The Sit Down with Justin Ross
His website describes himself as a delectable hybrid of Rock, Soul, Roots, Blues, Swamp Rock, Texas Music and much more. Justin Ross intertwines the genres of music into a show that makes for the masses. He has a unique way of delivering a message to his fans; It is as though they can relate to him with every song he plays. Ross has been in this business long enough to know that you have to work hard and make every day count to get respect from not only the fans but as well as the clubs and venues. Jamie got to learn all about the joys of the Texas scene and indulge in finding out more about Justin, who we are sure will be making big waves across both sides of the Atlantic very soon in our sit down chat to hear about how life is treating him:
“Things are great! Man, where do we start? I’ve been really good this last month, things are picking up, Texas is open! We are up to one hundred percent and we were all kind of iffy about it. We had just had this huge ice storm, it was crazy because all through this Covid process I didn’t get sick or have anything happen and then I got super slow right before that winter storm and I got sick. I was like man, you gotta be kidding me? Then two weeks in quarantine and I got out and played a gig as soon as I tested negative, I was out of there, I needed to play a show.”
Like any good introduction, it is best for Justin to be the one filling you in on who he is, what he does and who shaped his sound musically to get it to where it is right now:
“I’ve been playing music since I was six years old and I’m thirty-nine now. I’ve been playing in the scene around here since I was ten, my mom was a singer-songwriter signed with RCA, my dad was a blues player from Kansas City and I guess I just stuck in the middle and the rest is history from there. The career in the last five or six years, I would say is changing and I guess this comes with age and experience. I know what I’m good at and know what I’m bad at too! I think musicians finally get to a point of “I love doing this!” I like playing rock and roll, I grew up on Texas three-piece bands which is who I looked up to as a kid and who I look up to now. I didn’t want to stop doing that, I’m a huge fan of Huey Lewis and the News, ZZ Top, Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Ray Vaughan and those are huge influences. It’s so easy to get lost in trying new things and I encourage it, I encourage anyone to try anything. If you’ve got an idea, go for it and don’t look back. It was when I started doing that, I found this is what I do, this is what I’m good at and this is what I’m sticking with.”
The new single “Right Back Up” is out on Friday (available to pre-save to listen to HERE) genuinely took me back. OK! I have seen the bio comments which set the scene and pick up the girl being mischievous during a hook up but lyrically and melodically it goes out. This is the love child of The Cadillac Three and the E Street Band that needs to be played live, which I am so here for! The dirty, gritty southern rock and roll vibes laced with outrageous electric guitar sounds, lyrically driven and the added beauty of the saxophone to take it further?
“That was the idea, the band I have right now is extremely solid and the guy playing sax on it, his name is Rene Ozuna and he is a teacher here in town. I thought it was so perfect for the record, you know when you call in a studio musician and say hey we’ll give you a hundred and fifty to come in and play or however much they want if it was worth it and we knew that Rene was worth it but he is such a sweet guy and was like man I just need two shots of whiskey and thirty minutes with that song! I said do you have a preference and he said warm! I knew then, that this was going to be really bad or extremely good. It was one of the two! It took him two takes to knock out “Right Back Up” and I was just astounded with it. He gave us enough to work with in the studio and he comes out and does shows with us, we only have a few tunes that sax is on right now for this set so he kind of just stands by the side of the stage and has his little flask, walks out and just rocks, then walks right off the stage and people are just like what the hell did I just watch?”
So, is this a good insight towards what to expect in terms of musical sound and direction with future releases?
“I think in the rock side of it, yes. What we are doing as a band, comes natural for me to write it and comes naturally to play it. What is really cool is that a lot of these songs, we had maybe one rehearsal and put together the root of it, then go and perform it without even thinking about it. We have a set list for a ninety-minute show and I’ll say to the guys hey! Remember that song we did in rehearsal the other day? Want to try that one? Then we would all just look at each other and say this is the gamble, this is the chance but then on stage figure out how good this sounds and then we work on it some more. I think going forward with the band that this is the sound. I have been asked several times to do a straight up and down acoustic record and I think I am going to do that as well and release in the fall.”
Then, is the acoustic singer-songwriter philosophy allowing that ability to showcase the inner songwriter in you a different way to be telling stories?
“We released a song a few months back called “Into The Dark” which is just an acoustic tune. We never really pushed it but did a music video for it and that song is just a perfect example of doing a slower acoustic vibe. The song itself talks about a lot of what I’ve been dealing with for the past twenty-nine years and it was kind of time to put it all into a song. There’s a line in there that says I’ve met all my heroes, but all my heroes have let me down. Meeting your heroes is not a good idea!”
