Ross McLennan is a man of many talents - furniture maker, dog lover, recording engineer, bassist, keyboard player, illustrator, producer, guitarist, teacher's aide, comedian, drummer, singer, songwriter, arranger, very decent human being. His current album, Hits From The Brittle Building, has received an almost embarrassing level of critical acclaim. We're very pleased about that having heard the record in installments as songs reached a listenable state. From the very first early mix to the final master CD we felt cut off at the knees as A&R men, being able to give no more enlightening response than - That sounds great Ross.

Ross will admit that, before he had bought the PC he used for the bulk of the sessions, he wasn't exactly an expert in computer recording. In fact, he was very much learning on the job and we shudder to think how much actual time went into the recording process, and how many blind alleys were frustratingly blundered down. We, however, had only to listen to the good bits as they were finished and they were more than good. As Ross left the office and wandered down the stairs to mount his bicycle and head back to his computer we shook our heads and wondered just how he did it. We already knew these were great songs but were unprepared for the sounds and arrangements we were hearing. After all, Ross was playing almost everything in a room the size of a large cupboard, pressing the buttons, setting the levels and making the tea. We had yet to ask him to do the art work for the record as well. But that's another story.

So what I thought I would do here is ask Ross a few pertinent questions re each song on Hits From The Brittle Building. There are many drum sounds I want to know more about, samples pinging around when I listen on headphones, strange vocal effects and instruments I just can't identify. As soon as I get the answers they'll be presented here for you with little mp3 samples so you know exactly what he's referring to. Stay tuned....