The new video for “Bruises and Sunburn” lands as one of the emotional anchors of “Hold You Hard,” the recent LP from UK singer-songwriter Sam Russo on Red Scare Industries. The single digs into alcoholism with a plainspoken heaviness, delivered through the full-band dynamic he introduced across this record. Russo says, “The video captures the energy of our record release shows in London and Manchester this year. The nights were incredible—human pyramids, crowd surfing, and a whole bunch of singalongs made it really special.”
“Hold You Hard” stretches wider than anything he has released before: ten songs split cleanly between punk-leaning, full-band anthems and quiet, acoustic pieces. It was written across a year marked by collaboration and change, chasing contrast rather than smoothing it down. The title borrows from an old Suffolk saying meaning slow down, a nod to his roots and a reminder to notice the people who matter while they’re here.
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Russo formed a new band in summer 2023, rehearsing after hours in the file room of a metal shop on an industrial estate in Haverhill. They found their footing in that heat and noise, carving out parts that would become the first song on the album. Six months later, the band focused its energy on his new material. He explains, “I decided to write five full band songs and five acoustic ones – to go as far as I could into my influences and emotions as I could without holding anything back.”
The full-band side carries shades of Southern California punk and the grind of UK DIY, held together by Russo’s specific way of writing. The acoustic half was mostly written alone—fast, instinctive, and emotionally bare—including a co-write with Vinnie Caruana. It feels intimate, sometimes cryptic, but honest in a way that doesn’t need to announce itself.
“Hold You Hard” circles around how love stretches, fades, reappears, and changes shape. Long-term relationships, family, heartbreak, friendship, memory, and place sit at the center. The songs don’t avoid the blunt edges of joy or pain; they treat them like weather you learn to live in. Some tracks lean folky and tender, others feel like punk-rock postcards from Hermosa Beach. It plays like a record for anyone who has ever held on, let go, or tried to do both at once.
Across the tracklist, Russo threads short, focused stories into familiar corners:
- “Gator Lodge” pushes through a fast romance in Gainesville, chasing one perfect moment and the sting of having to wait for it.
- “Bruises and Sunburn” steps into alcoholism without decoration, and was the first song written for the record.
- “Graveyard” lifts from a lyric scribbled near a Chicago cemetery, drifting between distance and memory—the way people slowly turn ghostlike.
- “Santa Monica Waves” draws from his work in schools, landing as a plea to listen to young people when it’s hardest to hear them.
- “Whinny Whinny,” co-written with Caruana, burns with regret and confusion, dedicated to Russo’s mum.
- “The Muckleshoot Casino” plays quietly devastating, written as a journal entry after a strange visit to the casino.
- “Lifeguard Tower” looks back at his first punk band and the pull of California—equal parts awe and doubt.
- “Bait Machine” slips into burnout and system-level exploitation, sparked by a vending machine full of maggots.
- “Padlocks and Germs Burns” acts like a postcard from Red Scare’s 20th anniversary at the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas, a thank-you to friendship and the stubborn pulse of punk, spinning through nods to X, The Germs, and The Descendents.
- “Unsolved Mysteries” closes the record, revisiting old wounds from his first LP “Storm.” Written in under ten minutes but thirteen years in the making, it brings small clarity and a different kind of hope.
Live, Russo’s crowd has grown slowly: one room after another, word of mouth, and relentless touring. He’s shared stages with Tim Barry, The Lawrence Arms, Lucero, and Dan Andriano. It was a European run with Andriano and Brendan Kelly that originally linked him with Red Scare, setting up the relationship that carried him to this fourth full-length. Frank Turner has called him “one of the most remarkable musicians that I’ve encountered,” and that admiration has followed Russo through the years.
Russo now heads out for a November West Coast tour supporting Teenage Bottlerocket, hitting:
11/13 – Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad
11/14 – Tucson, AZ @ Congress Hotel
11/15 – Tempe, AZ @ Yucca Tap Room
11/16 – San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick
11/17 – Long Beach, CA @ Alex’s Bar
11/18 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Usual Place
11/19 – Riverside, CA @ Romano’s Concert Lounge
11/20 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
11/21 – Sacramento, CA @ Goldfield Trading Post
11/22 – San Jose, CA @ The Ritz
11/23 – Reno, NV @ Virginia St. Brewhouse
For Russo, these songs drift from the wheat fields of East Anglia to sun-bleached American coastlines, caught somewhere between distance, desire, and the weird pull of old memories. Solo or full-band, the writing lands fast and close. The record isn’t trying to reinvent anything—it just digs further into what he already does best.
