In high school, he was the kid sitting by the planters, playing guitar. Ross Hartmann started playing guitar at the age of 15, and started writing just after that. He grew up in Aliso Viejo, CA and went to Aliso Niguel High School, where he started the Guitar Club because he wanted an excuse to bring his guitar to school.
Ross joined drumline to play guitar in the pit. He went through high school writing and playing at senior centers. He says, “They didn’t notice that I was out of tune or that I didn’t actually have any idea what I was going to play next (laughs).” In his senior year he applied to Berklee College of Music and was accepted on a guitar scholarship.
“Berklee really changed my outlook on life and I came to understand exactly what I needed to do to get where I wanted to be.” He started writing a song a day while at Berklee. “I learned that a lot of my writing needs to be done in the revision process.” He feels that many great songs were written at Berklee and he may go back and revise the songs and try to take them a step further.
While at Berklee, Ross attended lectures from John Mayer and Paul Simon. “John even said, ‘Hey’ to me in one of the hallways (laughs).” They both imparted invaluable information on both the idea of songwriting and the actual mechanics of it.
After a year of Berklee, Ross decided he knew what needed to be done. He moved to the Los Angeles where he recorded his first EP “Never Where We Wanna Be” from his home recording studio.
A year later, Ross traveled to St. Louis to record a new EP which he is currently promoting and performing. Ross Hartmann continues to tour around the Orange County and Los Angeles area.
