Indie rock artist Annie DiRusso will perform on the BMI stage at 3:20 p.m. for a 40 minute set Friday.
The Nashville-based artist, originally from New York, will be making her Lollapalooza debut after opening for Peach Pit in an official aftershow Thursday night.
DiRusso has kept busy over the summer touring her latest EP “God I Hate This Place” all through the United States. She also toured as an opener for Declan McKenna’s American leg of the “Zeros” tour in 2022.
The Daily Illini sat down with Annie DiRusso to discuss her feelings before her Lollapalooza set, her experience on tour and the thoughts behind her most recent releases.
This interview has been slightly edited for length and clarity.
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DI: You’re about to play Lollapalooza. How are you feeling?
DiRusso: I’m feeling actually very calm, and very excited. I just popped over to the stage we’re playing, it’s nice and shady. It seems like it’s going to be a really wonderful vibe.
DI: Last night, you played an aftershow with Peach Pit. How did that go?
DiRusso: It was so fun! We played The Vic, and it was an awesome awesome theater, I’d heard a lot about it. Peach Pit is so awesome, we’ve opened for them once before in the fall, so it’s awesome to see their show.
DI: You’ve been on the tour, “God I Love This Tour,” recently. I know it’s called “God I Love This Tour,” but did you genuinely love the tour?
DiRusso: Yeah, I did. We just wrapped that up at the end of June, and I loved that tour. It was the longest tour we’ve ever been on, it was a little over two months. But it was really really special.
DI: You talk about the tour being long, was it ever kind of a burnout, or did it ever get hard to push through?
DiRusso: I did lose my voice mid-tour, so we had to cancel a week and reschedule it. That was really hard, I’ve never had that happen before. I felt really bad, but ultimately it was all okay.
DI: Now you’re jumping right into Lollapalooza. Were there any nerves about making that leap into a festival like this right after the tour?
DiRusso: I think it actually made me feel a lot better about it, just because we’ve been literally practicing for two and a half months, so it feels like we’re kind of locked in.
DI: Are there any specific artists that you’re particularly excited to see this week?
DiRusso: There are so many…I mean Lana Del Rey, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Declan McKenna, we’ve opened for him in the past. Sabrina Carpenter, Hemlocke Springs, I think he’s really sick. Yeah, there are a lot of really cool artists.
DI: What’s the big inspiration behind your music?
DiRusso: It’s just what I wanted to do, to be honest. It just was always right there, and I never even really thought about it much. It was just something that I always knew was what I wanted to do.
DI: Tell me a bit about your most recent EP.
DiRusso: Yeah, so the EP is called “God I Hate This,” and it’s really just about the state of mind I was in when I wrote those five songs, and kind of the place in my mind they come from. A lot of the songs are kind of talking about self doubt, or feeling really stuck and stuff like that. I think writing it actually really helped me escape that in a nice way. So it’s been really great to have the songs out.
DI: Are there any big projects or shows coming up for you in the future?
DiRusso: I’m taking the next few months to actually make my first record, so that’s kind of what I’m focused on right now.
