Unwritten Law are no strangers to Australian shores. This December they return to the land down under to celebrate 15 years since their album Elva was released and will be playing it in full. We caught up with vocalist Scott Russo to reminisce about Elva.

SCENEzine
Firstly how has 2016 been for you?

Scott Russo
It’s been great, we’ve been on tour mostly, first with Pennywise, now we are headed back to Australia, so it has been busy, but awesome.

SCENEzine
You’re touring Australia playing Elva in full. Are you stoked with how well the album has stood the test of time?

Scott Russo
The 15 years have flown by, Elva was a special time for the band, the songs were more stripped down as opposed to a lot of electronic over-dubs and stuff like that. The songwriting is better and it’s more stripped down, like a sleeker engine, ya know? It will be great to play the album in full, we are keeping pretty much to the way the songs were recorded, it’s going to be epic!

SCENEzine
The album features the anthem “Up all night” do you have any memories of how that song came about in the writing process?

Scott Russo
It always happens two ways for me. I’ll come up with some kind of line, a hook or a group of words that sound dope and put a melody to it acapella or I will write music, get a cadence that I like, like the amount of syllables that are hitting it, a melody, then I’ll fill in the blanks of that melody with real actual words. The music is going to tell me what the lyrics are about, if I’m writing music in a certain way, that’s what I’ll write about.

 

SCENEzine
Is it surreal to think that Elva was the soundtrack to a lot of people’s youth worldwide?

Scott Russo
It’s cool, I mean this band has been our lives for so long, so it’s cool to think that it’s been part if someone else’s life too, it’s awesome and humbling.

SCENEzine
Is there anything you want to do while in Australia besides play shows?

Scott Russo
I’m a beach kid, I grew up on the beach, so I wanna be close to the beach. So any place that’s close to the beach and I can look at surfing, that’s where I want to be.

SCENEzine
Do you have a favourite Australian tour memory from a previous visit?

Scott Russo
I remember being in Australia for Daniel Johns’ 18th birthday. He had literally just got his license, so he and his mum and little brother took me and my band and manger out to Sizzler! After Sizzler Daniel wanted to go egging! So we made my manager go and by a whole lot of fucking eggs, and you gotta remember at the time, Daniel’s only 18, we’re probably about 24 or 25 and we’re still kids. We’re in Australia with Daniel, it’s his birthday and we don’t give a fuck, so we go and get a whole bunch of eggs running through Newcastle egging shit!

SCENEzine
Can you leave us a last message for all your Aussie fans excited for the tour?

Scott Russo
Come along to the shows! If you dig Elva, we are doing the whole thing as it was recorded, keeping true to the recorded versions. This tour we’ll be doing the songs that we never want to play but everyone always wants to hear!

(Interview by Christian Ross)