Craig Russo is one of the producers working with Robbie Williams on the forthcoming album ‘Rudebox’.
Russo and partner Brandon Christy produced the track ‘The Actor’ on the record.
“My partner, Brandon Christy is old friends with Jerry Meehan (the bass player in Rob's band)” Craig told Undercover News. “Jerry was in Los Angeles for a visit and invited Brandon to come hang out with him and Rob. Brandon and Rob hit it off and quickly became friends. Then, eventually Rob asked to hear some of our music. We sent him some and he loved it, so we got together and wrote a couple of tracks with him.”
The second song he says is still unfinished but they plan to collaborate again to complete the track soon. “We partially wrote a second song as well, which had to be put on hold when Rob left for his world tour” he says. “We are planning to get together and re-visit that when he returns in September. He has also said he wants to work on more music so who knows, maybe there will be others to come. We've got several tracks in the works and we're looking forward to getting back together with Rob when he returns from his tour”.
‘The Actor’ was recorded in LA. “We spent about 3 or 4 days writing and recording the song with Rob at his home studio in Los Angeles” he says. “In the studio he is like a well-tuned machine, so, it didn't take long to record his vocals. One of those nights we brought over the female vocalist, Marsha - whose spoken voice is featured in the verses - and recorded her. Then we took it back to our studio where we spent about two weeks in production and mixing. There were a few stages though, so we would go back in and tweak a few things, add things (e.g., backing vocals) etc. It all took place over the course of a month or so”.
After the Williams project, the Russo/Christy partnership looks busy for next year. “In addition to our film, TV and music production work, Brandon and I are producing music for a number of artists, most of which is due for release in 2007”.