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Andy Ross (born March 8, 1979), is currently the guitarist, keyboardist, and vocalist for the American rock band OK Go and is also co-founder of Serious Business Records.

Biography

Ross was born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts. He attended Tatnuck Elementary School, Forest Grove Middle School, Doherty High School, and the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science at WPI, where he was captain of the robotics team. He then majored in electrical engineering (with a minor in computer science) at Columbia University and graduated from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in 2001.

Ross became an official member of OK GO in early 2005 after a friend recommended auditioning for the spot when the band's former guitarist and keyboardist Andy Duncan left after production on their second album, Oh No, was finished. Ross was chosen from a group of roughly thirty-five musicians that auditioned. Ross wrote blogs from February 18, 2005 to February 14, 2006 about being on the road with OK GO and other subjects. He sometimes goes by the nickname "A.Ross", and his bandmates also call him Rusty.

Ross is the former bassist for the band Unsacred Hearts and guitarist for DraculaZombieUSA. His solo project, Secret Dakota Ring, has published one album, Do Not Leave Baggage All The Way. A follow-up of this album is currently in the works. Ross was also the bassist for a brief stint in vaunted early 2000s indie band Cold Memory, and was also the headliner for one of Columbia University's most popular student bands, The A-Ross Experience. Early bands include Phter, D-Funky and the Beechmont Chilles (featuring the acoustic stylings of B-Smooky and his musical horn of plenty), and Conjugal Visit.

Discography

Secret Dakota Ring has made one studio album:

• Do Not Leave Baggage All the Way (2004)

Andy announced on his website that a second album, entitled Cantarell, would be released late Summer or early Fall 2008.

Miscellaneous facts

This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (November 2007)

• Andy's primary guitar influence is Jimmy Page. So inspired by Page, Andy received a violin bow for his 16th birthday so he could perfect Page's guitar bowing technique.

• In addition to OK Go, Ross also works as a programmer for the Participatory Culture Foundation and the Participatory Politics Foundation (specifically, opencongress.org). When asked, "How can you possibly find time to do it?", Ross replied, "A lot of car-sitting".

• His mother's name is Karen and his father's is David Ross.

• OK Go fans know Andy is a huge baseball fan. He is especially a dedicated and loyal fan of the Boston Red Sox. He was even interviewed for the Fox show This Week in Baseball for the Red Sox edition on September 16, 2006.

• Drummer, Dan Konopka has said to have experienced an "A.Ross Fantasy" whenever Andy's family attends an OK Go concert.

• Is descended from Mayflower passenger John Howland, who fell off the boat and lived.

External links

• Secret Dakota Ring Official Website
• Record Label
• DraculaZombieUSA
• OK Go Official Website
• Foro de Ok Go en Español
• Participatory Culture Foundation
• myspace.com/okgo
• Band Blog
• Worcester Telegram

• Articles lacking sources from October 2006
• Articles with trivia sections from November 2007
• Living people
• 1979 births
• American musicians
• American rock guitarists
• Indie rock musicians
• People from Worcester, Massachusetts
• Massachusetts musicians
• Grammy Award winners
• OK Go members