Ross William Jennings is a British progressive metal vocalist and singer-songwriter, most known for being a founding member of Haken and lead vocalist of
Haken and Novena.
Personal Life
Jennings was born on 7 February 1984 in Salisbury, Wiltshire but moved to Sutton, Greater London at an early age. His first experience with music was being taken to
classical concerts which sparked little passion in him. He slowly grew to enjoy other genres alongside the music his father would play, mainly Pink Floyd and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
This would prompt him to take short guitar lessons at age eight.
At age sixteen, he played became a rhythm guitarist in a local band called Lost Child where he would play covers of
popular bands at the time like Radiohead at bars in Croydon. He began singing as a hobby at karaoke bars and is completely self-taught.
Jennings married his wife Yulia on 30 July 2010 and on 1 August 2021 announced that he became a father with the birth of his son Leo. Outside of music, Jennings is a freelance photographer. He uses a Nikon camera.
Music
Redados
Redados was a project formed by Jennings along with Roland Townson and Neil Bond in 2005. The trio would meet up every week in a converted chicken battery barn to jam and record.
The band would later release two studio albums under the titles of Too Tired for Sleep
(2009) and One Way Conversations (2010).
The band would go on to perform live turbo training events with their music. In light of their local success, the band would release their third album, Turbo Torture: Train Like Dogs... Ride Like Gods
(2012), in the form of a full workout routine.
Haken
Haken was formed by Jennings along with school friends Matthew Marshall, and Richard Henshall in 2004. Jennings originally played guitar in the band along with Marshall
and Henshall but parted ways with the two to continue his studies at university. He would rejoin the band in 2007 as they couldn't find the singer they wanted for
their first demo and asked Jennings to return as solely a vocalist. Jennings would go on to pen the stories and lyrics for
the band's first two albums, Aquarius and Visions by himself.
In 2017, Jennings would go on to perform with Haken and Mike Portnoy performing Dream Theater's Twelve-step Suite as well as other Portnoy-era Dream Theater songs.
Novena
Novena was originally formed by Harrison White, Matt "Moat" Lowe, Dan Thornton and Cameron Spence after meeting at University in 2013. The quartet then went on to acquire
Jennings and Gareth Mason as their vocalists. With this final 6-piece line-up, the band went on to release Secondary Genesis in 2016 and signed with Frontiers Records to
release Eleventh Hour in 2020 as well as Live from Home and The Stopped Clock in 2021.
A Shadow of My Future Self and Acoustic Shadows
On 3 October 2020, Jennings announced on Instagram that he is working on a solo album. He signed with Graphite Records and later announced it to be called
"A Shadow of my Future Self" in June 2021 with the release of the album's first single, "Words We Can't Unsay". The album released on 19 November 2021.
Unlike his more well-known Progressive music, Jennings' solo record follows a much more mainstream approach with Jennings directly citing Styx, Coldplay and
Porcupine Tree as references.
In January 2021, Jennings released Acoustic Shadows (Live at AfterLive Music), a recording of a paid livestream he did in July 2020 to promote the album, without warning as
a paid downloadable file on his website. The album was added to streaming services that same week.
D'Virgilio, Morse and Jennings
The idea for D'Virgilio, Morse & Jennings was initially brainstormed in late 2020 by Neal Morse, who wanted to write an album of mellower songs, compared to that of his other works
with Transatlantic and Spock's Beard. He went on to enlist former Spock's Beard bandmate Nick D'Virgilio to provide harmonic vocals and drums. Jennings was later invited to join
after interviewing Mike Portnoy on The Absolute Universe. He was initially invited to just provide vocals, but contributed guitar and songwriting after Morse became aware of
Jennings' guitar skill and then upcoming solo album. They released the album Troika on February 25 2022.
Collaborations
In 2018, Jennings provided vocals on the song "Reveal" on the album Illusion of Choice by Yossi Sassi.
Jennings' Haken bandmate Richard Henshall released The Cocoon on 9 August 2019 which Jennings provided vocals for the album's single "Twisted Shadows".
On 30 July 2020, Jennings joined Derrick Schneider in a cover of the song "Faithfully" by Journey in which he provided vocals. He was also joined by Vikram Shankar, who provided keyboards and piano on A Shadow of My Future Self.
In 2021, Jennings provided vocals on the song "Daggers and Cloak" on the album Subjects by Scale the Summit.
In December 2021, Jennings was announced to be providing vocals on the album Revel in Time by Arjen Lucassen's Star One. On 17 December 2021 the song "Prescient" was released featuring Jennings on vocals.
On 24 January 2022 the song "Here Be Dragons" was released by Arzene, co-written and performed by Jennings.
Discography
Solo
With Redados
- Too Tired for Sleep (2009)
- One Way Conversations (2010)
- Turbo Torture: Train Like Dogs...Ride Like Gods (2012)
With Haken
With Novena
- Secondary Genesis (2016, EP)
- Eleventh Hour (2020)
- Live from Home (2021, Live EP)
- The Stopped Clock (2021, EP)
With Nick D'Virgilio and Neal Morse
Trivia
- Ross is the only member of Haken to have changed instruments, going from a guitarist to a vocalist.
- Ross' favourite Haken album is Affinity.
- Ross was born on 7 February, meaning that his star sign is Aquarius.
- Ross' favourite video game is Doom.
- Ross has the largest number of releases to his name with 21 total releases. (13 studio albums, 3 EPs, 2 live albums and 2 live EPs.)
- In 2020, Ross revealed his favourite song from each Haken release on the r/Haken subreddit.
(Blind, Drowning in the Flood, Deathless, Earthlings, Bound by Gravity, Visions (Live), Crystallised (Live), Veil and Canary Yellow.
Gallery
2019 Virus Photoshoot
Live in Islington, London
Ross in 2021
2012 Visions Tour
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| Ross Jennings |
Jennings in a 2021 photoshoot |
| Vocalist in Haken |
| Born |
7 February 1984 (age 38) |
| Origin |
Salisbury, United Kingdom |
| Membership |
2004, 2007-Present |
| Genres |
Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock, Pop Rock, Alt-Country |
| Years Active |
2004 - Present |
| Member of |
Haken
Novena
Redados
D'Virgilio, Morse and Jennings |
| Labels |
Sensory Records (Haken 2009-2013)
InsideOut Music (Haken, 2013-) Frontiers Records (Novena)
Graphite Records (Solo) |
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