Pam Ross on Outside the Box, Songwriting and the Stories Behind the Music
Pam Ross has built a songwriting identity around refusing to stay in one musical lane. The title of her seven-song album Outside The Box is more than a slogan: country, Americana and Southern rock coexist in her catalog because she lets the material determine its sound. “Kansas,” for example, grew out of a breakup and the idea of disappearing into the open landscape she remembered from a drive through the state. Ross later rewrote it, deciding the song deserved a stronger version before it appeared on the record.
That instinct carries into Wait For It…, a ten-song project that includes “Who’s Gonna Save You?” and “Lost in Heaven”—songs Ross clarifies are not on Outside The Box. The distinction matters because her work is still evolving, both musically and personally. We sat down with Ross to discuss how everyday expressions of love become lyrics, why some songs are difficult to talk about even when they are easy to write, what she expects from studio collaborators, and how recording budgets shape an independent artist’s releases.
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EV:Why call the album Outside The Box? Which rules were you stepping outside of?
Pam Ross: I called it that because my music is outside the box. It doesn’t fit into one genre or category.
EV:“Say It Two Times” is about everyday reassurance. Who taught you that love is in the small repeated things?
Pam Ross: The song is really about how good t feels to be told “I Love You” by the one you love. It feels so good that you want to hear it over and over again. It’s not really about needing reassurance. However, I credit my wife with any positive lessons I’ve learned about love.
EV:“Doublewide,” “Kansas” and “Reading Your Text” sound like very specific scenes. Which song on the album is most autobiographical?
Pam Ross: Hmmm… I guess that would be Kansas. I wrote it a long time ago after a break-up. I lived on Galveston Bay and thought it would be good to get away for a while. I remember driving through Kansas once an it was in the middle of nowhere. I mean nowhere with a capitol N. That’s how I came up with the title. I rewrote the song before putting it on the album because I thought it could be better.
EV:“Who’s Gonna Save You?” deals with self-destruction and accountability. What was the hardest line to write?
Pam Ross: I don’t recall any specific line being hard to write. The song pretty much flowed out. I wrote it while feeling depressed…like a failure. It wasn’t hard to write. It is a bit hard to talk about.
EV:“Lost in Heaven” turns a moonlit encounter into country-rock. How did that one start?
Pam Ross: I began playing the opening chords and it all started from there. I was in my music room, which looks out over the woods. There were pine trees mixed in and that sort of created the setting.
EV:Where do you sit between country, Americana and Southern rock, and do the labels matter to you?
Pam Ross: No, labels don’t really matter to me. Good thing because I’m hard to put one on. I think I sit somewhere in between all of them. One song might fit into americana and then the next is country. Sometimes the songs mix all the genres together.
EV:What do you look for in the players who back you?
Pam Ross: Versatility. That’s really important to me because I write in different genres. I also look for players who have their own sound. There’s something unique about them. I definitely have high expectations of anyone I put on an album. You’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with.
EV:Seven songs is a tight album. What didn’t make the cut, and why?
Pam Ross: Well, I guess you’re talking about Outside the Box. It was simple. Money. I didn’t have enough money at the time to record more songs. Some of the songs you brought up like Who’s Gonna Save You and Lost In Heaven are not on that album. They are on the album I’m currently putting out called Wait For It…. It has ten songs.
EV:What happens to these songs when you play them live?
Pam Ross: I perform solo so they get toned down a bit. I think they still sound good but some of them don’t have the same intensity. It would be great to have a band to perform them with live but I haven’t found the right musicians where I currently live.
EV:What are you writing now?
Pam Ross: Lately I’ve been writing more rock / americana influenced songs. I would say they are in the same vein as Who’s Gonna Save You? The next song could be completely different. I never know what’s going to come out.
Ross’s answers resist the tidy genre narrative that often surrounds independent releases. A song may begin with a chord progression in a room overlooking pine trees, a painful memory from a relationship or a simple desire to hear “I love you” again. In the studio, she looks for versatile musicians who can bring their own identity to the arrangement; onstage, she performs solo and accepts that the songs will take on a different intensity. Between those versions lies the real work of an independent songwriter: protecting the feeling at the center of a song while adapting to the people, resources and circumstances available.
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