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Donning a seamless cloak of cynical sincerity, Annie DiRusso is a staple in the indie rock scene. Fresh off of her magnetic Tiny Desk performance, she’s also celebrating the deluxe release of her album, Super Pedestrian. Her debut LP, Super Pedestrian is a record dripping in summer seduction, some sweltering confessions shrouded in guitar riffs and others swallowing you whole. With the deluxe edition, Annie DiRusso offers four new tracks representing sonic and narrative eras before, during, and after the making of the record. We sat down with the artist herself to hear about the continued story these songs tell about Super Pedestrian, as well as the smell of a sweaty sunset walk in Tennessee, a bonus book in the Twilight series, and Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe.”  

OnesToWatch: Happy release day! How are you? 

Annie DiRusso: Good! I was just crying. 

Oh! Perfect state of mind. Have you been settling in after being home from tour? 

Yes, just moved into a new place, I’ve been setting up my electric, gas, building furniture. It’s been good. 

Very adult. Let’s jump into the album. You just released the Deluxe edition of Super Pedestrian and I’m very curious about these 4 new tracks. They embody two opposing forces: the grungy, crunchy, badassery of “Muck” and “Rotting Ripe,” and then the intimate despair of “Hudson Line” and the stripped version of “Back in Town” with Samia. What kind of story were you trying to tell with these extra songs – both sonically and thematically as additions to the album? 

I didn't necessarily know that I was going to do a deluxe when I made the record. When I first heard the deluxe was happening, I pushed back, because I felt like I chose 11 tracks for a reason, and that was the summation of what I wanted to say. But, then I remembered some songs I knew I wanted to release that didn’t make the record. For example, “Hudson Line,” I wrote for the record and always loved, but it didn’t make sense at the time. So that became a deluxe track. Then, the stripped version of “Back in Town” with Samia, we had that for a year before it came out. With all that time, we were really able to build it out with violin and everything. That one is really special to me. It took my sound in a direction I haven’t gone before; I’ve really never had strings and piano on a song. And, of course, Samia is a good friend, and her voice is unreal and gives new life to the song. The way she sings, “When you're back, you're back…” it means something different.

“Rotting Ripe” was actually from before I even started making the record. I recorded that in 2023 when I was on tour and we were passing through Asheville, North Carolina. We stopped by Drop of Sun [recording studio in Asheville] because Adam McDaniel had mixed an old song of mine and he had invited us. That was the first time I’d ever done live tracking – it was so fun and informative of how I wanted to make the new music, and we ended up recording the record at that studio.
That day I was so sick, and you can hear it in my vocal. But there's something about it that I love; it feels really reflective of that time in my life and how I was kind of down, knowing what I want but not feeling the way I wanted to feel. The writing for the album starts at a chapter in my life that's just a month and a half later than “Rotting Ripe,” but my perspective totally shifted. I had decided to just live life and focus on the present instead of the way I was living in “Rotting Ripe,” just being way too analytical and thinking about what's wrong. I felt like my vocal being really sick actually captured that moment in time really well. And it really dug into the live sound I had finally been able to achieve. 

So “Rotting Ripe” is almost a prologue in the context of the album?

“Rotting Ripe” is definitely a prologue. And then “Hudson Line,” would be an epilogue. That's one reason it didn't make the original record. It almost tied up the story too much for me. The last song on the record, “It’s Good To Be Hot in the Summer” leaves it in more of an open spot. 

I was going to bring that up – I love the narrative of going from “It’s Good To Be Hot in the Summer,” which is begging someone to look at you, then on the deluxe expanding it into “Muck,” which is not being able to stop looking at someone. 

“Muck” is like… did you ever read The Twilight books? 

Oh, absolutely. 

Okay, so do you know how she randomly released a short story of that random vampire girl that the Cullens try to save from The Volturi? The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. It's this tiny little book that’s separate from the Twilight Series, but is related. That's what “Muck” is. It's leading and holding us over until the next book. 

