While the Suds (his high school band) were a scrappy Nirvana-inspired four-piece, since their dissolution a couple of years ago, Russell has been trying his hand at a variety of musical styles.
First, he started making minimal, glitchy late-night beats as LoHAn. He followed that up by releasing a sad and sombre lo-fi EP with whispered vocals and unamplified electric guitar under the name Clemintine in 2013. While both projects still had punk undercurrents, they certainly seemed a very different outlet to the raw power of the Suds.
This year, though, Russell is back in grungier territory. Clemintine is now a band (completed by friends Oscar Francis on bass and Max Lake on drums), and the trio's recent EP Kate Moss draws from the same aggressive '90s roots that nourished the Suds to such good effect. It's distorted, it's angry, and it's hopeless. It's this incarnation of Clemintine that will make the band's live debut tonight at Taste Merchants.
''I guess the angst never really goes away,'' Russell says, smiling at me over a George St coffee. ''I think at that point [when the Suds broke up], I was still trying to be in bands - there's nothing like the classic guitars, drums, and bass - but I was just kind of on my own. I couldn't find anyone to be in bands with me, so I just decided to do it myself. I figured that eventually that would lead back into bands and now it finally has.''
While stylistically Russell might be back where he pretty much started, as an artist and a songwriter he's grown.
The lead single from the Kate Moss EP, Old, stale, negative is a great pop song at heart, and might be Russell's best yet. Employing simple yet driving bass and frantic drums, it's got a stop/start hook à la When I Come Around, and the vocal too almost channels early Green Day.
While experimenting with different music, Russell has also been studying design and building cohesive online personas for his various projects. For Clemintine, Russell recently made a music video for Old, stale, negative, filming in his hallway then cutting it together in an effort to control his aesthetic as tightly as possible.
''I think it's all part of it, and ties in together,'' Russell says.
''I feel image is a huge part of being in a band, it's almost if not as important as the music itself. I think that's something a lot of people try and shy away from, but I'm a design student, and it's something I can't avoid.
''Plus, to be represented or having someone view me in a way that I'm not totally comfortable with, I just can't enjoy that at all.''
Stars and celebrities also crop up in Russell's work a lot, probably related to this same interest in image.
''There's that lifestyle people fantasise about,'' Russell says, discussing the decision to name the EP after Kate Moss.
''It's all very sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll, devil-may-care and you can just fall into that. It's something I've mythologised anyway. It's all warped.''
See Clemintine with Oosha, Nick Knox, and Ben Prestidge tonight at Taste Merchants.
Playing
Clemintine, Oosha, Nick Knox, and Ben Prestidge (Auck) tonight at Taste Merchants (Lower Stuart St) $5 on the door, from 8pm. First band at 8.30pm. Download the Kate Moss EP from http://clemintinedances.bandcamp.com/ and follow Clemintine online at facebook.com/clemintinedancesBack in a band andlathered up again
