David Ryan Harris

Photo by Shervin Lainez

What first got you interested in music?

David Ryan Harris: I've just always loved it. My parents loved music and had music playing all the time and my mom really loved Chicago blues and my dad loved jazz, so there was just a record on the turntable all the time.

Do you remember the first record you bought?

The first record I bought was a record called "Groove Me" by King Floyd, but the first record I ever had was The Jackson 5's "ABC"; it came on the back of an Alpha Bits box.

How has your sound evolved from the work you did in the '90s to this latest album?

Probably a bit more personal and I like to think I can get to the ideas that I had in my head a little more quickly, a little more successfully; trying to get from ideas to actual songs, I think I'm better at that. I'm a lot more interested in telling stories than I probably was when I was younger, I just really didn't have great stories when I was younger. You know, I was a kid, what stories am I possibly going to tell?

How would you describe your sound, as it is now?

I'm a soul singer that references everything from Radiohead to Bill Withers so, you know, I do lots of different stuff, but I'm a soul singer so it all kind of comes out with definitely a tune of soul music.

Are there any artists you've taken inspiration from?

So, so many, so many people. I like to say, I feel from pretty much anything that I hear that I feel like is authentic, so it can be anything from Jeff Buckley to Jay Z to Hank Williams Sr. to Loretta Lynn. Anybody that's telling stories, I'm going to draw a lot of inspiration from and, you know, the great singers like Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, I keep them all; I like to think a little bit of all of that rubbed off in some way.

Have you got a track on repeat now?

I just did this big drive around the country and I don't think I really repeated anything. It was like a really great opportunity to kind of dig through as much music as I possibly could with all that time in the car because, you know, being at home, you don't really have as much time to listen to music, so I was just powering through so many things.

How would you describe your LP, Lightyears, as a whole?

It is, I like to think, a soundtrack to my life and just the idea of coming through a dark period into something that is hopeful and light.

You're on tour now, what makes for a really great live show?

A great rapport with the audience. If the room is small enough, you'd like for more people to feel like they're in their living room and, once you get a little more larger rooms, I'd like to, obviously, you want the audience to wish that they were on stage, but, like, in a very involved way; at least, at my shows I like to, sort of, involve people and just make it seem like I'm letting them in on my process. So, lots of laughs and then some stuff that makes you cry and some stuff that makes you dance, it's just, hopefully, a whole journey.

What do you hope listeners can take away from your music?

Hopefully my stories resonate with someone else and they feel like - there's nothing like hearing a song where somebody is singing about a situation or emotion that you have that you just couldn't quite put words or music to - so, hopefully it does that to someone. That's my biggest hope, that my stories tell the truth and my stories and songs resonate with someone enough to give them a little bit of joy or just to let them know that they're not alone.

Photo by Shervin Lainez

Website             Facebook             Twitter             YouTube             SoundCloud             Instagram             Tumblr

The Naturalists

What brought you all together?

Travis Perno: Craig and I are twin brothers, so we've obviously been together since birth. We played in a few local bands as teenagers together so the chemistry musically has always been there. Zach jumped in the mix after his former group disbanded. The three of us decided to move in together, form a band. That was basically the birth of The Naturalists.

Why choose the name 'The Naturalists'?

Honestly we never really gave too much thought to the name, we figured our music would speak for itself. Craig came up with the idea in the shower, it just kind of stuck.

Are there any bands or artists you're influenced by, either individually or as a band?

We're all super diverse in terms of music we listen to. Craig's probably the most open to new music. Specifically, Bully right now. I'd say he's most influenced by bands like Pavement or Krill. Zach loves his Hank Williams Sr. and any other outlaw country. I like to listen to anything from Biggie to James Brown to Alabama Shakes. We draw all sorts of influences to create our sound I think, while still maintaining an alternative sound.

Any tracks you're hooked on now?

Right now we've been into Alvvays, their self-titled album is amazing. "Pinkerton" by Weezer has been on repeat in the van as well. 

How would you describe your sound?

We tend to write songs that are simple and easy to get stuck in your head. We keep it raw and give as much energy as we have during our live shows.

Could you sum up your latest EP, Home Honey, I'm Hi, in one sentence?

Eccentric songs with unique vibes, coming together for a consistent sound.

Is there a track off the EP you're most excited about?

We've had really positive feedback from "Fortune, Always Turning". I was definitely the most excited about that song.

