Leith Ross’s learning curve

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This article was published 18/05/2023 (1162 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg didn’t need a second chance to make a first impression on Leith Ross.

The indie-pop singer originally from Ottawa, whose debut album To Learn comes out Friday, met Joey Landreth of the Bros. Landreth and the Birthday Cake record label while attending Humber College in Toronto.

Ross came to Winnipeg in 2020 to record songs that were part of a college project that would become an EP, Motherwell.

“I love this city a lot. I think it is very underrated,” Ross says. “A lot of my core people are here, so it feels very homey.”

An appearance at the Harvest Moon Festival in Clearwater the next summer sealed the deal.

“When I was here, it was just, like, everyone was so kind and the music community was so incredible and so supportive,” says Ross, who uses they/them pronouns. “I was just obsessed with everyone that I’d met, and I knew I wanted to follow those vibes across the country. So I flew home, bought my first car and put all my things in it and I drove here.”

It helps to have some success too. An appearance at the Winnipeg Folk Festival in 2022 and a series of chill video performances on TikTok earned Ross a record deal with Universal Music Canada.

The major label deal so early in their career is a confidence boost, but Ross is wary of the music machine. Once again, Winnipeg is a winner over industry meccas such as Toronto, Nashville, New York or Los Angeles.

“I do like being a bit more inaccessible as far as the industry,” Ross says. “I really like going out into the world and getting to meet a whole bunch of people and be in a city where the industry is booming for a short period of time, but I also like somewhere to come back to where everyone’s a bit more chill and people are taking their time.”

Several of Ross’s songs from their TikTok channel are part of To Learn, the most notable of which being We’ll Never Have Sex, which has earned more than 46 million listens on Spotify and rave reviews from their more than 450,000 TikTok followers.

Hidden behind the tune’s sensitive and dreamy melody are tough lyrics that Ross says can be difficult to digest. “Oh, you kissed me, just to kiss me, not to take me home,” Ross sings.

“When I was writing it, I was thinking about how much I wished that (relationships) didn’t have to be, once you were an adult, inherently sexual or intense, that it could be closer to what you experience in middle school or elementary school,” Ross says.

“The way that our world is and the way the media is and the way that we’ve been conditioned since we were kids, relationships do become different if they become physical, and I kind of hate that. I wish they didn’t have to, or at least in the bad ways.”

The tunes on To Learn sound so personal, such as I’d Have to Think About It, which focuses on commitment, but the singer says the process of putting feelings into song hasn’t been an ordeal.

“It’s not that hard to write them. I’ve been writing songs for a really long time; it’s like writing in my journal,” Ross says. “The act of putting them out into the world and letting everyone else hear all of those intricate, vulnerable details, that’s the part I struggle with more.”

Ross’s songs have a close, quiet sound, which become a natural fit for social media platforms like TikTok, where they often perform with their face almost hidden behind the guitar.

They’re also a hit with Winnipeg live audiences. Two Ross concerts slated for the West End Cultural Centre on June 15 and 16, part of a North American tour, are already sold out.

The vast majority of Ross’s fans loved the songs when they were accompanied by violins, guitars and sound effects from nature, but Ross was taken aback by those who wished they’d left the original versions alone.

“I think for me, it wasn’t as shocking as it is for the listeners,” Ross says of the songs they’ve released on streaming services. “When I’m writing the song, usually I will hear a bit more instrumentation than just the acoustic (guitar) version of it. In my head, it’s already developing, so it’s just a matter of bringing that to reality.

“For the most part, people are supportive and nice, but there have occasionally been moments where people are like, ‘This isn’t what it sounds like at all.’”

While Ross’s songs have a melancholy tone, they also have a playful side: see the TikTok video of a performance where a kitten quietly rests on the top of the guitar while Ross strums (wfp.to/leithross).

“That kitten was actually a kitten I was fostering. I fostered a whole litter of kittens and their mother for a little while. They’ve all been adopted, minus one who we kept. It’s name is Normal,” Ross says.

“I do love cats so much and they are my children and they are my pride.”

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @AlanDSmall