ifitbeyourwill S05E24 • M Ross Perkins

What happens when toxic furnace fumes accidentally become part of your album's creative process? M Ross Perkins shares this surreal discovery and much more as we delve into his methodical approach to DIY music production.

Growing up with a baseball bat as his imaginary guitar and the crushing disappointment of a shattered Chipmunks record, Perkins' musical journey reflects his systematic yet deeply thoughtful approach to song craft. He reveals how his latest album "What's The Matter M Ross?" came together under bizarre circumstances - with furnace exhaust pumping directly above his writing desk for months. When finally fixed, his bandmates reported sudden clarity during rehearsals, a strange twist that perfectly captures the unpredictable nature of artistic creation.

Perkins takes us behind the curtain of his unique production method, where he records all drum tracks across an entire album before moving to bass, then guitars, and finally vocals. This approach allows him to maintain consistency while maximizing efficiency in his small studio space. He demonstrates remarkable craftsmanship in how he handles tempo, watching a BPM counter while playing claves to allow natural fluctuations within a controlled range - creating recordings that breathe with human authenticity.

Beyond technical insights, our conversation explores deeper philosophical territory. Perkins eloquently dismantles the myth of complete originality in music, comparing it to claiming sole credit for your car while ignoring thousands of workers and generations of innovation behind it. This perspective frames his approach as a "lifelong learner" of his craft, constantly refining his systematic techniques while remaining open to new influences and ideas.

Whether you're a musician looking to improve your own DIY production or simply fascinated by the creative process, Perkins' insights offer a masterclass in thoughtful music creation. Listen now to discover how one artist balances methodical precision with creative spontaneity - even when toxic fumes are accidentally part of the equation.

https://www.mrossperkins.com/

But what about the music? Within 20 seconds of the album’s lead track ‘Hey Man/Hey Self’, you’ll be imagining yourself threading daisies through your hair and flapping Kate-Bush-Wuthering-Heights-style in a gossamer dress on your way to the festival. It would be incredibly lazy to describe the track as ‘Paul McCartney fronting The Byrds’, but it would also be absolutely accurate. GIITV

Animal Scream • Slow Down • 2025

Animal Scream are Pittsburgh Doom Pop artists founded by Chad Monticue & Josh Sickels, joined by multi-instrumentalist Caleb Pogyor. The band combines sound design with a psych-pop psychedelia that’s dark and cinematic, a noir-tinted sound in thrall to the eternal groove. Influences vary from David Lynch, MF DOOM, Radiohead, Beach House and ’60s reggae to woozy film scores carving out nocturnal soundscapes for the alienated and brokenhearted. Currently, Animal Scream is gearing up to release singles from their EP Otherworldy Pictures (Out February 14).

Heavy Moss • Treadmills • 2024

Heavy Moss gives us another taste of Dead Slow, sharing the single "Treadmills." The track flows with a laid-back groove, blending keys and jazzy drums before unraveling with fuzzy guitar licks into six minutes of lush dream pop.

"This was a demo I had kicking around for a few years that I totally forgot about," Lucas Harwood recalls. "In those lockdown writing sessions I dug it up but I couldn’t work out the chords. I had to have my Jazz genius keys teacher James Bowers help me transcribe it. I think I wrote it when I was trying to write songs with too many fancy chords"

When I brought it to the band it didn’t immediately hit. But everyone just kept grinding, we looped the hard parts constantly and it finally started to bop. The verses and choruses are really juxtaposed against each other - the verses are an anxious stream of consciousness and is kind of jolty and angular. The chorus is in a different key and is meant to be a really pretty love song within the song. I owe one of the lyrics to my son Ari coined the line “I noticed your life” - what a genius. Lyrically I was also taking cues from one of my all time favourite songwriters, David Berman."

Chitinous Mandible • Calm Summer Night • 2024

Instagram

Until mid-September I'm going to be putting out a song once a week and I just wanted to pass that along in case you're interested in listening in on what I'll be releasing.

