Russ Maines Music

About a decade ago, I had the idea to start a cover band and do songs that folks around here never heard before. I didn't know how to start a band, or sell band's act to club owners. I didn't know how to be a "front man" for a band. All I knew were a handful of chords and rough experience from college. When I left college and started working with Caroline Majure, I learned a lot from old musicians in the area. They proved to me I didn't know much. I needed more experience. An

Hey, you! I just made the video below (mistakes and all) to have a little fun! Enjoy the song! #BeachRock #uzTV RussMainesMusic.com

When I started trying to learn guitar, I couldn't find a teacher who taught me what I wanted to know. I simply wanted to know how to play songs on the guitar. Instead, what I got was how to play "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" on the highest pitched string. Boring. I lost interest in lessons, and started hanging out with kids from school, who knew more than me. I also got a hold of some of my mom's cheat books, looked at the diagrams and got to know the chords by name and whe

Every day, I take an hour to focus on my health. Since I live on Pensacola Beach, there's nothing better for me than walking along the shoreline, right? At first, I only noticed the water and clouds. The color pallet of cyan, emerald, magenta, orange and silver are striking. And it's different every day. Over time, I learned the rhythm, who lived there, and who were passers by. As time passed, I slowly understood I was becoming a resident. I noticed little things that those a

2020 was a rough year for Pensacola Beach, I don't say this lightly. Our little beach town, which usually thrives during the summer, is populated with small business owners who work tirelessly for 9 months just to get employees, leases and mortgages paid. And when the pandemic hit, the beach closed. Hotels stopped getting rentals. Art and wedding shows stopped. Everyone hoped just to break even this year. Then, during Memorial Day, we reopened. And for two weeks everything

If you've been following my adventures in the music biz, you probably know how frustrating it is to get a song through to a decision maker. There are two market areas we want to break into: 1. Guitar Driven Power Pop with a Gulf Coast Twist, 2. The songwriter market (a.k.a. advertising). Because computers and recording software is widely available, the songwriter market is dominated by people who don't just want a song. They want a song that's radio ready. Finally, The Last 2

The seventh song I wrote for Bait & Switch kind of happened with the title first. When I was a kid, our next-door neighbors had a sign in the kitchen that read, "I'm too lazy to work, and too nervous to steal". This sign hung at the Raymond's house for as long as I could remember. See the photo below. My brother and I practically grew up at the Raymond's house. I always loved this sign. I decided to write a song based on it. Apparently, I'm not the only person to come with

After going down the blues rabbit trail, I once more wanted to hit some power pop type riffs. After monkeying around on the guitar for a while, nothing was coming out. I'm not the kind of songwriter who forces songs out of thin air. I need something to give me a place to start half the time. No amount of noodling was helping. I didn't know what else to try. I mean, nothing was coming out. I needed a new approach. So, I put down a drum track, which had a back beat and two snar

From the other five songs, I knew at this point, I was on a roll. I went to the computer, opened GarageBand, took out my Carvin Thin Line acoustic and plugged in. I wanted to stick with my musical history and I wanted just to see what would happen if I slowed the tempo down to something more relaxed. You know? Just to take a break with the Pop. I recorded a few rhythm passages, and recorded a video showing you how I break down songs in sections. At the time, I wasn't sure I'

Leaning on my youth, and recalling how my heart was broken a few times, I decided to take those experiences, put a story behind it and write a good story song. The second song on Bait & Switch is, "The Last 2 No". which was the 4th song I wrote for Bait & Switch. It took about a day to record and (again), the vocals needed the most work. I leaned heavily on Ken Tamplin's vocal training. I put it as the second song on the CD. Since I'm dyslexic, I thought I'd have some fun mis

Shortly after finishing "The Last 2 No", and digging into my love life history, I went further back in time. When I was like 12, a new band sprung up out of nowhere, called KISS! My dad got me an 8 track cassette of "Dressed To Kill". I never heard anything like it. Not because it was musical. Rather, KISS had a point of view, "I Wanna Rock 'n' Roll All Nite", "Rock Bottom", and "Ladies In Waiting" were themes I never heard before. This music wasn't Pop. It was gritty, more e

When I first started doing music more professionally, I realized I couldn't sing very well. I could write songs pretty OK. But singing? No way! After thinking about it for a long time, I contacted Stu Epps. Stu is an iconic music producer from London, and has worked with Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Twisted Sister and many other up and coming artists. Stu liked my songs, but didn't like the way I recorded, produced, mixed and mastered them. That said, he loved my guitar