Lyrically, these nine songs are easily Ross’s most astute and compelling observations of American life, finely tuned from experiences on the road and, one has to suspect, becoming a father and surviving serious health issues. Here, you’ll get nods to ‘90s movies, have vivid descriptions of tattoos and a song dedicated to the assassination of John F Kennedy. With such compelling source material, Ross –with trusted and talented collaborators Landon George and Dan Keegan, recording the body of the songs with producer and engineer Alex Farrar in Asheville– matches his dynamic lyricism with a perfect blend of ‘70s rock (see Warren Zevon, Wings, Neil Young) expanded with playful synths and sax accompaniments to add to the wonderful melodic texture of this truly irresistible record.

Ahead of Still Coming Down’s release, Wild Pink’s John Ross spoke to Northern Transmissions, over Zoom, about how a podcast influenced one of the album’s highlights, having MJ Lenderman and Meg Duffy of Hand Habits contribute to his latest material and the songwriting approach he’s adopted to maximize a fulfilling and fun practice.

Northern Transmissions: Hey John, so nice to speak with you. The new Wild Pink record is incredible. I’ve really enjoyed spending time with these songs. Release day is around the corner; how are you feeling about people finally getting to hear Still Coming Down? Is this a particularly special record for you to share, given that you said that, with these songs, you feel that you’ve finally found your voice.

John Ross: Yeah, I think so. This is the fun period where all I have to do is wait for the album to come out. It’s very exciting because I feel really positive about these songs. I do feel, in a way, that I’m just getting started with my songwriting because I know exactly what I want.

NT: Over a decade into Wild Pink, what I loved about the latest album is just how full of life the songwriting and musicianship is, whereas a lot of bands, at this stage, could feel a bit jaded or creatively exhausted but it’s the opposite for you and Wild Pink. I’d love to hear about the elements of songwriting that bring the same level of excitement for you as they did at the very start of the project, and what were some new or different things
you experienced this time around that were creatively fulfilling?

John Ross: I’ve been doing this project for a while now, the first record came out in 2017, and now we’re at number six, so it’s been a journey! I definitely feel as though the first four records are from a different band or something. The music was, I came from a TV-music background. That’s what I did as a job for a while, writing music for TV commercials and promos, and I think the first four or so Wild Pink records, I was avoiding making guitar rock because I thought I was over it, or something. On the last record, Dulling The Horns, I got really into making guitar rock again.

This record probably picks up where the last one left off and since Dulling in the Horns, I’m just getting started with making music in a new way that I’m excited about. I try to write every day. I try to carve out an hour or two every day, and it’s something I look forward to doing. I’m still really excited about trying new things, musically.

NT: What was the strangest, or most surreal, commercial or promo you composed music for?

John Ross: It wasn’t strange, well, I guess it was strange hearing myself on TV, but I had some music in a promo for The Office. That was really cool. I worked for Cameron Winter’s father, that was the job I was in for a while. He’s amazing, and gave me that job when I probably wasn’t qualified for it! That whole period, which was a long time ago, was really cool and kind of surreal.

NT: I have to imagine working in that realm and thinking of composition in a way where you’re striving to make something that’s catchy and will swirl around people’s heads for a long time is helpful in developing that songwriting muscle from playing with melody in a different way to how you would write arrangements for Wild Pink.

John Ross: I think that that’s where I formed my work ethic. With that job, everyone had to basically write one song a week, that was just what you had to do. So now, the way I write and record records, I release something every other year or so. It’s been a long journey to get to where I’m just trying to write every single day. It doesn’t feel right if I’m not doing it, but it started with that job.

NT: Absolutely. That discipline must have helped when you recorded this album because you worked on it with Alex Farrar in Asheville across one week. Within the 9 songs, there’s so much chemistry between the musicians across the instrumentation. Working within a tight timeframe, was there a sense of wanting to capture the immediacy and energy of a Wild Pink live show in the songs?

John Ross: Definitely, yeah! I do feel like one week, that’s not enough time to track the record usually, but that’s what we did, and we did it pretty much as a three-piece. It was me, my drummer Dan Keegan, and then Landon George on bass, who lives in Asheville. He plays with MJ Lenderman in the Wind. He’s one of the most insanely talented musicians I’ve ever met, so is Dan on the drums. I feel like I was the slowest on the uptake! Which, actually, I think is a good place to be for someone in my position; to be the weakest link.

