Leith Ross

About

Hailing from a small town near Ottawa, Ontario, singer-songwriter Leith Ross (they / them) channels their honest and emotional storytelling through introspective lyrics and a blend of indie folk with alternative and rock sounds. In 2020, they first introduced their artistry and independently released their debut Motherwell EP. Recorded live, it received widespread praise from tastemakers and fans alike. They continued to evolve with their viral singles “I’d Have To Think About It” and “We’ll Never Have Sex,” while also maintaining their momentum with a rising social presence. Signing to Republic Records in 2022 lead to their long awaited debut album To Learn the following year. As with all of their music, the songs on To Learn are deeply personal and take them to vulnerable places, exploring themes like queerness, love, relationships, and mental health and rendered in folk-adjacent tones—sometimes with a pop beat or a rock riff, sometimes with just their voice and their guitar alone. Closing out 2023, they unveiled the deluxe version To Learn, More, including live versions of fan favorites “(You) On My Arm,” “Orlando,” and “To Learn.” Critical acclaim followed from the likes of NME, CLASH, Them., Ones To Watch, and The FADER, who hailed them as “your new obsession.” Beyond tours with Lord Huron, Bahamas, and Helena Deland, they sold out headline shows worldwide, performed at festivals across North America, and received the inaugural “John Prine Songwriter Fellowship” at 2022’s Newport Folk Festival and a nomination for “Alternative Album of the Year” at 2024’s Juno Awards. Now, with over 450 million streams across their catalogue to date, they return with the new emotionally charged album “I Can See The Futire” helmed by hit producer Rostam [Vampire Weekend].

The last few years of my life have been filled with questions.  Endless, persistent questions.  I am driven out of my mind trying to find the answers, and running from them.  I find myself obsessed with who I am, what my place is in a world with such horrid cruelty and apathy, and what my place is in the joy that resists it.  This album attempts to answer some of those questions, and is kind of an answer in itself.   Because maybe, to a certain extent, the asking of the question is the answer to it?  I am scared of sounding pretentious but it is, in earnest, how I wrote this record.

I Can See The Future, I hope, will bring the audience in on what I understand of myself and my own life (past, present and my own future,) but it also attempts to present a clear picture of what I believe the world will become outside of me and long after my life ends.  I have to believe there is a better world coming and I really do believe that it is, as long as we maintain our determination to bring it about.

My dream is for this project to marry for people what I struggle to reconcile in my own life.  The co-existence of the individual life with the international struggle for something different.  For me, it will always serve as a reminder that building that world can be infused into everything. That maybe they don’t need to be reconciled, because they are the same.  Maybe it is in my relationships, my daily decisions, the way that I chose to see the world, the way I chose to question it, and the simple act of participating in being alive and helping others do the same.  After all, to quote the record, “I cannot be human alone.”