College Sound: Ross DuBois goes solo

Ross DuBois is a balancing act. When he's not taking classes for his journalism degree at both Austin Community College and Texas State University this semester, he's also currently recording his debut solo album.

DuBois was in various bands before he started his own project in October. After he parted ways with his last band Electric Touch a year ago, he still continued to write music. Only this time, it was for himself.

"I just did it for myself because it's a compulsion that I have to do," said DuBois. "It's a new thing for me. I've always been in bands, and I've had to learn to compromise. I never got to just do what I want to do, and so now it's been really liberating to have complete control."

Although Electric Touch and his other bands were rock bands, DuBois' current music is more soulful roots music which in comparison is more mellow, and as much as he would hate to say it, introspective.

"I've always been in rock bands where volume was job number one, but you know, rock music is a lot about power, and as I get older, I've gotten more obsessed with the act of songwriting," said DuBois. "I don't sing about partying all night or having a good time, pretending like I'm a teenager for the rest of my life. I just write about things that are real to me."

At first, Dubois decided to go under the pseudonym Bear Bones before going under his own name in case he ever did form a full band with this music. However, after having to repeat the story of why he went by Bear Bones when it was just him performing, he decided to change it.

"That's the whole reason I changed it. I had to connect it every time I told somebody about it, I had to connect it with this story," said DuBois. "I kind of thought it might just be confusing to other people that I had this name that wasn't my name. I thought for simplicity sake I would start using my name, and so the record will be under Ross DuBois."

The idea to record this album, which is scheduled to be released in November, came shortly after he met Laura Wallgren who is a music video director and film producer. Wallgren met DuBois after a mutual friend recommended him to her for a music video she was working on at the time. After that, they became friends.

She then came with up with the idea to make a music video with DuBois, but first they needed the music."She really likes my music. She fell in love with it. She first approached me because she wanted to make a music video because her background is in film and I told her, ‘Well, that's great, I'd love to do that but you can't make a video without a record.' So we started putting that in motion," said DuBois.

Currently, DuBois just performs with his guitar on his own at his shows. However, for this debut album, he not only wrote all the music with all sorts of instrumentation, but he mostly plays each instrument himself. While he's solo for now, he's open to the idea of a full band in the future. But right now, that's not a priority.

"I'm really busy as a student. Because I spent so many years being a full time musician that now I've dedicated myself to finishing my education and not being a wasteoid," DuBois said as he laughed. "Because writing is something I'm really passionate about which is why I think I'm held on continuing writing music, but I would love to get a group of musicians together because the record isn't acoustic James Taylor ballads, it's really full."

As far as what he's looking for in a potential group of musicians, he's more concerned with people who love to write songs.

"As time goes by, what becomes really important to me is personality. It's really cool if you can shred a lead solo on your guitar, but I like musicians that play music for the song, not for the spotlight."

DuBois' next performance is Nov. 20 at Maggie Mae's. He will share the stage with Jonathan Terrell and Wil Cope for Deadbird Records' Thanksgiving Music Dinner and Fundraiser for the non-profit organization Grounded in Music.