Annie DiRusso’s New EP, “God, I Hate This Place,” Out Now

Photo Courtesy: Anna Koblish

Today, Annie DiRusso releases her new EP God, I Hate This Place and shares the visualizer video for her new song, “Hybrid.” God, I Hate This Placefollows a banner year for the songwriter whose music has been lauded by Consequence, Nylon, Rolling Stone, UPROXX, Alternative Press, and The Nashville Scene, and who has recently opened for Samia, Declan McKenna, and HAIM whom called her “f*cking incredible” and “inspiring” from the stage. Additionally, DiRusso recently announced a 27-date headlining tour as well as dates opening for Ruston Kelly (full dated below). Listen to God, I Hate This Place EP here.DiRusso recently spoke to Nylon about her new song and EP, and they say of DiRusso’s music, “The 23-year-old musician is a scathing songwriter and on her latest single she writes with a serrated intensity about pains of growing up. Yet, despite the heaviness of its content, “Emerson”— named after the street she grew up on — feels like a huge wave of relief rolling off of her shoulders, its driving guitar line like an exit conduit for her boiled-over grief. At the end, the song gathers into a pool of catharsis.” Nylon premiered the song’s live music video. The video was directed by Neil Shukla. Watch the music video for Emerson via Nylon and read their interview with DiRusso here.Annie DiRusso recently announced here 27-date “God, I Love This Tour” in cities including Chicago, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Nashville, and Austin (full dates below). Tickets for all dates are one sale now here. If ‘Emerson,’ which opens the EP, is about the space between discomfort and comfort, ‘Body’ is about not finding peace in the ache at all. “It’s incredibly uncomfortable,” Annie says of the vulnerable track. “I think “Body” is a song that’s really important to my story. I wrote it with Caroline Culver, she’s my best friend and roommate down in Nashville, and my friend Kennedy Floethe. After reflecting on a recent relationship that pushed my insecurities to the surface, we wrote the first line of the song.He loves my face but not my body/ Should I lose weight just so he wants me” came to play. “Saying those words out loud and singing them was freeing for me,” DiRusso says. In ‘Frisco’ Annie transforms the delirium and exhaustion of being sick on the road, into a story about realizing that no matter where you go, you take yourself with you. After being on tour for weeks, she tested positive for covid in Texas and found herself stranded in a tiny hotel room in Frisco with nothing to do but think. “There was an amalgamation of things,” she says. “I was just so sick in this hotel room alone in Frisco, Texas coming down from the highs of the tour and then this big low. I started to have a similar experience to picturing people at my funeral, wondering what people would say, or do, or think if they saw me now. Like ‘What if my ex could see me here on my deathbed in Frisco, Texas?’” She took a hot shower, and her ex’s face popped into her mind, the opening lyrics “Guess I’m gonna die alone in this hotel room like all the greats / I took a really hot shower and I saw your face” soon followed. She wrote the rest of the synth-laden track in varying stages of her sickness, yearning to get out of Texas, before finally heading back home. “In the end, my mom flew to Frisco because I couldn’t fly and she drove me all the way back to Nashville,” she says. “Then there was that feeling of getting back home and still having all those same thoughts and realizing Frisco wasn’t the problem.  The EP is named after that line, “god, I hate this place.” I’m not talking about Frisco and I’m not talking about my hometown. I’m talking about my dark state of mind when writing these songs. These intense feelings exist inside of me—they don’t live in my house in Nashville, my hotel room in Frisco or my childhood bedroom.”  “Nauseous,” takes a journey back to Annie’s childhood bedroom. She wrote the song on “a really old guitar that’s so poorly kept up with, it hurts to play” as she lay in bed dealing with a bout of nausea. The teenage angst-driven track perfectly encapsulates messy love. At one moment of the track, she asks, “What if I stayed here and gave it up? / What if I cleaned my room then we f*cked?” “That’s me asking ‘What could I possibly do to make this work and is that even worth it?’,” she says. “That was the thesis statement of ‘Nauseous’. I could put on a million different faces, and it still wouldn’t be right, but I’m still yearning for someone and wanting something that’s just not right.” The EP ends on the succinct and heartfelt ‘Hybrid’, a track that meets ‘90s grunge with Annie’s trademark honest-to-a-fault lyricism. “I love you but it’s no use / It’s no good / I don’t love you how I should” she howls at the chorus over synth and rising guitars. “I wanted this song to be pretty short and pretty concise,” she says. “It talks about not feeling like you’re loving people correctly and even that’s very subjective. That’s where that line, ‘I grabbed your arm’comes from. That’s not really how you love someone, you have to let things go.”Annie DiRusso- God, I Hate This Place EP Track Listing1. Emerson2. Body3. Frisco Forever4. Nauseous5. HybridAbout Annie DiRusso:Annie DiRusso is a Nashville based indie-rock artist born in NYC, who wears the influence of both cities on her sleeve. Blending buzzing garage rock guitars and high-energy performances with a pop-infused flair, the magic she creates in her hooks and melodies is apparent in her eight previously released singles, and she has quickly turned casual listeners into hardcore fans.  Fans waited patiently to see Annie’s raucous live show over the pandemic months, and were given the opportunity in the past year, where she supported Sara Kays and SAMIA. She concluded her first headline tour in June, selling out most of the dates, as well as a sold-out tour with Declan McKenna. Annie has also recently opened for HAIM, beabadoobee, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Djo, The Backseat Lovers, and Peach Pit.Annie DiRusso Tour Dates Supporting Ruston KellyApril 12 – Louisville, KY at Mercury BallroomApril 13 – Birmingham, AL at Iron CityApril 15 – Raleigh, NC at Lincoln TheaterApril 16 – Charlotte, NC at The Underground Annie DiRusso Headlining “God, I Love This Tour” DatesApril 28 – Madison, WI at University of Wisconsin – Madison; Union South SettApril 30 – Milwaukee, WI at The Back Room @ ColectivoMay 1 – Chicago, IL at Lincoln HallMay 2 – Indianapolis, IN at Hi-FiMay 3 – Columbus, OH at The BasementMay 5 – Toronto, ON at Velvet UndergroundMay 6 – Montreal, QC at L’EscoMay 7 – Cambridge, MA at The SinclairMay 9 – Philadelphia, PA at The Foundry at The FillmoreMay 11 – Brooklyn, NY at Music Hall of WilliamsburgMay 13 – Washington D.C. at Union StageMay 15 – Richmond, VA at Richmond Music HallMay 16 – Carrboro, NC at Cat’s Cradle (back room)May 20 – Atlanta, GA at Terminal WestMay 31 – Nashville, TN at The Basement EastJune 2 – Dallas, TX at Club DadaJune 3 – Houston, TX at White Oak Music Hall – UpstairsJune 4 – Austin, TX at Antone’sJune 7 – Santa Ana, CA at Constellation RoomJune 8 – Los Angeles, CA at TroubadourJune 10 – San Francisco, CA at Café du NordJune 12 – Portland, OR at Polaris HallJune 13 – Seattle, WA at BarbozaJune 16 – Boise, ID at 9th St. Parallel at Knitting FactoryJune 17 – Salt Lake City, UT at Kilby CourtJune 18 – Denver, CO at Globe HallJune 20 – Kansas City, MO at recordBar Official Website: https://www.anniedirusso.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/anniedirussoTwitter: https://twitter.com/anniedirusso  Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/anniedirussoInstagram:  https://www.instagram.com/anniedirusso/TikTok:  https://www.tiktok.com/@anniedirusso