Josiah Sherman (born March 4, 1983), known professionally as Buddy Ross, is an American record producer, keyboardist, songwriter, and audio engineer from Washington. He is best known for his work with Frank Ocean, having produced on his albums Blonde (2016) and Endless (2017), as well as his singles "Provider" and "Moon River."[1] Ross has also written or produced material for artists including Bon Iver, Travis Scott, Vampire Weekend, Miley Cyrus, HAIM, Arlo Parks, Fred Again, Wet, Banks, and Troye Sivan, among others.
Ross produced, mixed and played piano on Vampire Weekend's 2018 Father of the Bride (2018), which won a Grammy Award.[2][3] He co-wrote "Jelmore" with Justin Vernon from Bon Iver's Grammy-nominated album i,i (2019),[4][5] and was a co-writer and producer on "I Know Alone" from Haim's Grammy-nominated album Women in Music Pt. III (2020).[6][7] In 2023, he produced numerous songs on Travis Scott's Utopia album.[8]
In 2020, he released his debut commercial single as a lead artist, "Bored Again."[9]
In 2009, Ross produced and mixed his first album with Tacoma, Washington artist Daniel Blue.[10] Together they formed the band Motopony and released their self-titled debut album in 2009; they were later signed by TinyOGRE in 2011.[11] They toured the United States extensively from 2010 to 2012. Motopony's self-titled debut charted at #1 on KCRW and on the CMJ 200 chart in 2011.[12] In 2012, as they were in the process of recording their second album, Ross received a call from Motopony's former tour manager requesting he fly down to Los Angeles to try out for Frank Ocean’s band prior to the release of his Channel Orange album, as well as one week before the tour would commence.[13] After landing the position as Ocean's keyboardist, Ross performed on the Channel Orange tour and live on SNL with Ocean and John Mayer that same year.[14] He would ultimately leave Motopony to continue to tour with Ocean through 2017.[15]
In 2013, Ocean brought Ross to the studio to write and play keyboards on his critically acclaimed albums Blonde and Endless.[16][17] He sampled Ross's song "Running Around" as the recurring theme to Blonde on the songs "Be Yourself", "Good Guy", "Facebook Story", and "Interviews".[18] In 2014, Ocean released a voice memo as his first follow up song to Channel Orange titled "Memrise" on Ocean's Tumblr. "Memrise" was co-written with and produced by Ross.[19][20] In 2017, Ross music directed and played keyboards for the nine Frank Ocean festival headlining slots in support of Blonde.[1] While on that tour, Ross and Ocean co-wrote and co-produced "Provider" from their hotel rooms.
Ross would later go on to write, produce, play keys and mix for artists including Vampire Weekend, HAIM, Vegyn, Carly Rae Jepsen, Troye Sivan, WET amongst others.
In 2023, Ross collaborated as a writer and producer on 5 tracks featured in Travis Scott's studio album Utopia, which debuted at No.1 on Billboard 200: "My Eyes," "Sirens," "I Know ?," "Parasail", and "Looove."[21] All five songs made their debut on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[22] Ross also attained a position on Billboard's Hot 100 Songwriters, reaching a peak rank of No. 21.[23]
In 2024, Ross was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award (Best Contemporary Song) for his contribution to the song "Enough" as performed by Fred Again and Brian Eno.[24]
As an artist, Buddy Ross has released three singles; "Running Around" in 2016 and "Green Light" and "Bored Again!" in 2020, the latter two released through Vegyn's label PLZ Make It Ruins.[25]
Ross was born and raised in Kelso, Washington. He studied classical piano from age 5 to 15 and began composing piano music at the age of 9 before he transitioned to electronic music in his mid teens.
Ross resides in Los Angeles.