Look for New York-based electro-pop rock artist RYNO to release his EP, The Pervade, later this year and listen to his single "I'll Take Forever" now.
What got you interested in music?
RYNO: Initially, it was sort of second nature because I was born into it. My dad is a vocal and theater teacher so I grew up with singing and my mom's also a singer - she plays guitar - and the two of them were part of a folk group and also sang in church. I grew up with my mom and dad singing together and, on top of that, I'm the youngest of four boys and all of my brothers are musicians; even at the times when they're not playing the part of musician, they're very, very strong music critics [laughs], so I was born into a lot of music. I wasn't pushed into it because my parents did a really good job of not being stage parents; as much as they were into stage and theater, my dad was very passive about it and was like, 'okay, if you enjoy it, try it,' whereas a lot of other parents are like, 'you need to do this, you need to do this,' [laughs] so they're really good about that. Naturally, I expressed my interest, especially as a kid, with baseball; I was obsessed, obsessed [laughs]. Living now in New York is a warm and fuzzy feeling with me being so close to Yankee stadium, but that was my infatuation as a kid.
Do you remember the first song you wrote that you were happy with?
That's funny because, actually, the first one I wrote I still break out once in a while. I started writing real young just 'cause I was in bands from the time I was in middle school, so I started writing in 8th or 9th grade and I wrote a song called "Brand New Eternity" with a friend of mine, John - John now performs with the symphony in San Diego and he's a percussionist and he's doing incredible things every time we catch up - he and I wrote our first few songs together. We wrote lyrics together but he liked to do poems more and I liked to do the melody and hook and stuff like that. We would piece together some stuff that we write together and it inspired me at a young age to just dive in and start writing all the time, so the first song I ever wrote was called "Brand New Eternity" and I actually do love it. It's very, very easy - as everybody's first song is - it's two chords but it's something that I still come back to today and will sit down with the acoustic guitar and start playing it; I really like the melody.
Which musicians would you say you've been influenced by?
That obviously changes upon the day but, growing up in a household of musicians with music being jammed down my throat whether I liked it or not [laughs], but I seem to attach most with my oldest brother's taste of music; he was very, very into The Police and bands like XTC and The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds was incredibly influential. My other brothers, the two middle brothers, were a bit more into the rock alternative, a bit more of the heavier sound, and I took from that and I learned from that; the artistic freedom of groups like Faith No More and these bands that have no limitations and do radical things. The band that struck me the most of that nature was The Clash. I would, honestly, out of all the influences, probably say The Police, The Clash, and The Beach Boys - just because my mom was the one who really loved The Beach Boys and she got my brothers turned onto The Beach Boys at a young age. Pet Sounds and London Calling were both actually very influential to me at a young age.
Are you hooked on any current artists?
Yeah, I thrive on trying to find different music and not just music that's popular; I like to listen to a little bit of everything and keep my ears fresh. I'm doing a little bit of self-producing now, so I'm producing my record on my own at my studio - I have a studio in midtown that I go and work at - but there's groups that definitely spark my ears that are of newer nature, as well. The 1975, their stuff is really interesting; I love what they're doing, I love the production elements of their records. They've got such a Peter Gabriel/David Bowie influence and I love hearing that in their stuff. A group I just saw two nights ago in New York, St. Lucia, I loved their show and I had a chance to meet the singer a couple months back and just had a nice chat with him. It was cool because he and I come from a similar world where we've always been rock band dudes and we've been with bands - and St. Lucia's obviously a band - but I was just really picking his brain about the world of electronics and the world of DJing. My project can lend itself to a bit more of a synth-pop-electronic thing and I'm implementing some of that into the live set, so we were talking about that. We both came from the same place where we'd always been band people, we're not purely electronic guys, so I really channeled that conversation he and I had and I really loved their show. I also love and had such a good time at the Walk The Moon show. Those groups are definitely more contemporary, newer groups that I'm really, really channeling to what I'm into today. I feel like everything has that underlying influence from the past, which I think is important when I'm crafting a new show to be like, 'cool, I can feel these moments of London Calling coming out,' if there's stuff that's really raw or over the top but then surrounding it with contemporary sounds in the nature of St. Lucia or The 1975.
How would you describe your sound?
It's sort of electro-pop rock. It's definitely got an electronic, synth underbed, but then it's a pop rock driving. It still has live drums and live piano. Electro-pop rock is what we're calling it, but it lends itself to the world of synth-pop rock.
Could you tell us more about your inspirations behind your single, "I'll Take Forever"?