What do you hope listeners can take away from your music?

I obviously hope that anyone who listens to our music enjoys it, but I want them to be able to interpret the songs and the emotions that they evoke in their own way because these songs have a message that are relatable.

Facebook             Twitter             YouTube             SoundCloud             Bandcamp             Instagram

Cheryl B. Engelhardt

What got you interested in music?

Cheryl B. Engelhardt: I've been playing the piano since I was, like, two and a half years old, so it's sort of been a constant the whole time.

We had a recording studio and thought it would be good to put together a band and use the space, after hours, to record, and that studio was a composing house writing music for commercials, which was something I was doing there. I was kind of doing both while I was working at that jingle house and left there to do the full-time touring thing and make another record and sort of came back to freelance recording for jingles and incorporating that into the independent musician's lifestyle.

Which artists do you take inspiration from?

I really love Sara Bareilles; I met her about a decade ago and we sort of stayed in touch and so I've kind of followed her career really carefully and we sound the same and we kind of look alike, so she's sort of someone that's always been on my radar. But, going back to my youth, I listened to a lot of classical music, mostly because I was playing a lot of classical music. I kind of liked the man bands in high school, you know, like, Dave Matthews and Vertical Horizon and The Goo Goo Dolls, you know, not quite the boy band, but I called them the man band. And then, I had a couple mentors where I really loved their composing style and arranging style and one of them is Rob Mathes and he just did the orchestration and everything for Sting's musical on Broadway and he works with big orchestras and also writes amazing music and he's sort of someone that I've been also following and talked to and see as a musical influence/mentor.

What type of songs are in your playlist now?

I'm not listening to a lot of music right now, I'm kind of in mix mode for my record so I just, kind of, keep my ears clean when I've got to listen to the mixes and mastering. Yeah, I'm really not listening to a lot of music right now.

Instead of sitting and listening to music I actually watch T.V. and I like watching the commercials in-between because, when I'm writing music for commercials, I like to see, what are the sounds that are popular or what are the trends? I listen to T.V. shows' music and who are the music supervisors and kind of looking at 'where could my music place?', and that's part of the research I do to see, 'okay, I know that this show uses music like mine,' and so then I'm not barking up the wrong tree when I do go out and make pitches for placements.

What words would you use to describe your music?

I would say it's pop, which is a big umbrella genre, specifically very singer/songwriter, very vocal based pop. Some people call it adult contemporary, but, yeah, I would say singer/songwriter pop. This particular album is all duets and there are a lot of really different, cool voices on there, so it's really meant to bring out the voices that are on the record.

Can you tell us more about your site, In The Key Of Success?

It's a website that I started. I created an eCourse and some musician resources that were things I wish I had when I was just starting out or when I was sort of hitting plateaus out touring and whatnot. I got some advice from someone after they heard me speak at a music conference, they said, 'you should write a book,' and I don't write books and I wrote this eCourse and it was pretty successful and a lot of musicians bought it and really loved it and got a lot out of it, so then I started to develop some live workshops - but, over video chat type courses - but the one that's the most popular and that I really love working on is called MX4, which is the branding and marketing, moneymaking masterminds that I created, and that's like a six week on-line course people can do.

You're working on your album Inevitably, how would you describe the album?

The album is all duets in the singer/songwriter genre, like what I just said before.

And what was the inspiration for your latest single?

I had this little musical idea in my head and I couldn't figure out how to turn it into a song so I reached out to a friend of mine, Cameron Ernst, and we sort of talked about what was going on in our lives at that moment, which is kind of how I start all of my co-writing sessions, by asking someone else what's going on for them, try to find some common ground, and we ended up writing this song about finding your love and, for me, it was finding, you know, when am I going to see my father again who had just passed away and, for him, it was when is he going to find his true love, like, the one. We saw that there was this universal theme of, like, hopeful, you know, I'll find this person if they're out there watching me or waiting for me; it's a very positive spin on that longing.

What do you want listeners to take away from your music?

I think hope is kind of the word that I get a lot; that there's hope for yourself in a career that you're choosing, just sort of see that it's possible to be an independent musician making a full-time living off of music, so just, as with what I'm doing, I want people to see that process, and I'm very open about sharing that process.

But, from the music itself, I think that, you know, you can hear that there are some struggles going on, but there's a way to overcome them; I think that would be great if people got that.

