Ross From Friends

U.K. house producer Felix Weatherall, performing under the alias Ross from Friends, crafts intricately detailed tracks marked by a keen sensitivity to melody. Several well-received EPs first placed him at the leading edge of the lo-fi house movement, after which his debut album Family Portrait surfaced in 2018. Subsequent releases, among them the 2021 set Tread, gradually refined and broadened the scope of his production approach.

Born in Colchester, Weatherall navigated multiple bands and solo endeavors—including a dubstep phase under the name Munching Beans—before adopting the Ross from Friends identity. He debuted the moniker online in 2015 by uploading “Talk to Me You’ll Understand” to SoundCloud. Widespread interest in the track prompted the release of the Alex Brown EP soon afterward. Weatherall launched his own imprint, Breaker Breaker, specifically to issue that EP, yet the breakthrough single itself was omitted. Only in late 2016 did he issue an official version of “Talk to Me You’ll Understand,” following his signing to Distant Hawaii, an offshoot of Lobster Theremin.

With rising visibility, Weatherall shifted attention toward live presentation, enlisting two friends to deconstruct his material and handle guitars, keys, saxophone, and Ableton in performance. By mid-2017 he had issued two further EPs: Don’t Sleep There Are Snakes on Lobster Theremin and The Outsiders on Lone’s Magic Wire imprint. In 2018 he joined Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder roster, releasing the Aphelion EP that April; Family Portrait followed in July. After relocating to a new studio, he delivered the second Brainfeeder EP Epiphany in 2019. The 2021 standalone single “Burner” served as a precursor to his second album Tread, an expansive work blending IDM, neo-classical, trip-hop, and trance elements.