“Things are great! Man, where do we start? I’ve been really good this last month, things are picking up, Texas is open! We are up to one hundred percent and we were all kind of iffy about it. We had just had this huge ice storm, it was crazy because all through this Covid process I didn’t get sick or have anything happen and then I got super slow right before that winter storm and I got sick. I was like man, you gotta be kidding me? Then two weeks in quarantine and I got out and played a gig as soon as I tested negative, I was out of there, I needed to play a show.”
Like any good introduction, it is best for Justin to be the one filling you in on who he is, what he does and who shaped his sound musically to get it to where it is right now:
“I’ve been playing music since I was six years old and I’m thirty-nine now. I’ve been playing in the scene around here since I was ten, my mom was a singer-songwriter signed with RCA, my dad was a blues player from Kansas City and I guess I just stuck in the middle and the rest is history from there. The career in the last five or six years, I would say is changing and I guess this comes with age and experience. I know what I’m good at and know what I’m bad at too! I think musicians finally get to a point of “I love doing this!” I like playing rock and roll, I grew up on Texas three-piece bands which is who I looked up to as a kid and who I look up to now. I didn’t want to stop doing that, I’m a huge fan of Huey Lewis and the News, ZZ Top, Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Ray Vaughan and those are huge influences. It’s so easy to get lost in trying new things and I encourage it, I encourage anyone to try anything. If you’ve got an idea, go for it and don’t look back. It was when I started doing that, I found this is what I do, this is what I’m good at and this is what I’m sticking with.”
The new single “Right Back Up” is out on Friday (available to pre-save to listen to HERE) genuinely took me back. OK! I have seen the bio comments which set the scene and pick up the girl being mischievous during a hook up but lyrically and melodically it goes out. This is the love child of The Cadillac Three and the E Street Band that needs to be played live, which I am so here for! The dirty, gritty southern rock and roll vibes laced with outrageous electric guitar sounds, lyrically driven and the added beauty of the saxophone to take it further?
“That was the idea, the band I have right now is extremely solid and the guy playing sax on it, his name is Rene Ozuna and he is a teacher here in town. I thought it was so perfect for the record, you know when you call in a studio musician and say hey we’ll give you a hundred and fifty to come in and play or however much they want if it was worth it and we knew that Rene was worth it but he is such a sweet guy and was like man I just need two shots of whiskey and thirty minutes with that song! I said do you have a preference and he said warm! I knew then, that this was going to be really bad or extremely good. It was one of the two! It took him two takes to knock out “Right Back Up” and I was just astounded with it. He gave us enough to work with in the studio and he comes out and does shows with us, we only have a few tunes that sax is on right now for this set so he kind of just stands by the side of the stage and has his little flask, walks out and just rocks, then walks right off the stage and people are just like what the hell did I just watch?”
So, is this a good insight towards what to expect in terms of musical sound and direction with future releases?
“I think in the rock side of it, yes. What we are doing as a band, comes natural for me to write it and comes naturally to play it. What is really cool is that a lot of these songs, we had maybe one rehearsal and put together the root of it, then go and perform it without even thinking about it. We have a set list for a ninety-minute show and I’ll say to the guys hey! Remember that song we did in rehearsal the other day? Want to try that one? Then we would all just look at each other and say this is the gamble, this is the chance but then on stage figure out how good this sounds and then we work on it some more. I think going forward with the band that this is the sound. I have been asked several times to do a straight up and down acoustic record and I think I am going to do that as well and release in the fall.”
Then, is the acoustic singer-songwriter philosophy allowing that ability to showcase the inner songwriter in you a different way to be telling stories?
“We released a song a few months back called “Into The Dark” which is just an acoustic tune. We never really pushed it but did a music video for it and that song is just a perfect example of doing a slower acoustic vibe. The song itself talks about a lot of what I’ve been dealing with for the past twenty-nine years and it was kind of time to put it all into a song. There’s a line in there that says I’ve met all my heroes, but all my heroes have let me down. Meeting your heroes is not a good idea!”
The sound and influence that you hear from the scope of his music is so diverse and has so much appeal across such a broad spectrum. Rock is clearly the heart and soul, but by opening the sound up so much is it exciting to be crossing boundaries musically?
“That’s a route I love going, I fit into it well and feel I play it well. In Texas, there are so many outstanding killer rock bands that are incredible but we get no love from radio stations alike. Even the rock stations here are so droned to playing a certain setlist and the same things are being heard all the time, so the only chance for us is to get out and to anywhere, to push it to anybody that wants to play it!
