Music Feature: Ross Alan

“I feel like the full damn package! I want other people to think of me as colourful, authentic, deeply feeling and genuine. Mostly because I’ve worked my ass off to be who I am and I hope it not only shows, but inspires.”

Hailing from LA, self-identified #BalladQueen Ross Alan describes themselves as a pop-centred, non-binary, queer, glitter-covered singer-songwriter. They pride themselves on being a performer, a lyricist, a vocalist, a designer and as someone who tries to think outside the box.

Ross Alan was raised on everything from all genres and every decade. Anything they could get their hands on, in a sense. Their world stopped when they heard ‘Baby, One More Time’ by Britney Spears. Idolising her, they felt she had the delivery, the clothes, the choreo. “ I had suddenly felt seen and validated by someone who I (at the time) had literally nothing in common with,” they comment. It was enough for them to take a step back and say, “‘I wanna do what she does. I wanna make people feel the way she’s making me feel about myself.”

Going back to the beginning, Ross Alan was classically trained on the violin when they were a child. In their teenage years, they were obsessed with pop divas and suddenly their career trajectory started to make a lot of sense. They dabbled in music theatre and choir in high school. Then, they began to make pop music in college at the age of 19. Since then, everything else has been self-taught, and they have been pursuing music full-time in LA.

Ross Alan is fascinated with pop music, slating influences from the likes of Diana Ross, Good Charlotte, Avril Lavigne, David Bowie, and Elton John, to name a few. “Pop music is so structured but so free at the same time,” they comment. As there’s so many sub-genres and different vocal styles, it’s like you’re given a parameter and what you do inside that is the art you make. “I love the challenge and what more often that not comes out of it.”

They recently released their brand-new five-track extended-play, Revelation. It started as a concept about the idea of ‘home’. But Ross Alan soon realised that they were looking at it from above that each track represented a failed attempt. They realised that they didn’t know what home was. Failing to find home in addiction. Failing to find home in other people. Then of course finding it in themselves and celebrating that discovery. It quickly became this autobiographical, somewhat chronological story about them finding their home in their identity as non-binary and as a queer person. It’s sensationally personal.

Alongside the release of the EP, Ross Alan unveiled the focus track to be ‘Homesick’. There is a sense of ambience on this tune with pop sensibilities that thoroughly will engage the listener upon the very first listen. They feel that this particular single is some of their proudest work.

““I always felt out of place growing up. When I was 18, I moved away from Ohio and my family for the first time. Going to college 800 miles away, my first quarter ended for winter break and everyone complained about how they were ‘Homesick’. I realised I wasn't and I had never missed Ohio because it never felt like home. How do you navigate life as you blossom into an adult when you don't know what home is? That's what the song is about,” Ross Alan comments on the track.

Even though Ross Alan’s music touches on many resonating topics, they want listeners’ to feel a sense of self-acceptance and understanding when listening to their dazzling music. A through line in most of their work has been self-discovery and self-love, “I just want everyone to honor the truest version of themselves and if you hear one of my songs and you walk away with anything, it’s that you deserve the entire fucking world. Life is too short to be anything less than kind to yourself.”

Ross Alan closes out the interview discussing their mission as a music artist, “I’ve always said that one of my only goals for music was to write and release things that make people feel less alone. To display truth and vulnerability. So that in the same way music saved me as a teenager so many times, I could try to do that for someone else. If I can make one person feel seen and validated or understood, I’ll consider myself very lucky.”