Disillusionists’ Rutushin steps away from camera

By JOHN BENSON

entertainment@vindy.com

Known for his Youngstown-based 2008 independent film “Fine-Tune,” Chris Rutushin is spreading his wings with musical side project The Disillusionists, which made its debut last fall.

Though the act premiered at Cedars in November, musical inspiration took place a month earlier when Rutushin traveled to Beachland Ballroom to see his favorite band, Travis. It was during that show when the Scottish group’s lead singer, Fran Healy, admitted he ripped off an Oasis guitar riff for one of his songs that Rutushin received the OK he was looking for.

“Fran said he was listening to the radio one day when Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall’ was playing and thought, ‘Noel Gallagher always rips off riffs, so I’m going to rip off a riff,’” Rutushin said. “That became the Travis song ‘Writing to Reach You.’ Fran said it’s fair game. So when I met Fran after the show, I said, ‘So, it’s fair game if I steal off you?’ He said, ‘Which song did you rip off?’ I said, ‘Sing.’ He said, ‘That’s a good one.’

“So that became my song ‘Around You.’ It’s kind of upbeat pop. Obviously, I’m a huge Travis fan, but I really like Van Morrison and The Beatles. I always liked ‘Eleanor Rigby’ because it’s amazing and beautiful and tragic at the same time. And I always thought there are these two lonely souls who are always around each other, and yet they never get together at the end. It’s like a near miss. I thought it would be interesting to have two people who were lonely meet up in the end.”

Talk about a cinematic songwriting approach. Clearly, you can take the man out of the movie but not the movie out of the man. Though the 1994 Boardman High School graduate has plenty of on-camera work on his plate — including a documentary, music video and commercial, as well as considering scripts for his next film project — he’s committed to using The Disillusionists as a creative outlet without any hint of overkill.

“My whole goal is to play once a season at Cedars.” Rutushin said. “I think a lot of bands tend to play a lot in Youngtown, and it gets repetitive. You don’t want to hear the same stuff over and over again every weekend. I don’t want to bore people with my stuff, plus I don’t have a lot of songs right now. I have 10 originals, and I might do a cover or two.”

The Disillusionists — Rutushin (vocals, guitar, djembe), Scott Burns (vocals, bass, cello), Matt Zackeroff (guitar), Lex Calder (keyboards), Mike Pilolli (harmonica) and Adam Mamula (drums, percussion) — are scheduled to play Friday at Cedars. Rutushin mentions the aforementioned “Around You” and the upbeat “Rocio” as new, original tunes in the set. As for the cover, we’re guessing a Travis song?

“I thought about that, but I figured I might get in trouble because people will think I just want to be Travis,” Rutushin said.

So let’s get this straight. You won’t cover Travis but you have no problem ripping them off?

“No,” Rutushin laughed, “because I got permission.”