For Brooklyn musician and indie label founder Brian Russ, music isn’t just a passion—it’s a way of life. After more than two decades shaping the city’s indie scene with bands like Backwords, Spirit Plate, and The Love Supreme, Russ found himself in the spring of 2022 craving a fresh start. The urge to create was as persistent as ever.
“When you’ve been at it for over 20 years, it’s part of who you are,” Brian reflects. “I can’t stop making music. Even when I’m coaching baseball, working, or with my family, songs are always bubbling up. Thank god for the voice memos app.”
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The seeds of his latest project, Hand Gestures, were sown during a cross-country summer road trip with his family. Traveling with a child-sized guitar—chosen for its trunk-friendly size—Brian wrote a collection of new songs on the move. The resulting album is a heartfelt meditation on life in your early forties: a mix of nostalgia, hope, and the universal emotions that connect us all.
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“I wanted to make something that speaks to looking back and looking forward,” Brian shares. “These songs unlock feelings we’ve all experienced—longing, love, loss—while reflecting on memories I hadn’t visited in years. It’s about life as a teenager, figuring things out, and coming to terms with being an artist.”
Hand Gestures took shape in the most authentic of spaces: Brooklyn bathrooms, bedrooms, and even a rehearsal room tucked beside the BQE, where the hum of off-duty sanitation trucks and the occasional dramatic scene—a car engulfed in flames—set the backdrop. Over two years, Brian poured himself into every aspect of the album—writing, producing, arranging, recording, mixing, and mastering—often after his kids were tucked into bed. Piece by piece, the songs came together, and with them, a new five-piece live band emerged.
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The lineup came together organically. Drummer Sal Garro (pow wow!) reconnected with Brian during their morning bike rides across the Brooklyn Bridge. Sal then brought in guitarist Bryan Bruchman (Mount Sharp), and soon, keyboardist Courtney Smotkin and bassist Ryan Belski completed the group. The chemistry was instant.
“Everyone was just itching to play music again,” Brian recalls. “We all missed it. Once we got into the rehearsal space, it just clicked.”
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And so, ✌️ H A N D G E S T U R E S ✌️ was born—a band that channels the subtle, universal language of gestures we all use to communicate beyond words. As both a tech teacher and a tech skeptic, Brian sums up the album’s spirit: “In a world riddled with emojis, only certain ones are clear and decipherable. The ones we’ve been doing our whole lives. The ones that just come out naturally. The ones we rely on to speak without speaking.”
Hand Gestures’ self-titled debut arrives October 31st, 2025, on Campers’ Rule Records, with a limited-edition run of 100 vinyl copies. It’s a testament to the enduring power of collaboration, creativity, and the simple joy of making music—wherever life takes you.
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