Joey Ryan
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Website: http://www.joeyryan.net/
Bio: My fondest memories are of Sunday mornings as a kid, waking up to Bob Dylan's Blood On The Tracks coming out the living room speakers. ... (more)
"Early one morning the sun was shining, I was laying in bed, wondering if she'd changed at all, if her hair was still red..." Every single Sunday. Once that album played all the way through, it was usually time for some Deja Vu, courtesy of CSN, or maybe even some Curtis Mayfield Superfly. The point is, the most important part of my musical education happened on Sunday mornings, courtesy of my parents who most likely would have been at Woodstock if they had been born a few years earlier. I also underwent, kicking and screaming at times, a more technical classical musical education, mostly on the clarinet and piano, that has been invaluable to me. Yeah, Mom, you were right. But the MOST important thing that ever happened to me musically was when my dad taught me "House of the Rising Sun" on the guitar. It's the magic song! That song has every chord you need to write any folk song you could dream up!! Seriously, if anyone out there wants to learn the guitar and write songs, just learn House of the Rising Sun and you'll be set. Anyway, In a half hour I learned 6 chords and my life was never the same...
BUT, music is not generally presented to young people as a viable career option. Nor was it presented to me that way. Actually, I never gave much thought to how the albums I loved actually got made, or who the actual people were that were making them. I certainly would never play music for a living, if such a thing was even allowed of such a scholastic young fellow. Instead, I went to class. I went to class to get good grades, to be able to go to college, to be able to go to grad school to be able to have a good job. So, when I finished high school, I went to college as planned, at UC Berkeley, but then everything changed. I didn't go to much class there. I played music with my friends. I barely passed astronomy. I had a girlfriend there. I think I neglected her. I was playing music with my friends. We formed a band. I wrote songs. I was happy. Finally. I didn't even know I wasn't happy until I became happy playing music. Then college was ending. I had majored in Psychology and managed to do well enough. I liked learning about the brain. Time for neuroscience graduate school? Maybe not.
A friend of mine who had recorded demos for our band said something like, "hey why don't you be a musician instead of a psychologist?" I'm sure I laughed at him. My dad is a psychologist, thats a real career. Music is just for fun. Then he said, "I'll record your album and pay your rent for a couple months if that helps." This guy was nuts. I had like 10 songs, a hand-me-down guitar, and neither of us had any idea what we were doing. But I spent the next week picturing myself finishing grad school at age 30, never having admitted to myself that my dream was to be a musician, and the decision actually became pretty easy. Sometimes I make some stupid decisions, but sometimes I make some damn good ones.
Thanks to continued twists of fate and expectation, I've now released a full length record and an EP, and licensed songs to various places that have allowed me to keep indulging myself in "this music thing" as my grandmother calls it. I wrote a song about when my dad got sick. I wrote a song about dying words of advice. I wrote many songs about love, or the lack thereof between two people. I wrote a happy song about a boat ride. I have met, becomes fans of, toured with, and even become friends with some of the most talented people in the world, all of whom make up a singer/songwriter community in Los Angeles that I sense is very unique and special. Some of their profiles are linked here on this page, but myspace doesn't give me enough 'top friends' to point them all out, so keep your ears open as one by one they are getting the recognition they deserve.
I have just finished my new album set for release this summer, entitled "...with its roots above and its branches below" - keep an eye out.
As for my recent news (read "obligatory brag sheet"), the TV show One Tree Hill recently featured my song 'Loving You', propelling it to the Top 20 on the iTunes Folk charts in 3 countries. Then my song 'As It Must Be' was on the same show in April and is currently available for free download. 'Let You Go' is currently airing in the UK on a Wrigleys Extra advert sponsoring the hit show Hollyoaks, and is also available for free download. I WANT TO GO TO THE UK! In March I was honored to donate my song 'California' to UNICEF for use in their television commercials for their TAP Project which provided drinking water to the world's poorest children. 'California' subsequently garnered airplay on LA's 103.1FM. The little indie movie BELLA that came from nowhere to win the Toronto International Film Festival was a hit in theaters and just came out on DVD. It features two of my songs, 'No One Else Like You' and 'Light On' strategically placed during some particularly heart-wrenching scenes. I recently returned from a 10 city West Coast tour with the great Jay Nash and Garrison Starr, and will leave again shortly to go across the US from LA to NY and play everywhere in between. I try always to remember my favorite quote/piece of advice that reminds me that whatever artistic inspiration has struck me so far can be stripped away at any moment... "A true artist must come to the humbling realization that he is actually the paintbrush, and not the painter".
And I'm thankful.
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