Unwritten Law News

Interview: Scott Russo of Unwritten Law on "Swan", Warped Tour & setlist science

After clearing up the story behind the abrupt exit of guitarist Steve Morris and bassist Pat "PK" Knight in part one of my interview with Unwritten Law singer Scott Russo, we moved on to sunnier topics. Besides literally talking about the sun (the festival was taking place smack dab in the middle of a massive New York City heat wave), we spoke about the making of the band's latest CD. This year's " Swan " (their first full length studio album since 2005's " Here's To The Mourning ") contains some of the catchiest hooks you'll hear all year and serves as a perfect soundtrack for the Summer. The first video single, "Starships and Apocalypse", was chosen to be part of MTV's Indie Music Month this past Spring, and has easily become yet another favorite live singalong song, along with past hits "Seein' Red", "Save Me", and "Teenage Suicide." We also covered Unwritten Law's approach to their live show, which will hopefully make its way back to the East coast during their upcoming Fall tour across the U.S.  

LS: So...Swan is probably my favorite album that you've ever made. Thank you. It's easily hands down the best of our records.

LS: The original intention going into this album was that it was going to be the band's last. You've stated that you actually scrapped the first round of songs intended for the album after not feeling it was the band's best work. Realizing you could (and needed to) do better, you gave the album another go. How did this all happen, and what did you do differently going into the second round?

I write most of all the music for all the Unwritten Law records, and write all the lyrics. While I collect all the publishing for the records, I always gave the guys (Morris and Knight) some of the publishing so that they stayed happy enough to continue on. But because this was going to be our last record, we were going to split the publishing equally. It was going to be "OK, you write four songs, you write four songs, you write four songs and I'll write four songs. Then we'll split the record. That means music and lyrics... so, go ahead boys."

We got about six songs into tracking the record, all the boys' songs, and the record was weak. During the band's five year hiatus, I had been writing and producing for other artists which is my other job. So I couldn't come out with all these B-sides on it. Unwritten Law is my business card, my calling card. So I told them "Look. Either we're gonna scrap this record and I'm gonna go back and f***ing handle it, or ' The Hit List ' is gonna be our last record and that's gonna be it. The choice is up to you guys." They were like "No, let's rewrite it." So I'm like "Cool." I scrapped those first six songs and went back to the drawing board. I threw out everything that wasn't f***ing smashing, rewrote it and re-recorded the whole thing. Then about nine songs in I realized that I didn't wanna call it "Swan Song." I didn't want it to be the end. I wanted it to be shortened, so we called it "Swan." And the rest is now history. My chest can feel it. These are things I personally like but other people might not like. For instance, the guys (Morris and Knight) didn't like "Starships and Apocalypse." They didn't like certain things I was writing. But my chest feels warm when it's f***ing right. And when it's not right, my body literally regurgitates it. So if I'm sitting there working on a song I know doesn't feel right and they're going "No, it's cool, it's cool." I'm going "Man, that s*** is NOT cool.

Unwritten Law – “Sing” - Rock Edition | Rock News, Interviews ...

San Diego rockers Unwritten Law have released a video for their track “Sing.” This video was directed by Daniel Coolahan. “Sing” appears on the band’s new record, ‘Swan,’ which came out March 29 via Suburban Noize Records/BreakSilence Recordings.

Unwritten Law are currently on the Vans Warped Tour. Head here for the dates.

The unwritten law, criminal justice in Victorian Kent

The provinces of the written and the unwritten law, An address delivered at the annual meeting of the Virginia State Bar Association, at White Sulphur Springs, July 25, 1889

Kentucky law journal

"Unwritten law", an address delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard University, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 28, 1877

Introduction to American law, designed as a first book for students