Berkeley Street is the lead single and video from Adam Ross‘ forthcoming third solo album, Bring On The Apathy, due via Fika Recordings on 15th May 2026. It finds Ross sifting through Glasgow memories with characteristic lyricism and warmth. Recorded to tape at Green Door studio — where he cut his very first EP with Randolph’s Leap in 2009 — the single carries both the intimacy of return and the sting of passing time. A stellar ensemble, including C Duncan, who writes and performs backing vocal arrangements along with Amanda Nizich and Gillian Fleetwood, makes it one of his richest recordings yet.
The song draws on snatched memories from Ross’s twenties spent living in Glasgow, its emotional charge sparked by a visit to the city for a Celtic Connections gig last year. “I was in Glasgow for a Celtic Connections gig in January 2025. It was unseasonably warm and I was wandering the streets around where I’d lived over a decade earlier. It all felt very familiar but I bumped into a guy I used to know and his hair had turned grey since I last saw him. Now, I’ve got nothing against grey hair of course, but it was a clear reminder of the pesky old passage of time.”
The song took further shape during the recording process, which brought Ross back to a location heavy with personal history. “I ended up spending a lot of time around Berkeley Street while making the album, since we were working in Green Door analogue studio just around the corner. Green Door was actually the first studio I ever recorded in, back in 2009. My band Randolph’s Leap recorded our first EP there. The band had never actually been in the same room as each other and we were very naïve and unprepared. In truth, we probably weren’t ready for it. For the last 16 years I’ve been thinking about going back and it finally felt like the right time.”
An excellent video, directed by Beth Chalmers, shot on location in Glasgow’s west end, accompanies the single…it’s the perfect match.
That return was driven by a desire to record onto tape using traditional analogue techniques, overseen by in-house engineer and tape-recording specialist Samuel J. Smith. The approach lends Bring On The Apathy a warmth and grain that suits its themes of place and recollection. Ross is joined by a stellar ensemble: Owen Curtis-Williams on drums, Cameron Maxwell on bass, Pedro Cameron on violin, Gillian Fleetwood on harp, and long-time Randolph’s Leap collaborator Pete MacDonald on piano. Mercury Prize-nominated artist C Duncan contributed vocal arrangements alongside Amanda Nizich and Fleetwood.
“I love these musicians,” Ross says. “It’s the kind of record where you can listen multiple times and focus on a different instrument each time. Each player is doing something inventive and beautiful without ever overshadowing what the song is trying to convey. It was a joy to work with C Duncan on vocal arrangements — a new experience for me. It really added the icing on top of our big folk-pop cake.”
Bring On The Apathy follows 2024’s Littoral Zone, of which KLOF Mag’s Thomas Blake wrote: “Those in the know have long been aware of his immense gifts as a songwriter; in a fair world, this literate, funny, humane album would cement his status as a national treasure.” The album arrives on 15th May 2026.
Pre-Order via Bandcamp: https://fikarecordings.bandcamp.com/album/bring-on-the-apathy