They had the demos for however many weeks or months before we got to the studio, so they showed up very much prepared. We recorded as a three-piece in a week. Those two guys are just so good at being in a rhythm section and playing together.

NT: Along with Dan and Landon, you also have Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy and MJ Lenderman playing on the album.

John Ross: Yeah, Jake played on one song and he sings on a song. Meg played on a handful of songs, I love their parts so much. They do a lot of cool fretless guitar stuff, and really unexpected things that I wouldn’t have thought to do.

NT: How does it feel passing a song over to different musicians and see their personality come through and also see the unexpected ways people interpret your songs with the parts they bring.

John Ross: Yeah, it’s amazing. I crave it. I spend a lot of time writing a song, especially the words. It’s definitely the hardest part, getting the words right. Then, it’s not until I get to a point where there’s a good foundation, and I can just invite people in who are unbelievable musicians. I don’t really ever give directions or suggestions, I just want them to do what their first instinct is. I’ve been spoiled with great collaborators and contributors.

NT: Yeah, and they’re spoiled with the great material you give them to work with. I love your lyrics, especially, “Round Of Applause At The End Of The World”, it completely grabs you, as do all of the other songs. One of my favorite late-career Bob Dylan songs is “Murder Most Foul”, so I always appreciate when songwriters are inspired by JFK. I’d love to hear about the start of writing that song and the places it took you as a writer.

John Ross: Of course! There’s a podcast called Ghost Stories For The End of The World hosted by a guy named Matt, who’s based in Northern England, and he goes super deep on conspiratorial things that are rooted in reality more than they’re not. He talks a lot about MI6 and the CIA and all the terrible shitty things Western governments have done; coups, surveillance and assassinations. He had a segment about the Kennedy assassination, and I listened to it in the dead of Winter, and was probably depressed, and it stuck with me. Then, I saw a Netflix docu-series called The Octopus Murders, which Matt talks about on his podcast, too. That’s a deep dark story, so I was in that kind of headspace. That song is a nod to the podcast and that show. I highly recommend Ghost Stories For The End of The World.

NT: Jackson Browne, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen were some of your early influences, but when Still Coming Down kicked off with “Box Store”, I immediately thought of Warren Zevon. Later on, “Plates Keep Spinning” has a moment heralding “Band On The Run”. As your love of music grows, who have been some of your more recent influences?

John Ross: Yeah, well, that’s spot on with Warren Zevon and “Box Store”. “Lawyers, Guns and Money” was on the moodboard, for sure. Lately, Jesu, formed by Justin Broderick, I think he’s also in Northern England or the Midlands, he makes really sludgy metal fused with ambient ethereal tones to make a very beautiful sounding sludgy metal. I’ve been into that a lot lately. I’m writing new stuff now that I think is probably inspired by that.

NT: That sounds great. You recently became a dad for the first time and battled cancer. I hope you’re in good health now. How did that duality of celebrating a new life, and becoming a father, while also going through your illness, which I have to imagine makes you hyper aware of your own mortality and your life and overall role in the world. I’m interested to hear about the ways that changed your writing process, or changed the way you sit down to think about what you want to write about. Did it make you want to write things that delve a bit deeper?

John Ross: I’m all good, health wise! I feel like it’s the opposite, somehow. Since I’ve become a father and have been feeling like I’ve figured out, more so, what I want to do with my music, which is to make it fun live, I think the crux of my thinking on songwriting is: ‘Is this fun to listen to? Does it make for a fun performance?’

Coming to that realisation, with also becoming a dad, I feel like my approach to writing is number one to do it every day and to treat it as something that I get to do it and I’m excited about it, and also to not be so indulgent about it and not make things that are overly sentimental, or emotionally taxing. Writing a song about John F. Kennedy was just the right mix of stuff I’m genuinely interested in and still having it mean something to me and not be indulgent, I guess.

NT: That’s amazing news about your health, I’m so happy for you. Finally, I always love to know from an artist which song or lyric from their album encapsulates the spirit or essence of where you were, both creatively and personally, that provides the crux of the album?

John Ross: That’s a good question. In “Box Store”, in the chorus hook, the lyric is, “Getting going is easy to do / Just get one foot out the door and the other one too.” There’s something there, I think, for me, going back to not being indulgent or getting out of my own way a little bit. That’s very much where my head was at when making this record.

Pre-order Still Coming Down by Wild Pink HERE