Russ grew up knowing accomplished drummers, who he credits for jump starting his musical career and exposing him to a multitude of musical genres.

 “Curtis Torian and I grew up together,” said Russ. “He lived up the block and opened my eyes to Jazz at an early age. He went on to Berkley and played with Branford Marsalis, Joey Calderazzo (Michael Brecker's pianist) and a ton of other up and coming jazz players. Dale Pierce lived up the block as well and was the first guy who showed me how to play a back beat...I must have been 6 years old. He showed me how to play Purple Haze in his garage.”

At the age of 14, Russ’ drum instructor, Rich Kasick, hooked him up with his first professional rock band, which included Rick Tedesco on guitar.

Russ went on to play in various Rock, Funk, and Jazz projects where his and Rick’s paths crossed frequently.

In 1978 Russ and Rick hooked up with bassist Larry Booth, a music graduate who excelled at all styles of playing. As guitarist and rhythm section, the three played together in various projects. Russ and Larry appreciated a lot of the same types of music and would jam at every opportunity. That ended when Larry died at a young age.

“Larry was a true ‘one off’ as a player and more importantly as a human being,” said Russ. “He directly had a tremendous amount to do with my playing and development as a player. I miss him, I learned a lot from him.”

As years passed, Russ continued to play and record a variety of musical styles. His abilities drew the interest of a band called Future Tense, which, after twenty years, brought him back together with Rick Tedesco.

After Rick left Future Tense, in 2004, he asked Russ to play on a recording project he had started with Dennis Dunaway.

“I felt a serious vibe with Dennis’ song writing” Russ said, “You know a tune is good when, after hearing it once, you’re humming it and thinking of what you can do to compliment it. After that initial night, I thought, that’s it, I’m in if they’ll have me.”

“When recording began,” said Russ, “the studio was more or less in “test” mode as Rick had just finished putting the final devices in place. Dennis would come with a bag full of lyrics and tapes of demos he had recorded over the years. We’d listen to them in the control room, we would choose a song, discuss it for a moment, then jump in the studio to run over it a few times, and then we would record. On most of the tunes, we’d have a drum track within the first or second take. For me, the recording and production was a quick, yet drawn out process. We’d have the framework of a song down, and then have to wait a week to get back into Guitar Hangar Studios to work on it.