Musically in terms of historical and cultural significance, Texas is one of the, if no the only place that can genuinely compete with what the UK has to offer. Greats like: Buddy Holly, Meat Loaf, Roy Orbison, Barry White, George Jones, Beyoncé, Janis Joplin and George Strait hail from the Lone Star state, whilst the country genre continues to thrive through artists such as: Midland, Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves and Maren Morris in the modern era. We are aware of Texas having sub-genres that thrive within the region without necessarily transferring to a wider audience across the States but people outside of Texas don’t really understand the music scene down there and by all accounts half of the people who make music in Texas don’t really know what is going on either:
“That is so true! You couldn’t have nailed that more on the head right there! Last night I went to the Texas regional radio music awards and I was sitting in a room where I knew Kevin Fowler, Deryl Dodd, Randy Rogers and all the big names but then I’m looking around the room, thinking who the fuck are all these other people? It struck me to myself that maybe I don’t know what the hell is going on in Texas. It’s so diverse around here but when we went up to Canada to play and those Northern states too, they don’t have what we have down here but there are singer-songwriters on every corner. When you take that and go to Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska. Ontario or Alberta, people just stop dead in their tracks thinking wow! “Who are you? Where are you from? Are you an alien? I don’t understand what this is.” That’s amazing to me and definitely one thing I want to push in the years to come, to get back to those states, get back to those cities, get overseas and go and play. When I played Ireland it was the same thing, they have tons of acoustic stuff and what I thought was hilarious is that my acoustic shows here in Texas, I use a loop station and when I go into a song slot or a writers round type setting, I’ll sit down with my pedal board and everybody on the stage will look at me funny. I’ll set it up, plug it in and the sound guy is looking at me thinking are you kidding me? What I do I loop my guitar as I’m singing and play leads over it because that is what I can do. In Ireland, you see this everywhere and everyone’s doing it. I fit right in, I can do that but all the Texas guys with me are like what is this? Then I say to them: you’re in my world now!”
Beyond the incredible new single, we talked about what else is on the way going forward and how an extended project is shaping up:
“I’m really excited about what’s coming, my publicist Paige has been doing great things and the whole team has been doing a great job. This is the first time I’ve had a team together, people that are talking and working really well together, everyone is on the same page and we know what we’re doing. That is really nice because it takes a little bit of the pressure off what I’m doing so I can concentrate more on the music side of it. The single comes out April 9th which I think we’ll continue to push it through April and we’re wanting the album to come out in May. We’ve got two more songs to get in there and record so then it will be a twelve-song album. I was in a band called Big Casino for a long time which we took that album down offline and have five of the songs off there that we still play today which were the most highly requested. I got the sims from the studio we recorded it in and brought it to our studio then started remixing and remastering, so we’re going to release that on the new record. You’re getting seven new tunes, some we’ve already released as singles: “Break My Heart”, “Dance With Me” and now “Right Back Up” so we’re at twelve, but we are talking about adding in “Into The Dark” and doing two live performance acoustic songs for maybe making it a fifteen-song record. These songs that people know have been a build-up and people have been asking when the album is coming so were hoping for really good traction come May when that album comes out.”
The last thing we had touched upon was getting a feel for Fort Worth and what the music scene there has to offer. I am a devout Dallas Cowboys fan and through following the team, you hear a lot of references to the DFW or Dallas / Fort Worth area and on the map they looks right on top of each other but beyond this and hearing mentions of the world famous Stockyards, I didn’t really know much about it. Justin said it was around forty-five minutes from downtown to downtown in Dallas but due to the growth in population within this area of Texas that there is a strong rail infrastructure to connect and went on to describe what happens musically:
“Well strap up and get ready because it’s a ride down here! Fort Worth is definitely a great place to come to, it’s the unspoken and hidden gem of the music scene. Austin is exactly what it is, it’s weird and kind of like small L.A. where everyone is trying to do something and Nashville is kind of the same way where everyone is mingling and talking but they kind of go in a circle, nobody’s really helping each other get out of there, they’re just spinning their wheels. In Fort Worth, you come here and meet the musicians, meet where the musicians go, that’s where you start making headway but it is easy to get trapped, though it’s a lot of fun to come and see. You still have to watch out though as you can get locked into a position where you’ve been playing the same bar for two years now and think you’ve got to get out of here. It’s pretty crazy that from Fort Worth to El Paso, Texas takes ten hours and El Paso to the Santa Monica pier in California takes exactly ten hours.”
The new single “Right Back Up” from Justin Ross is already at radio but available to pre-save to listen to HERE and will be available on Friday 9th April. You can find out more about Justin on his Website and keep up to date with him socially through Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube TikTok
“That’s a route I love going, I fit into it well and feel I play it well. In Texas, there are so many outstanding killer rock bands that are incredible but we get no love from radio stations alike. Even the rock stations here are so droned to playing a certain setlist and the same things are being heard all the time, so the only chance for us is to get out and to anywhere, to push it to anybody that wants to play it!
