Cosmopolitan is likely the most appropriate descriptor for The Beatroot Road. And, that’s not just because its front man, Mark Russell, happened to grow up in parts of Africa and the United Kingdom. It’s because the approach The Road takes to making music is so different than that of other bands—and deliberately so.

Additionally, the scope of the project is decidedly global in nature. Any disbelievers would only need to get a dose of the single “Milte Hi Ankhen”. Even the most obtuse listeners can discern the title is not in English. Moreover, it’s a hot, spicy affair that admixes the dancehall style chatting of Jamaican artist Sledge alongside the soaring, searing vocals of Sharan Kaur—who has roots in East India. The UK’s Dee Dee Hoptone made it happen on the bass while Russell, who currently claims Vancouver as his home turf, laid down tracks on the tambourine and bodhrán, which the artist describes as a “Celtic goat skin hand drum”. His better half, Hazel Fairbairn, is credited as playing the violin and electric violin, of all things.

The fact that the single has roots, as it were, from the four corners of the globe (or close thereabouts) is far from coincidental. In fact, it seems to be one of the core objectives of The Beatroot Road and its forthcoming album, Humanimal.

According to Russell, the LP (which is slated to drop this summer), involves artists from, “Austria, Canada, China, Kenya, Korea, Jamaica, Moldova, Nigeria, Punjabi, Türkiye, UK, USA, and Venezuela, so far. It’s contemporary world music, not the ethnic folk music previously associated with the term ‘world’.”

The dearth of conventional song structured found in “Milte Hi Ankhen” showcases the tendency of The Beatroot Road project to eschew conventionality. Some may point out that the name of the upcoming album does as well. Instead of relying on established formulas for say, pop aspirations, the project was calculated to push the very boundaries of music, and what’s its capable of eliciting from listeners.

“The song styles are all quite different, but make up a series of views of the human condition,” Russell revealed. “We wanted to do something without using the usual instruments in the usual genres. Obviously, we have no expectations of world domination, but it would be great to inspire a few artists and music lovers to experiment more. I think music lovers in general are being short changed with what is on the menu. The mainstream seems really stagnant to me compared to past decades, and could definitely benefit from more creative kickstarters to get it going again.”

It’s not surprising that anyone with as atypical a background as Russell would be looking to focus on creativity, ingenuity, and experimentation in his or her music. One may infer that his very musical training could have been calculated to foster just such a desire. By his own admission, he’s “a Canadian immigrant settler, acknowledging that I live and work on the unceded traditional ancestral territories of the Səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.”

However, Russell spent a fair amount of his younger years in the Sudan before eventually moving to the UK. Consequently, his musical influences reflect such diversity—which may explain his desire to meld these different elements in his own work.

“Virtually all of my musical heroes have African roots, but the music they make has heavy European influences, too,” Russell mused. “Modern African pop music also has many roots in western pop music, including African American music, so the circle is complete. It seems to me that music has traveled to all corners of the world and then back again, so I see all music as an ongoing human journey with no clear beginning and, hopefully, no end. This project is just a road trip playing with where some of our roots and beats seem to be taking us.”