Adam Ross - Bring On The Apathy Adam Ross

Fika Recordings are pleased to present Bring On The Apathy, the third solo record from Scottish songwriter Adam Ross.

Adam Ross is an indie-folk songwriter based in north-east Scotland. He is a solo artist and has also led the cult indie band Randolph's Leap for over a decade, releasing music with legendary Fence Records and Lost Map as well as Olive Grove Records and Fika Recordings. He is known for his unique brand of articulate lyricism which blends humour, poignancy, wordplay and offbeat stories..

“Bring On The Apathy” was recorded onto tape, using traditional analogue techniques at Glasgow’s Green Door Studio with Samuel J. Smith. It showcases some of the most emotionally open, lyrically deft and characterful songwriting so far from one of Scotland’s most accomplished writers. The vintage recording approach brings a warmth and intimacy to a record which is in equal parts raw and organic while also beautifully arranged and performed as Adam is joined by a raft of excellent collaborators. The album itself is a reaction. Whether it be in the title, the lyrical content or the method in which the sounds were captured. “I was feeling fairly down and uninspired about the musical landscape” Adam explains. “The risk with digital recording where every instrument is overdubbed separately is that it can end up sounding metronomic, sterile and lacking personality. I also started to get a bit freaked out by the topic of AI-generated music and the insidious, creeping impact it’s already having. I therefore decided that, as a bit of a protest, I wanted to make something that sounded extra-specially human and hand-crafted, where you could hopefully hear the interplay between musicians.” For this reason, Adam decided to record the majority of the album live, as a band, playing together in the same room without a click track. “I’d put a band together to tour my last album, Littoral Zone, and I really enjoyed the way we all worked together. Green Door Studio was chosen as the destination as it specialises in analogue sound production but it had an extra significance for Adam. “Green Door was the first studio I ever recorded in, back in 2009. This time around, the “unforgiving” nature of tape recording became an inspiration. “The musicians on the record are such great players that they rarely make mistakes, so there was a confidence there that we wouldn’t need to rely on copious amounts of editing or post-production, which isn’t always possible with tape anyway.

The core band consisted of Owen Curtis-Williams on drums, Cameron Maxwell on bass, Pedro Cameron on violin, Gillian Fleetwood on harp and (long-time collaborator with Randolph’s Leap) Pete MacDonald on piano. Mercury Prize-nominated artist C Duncan was drafted in to write and perform backing vocal arrangements along with Amanda Nizich and Gillian Fleetwood. Adam says “I’d been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan, Karen Dalton and Bill Callahan records and I thought it might be interesting to apply those sorts of influences to my brand of Scottish quirk-pop”.

A sense of bittersweet melancholia is also tied in with another key theme of the record: aging. The closing track is, appropriately enough, entitled Time and examines the idea of purpose. “It’s something I didn’t think about much until recently. I’m quite good at living in the moment but as I reach my mid-late 30s I’m much more prone to a bout of existential dread.” Self-interrogation threads its way throughout the album. “Is this a midlife crisis or is it art?” asks Adam on Crisis while I Never Thought You Couldn’t Not asserts that the path to success is “littered with the bodies of the easily distracted and the self-aware.”

"Masterful songwriting, memorable hooks and melodies at every turn, delicate arrangements and knowing and wise lyrics. A wonderful album. Highly recommended." Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub)

"Adam's music and songwriting comfortably inhabits the sweet spot between Edwyn Collins and The Beautiful South, and this album captures him in fine, fine form" James Yorkston

“Sheer class” – BBC Radio Scotland

“Charm and character to spare” - The Scotsman