The Head and The Heart’s Jonathan Russell - STAGE THREADS Ep. 1 - video Dailymotion

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Become a member (it's FREE) at https://digtb.us/signup Buy official DTB merch at http://digtb.us/merch  On this episode of DTB’s “Stage Threads”, Jonathan Russell, vocalist/guitarist of the indie folk band, The Head and The Heart, shows you their stage outfits and discusses how their style connects to their music and the stories behind the clothing they wear during performances. The Head and the Heart is currently supporting their newest album, Aperture.   VIDEO INFO: Film Date - August 8, 2025 Location - The Salt Shed in Chicago, IL  KEEP UP WITH THE HEAD AND THE HEART: Facebook - https://facebook.com/theheadandtheheart Instagram - https://instagram.com/theheadandtheheart Twitter - https://twitter.com/headandtheheart  FOLLOW US: Website/Email List - https://www.digitaltourbus.com/#/portal/signup YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/digitaltourbus Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/digitaltourbus/ TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@digitaltourbus Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/digitaltourbus/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/digitaltourbus Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/digitaltourbus/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-tour-bus-llc Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/user/digitaltourbus  VIDEO SUMMARY: 00:00 Introduction 00:35 Start of Video 00:54 Clothing 03:52 Shoes 07:33 Accessories  ABOUT DIGITAL TOUR BUS: Digital Tour Bus is your backstage pass to your favorite touring artists! With daily video releases, we cover all genres, and have had the pleasure of featuring the likes of Matchbox Twenty, Twenty One Pilots, Megadeth, MGK, Papa Roach, AJR, Pierce The Veil, Simple Plan, A Day to Remember, and thousands of others over the past 15 years. "Bus Invaders" takes you inside an artist's home on the road, "Cooking at 65mph" showcases the culinary skills of artists on tour, "Gear Masters" unveils the equipment musicians use on stage, and "Stage Threads" dives into the meaning and inspiration behind the clothing artists wear during their performances.

Transcript

00:00Didn't even like mention it on stage. I just came out in these basically I

00:03Went full Western this watch. I finally took the plunge and got a Rolex

00:30Hey, John Russell from the head and the heart here on our aperture tour

00:39We just put out our new record aperture this year. So we are on leg two of that. We're here in Chicago

00:45And yeah, we're just gonna talk about threads on tour and I think

00:49How it's evolved over, you know, we obviously we didn't start out with this, but since we have this you start sort of

00:56Expanding what you can do because things that like I don't know

01:01I used to like bring less because it was going to wrinkle or whatever and now we're we are we're a little more

01:08Pampered I guess you could say so so you get a little more fancy and it's fun

01:13It was like I always kind of vacillate between pretty simple like right now

01:17It's just Dickies and these travel Fox shoes a little cut-off shirt

01:20And then all that was fancy is like this is like it's a Miyake from Japan and it's like a full-on

01:28It's like a full-on

01:30like beautiful

01:32Fashionable option. I mean to be honest with you what I what normally goes in my thinking for choosing this is like the location of the

01:39City like last night we were in Interlochen, Michigan, and we were on a lake and

01:44And like as much as I wanted to rock this it's an outdoor stage like

01:50You at least what goes through my mind is like

01:53How much time are they gonna spend thinking what on earth is he wearing based on location and depending on how my headspace is?

02:00I might do that just to be a contrarian or I might not do that because I don't feel like having to deal with that emotion on stage

02:06so like last night what I ended up doing was

02:10this shirt

02:11these pants which are like

02:14Like I love so these are this is like beautiful, you know designer from Japan whereas these I got these from like a vintage rack in

02:23Oklahoma City on the women's rack. I don't even know what these are. There's no pockets

02:28But they they fit like a glove and they kind of flare out

02:33So like for me I enjoy I enjoy buying nice designer items. I also love

02:39finding

02:40women's

02:42Pants on a rack in Oklahoma City for like seven dollars

02:48and

02:49Then you know when you're in Dallas and you're walking around and you want to get something because you we were in Texas for like four shows

02:56So this is by Scully. I forget the name of this store, but

03:00Basically, I I went full Western while we were in Texas for like five days

03:05These pants a friend of mine in Richmond, Virginia made these pants for me

03:14It's just a pair of Levi's and he hand-painted them for me

03:18Well fine is the name of his

03:21Clothing company and Ronnie Lee he did a little Ronnie Lee by John Russell collab stitch

03:26So I usually wear these like in the daytime for like our VIP stuff

03:31Because as much as I love like the the color of it

03:35The fit of the jean doesn't photograph well and you start noticing these things when you're photographed

03:40Hundreds of times every day, so I do refresh the wardrobe pretty much every tour

03:45Like like the previous album was called every shade of blue and so there was a there was definitely a lot of blue happening

03:51This this is called aperture this album and it's more about letting the light in on on all of the good and all the bad

03:58And so I kind of run a little more of us like full spectrum of looks and personalities

04:03Speaking of personality we were in

04:10Gosh where were we were in Indianapolis and we went to the zoo and it's like it's a month in the tour and I just needed something like

04:18Ridiculous to kind of like laugh at myself to get me over some of these hurdles

04:22So the encore happened and I went off stage and took off my boots

04:27These obviously have been worn for a long time

04:29Joe goes that's to me. It's my favorite if you're not if you're not going to do a cowboy cowboy boot and you're not going to do

04:35Just like a basic beetle boot Joe goes makes some really killer boots

04:41And yeah, I just need like I just needed a silly moment for myself

04:44I didn't even like mention it on stage or just came out in these and didn't say a word