Website             Facebook             Twitter             SoundCloud             YouTube

Flight Of Ryan

How did you all meet?

Anthony Wallace: Well, the three of us that aren't the singers all went to high school together, so we've known each other for a really long time and we started our band in high school and we went to college and met our singer very early. Actually, we lived in the same dorm as him and one day - we were looking for a singer - and one day I heard him singing Christmas carols in the showers and he was really good; it was a very unusual start. We formed our band then and we've been going strong since.

How did you come up with the name 'Flight of Ryan'?

The name actually came before we went to college, so it's really old. There's this road where we grew up called Ryan Street or Road or something and they had railroad tracks that ran through it and there was a big hump where the railroad tracks went through it, as there often is, and we used to drive our cars down that street and go off the hump like it was a ramp and my car would fly and that's how we got the name. It was pretty dumb and dangerous and it kind of broke my car, but that's what we used to do.

Are there any bands you take inspiration from?

Yeah, definitely, I think there are tons. The Beatles are our favorite band - just like everybody else in the world - and we love them and we love a lot of artists from that era. We love Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and The Doors. We love Death Cab For Cutie - that's huge for us. We love Jimmy Eat World, who is also from Arizona, they're just important to us. And then, we love a lot of modern synth-y bands, like M83, Chvrches, Passion Pit. So, I guess those are kind of, like, the three sort of areas of music that we focus on: classic '60s psychedelic rock and then sort of emo-y kind of music and then kind of modern synth-y. We like all kinds of music, I mean, but I guess I would call those the main ones.

Any tracks you're hooked on now?

I've been listening to Grimes' new album this week, it's really cool. I don't know, we've all been pretty much obsessed with Tame Impala this year; the album they released over the summer is amazing. Also, Beach House.

How would you describe your sound?

I kind of believe that the people that make the music shouldn't try to describe it. I just think, when you make your own music, you kind of get a little crazy, you kind of lose perspective, and sometimes you just need to ask other people to find out what it sounds like. So, having said that, what most people say about our music is that, it's accessible; it's pop-y, like, there are strong melodies and beats that you can comprehend easily; it's also kind of dark, it has kind of a melancholiness to it; and it's electronic, but I think it's kind of bippity boppity, if that makes sense; and it also has a very heavy, good dose of guitars, so it's kind of bluesy in that way.

What inspired your latest single, "Technicolor Souls"?

The actual song is actually pretty old. Like I said, we've been around for awhile, the band has been together for awhile, but this is our first album and there's a lot of time in there when we were making music of a completely different style, without synths or anything, and we've kind of taken all that music down, but "Technicolor Souls" was the first song that we ever made with our synths, so I guess, what inspired "Technicolor Souls" was getting all these new instruments and just trying to make something with them. Yeah, it really was just our first kind of foray into electronic music, at all. 

Lyrically, I think what inspired it was kind of an anxiety with aging and getting older; it was kind of like, we're young, but we're kind of at the time where you're clearly not a kid anymore, so that's part of it too.

Is the sound on the two singles you've released thus far indicative of what we can expect to hear on From Cocoon?

Yeah, I think those songs are good representations of the album. I think that there are songs that are less straightforward, I would say, than those two, that are just, kind of, for lack of a better word, just more weirdness going on. Yeah, the sounds and the feel and the basic vibe of those songs is a good indication of what to expect on the rest of the album, I think.

How would you describe the album?

I guess I would just describe it the same as I would describe our sound. I mean, I will say that we weren't trying to go for anything particular when we made the album, we were just kind of writing and doing what came to mind, so I guess I would really just describe the album like that: it's really just kind of what happened from us all getting into the studio.

Is there anything you hope listeners can take away from your music?

Yeah, I mean, I think about the songs that have been most important to me and, obviously, I love the song, like melodically and just the sound and like that, but there are also some elements of a message that resonates and it would be super fulfilling and cool if anybody got that same thing out of any of our songs. Obviously, the most important thing that you'd want for anybody listening to your music is to like your songs, to be able to, you know, bob their head to it or learn the words, but I would also hope that they kind of take some time to reflect on the message of the lyrics and think about them and apply it to their life in some way.

Is there anything you would like to add?

Well, the album [From Cocoon] - we just finalized the date - it's going to be December 11th; we should expect one more single to come out before then.

Website             Facebook             Twitter             SoundCloud             YouTube