To call Mike Ross a musician with a lot of strings to his bow is to massively underestimate this one-man outlaw archer band. Not only is he a long haired, guitar-slinging badass, he’s also a talented multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter and producer. This killer combination of talents come to the fore once more with Mike’s fantastic third single from his eagerly-awaited, forthcoming album ‘The Clovis Limit Pt.2‘: ‘Don’t Say a Word’ (released on all digital platforms.)
“It may be a one-man show,” said RAWRAMP, nailing Mike as a man of many facets, “but you’d never guess, from the sheer compass, scope, and breadth of this adventurous mix of open-airblues, arrogant rock, & flirtatious folk roots…”
Two singles have already been released from the album: ‘The Loser’ then ‘None of Your Business’, earning airplay and acclaim, particularly on Planet Rock where ‘None of Your Business’ was playlisted 4 weeks in a row on Wyatt Wendels’ ’New Rock’ show. The third single to be released, ‘Don’t Say a Word’, shows Mike’s constant musical variety, range and imagination.
“Picture, if you will,” says Mike, “a conspiracy theorist: a stuck-in-the mud, head-in-the-sand individual whose dissonance and denial are so strong that they distort the person’s whole reality,rendering them incapable of recognising their own part and role in a situation. Someone who’s so blind to their own hypocrisy that even when they’re exposed as a liar and fraud, the message just doesn’t get through. So, what’s the message for that person? Just keep your mouth shut and DON’T SAY A WORD!”
Musically, you’ll find some fascinating curveballs in the track. The recording features a memory direct from Mike’s childhood: the sampled sound of a ‘laughing bag’, which he lovingly remembers as a favourite possession of his late ‘Grandad Jim’.
Also buried in the mix (beneath a take-no-prisoners army of screaming hot guitars and vocals) are weird and wonderful homebrew synth sounds, courtesy of a WWII-era army surplus oscillator! Another unique feel to the track came from drummer Darren Lee’s decision to replace his usual hi-hats with a cowbell, giving a powerful driving feel to the backbeat.
‘Don’t Say A Word’s accompanying video continues the heady trip and takes it further! A lone astronaut travels on the empty Underground A-Train. Roads, lights and hi-tech kaleidoscope echo 2001’s fabled, trippy stargate sequence.Weird space, sci-fi and psychedelic hi-tech kaleidoscope images merge with subterranean reality, as we travel endlessly through curving tunnels and bursts of purple psychotropic DMT visuals. It all comes together to stake out a unique reality for this song.
‘Don’t Say A Word’ is now available to stream or download on all digital platforms Here
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