04:48I have no idea what the fans thought of that

04:51I used to be a big hat guy

04:53like on signs of light the third record I was wearing like big brimmed hats and even little ones and I've started bringing back

05:01this hat

05:04Like honestly as a prop like it looks it works

05:08But also also like I just find like even with my mic cable and like something to just do like this

05:16You know, it just kind of gets you through moments. It adds a little drama

05:20This is actually so we were we were like designing merch for this for this album cycle

05:27and our the way our band works is there's six people and we're all like equal partners

05:32And so there's a committee with every like every idea

05:36So instead of having to go to the board. I just went on Etsy

05:40And made what I thought was gonna be a cool like merch item because we have a song called pool break

05:45Uh, and so the band ended up liking it and so now we actually make these for everybody else, but this is the OG from Etsy

05:53Um, but yeah, and here. I mean I just basically keep

05:57different pairs of jeans

05:59Like this is kind of just the catch-all with extra jeans

06:03And then like I don't know some sunnies

06:06Um just like miscellaneous stuff

06:12Yeah, so like waking up on the bus. I'm definitely in it's like it's comfort first

06:17um, I've got these like almost like

06:20Aladdin looking uh linen pants, but I think it's a thing. It's felix. I got them in new york

06:27um

06:28Either these slippers or flip-flops

06:32Um, I'll probably rock like this this is my mom's shirt from the 90s

06:36Just like a big you know kind of XLT keep it keep it comfortable

06:42Um, and then like switching to the daytime in the real world once you were you know get out of the bus

06:48I mean, that's kind of what i'm doing right now. It's just like it's you know, it's

06:51Proper enough to be photographed while i'm doing my sound check

06:54Or like after this we'll do a vip like meet and greet where you're going to be photographed and

06:59I'm not too concerned about it, but you want it you want at least have pants on I think

07:02Um, so yeah, and then this is more like these really are like stage clothes, you know, like

07:11Um, I mean you can rock them wherever, but I guess I keep them here just because it's the most convenient way to do it

07:17Yeah, I love accessorizing

07:20Uh, I mean I remember being like a kid and looking through the sears catalog

07:24Especially the one you would get like in the fall in the winter time

07:26It'd be like this thick and I grew up poor

07:29So I was never able to get any of this stuff, but I used to always like dream of jewelry

07:33So one of the things I've gotten into as you can kind of tell over the years is accessories

07:39Yeah, this is this is like a vintage gucci chain that I got

07:46I think a springer is in like

07:49I think it was in new england somewhere, but um, and then i've got i don't have the other one on

07:54Um, oh, yeah, some of my stuff's not on this. I got uh an aspen. I love turquoise

08:02um

08:04This watch

08:05I finally took the plunge and got a rolex

08:08Because when I was when I was trying this on the same jewelry store

08:12We're waiting on some information and they were like a that rolex dealership, and I was just like

08:18Is rolex really all it's all it's like, you know talked up to be and she was like you should just try one on

08:22Which was like the death of it of course, so I tried one on and

08:26Yeah, so for me, I like minimalism like that, you know like even these shoes like I love these shoes travel foxes because

08:35It's just all one color. There's no branding on it. So like also this old coach bag. I've just recently gotten i'm obsessed with it

08:42um, so like normally like

08:45Like I'll probably I wear this for the show because it's fitted and it doesn't clink against my guitar

08:49But during the day I would typically have

08:54Where is that?

08:55Oh, it's in my pocket actually because I took it off for soundcheck

08:58Just something really basic. This is like a byzantine

09:01gold

09:02uh

09:03little chain

09:06So like I used to do more

09:10kind of like

09:12Like I'd say the overall tone was almost kind of random and recently I think once I got this

09:19I kind of wanted to anchor everything around like just simple and classic and so

09:26Definitely more of a gold than a silver person but like this is just like a simple chain

09:33um

09:34with turquoise and whenever I wear something like this with a wide collar

09:38You get like the perfect amount of visibility on this without looking kind of showboaty

09:43Because I guess that's the line. I'm trying to walk here. It's like I love

09:47Quality, but I also don't love like look at my bling. You know, I like to have it like noticed when you notice it

09:54You know, I typically do like to do like as a pastime. I'll go and look for any like vintage store in the area

10:00This is the first year where I've brought my wife and my five-month-old baby

10:03And I have had zero time to do that so everything that I've sourced on the previous leg was because I had more time to kill

10:12um

10:13But that's typically what I'll do like I'll bring

10:15I'll bring like like what I would consider like anchors like probably three outfits where I like the boot the jean the top

10:23And I know I can do that and then I'll try and weave in and out of them for like I'll find like for instance

10:29Like I had no idea. I was ever looking for something like this

10:33But I leave space for it mentally and literally physically in my luggage because I know I'm gonna come home with more than I left with

10:39And you know ideally it's not huge budget items

10:43um

10:43So yeah, I like you know, you've got your staples and then I leave room for experimentation

10:48It's kind of the same way I approach making an album to be honest with you is like

10:51You show up with a handful of songs that you know have some

10:54Some substance and you also want to leave space for what can happen in the moment and I feel like shopping on tour

11:02Is pretty similar you want to you want to know that you've got your something dialed in case you don't have time

11:07But you're really looking for that spontaneity

11:10Thanks for checking out my episode of stage threads

11:13If you want to come to see a show get some tickets it's theheadintheheart.com and the new record is aperture check it out

11:20You

The Head and The Heart’s Jonathan Russell - STAGE THREADS Ep. 1

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