We were lucky to catch up with RYAN recently and have shared our conversation below.
RYAN, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
The song I just released on Friday, September 6, titled Summer Nights.
I wrote it with my college best friend, Keaton Tardio. He had no musical experience but insisted on writing a song with me during the covid lockdowns. He proved himself to be a brilliant lyricist, coming up with the entire second verse of the song.
Summer Nights became the cornerstone of our friendship. We simply couldn’t believe we were capable of writing a song of its calibre. We refined it over a few years, and I moved away to Indiana after college for a job opportunity.
In 2023, he said that his New Years Resolution was to finally record the song. I was planning on moving to Austin to pursue music full time starting in 2024, so I decided we should record the song there, at Cedar Creek Recording.
We met up in Austin in July of 2023. We had Tommy Taylor on drums (Austin music legend, drummed on the original Christopher Cross album, drummed for Eric Johnson) and producing; Mark Andes (bassist of Heart, Jo Jo Gunne, Firefall, Canned Heat etc) on bass; Mark Hallman (former producer for Carole King) on Mellotron, and mixing and mastering; myself on piano, vocals, and guitars.
Keaton got to watch his song come to life before his very eyes, see the inside of a professional studio, and even play the triangle at the end of the song. It was a dream come true.
On September 2, 2023, just a month later, I received the worst phone call of my life that my beloved best friend Keaton had sadly passed away. He never heard the song finished, never saw it released, and was 25 years young.
I was forced to finish the song on my own, which was a painful process. Nonetheless, Summer Nights is finally out and is dedicated to his memory and family.
Ryan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m a multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, and producer, originally hailing from the Seattle, Washington area.
I started learning piano at age 8 by ear, singing by age 10, playing guitar by age 14. I always knew I wanted to pursue music full time, but never had the guts or the skillset to do so until 2024.
“RYAN’s infectious songwriting, musicianship, and keen production sensibilities, have caught the interest of world renowned artists and producers Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, Eric Johnson, Tommy Taylor, Michael Omartian, Mark Hallman, Roscoe Beck, and many more.
His distinct songwriting shares a timbre with contemporary greats such as John Mayer, while his mature lyrics and melodies harken to a renaissance of the legendary music and artists of the 20th century.”
I make my living mostly playing 3 hour gigs 5 nights per week, mostly playing cover songs and mixing my own original music in there as well.
When I moved to Austin in January of 2024, I didn’t have a job. I simply door-dashed when I could, and went from town to town across all of Central Texas, banging on the doors of every venue in town to give them my business cards and sell them on why they should hire me to play music. After that, I would email them relentlessly until they either told me no, or gave me the gig.
Fast forward to now, most of my concerts are at upscale bars/restaurants/rooftops/patios, and performing pays the bills.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Pay attention.
We as a society, myself included, are infinitely too caught up in our own little lives. It’s not our fault entirely – the fast-paced nature of today’s world forces us to be incredibly selfish with our time, and with our attention.
However, imagine a world that is so fast-paced that there is no art, or artists, left -. Where the reds, greens and blues are gotten rid of because black and white are more efficient. Is that a world you want to live in?
To any real artist, the money comes second. The desire to have their work (which really is just a reflection of their identity) both seen and understood is infinitely more paramount. So, at a fundamental level, every artist is only seeking to be understood; and believe me when I tell you, that artists are so malnourished that just one viewer can sustain them for another month. However, if no one ever pays attention, the artist will starve to death; and not even that one viewer will be enough for them to bother to get out of bed anymore.
We need to do better. If we as a society direct more of our attention toward the art we love, and we choose to value it with our time, society will have no choice but to shift with us.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Finishing a piece of art to it’s fullest potential.
For example – my overall bottom-line would be far healthier if I simply chose to record only the acoustic guitar and the vocal of any given song that I write. Plus, my marketing would likely be easier too, because a listener who is only looking for acoustic music is relatively easy to find. I make my promotional process INFINITELY more complicated by finishing my music all the way.
But there truly is nothing like sitting in front of the loud speakers in the studio and hearing all of your different ideas for a song come together in one fell swoop, and wash over you – and the moment when you realize that all of your ideas DO work the way you always dreamed they would, is worth every pain in the world to me. It’s enough to bring a tear to my eye.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.officialryan.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/official.ryan.music/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialRyanMusic/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OfficialRYANmusic
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/officialryanmusic
Image Credits
Greer James
Dazed Artist Media