Sean Russell

Sean Russell was born in a small west Texas town called Pecos. He lived here until he was 18 but picked up the guitar at the young age of 16. “Growing up in west Texas forced country music down my throat, but rock music was my passion” Sean comments. “Bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden were what I listened to even though Seattle was thousands of miles away. I was a bit of an outcast I suppose.” Sean quit all sports and academic teams early on to follow the art of music. He learned to play guitar so he could join his older brother’s band, Rigby. Not being too good at the guitar, however, he was a rhythm guitarist only. His brother, Alan, allowed him to sing back up vocals because Alan quickly discovered they had similar singing voices. Sean performed under the band Rigby and was playing shows in Midland and Odessa, Texas while he was still in high school. “We hopped on the grunge wave and rode it out with guitars that were so full of distortion and fuzz you could barely make out the lyrics,” said Sean. “It was a little difficult at first because many of our shows were held in biker bars—there were three 18-year-olds and one 16-year-old playing Green Day tunes, while everyone was screaming for Led Zeppelin.” Even though Sean’s band mates soon went to college, the group stayed together, playing in small towns around Lubbock and Midland. Coffee shops, festivals, and house parties became Rigby’s main venues. Sean comments, “my brother had started writing songs and I guess my little brother syndrome kicked in. Anything he could do, I could do, so I began writing as well. I began to learn I had a pretty good voice and became confident in my abilities. So I began singing lead vocals on a few songs.” Prior to the band the only experience Sean had was in church plays where he did solo’s and got plenty of compliments. He adds while laughing, “Honestly, who’s going to tell a 9-year-old they suck in church?!” By the time he was 18 and still living with his band mates in Lubbock, he all but took over vocals as his brother had begun concentrating on the lead guitar. But sometime while in Lubbock, the band Rigby stalled; difficult times lie ahead. They went through three drummers while the rest of the band worked full-time jobs and attended college. This is when Sean made the move to a different environment. He was going nowhere in school or as a pizza boy, so he reluctantly left Rigby and moved to San Angelo, Texas at 20 years old. “If being in Lubbock slowed me down, San Angelo all but stopped me,” noted Sean. “No real music venues, coupled with my affinity to be lazy kept me on the shelf. I would only play with people that saw my guitar and asked, “Do you play?”, later to play in gigs with them that only needed cover tunes.” Sean spent three years in San Angelo and refers to them more as his party years. Recalling a pivotal moment, “Finally, one random day while I was drunk and talking jokingly to some friends I said ‘One day I’ll be a rock star’. And someone said ‘well if you’re so good, do it’! That’s when I realized I needed to take it seriously.” At age 23 he packed his bags and moved out to the one place in Texas he knew he could find gigs: the heart; the pulse; the capital; the one and only Austin. This is the city that would bring him many new opportunities. The first year in Austin picked up quickly. Sean met a guitar player from Mexico named David Aguirre. David was a naturally talented player and was a great lead guitarist. Moving to Austin, Sean had decided to leave his hard rock behind and pursue more acoustic sounds. In the most recent years, bands like Counting Crows and Blind Melon had captured his interest. “The singing I heard in the music was more melodic and smooth. My song writing had evolved. I was able to hear the whole song in my head and I could write out exactly what I wanted to say,” said Sean. He began playing shows in Austin as an acoustic duo under the new title, One Star, a name he says he has not given up on. “Many times we stole the show with great energy and chemistry between David and I. We worked hard on original music and it paid off.” The duo recorded a four-song demo with free recording time from a guy they met at one of their shows. The finished products on the demo were “Bring down Song”, “How Far”, “Believe”, and “Change.” While looking for other musicians to join the duo, Sean’s partner, David, decided to move to Waco without Sean’s knowledge. He was left going at it solo. After spending some down time trying to find a replacement for David, Sean made the final decision that “this was my baby and I would take it on alone”. Sean recorded three more solo songs in Lubbock, and is currently in the process of putting the songs together on an EP called “Just Listen”.