Mentor News
Control Room in Conway Studios
RRFC: Have you ever had gigs where you were thinking “Oh, this isn’t going to go anywhere,” and it ends up being one of your biggest relationships?
Ryan: Yeah…I’ve kind of been all over and almost even coming back around again. It’s kind of a weird industry in that nature. But I am always telling people “If you really stop to think about it, hopefully your career will outlast the genre that brought you in”…Whatever style of music you’re into right now, it might not even be cool anymore by the time you’re just really getting going.
RRFC: Do you ever feel like some of the biggest people in the industry are still trying to figure it out themselves?
Ryan: Oh, yeah, sure…I just did a session recently with Eddie Fisher, the drummer from OneRepublic… It was kind of wild to me to think that “Counting Stars” has almost a billion YouTube views. It doesn’t get a whole lot more successful than that with the band side of the world, and he’s already trying to figure out what his next step is going to be. It’s interesting.
RRFC: Do you have any apprentices that are standing out to you lately?
Ryan: Yeah. I mean, I have this guy, Josh [Denhart]…He’s been doing pretty good and getting more and more busy and he’s one guy who’s been doing a lot of stuff…moving in the right direction to get his music career going as far as doing some DJ gigs and some production work and some of that stuff….I have a student here, Uriah Halbeisen…it seems like he’s doing more and more work. He’s a working on a mix right now for his master’s project. He’s got a pretty good hustle going on.
RRFC: Do you have any tips that you give to your apprentices on how to self-market, getting gigs?
Ryan: I think the hardest part I see with anybody is kind of taking those first steps and getting up the nerves to go approach an artist or a band or whatever and just say “Hey, you guys sound great. Blah, blah, blah” and kind of see where it goes…Then also, I’m always kind of thinking for people to look for some sort of kind of side hustles they can get going on in the music world, because there’s so many little avenues out there in the world and, to me, it seems like half of the struggle for people is just how to get themselves a good base to where they’re not working a 40-plus and commuting job and then having just a tiny bit of gas left in the tank at the end of the day to try to get their music stuff going. So whatever you can do. People can get Internet stuff going on, wherever they’re comfortable, but look for those things that allow you to kind of build.