"I'll Take Forever" was a cool process on writing the song - I'll tell you about the backend of it. My friend Scott is the MD for Jennifer Nettles and also works for Sugarland, so we have this writing team, Scott and my friend Mark Jackson - who's like a music supervisor in LA - and the three of us actually wrote a couple of songs off the EP together, but all via emails. It was really interesting, it was the first time I'd ever written a song purely via email. I wrote a hook and a concept and fired off this real easy demo of it and I sent it to the guys and they sent me back ideas and I sent them a version of that, so it was really cool. It was the first time I'd ever done that because, again, I come from a rock band world where I come from rehearsal space with a couple of dudes and we just kind of craft something, but this was a really nice opportunity that I wanted to try and I actually have really enjoyed, since then, trying to craft songs that way. I know it seems impersonal, but it's actually a very interesting way of exposing your personality; it's a very vulnerable situation to be in a writing session. Being in a room with a few writers, you have to let your guard down, so this is an interesting way of doing that, because I let my guard entirely down while writing these songs, but I did it in a room where I could express it very purely and very honestly where it wasn't influenced at all by my surroundings or who was around, so it's very different and I actually was quite inspired by it. It liked it, it was fun, I still enjoy getting in a room with folks and songwriting, but the process of crafting the song via email was cool.
The song itself came out of nowhere. The actual meaning of the song is basically about that a bit, where it's about exposing yourself and that feeling of humility you can get when that happens; it's about not taking those moments too seriously, not taking those moments too heavily, and just pushing forward for you and not letting life pass you by. That's the inspiration behind the video for it too. We did this thing where we slowed down the pace of the actual filming so everything that's happening around me is at rapid speed, but I'm moving at normal speed. It was cool because it was an interesting interpretation of the lyric. The meaning is just, don't let life happen around you, grip it and make what you want out of life. That's the general meaning behind it which was crafted as a love story on the lyrics to make it relatable just because then you could relate it to your situation and I like that in songwriting; I like songs that make references that are relatable so you can listen to songs and be like, 'I get that because this is what's happening to me today'. I really appreciate that when crafting a song.
Can you tell us more about your forthcoming EP?
The EP is called The Pervade, pervade meaning to spread throughout and the album art is cool: it's a rhinocerous on the moon. It's that 'anything can happen' type of thing. It all references to life, love, and passion and it is really just an anything is possible type of feeling. The lead-off single, "Stars In The Sky", is very inspiring, it's very uniting. "I'll Take Forever" is a little bit more personal to me and I pulled more from personal stories. The EP is, I'm hoping, going to come out in Summertime. We're very grateful to get some traction on the lyric video for "Stars In The Sky" and that actually ended up trending in Europe on YouTube, so we gained some attention over there and we're trying to figure out if it's something we could put out with the label or not but, either way, it's something that I'm hoping to have out by this Summer. I'm very excited to get it out and show the world.
How would you sum up The Pervade in one sentence?
The Pervade, in general, references life, love, and passion and all the songs are purely relatable to anything is possible and they're generally very positive songs that send good, positive vibes. I've been using a constant hashtag with all of the things that are getting posted which is #pervadepositivity and positivity surrounds this project because the project has been nothing but passion since the day I started recording it, so it's been driven on pure passion and pure love, which I'm grateful for. There's no pressure, there's no record label saying, 'you need to deliver masters to me by this point,' purely just crafted on passion.
Pervade positivity is the best way of expressing what this album is to me; it's spreading positivity and spreading joy.
What do you want your fans and listeners to take away from your music?
Very much so that. Influence their day positively and meaningfully and for them to leave having experienced a positive feeling or something that just relates to them. Again, I'm trying to encourage people to do that aspect, do something positive with your day and share it; it's like that whole nature of, during the holidays, when everybody does a nice gesture, I want people to live their life more like that. Less due to it being the month of December because the holidays are coming - I love that because that's such a nice feeling - but it's just a healthy way to live, mentally and physically when you're acting positively, that's what I really want people to take out of the experience. That's what I think the EP is, the EP is an experience. It's a lost art form, but the EP has these instrumental interludes which each deal with an expression and they're not as much like which pop song is going to go on the radio, they're more about crafting the experience. "I'll Take Forever", for instance, has a minute and a half intro called "Can You Hear Me" and it's really interesting to craft this mood. The whole EP, in general, I want people to be able to take a positive feeling from it, but I also want them to be moved by art because this is an expression of art. That's most important to me. If there's one song that sticks out for somebody more than another, that's awesome and that means a lot but, most importantly for me, is that people are able to connect and it's something that they can relate with and affects them positively.
Is there anything you'd like to add?
We're doing a release party for the single at Pianos in New York in East Village on May 17th and I've been debuting the project because it's a very brand new project; The EP's obviously not out yet, I've only put out one song, "I'll Take Forever" is the second single and I've showcased at The Viper Room in Los Angeles and I've showcased it here in New York at Mercury Lounge: really cool rooms that I'm just excited to debut the project at. It's just about to get on its feet, so it's a real exciting part of the process, but everything will be caught up to speed on the socials.