Best known for being the frontman of New York-based indie act Wild Pink, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist John Ross is also the creative mastermind behind the ambient and electronic solo recording project Eerie Gaits. Ross’ Eerie Gaits’ full-length debut, 2017’s critically applauded Bridge Music was inspired by driving over bridges. And under the Eerie Gaits moniker, Ross released a digital 45 with Dondadi in 2018 — and last year, as Eerie Gaits, Ross remixed Wild Pink’s “All Some Frenchman’s Joke” on the 5 Songs EP.
Slated for a Friday release through sound as language, Ross’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Holopaw derives its title from Holopaw, FL, the unincorporated community near where Ross grew up. Because Holopaw is technically not a town, village or even a hamlet, it’s administered under the jurisdiction of Osecola County, rather than its own municipality. And as a result, the 5,000 or so people who live in Holopaw don’t have a local government to call their own with its residents living in a liminal space between established community, odd backwater and remote hinterland.
Aesthetically, Holopaw‘s material bears an uncanny similarity to its namesake: untied to genre and unmoored from singular temperament. The album’s nine instrumental compositions undulate and ripple around arrangements that feature strummed guitar, contemplative and atmospheric synths and full-bodied yet placid indie rock, similar to what he has written with his primary gig. Ross explains that Holopaw is “darker and more joyful at the same time.”
Interestingly, Holopaw‘s second and latest single is the incredibly cinematic and upbeat “The Rainbow Trout and the Wicker Creel.” Centered around shimmering and atmospheric synth arpeggios, rolling drums, strummed guitars, “The Rainbow Trout and the Wicker Creel” is a contemplative track that evokes rippling and undulating water — and while intimate, possesses a widescreen and cinematic air.
