The stars have aligned for Haken vocalist Ross Jennings to try his hand at going solo, and his new record A Shadow Of My Future Self finds the Englishman at his most accessible yet. He tells Prog about its varied musical palate and finding the confidence to go it alone.

Words: Chris Cope

“I think it took a lot for me to find that sort of self-worth,” Haken singer Ross Jennings answers when asked if he feels vulnerable going solo. “And it took a lot of balls for me to pick up a guitar.

Those who have watched Jennings lord the stage while performing live with his Haken comrades, though, wouldn’t have expected confidence to be an issue. But without the prog metal gusto blowing out behind him, releasing a solo album – on which Jennings provides all of the acoustic and electric guitar as well as vocals – is a very different affair.

Musically, A Shadow Of My Future Self twists off a tangent from the day job. While Haken are melodic, this is next level: pop hooks are picked over, plunging distortion, and wonky time signatures are largely kept off the menu.

“It’s been something I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time –a bit of an itch to scratch,” Jennings reflects down the phone from Bournemouth on England’s south coast. “But I guess I didn’t have the confidence to really pull it off before, or the schedule was always quite full on with Haken. I’ve always put 110 per cent into Haken and behind the scenes as well. Up ’til now I have been quite responsible for a lot of the finance and admin of the band, so it’s a time-consuming role.