Rusty Willoughby

 

From his formative days in the early-mid 1980's as songwriter and bandleader of the Dwindles (later to change their name to Pure Joy), a lysergic rock band in the vein of the UK's neo-psychedelic Teardrop Explodes, to his emergence as power punk pop contender fronting Flop in the '90s, and a whole bunch of solo records in recent years, Rusty Willoughby's prolificness is virtually unmatched among his peers.

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In the past decade Willoughby's creative output has continued unabated, recording a spate of superb, mostly self-released solo and project albums beginning with a self-titled debut recorded by Kurt Bloch released in 1999, the stark, darkly-beautiful Filament Dust (2008), the Americana-tinged Cobirds Unite (2010) recorded with co-vocalist Rachel Flotard of Visqueen and originally released on her Local 638 Records label, Adult Soft Record (2012), Anti (2013), and the power pop Llama (2015) recorded with multi-instrumentalist producer Johnny Sangster, Chemistry Set's Scott Sutherland and reunited with original Pure Joy drummer Jim Hunnicutt.

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In addition to songwriting, singing and guitaring, Willoughby has played drums for The Fastbacks and more recently, Loose Wing.

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For those of us who like comparisons... and let's face it, we all pretty much do... Rusty Willoughby's self-reflective pop songcraft recalls the likes of the aforementioned Julian Cope of Teardrop Explodes, John Lennon, Elvis Costello, the Kinks, Elliott Smith, and Dylan (especially on Filament Dust).

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"All of Willoughby’s disparate projects share his calling cards - namely a slightly-bent pop sense, sharp and self-lacerating lyrical sensibilities, and his unchanged, distinctive schoolboy tenor voice.."  
- Tony Kay for Artist Home, 2017