Interview with Braden Ross

Over the past year, Seattle native, Braden Ross has been crafting an ear-catching sound while building an impressive fanbase of over 113K followers on TikTok. His new single 'pluck' is out now, so I caught up with Braden to talk all about the song, his start in music and what's next for him.

Hi Braden, how are you?

I'm doing as well as I can be! :)

How would you describe your sound to the readers?

I would describe my sound as a blend between modern electronic music (hyperpop, digicore, etc.) and early 2000's emo/pop-punk. It's modern production with vocals and themes reminiscent of the time period.

Who would you say are your biggest musical influences?

My biggest influences currently are artists such as brakence, glaive, and ericdoa. But I've been inspired throughout my life by artists like Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, and other bands within that scene.

How did your music journey start?

I've loved music ever since I was a child; I would sing along to songs in the car every single day, and I couldn't get enough of it. I would record myself singing on my iPod and listen back so that I could improve my voice. It wasn't until high school that I discovered music production, and I started covering songs and posting them on YouTube. I never really gained much traction with that though. I started putting out original material in March of 2020 and it's snowballed a bit since then.

Your new single ‘pluck’ is out now, congratulations! How was the process of creating this song for you?

"pluck" came about relatively quickly. I had this idea when I was messing around on my guitar, and I threw it into FL Studio. Within a couple of days the instrumental was nearly finished. The lyrics were inspired by the way that I was feeling at the time about my career. I was fed up because I wasn't achieving as much as I wanted to, and I was feeling quite a bit insecure about myself and where I was headed. So I wrote an angry song to work through those feelings. Music has always been a good outlet for me in terms of working through my emotions because I'm not very good at expressing them through words.

The song is described as a song that “on the surface appears to revolve around betrayal, after a closer look, one will realise it’s ultimately an extension of self-doubt and depleted self-esteem”. Can you explain more about this to us, and why this was a song you wanted to write?

The song is set around a breakup, with perceived infidelity having taken place. The speaker is convinced that their significant other had participated in an affair, but most of these feelings and beliefs stem from a place of total insecurity. The speaker's self esteem is so low that they can't possibly believe that their SO is telling them the truth.

Do you have a favourite lyric or line from the song?

"I saw the hearts on your phone, so fuck your honesty. Honestly, yeah maybe I should have listened"

I just like this one because of the transition between "honesty" and "honestly". I was pretty happy with that.

Do you have a favourite memory from recording this song?

I don't have one single favorite memory from recording this song; I just love the feeling I get when all the different pieces come together to form a cohesive idea. It's so satisfying to get a project to a place where you can be happy with/proud of it.

What’s next for you? Do you have any more music on the way?

I have a few songs coming out in the next few months with some other artists; they're gonna be a bit different stylistically than this one, but I have a solo project that I'm working on that I'm very excited about. It's very reminiscent of this sound, and I'm really excited to share it with you all once it's finished.

And lastly, what music have you been listening to recently? Anything you can recommend to us?

I've been listening to the new "brakence" singles a lot, so far there's nothing that he's put out that I'm not a fan of. The new "midwxst" project is really cool as well. "monty.pk", "ghosthands", and "MICO" are a few other artists that I'm really vibing with right now.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions for us, it’s really appreciated!

Listen to 'pluck' here.

Follow Braden Ross on Instagram here.

All After Midnight links here.

Music submissions and enquiries to aftermidnightblog1@gmail.com