MIKE ROSS RELEASES 'PLACES', HIS FUNKY TAKE ON THE CURRENT LOCKDOWN CRISIS

'Funk isolation'. 'Funk Fear'.

In a world where just leaving your home can be fatal, Mike Ross is choosing to funk fear and is using his music to bring people together. 'Places' is a song written in a day, a shout out to people all over the world to connect and share their spaces with each other. As Mike explains 'the reality of lockdown began to hit hard I began to hear from a lot of friends and family that were really struggling with the isolation of it all. The enforced solitude was really frightening to them and anxiety was through the roof. My personal solution to this was to write a song that would help to connect people - one that encourages them to come together by sharing images of where they are, be that empty cities, the open countryside or even inside their own homes. With this in mind I sat down and out poured the lyrics for the song, it took about as long to write as it takes to read them!'

Next day, Mike recorded all the vocals and instruments (electric guitar & bass, hammond organ, drum machine & percussion) over a single 6 hour session in his home studio before reaching out to his funky friend Thomas Atlas who mixed the track, adding further percussion and some real drums. The result is a funk rock monster with powerful vocals, gritty organ, scratching wah-wah guitar and huge choruses. Mike then turned to social media, asking for short film clips from all over the world that have been used to construct a video to accompany the track.

'I was deluged by a huge outpouring of contributions from near and far - everywhere from LA to Nashville, northern Sweden to southern Spain, Russia and beyond' explained Mike.

Gretchen Peters
Song: Saint Cecelia

From the album

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THE NIGHT YOU WROTE THAT SONG: THE SONGS OF MICKEY NEWBURY

Gretchen credits Newbury’s writing to being quite Leonard Cohenesque - particularly with this song. In Gretchen’s reflections about Saint Cecelia:  "As a songwriter, self-doubt in a character is one of the richest veins to mine...which makes for a memorable character, and a great song. Ceceila is bewildered by her own doubts and by what seems to be a too-swiftly changing world that’s leaving her behind. When I listened to the song, I think probably most of us can identify in part with Cecelia now. With what our world is going through now, the dance between trying to stay positive, then succumbing to our doubts, can be that dichotomy that writers in all mediums, dive in to explore." 

This song appeared on Mickey’s 1994 album appropriately titled

“NIGHTS WHEN I AM SANE."

Mick Hanly - Homeland

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