Musically in terms of historical and cultural significance, Texas is one of the, if no the only place that can genuinely compete with what the UK has to offer. Greats like: Buddy Holly, Meat Loaf, Roy Orbison, Barry White, George Jones, Beyoncé, Janis Joplin and George Strait hail from the Lone Star state, whilst the country genre continues to thrive through artists such as: Midland, Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves and Maren Morris in the modern era. We are aware of Texas having sub-genres that thrive within the region without necessarily transferring to a wider audience across the States but people outside of Texas don’t really understand the music scene down there and by all accounts half of the people who make music in Texas don’t really know what is going on either:
“That is so true! You couldn’t have nailed that more on the head right there! Last night I went to the Texas regional radio music awards and I was sitting in a room where I knew Kevin Fowler, Deryl Dodd, Randy Rogers and all the big names but then I’m looking around the room, thinking who the fuck are all these other people? It struck me to myself that maybe I don’t know what the hell is going on in Texas. It’s so diverse around here but when we went up to Canada to play and those Northern states too, they don’t have what we have down here but there are singer-songwriters on every corner. When you take that and go to Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska. Ontario or Alberta, people just stop dead in their tracks thinking wow! “Who are you? Where are you from? Are you an alien? I don’t understand what this is.” That’s amazing to me and definitely one thing I want to push in the years to come, to get back to those states, get back to those cities, get overseas and go and play. When I played Ireland it was the same thing, they have tons of acoustic stuff and what I thought was hilarious is that my acoustic shows here in Texas, I use a loop station and when I go into a song slot or a writers round type setting, I’ll sit down with my pedal board and everybody on the stage will look at me funny. I’ll set it up, plug it in and the sound guy is looking at me thinking are you kidding me? What I do I loop my guitar as I’m singing and play leads over it because that is what I can do. In Ireland, you see this everywhere and everyone’s doing it. I fit right in, I can do that but all the Texas guys with me are like what is this? Then I say to them: you’re in my world now!”
Beyond the incredible new single, we talked about what else is on the way going forward and how an extended project is shaping up:
“I’m really excited about what’s coming, my publicist Paige has been doing great things and the whole team has been doing a great job. This is the first time I’ve had a team together, people that are talking and working really well together, everyone is on the same page and we know what we’re doing. That is really nice because it takes a little bit of the pressure off what I’m doing so I can concentrate more on the music side of it. The single comes out April 9th which I think we’ll continue to push it through April and we’re wanting the album to come out in May. We’ve got two more songs to get in there and record so then it will be a twelve-song album. I was in a band called Big Casino for a long time which we took that album down offline and have five of the songs off there that we still play today which were the most highly requested. I got the sims from the studio we recorded it in and brought it to our studio then started remixing and remastering, so we’re going to release that on the new record. You’re getting seven new tunes, some we’ve already released as singles: “Break My Heart”, “Dance With Me” and now “Right Back Up” so we’re at twelve, but we are talking about adding in “Into The Dark” and doing two live performance acoustic songs for maybe making it a fifteen-song record. These songs that people know have been a build-up and people have been asking when the album is coming so were hoping for really good traction come May when that album comes out.”
The last thing we had touched upon was getting a feel for Fort Worth and what the music scene there has to offer. I am a devout Dallas Cowboys fan and through following the team, you hear a lot of references to the DFW or Dallas / Fort Worth area and on the map they looks right on top of each other but beyond this and hearing mentions of the world famous Stockyards, I didn’t really know much about it. Justin said it was around forty-five minutes from downtown to downtown in Dallas but due to the growth in population within this area of Texas that there is a strong rail infrastructure to connect and went on to describe what happens musically:
“Well strap up and get ready because it’s a ride down here! Fort Worth is definitely a great place to come to, it’s the unspoken and hidden gem of the music scene. Austin is exactly what it is, it’s weird and kind of like small L.A. where everyone is trying to do something and Nashville is kind of the same way where everyone is mingling and talking but they kind of go in a circle, nobody’s really helping each other get out of there, they’re just spinning their wheels. In Fort Worth, you come here and meet the musicians, meet where the musicians go, that’s where you start making headway but it is easy to get trapped, though it’s a lot of fun to come and see. You still have to watch out though as you can get locked into a position where you’ve been playing the same bar for two years now and think you’ve got to get out of here. It’s pretty crazy that from Fort Worth to El Paso, Texas takes ten hours and El Paso to the Santa Monica pier in California takes exactly ten hours.”
The new single “Right Back Up” from Justin Ross is already at radio but available to pre-save to listen to HERE and will be available on Friday 9th April. You can find out more about Justin on his Website and keep up to date with him socially through Twitter Instagram Facebook YouTube TikTok