Chartreuse • Whippet (Jaws of Love. Remix) • 2024

Website

“Tender and powerful at the same time, in the way that The National combine those sounds and feelings" - Chris Hawkins, BBC6Music 

“One of my favourite tracks of the year” - Lauren Laverne, BBC6Music 

“Their sound is shimmering chambers of reverb heavy instrumentation, swirling melodies, strong production values, all resting on a bedrock of tender vocal performances” - The Line of Best Fit 

“Breathtaking.. This song is just ridiculous, easily up there, possibly top 10 for us” -

Sian Eleri, Radio 1

“Rich, luscious and well crafted” - DIY

“Soothing guitar pop for an anxious age” - Uncut

https://chartreuse.lnk.to/remixep

01. All Seeing All The Time (Art School Girlfriend Remix)

02. Switch It On, Switch It Off (The Big Moon Remix)

03. Agitated (DARGZ Remix)

04. Whippet (Jaws Of Love Remix)

05. Are You Looking For Something (Folly Group Remix)

Midnight Rodeo • Thank You For Your Time • 2023

“Effervescent psychedelia” Clash Magazine

“Spongy cinematic trip…wispy surf rock” So Young Magazine

“A modern day psych-pop classic” Under The Radar

“Now Hear This” The Independent

Instagram

Marking their first release of the year, ‘Thank You For Your Time’ represents a slight departure from the band’s thus far signature West Coast psychedelic stylings as they continue to diversify their sound. The song lurches in on all fours, with a thunderous rhythm and a smokescreen of dense, resonant feedback and enigmatic synth - more reminiscent of modern Aussie Psychedelic Rock than euphoric 60’s Californication.

supergloom • Glass Ajar • 2023

Instagram

In tandem with the release of their sophomore EP, Immaterial (out now), LA psych-gazers supergloom have shared a hand-crafted lyric video of the project's belligerently psychedelic final single and focus track, "Glass Ajar." 

Woolfy • When We Were Kings • 2022

"The double singles expand Woolfy’s repertoire and prove that the artist is capable of not just covering many genres, but excels."

- The Big Takeover

“One of the best songs of 2021” 

- Chris Douridas (KCRW / School Night)

"The original version of "Shooting Stars" is dreamy and anthemic, but Django Django take it into dubby territory"

- Brooklyn Vegan

"Gentle fireworks burst and shimmer throughout the track, a strong and echoing backbeat. It’s complimented with openhearted handclaps... it’s a comforting pick-me-up serenade."

- Earmilk

"Not just his most authentic and creative work to date, but also his most accomplished"

-Psychedelic Baby Magazine

Barbara • A Perishing of Cherished Things • 2022

Barbara website

https://lnk.to/CherishedThings

A masterclass in nuanced, nostalgic pop beamed-in from another era, the track is the Brighton duo’s first release of 2022 and hints to a band with the brightest of futures. 

Balancing deceptively complex arrangements with a playfully colourful narrative, think Todd Rundgren teaming-up with the Alessi Brothers for a re-imagination of The Beatles’ “Ob-la-di, ob-la-da”. 

Coupling that maturity of sound with lyricism wisened by mistakes perhaps they’ll never make, latest single “A Perishing of Cherished Things” finds Barbara experiencing something of a mid-life crisis, far before their time has come. As Barbara explain:

“‘Perishing…’ is sort of about a mid-life crisis. Not that we’ve experienced one… yet! Almost no one ends up having the life they imagined for themselves when they were young. We thought it would be nice to have some characters - Wendy and Sharon - and that it might help to tell the story a little better (like Desmond and Molly in ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’). And they’re not particularly unhappy or anything. They’ve got kids and go on lovely holidays. They just sometimes wonder how things might have turned out differently…”

Princess Goes To The Butterfly Museum • "Tomorrow's Screams" • 2021

Princess Goes To The Butterfly Museum is comprised of vocalist, lyricist, musician and actor Michael C. Hall (Dexter, Six Feet Under, Hedwig and the Angry Inch), drummer Peter Yanowitz (The Wallflowers, Morningwood) and keyboardist Matt Katz-Bohen (Blondie). The band released their debut full-length album, THANKS FOR COMING, earlier this year which was preceded by their self-titled EP.