Whereas “Rotting Ripe” was written before the album and “Hudson Line” was during the album, “Muck” was made this summer, when I was tasked with making songs for the deluxe. We started by listening back to songs we cut from the record and trying to revitalize them, but when I did that, I felt so uninspired. I was in a new place emotionally and I didn’t know how to put myself back in the mindset of the record and say anything real, or finish the songs in a way that is fair to the feelings I had at the time.

I was just showing Eden something new I was working on, which was “Muck” and he was like, “Let's just work on that.” And then as soon as we started working on it, we were so hyped again. And then it became clear. There's no real rules about what needs to come out. “Muck” gives you a little sneak peek into the next chapter, or the next book. It brings the record forward in a way that's really special to me and it was the fastest I've ever recorded and released a song. We released it two weeks after I finished writing and recording it. 

Oh my god. 


It was awesome. 

That's actually so beautiful because I feel like there's usually so much time to doubt yourself and go back and re-edit, but this was truly an expression of how you felt in the exact moment you were feeling it. You had to own your interpretation and that’s so raw. 

Yeah, it was all of a sudden just out there. And I love it. It was so fun to release and promote because I still fuck with it. I still feel the way I did when I wrote it. 

It sucks when you have to release something and feel like things are different now, and that you’re literally lying on the internet. 

Totally. Yes. 

I'm curious if there were any sonic north stars that you referenced as you were making these songs. They’re clearly from varying time periods in the last few years, but were there any inspirations you can remember? 

“Rotting Ripe” was an attempt to achieve something more reflective of my live show. Especially with my earlier music, people would see me live and be taken aback by the difference in sound. There’s a cleanliness to those early recordings that is not as present at the live show, which is way more rock. I think the way they recorded Super Pedestrian at Drop of Sun is more reflective of my live sound, especially because it was live tracked. As far as references go, there’s so much music I admire that captures the liveliness of a show – Wednesday’s record Rat Saw God, or anything from Indigo de Souza. It’s the kind of music that makes you want to see it live immediately. 

On the other end, I had never made something as acoustic as “Hudson Line.” It scared me in some ways, but I also really love to listen to that kind of music. I was listening to a lot of instrumental music by Ryuichi Sakamoto at the time. I really loved the room sound in it, it brought me so into the space it was happening in. So we did some takes of me just breathing and squeaking chairs and stuff around the studio to make it feel delicate. 

Then, for “Muck,” the first time we recorded it, I thought it would be more acoustic driven. Then we added the pulsing bass, and once Eden and I made the bones of the song, Caleb made it like 6bpm faster and we really started to juice it up. We said we wanted it to be a “day-changer.” Songs that are day-changers to me are like, “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen, or “Anything Can Happen” by Ellie Goulding. It’s a song that you hear and your day is just different, you know? 

Absolutely amazing. I have two final questions for you. I would love to know, if Super Pedestrian were a candle, what would it smell like? 

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. I wrote the record when I was living in Tennessee. I would take these really long walks, and it feels like a swamp in the summer, it's basically like you're breathing in water. As soon as you walk outside, you're wet. I would just walk for three hours around sunset, listening to music, going to the grocery store to get an apple and a coconut water. I'd get back, it would be dark, and I would be dripping with sweat. So to me, it would smell like a sweltering, stuffy, humid Tennessee summer night, where there's heat coming off the pavement. The air is thick. 


That is one of the best answers I've ever gotten. My very final question then, is, who are your OnesToWatch? 

Okay, book NOT brooke. She is sick as fuck. James Eichman. Their band together, Baby Wave. 

Is James Eichman in McKay, too? 

Yes, McKay, I would also put them on that list and his other band, Superhero, too. 

Love. 

She's watched and loved, but Squirrelflower is my top artist of the year, she’s unreal. Also Eden Joel. I would say Meg Elsier as well, and the band Grumpy. 

These are so good. Thank you so much for chatting! Congrats on the album, no more crying. 

I'm up right now. I'm going to go see Wicked tonight. 

Oh, hell yeah.