Ron McElroy has just finished his first album, “All Her Kisses”, a suite of songs that combine Odyssean scenes with rainy days in London. 

Ron is a tall, quiet man with a voice that resonates through wood, a father, singer, songwriter and guitar player extraordinaire who’s played a thousand shows for a thousand other people, co-writing songs with Sian Evans (DJ Fresh, Kosheen), and collaborating most recently with people such as Juliette Lewis, and Isabella Summers (Florence + the Machine). Now Ron is stepping out with a feeling of barely concealed urgency and excitement at finally performing under his own name.

“All Her Kisses” is the product of a strong imagination, delivered by the hands of an expert. The music exults in a rich and varied life, its inspirations ranging from The Grapes of Wrath to The Carpenters to, of all things, a wrestling band in Georgia—a jumble of stuff, in other words, with a documentary flavour, shimmering, simmering music welded together by a passionate intensity. “These songs are not about sitting around waiting for inspiration,” Ron says. “They were written while my life went on around them. Still, I believe the themes are universal. They are about the moments of beauty you cannot ignore.”   

"I've been taking pictures of cranes, I love the idea that from the top of that crane is a view that only the crane driver has seen, and when the crane is taken down that view may never be had again. That's what these songs are about, transient feelings. Something you feel so strongly your heart might stop can be swept away in an instant and forgotten.”   

Having laboured as a welder, mechanic, art installer, stage manager, sound engineer, photographer and body double (he shot 50 Cent from the back of his motorbike), Ron sees life refracted through the world of work. “Is that crane driver awestruck every time he goes up,” he asks, “or does he only see the view from the corner of his eye? Everyone has a unique perspective; they just don't always see it. Those are the points of view I want to get down in song."

When Ron was 16 his girlfriend asked him what she should do with her life: "Easy,” was his prompt response. “Welder by day, dancer by night." Whatever it takes. Why not do it all, if you could?