Ross From Friends is the emotionally-charged house producer making an Impact

You’ve been performing a three-man live show in clubs, how long did that take to develop?

A long time. I had the idea to make it into a tactile thing. I had all these ideas: a four-man show, five-man show, dancers on stage. It went through different motions in my head. Eventually there were these two musicians who I really wanted to be a part of it, because I know they're both incredibly talented and really good friends of mine. I disassembled some of my tracks and we had a bunch of meetings where we spoke about how to develop the show using guitar, saxophone, keys and Ableton, it was a very lengthy process to figure it all out, it took around four months of fairly intense practicing to get a set together.

In each of the past two years you’ve put out one release. What does 2017 hold for Ross From Friends?

I'm putting out so much music. I've got a few things locked in which I can't talk about yet; I'm working with some super interesting labels which I'm so, so excited about.

How did you approach your Impact mix? How does it differ to what you’d play in a club?

Much like how I've spoken about people listening to things at home as a different mode of listening. A lot of dance music mixes are straight dance music, which is great obviously, but that's suitable for the club in my eyes. This one features dance music but is much more home listening I feel. Throughout it has tracks that completely inspire the way I produce; it's a real representation of where my inspiration comes from, so that's the main theme that I wanted to set out through the mix. The first two tracks are songs I found while digging for samples, and I thought melodically they were so incredible. I tried to set off the mix with some really nice melodies which then carry on through the mix, while moving through certain styles.

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Staff Writer. Follow him on Twitter

Tracklist

Velly Joonas - Stopp

Afet Serenay - Maden Dağı

Big Ben Tribe - Tarzan

International Music System - An English '93

Bicep - Just

Ross From Friends - Crimson

Scissorwork - Walking Home

Sonderr - Goin Home

Ross From Friends - In An Emergency

Youandewan feat. Huerta - Left On Lucy

Equation - I'll Say A Prayer 4 U

Blue Boy - Funky Friday