito de Russo es un enorme talento, su capacidad de meterse en la piel del personaje de hacer suyos los diálogos a través de la música de una manera muy especial haciendo que la música apoye la trama a la vez que la potencia.
Curioso, inquieto, atento a cuanto le rodea y disciplinado se confiesa obsesionado por escribir una buena melodía porque es para él siempre el comienzo de su proceso creativo. Aunque él se describe a si mismo con sencillez como guitarrista de una banda de rock y compositor de canciones Russo es mucho ms que eso, es un creador de ambientes y espacios sonoros y musicales esenciales en el conjunto de las producciones para las que trabaja. La utilización de la orquesta, la exploración del sonido, su enorme capacidad como ´songwriter´ y el uso dramático de los silencios hacen de él un compositor interesantísimo y son lugar a dudas a seguir.
Escribe para televisión, para cine, para videojuegos, para ballet, y sueña con escribir la música de un western clásico

1. Ruth Prieto: Which characteristic defines you best?

Jeff Russo: Wow! That´s a very difficult question to answer. I think in terms of my writing for movies or television I think that the story is what defines me and my writing best for that particular project. I am always really at the mercy of the narrative of the story so I try very hard to write music like I would be writing a song except for that the lyrics to the song or the dialog of the television show so I feel like the character that defines me best in terms of my writing are the characters that you see on screen.

2. Ruth Prieto: What is composition for you in this day and age?

Jeff Russo: Composition is so many different things but in terms of writing for television or writing for movies composition is being able to support the narrative while enhancing the narrative at the same time. I think composition for media is supposed to be not just sitting in a room writing music for the sake of writing music but with the purpose of trying to support and enhance the stories being told.

3. R.P.: What inspires you as a composer and why?

Jeff Russo: So many things inspire me, like any little thing can be inspiring. I wake up and I see the sunrise while I drink my cup of coffee that can be very inspiring or a really good story being told or a really good character that´s well written can be inspiring…or driving along the road from my house to my studio and I see somebody having a conversation with somebody and that looks interesting to me like anything can be inspiring so I feel like life is very inspiring.

"In general I think that what it is, I am inspired by life."

4. R.P.: What is your main obsession when working?

Jeff Russo: Getting it done. I think that my main obsession is being able to get things done in a timely manner. When there are deadlines looming, it becomes difficult to try to be creative and then also have to worry about how fast I have to do something. So that can become an obsession.

5. R.P.: Describe your creative process.

Jeff Russo: It is different with every project. When I write for Fargo my creative process is just to sit down and sort of try to be inspired by what I think the story is and also just to be able to write a good melody. That´s the beginning of the creative process. And then as you build and try to build a piece of music, every part of the creative process inspires the next process so if I write a melody on the piano or guitar or anything, that melody then inspires the next creative piece whether it´s a percussion instrument or something that´s going to support it harmonically so the entire process is an inspiration from the previous moment.

6. R.P.: What are you working on now?

Jeff Russo: I just finished working on a mini-series called ´Tut´ which is a mini-series based on the life of King Tutankomen, who was an Egyptian Pharaoh around 4000 years ago. I’m working currently on season two of Fargo and I´m also doing a television show called Extant, which is a show here in the United States with Halle Berry. And I´m also doing a video game but I can´t talk much about that because they are very secretive but that´s been a lot of fun too because that´s been more like writing music not based on the picture because I´m not writing to the video game but I´m writing music that just comes to me. Which is a different way of writing now.

7. R.P.: What are your musical roots (real or imaginary)?

Jeff Russo: I come from being in a rock band. I´ve played many times in Belgium. From being in a band, being an artist and writing songs … that´s where my musical roots come from and then I slowly transitioned into this part of my creative world … so … roots: I always tend to go back to a good melody and that comes from being a songwriter.

8. R.P.: In this personal "inventory" that we all have of noises, sounds, music and songs, what can you tell us about your soundscape?

Jeff Russo: I really do enjoy the orchestral soundscape. I really do love the way an orchestra sounds: strings and horns and wood winds, especially wood winds. There is a lot you can do with it that is not traditional. I do use a lot of synthetic stuff. I like to use very smooth sounding and dark synthetic pads and I like a lot of different sorts of non-traditional-sounding percussion. I like the sound of metal being hit or just the sound of claps, stomping, … I don´t like music always to sound like the next thing so you are always looking for some sort of new sound to incorporate into an orchestral score but I do really enjoy the sound of a beautiful orchestra … there is something very comforting about it.

9. R.P.: What is silence?

Jeff Russo: Silence is an important part of the score … I think … because without it the music becomes less important so you can use silence to really draw out tension and draw out suspense into the unknown … and I really feel that music can be more of a release when silence is used in a tasteful and elegant way but I think that silence is a big part of music.

"… and a big part of composing because part of the art of composing is knowing when to not play."

10. R.P.: What has your greatest extravagance been?

Jeff Russo: I don´t know … like here in the studio my greatest extravagance is … you know I´m somewhat of an instrument and gear head so I find myself buying lot of gear (a lot of stuff of my studio) so I feel that´s probably my biggest extravagance … just sort of getting into new technologies and new instruments and trying to use them.

11. R.P.: Have you got a composer of reference, or someone who has made an impression on you as a composer?

Jeff Russo: There are a couple. Obviously John Williams. I think John Williams is one of if not the most incredible composers of this generation. He has a way of coming up with melodies that are very memorable and framing them in a way that is so meaningful for the picture. There are a couple of other composers too … I mean I really like Cliff Martinez who I think is really incredible at creating sounds and doing it in a very non-traditional, synthetic way which I think is really fantastic. There are so many great composers … everybody is an influence. Any piece of music I listen to influences what I do. I´ve been listening a lot to Mahler. Mahler has this very German angular angry way of writing which I really love. I´ve been listening a lot of his music and becoming inspired by him but there are many.

12. R.P.: A song that puts right an off day

Jeff Russo: Every time I listen to music, I find something very inspiring and very special because music does something to me that nothing else can do. I love music so much that I´ll be driving in my car and a song will come on and, I don´t know how to explain this but I´m overwhelmed with joy … so there are so many of these songs that you´re asking me about that it´s hard to put it down to one song … I don´t know … it can be any song.

13. R.P.: But you are a songwriter … how can you put in a few minutes all this creativity together because a song is a world …

Jeff Russo: Yes a song is a world but it´s a mini-world. You write about one thing and then you move it over here and then you start again and then you write another world. That´s the greatest thing about writing songs … you create many little worlds and when you are listening to a song, you are in that world for one minute, two minutes, however long the song is …and that is why is difficult to answer your previous question … there isn´t one world that is more special for me because I love living in all those little worlds.

14. R.P. : What do you expect from the future?

Jeff Russo: Expect no. I hope to continue to write music and I hope to continue to be creative. It´s a composer’s worst fear that after the last thing you do that you will run out of creativity so I am always looking for something to be creative about. That´s a fear of anybody who is a creator.

15. R.P. : What have you not yet been asked to do in music?

Jeff Russo: I have not yet been asked to do a western and I really want to do a western … a traditional western score that has big strings and maybe an acoustic guitar because I am a guitar player at heart so I would really like to write a score that melds the big orchestral thing and guitar and I have not yet been asked to do that but hopefully I will or maybe one day I´ll sit down and write it even if nobody asks me to.

"... I really want to do a western … a traditional western score.."

16. R.P. : Do works always have to be commissioned or can you just sit down, as you say, and write your own thing because it´s daring and part of your brain?

Jeff Russo: There is not much time to just sit down and write whatever I want because I´m being asked to do all those other things.