Website

The Besnard Lakes • Raindrops • 2020

WEBSITE

The Besnard Lakes Are The Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings is a double LP. "Near Death" is the title of the first side. "Death," "After Death," and "Life" follow next. It's a  journey into (and back from) the brink: the story of The Besnard Lakes' own odyssey but also a remembrance of others', especially the death of Lasek's father in 2019. Being on your deathbed is perhaps the most psychedelic trip you can go on: in Lasek's father's case, he surfaced from a morphine dream to talk about a 'window' on his blanket, with a 'carpenter inside, making intricate objects.' That experience pervades the album.

 

In late 2020, as the world burns, there might be nothing less trendy than an hour-long psych-rock epic by a band of Canadian grandmasters. Then again, there might be nothing we need more.  

Mats Wawa • Rock Omelette • 2020

«I’m terrible at describing how my music sounds. But this is definitively more AOR than indie. At last you can say that – retro is still king.

The above quote is Mats Mentzen Wang’s humble attempt at describing the sound on his upcoming album Rock Omelette, the follow-up to 2018’s EP Scuzz. The young songwriter was unwittingly booked to a handful of showcase festivals in 2015, based on a few bedroom demos. And that’s how Mats Wawa was born – he needed a band. Now, four years later, Wang is older, and so are his musical tastes.

Call it AOR, slacker soul or just classic rock – let the listener decide. Whatever you call it, the album is chock full of tunes. From a short rock opera about French & Moland (two Norwegian mercenaries imprisoned in DR Congo), via the song “Canned Heat” which sounds like…and to the first single “Sparkly Eyes”, some of the most beautiful blue eyed soul you’ll hear this year, with strings imported from 70’s Philadelphia.

Tokyo Tea Room • Designer • 2019

"Tokyo Tea Room paint a dreamscape on new single 'Designer'" GIGWISE

“kaleidoscopic psych-pop… dream-like” The Line of Best Fit

“dreamy pop music, the band sluice together shoegaze guitar effects and dappled synths amid heavenly vocals” Clash

Babe Rainbow • "Something New" • 2019

"The Babe Rainbow crafts mellow, breezy psych-folk that would lean up against your favorite tracks by Allah-Las, Mac DeMarco or even The Zombies" -Tyler Hale, KCRW

“An authentic psychedelic pop journey through hazy lyrics and buttered chords”– Indie Shuffle

"The Babe Rainbow’s songs are laced with twanging guitars, wah wah, and whimsical lyrics" - Glide Magazine

“The Babe Rainbow makes you want to get up and groove” - Amadeus Magazine

"A bright, often charming journey into a melodic, kaleidoscopic world..." -Exclaim!

WEBSITE

Lev Snowe - Faded Blue - 2018

"With nostalgia at its core, Faded Blue is a clever coupling of psychedelic and dream-pop that effortlessly sinks its sonic sound into the minds of its listener, establishing scenes of the past that drift in and out of focus as the EP progresses."

-Adrian Vargas, Atwood Magazine

Her Skin - Find a Place to Sleep (2018)

wwnbb.net

R In a sweet voice (with a charming accent) Sara Ammendolia delivers her own upbeat tunes accompanied by different instrumental combos. Apparently this is her first full-length album, but don't miss her earlier work. 

Snails - Safe in Silence - 2016

Debut album from Bristol pop band Snails. Released on Undergrowth Records.

Snøskred - Empty House - 2016

very reminiscent to Yo La Tango - great release with lots of interesting tracks

Kane Strang - Blue Cheese - 2015

Dunedin psychedelic-pop musician Kane Strang has unveiled his debut album entitled Blue Cheese. The self-recorded and self-released offering has been a long time coming, Strang scrapped a whole album's worth of work and started from scratch to carve out Blue Cheese, resulting in a fresh and immediate sound that befits his dreamy style.

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The Whole Gang of us - The Five A​.​M. Fun Club - 2015

At times angry, sad, dreamy, and even a bit funky, dare I say? Kickstand Boyfriend is a group of (mostly) teenage geniuses led by Kevin Rogers.