Time Off Magazine Interview with Ben Preece March 09
Hey Ryan, how are you today and what are you up to?

Hi there, at this moment im sitting in the back of a car on the way to Mudgee (town just west of sydney NSW) to play a solo show. So far all ive seen out the window is brown grass, the odd tree, and the odd cow-if your lucky ya might get the a sheep! or if your super lucky even a windmill!! 11 hours of brown grass, trees and farm animals, loving it. I've heard its a really cool area though, wine country has been kind to me in the past, so i cant wait.
 
 
Give your new Brisbane audience an introduction to your music – grab their attention...
 
I guess I write about the circumstances and ideas of people in my generation, often the songs are very light hearted, and other times there a tad more thought provoking. You'll never hear songs about something i know nothing about, for inspiration i only use what is in front of me, if i look hard enough there is always something there. My music is easy to listen to, there isn't anything far out going on in the instrumentation, the structures or the lyrics. its just song writing in a fairly traditional simple form.


 
Tell me the story of you, the musician, and how you got to where you currently are...
 
Well I grew up in a small town called Murwillumbah in northern NSW, I come from a sporting family my father was a professional footballer, and he played in the 1974 grand final with the bulldogs, unfortunately they lost but I still love looking through his old scrap book and seeing a young Terry Murphy in his prime haha, very fun. I played a bit of sport when I was young to but i got more focused on music when I left school. i started working at a real estate agency after school and absolutely hated it! i was lucky enough to get accepted into the Queensland Conservatorium's popular music degree on the Gold Coast which really gave me the focus i needed. i graduated last year things have just started getting a tad more serious. Whilst i was still at uni i gained collage radio play in the US from some of the recordings i made for assignments, which is still continuing today. ive also been playing some bigger shows, being invited to perform at woodford with fret fest was great, during the week i tried not to get too "alternative" but i must say i was certainly smoking the peace pipe by the end. the start of this year so far has consisted of a lot of touring and finally performing with a backing band, which i really enjoy.


Tell me more about the EP....
 
The EP "read me mind" was a collaboration with Brisbane producer Mathew Larner. The recording process is a very enjoyable one for me, in a studio after spending so much time with the same people in the same little spaces you start to create really interesting relationships, where you laugh hysterically at each other when no one else has a clue whats so funny. Before this EP, i recorded all my music myself so it was an interesting concept sharing the creativity with some one else, actually in that regard i thought it would of been a lot harder then it was, Matt is just so amazingly musical and talented that every suggestion or idea came back with was always gold. it was great watching some one else obsess over my music, some one other then just me for a change, i had a ball recording it and i love how its turned out
 
Tell me more about the recording process...

I think as a singer/songwriter i have a big advantage when it comes time to recording and collaborate with other musicians. Matt told me several times how it was great not having to deal with 4 members of a band all trying to play louder then everyone else. When its a songwriters music all the other musicians seem to know their role, not to say that they're not massively important, i just think the creative stress's that a band can have tend to vanish when every is working just for the enjoyment of contributing to some cool recordings.

 
 
 
And the songs...
The songs! the songs off the EP were selected from the past few years for my writing. They deal with relationship issues and some other situations I've come across in my life as a young adult. Each song triggers a very specific memory, i hate the idea of writing a song that wasn't 100% how i was feeling at the time, if i started writing too much for my audience i think i would feel like the most lousy artist around. I keep it commercial but also try to stay as musically credibly as i can manage
 
 
What was your mission statement entering the studio and how did you hope it would turn out...
 
I didnt have a band before these recordings, so i entered the studio with nothing else then the bear foundations. this is where you have to take your hat off to producers, recording is all about getting the very best out of songs in a studio, which is so dam hard because there are so many directions you could take things. With this in mind some of the songs were kept very raw, and others were full band creations, but we tried to keep it so however it came out i could reproduce it live fairly easily.
 
 
You possess a tidy list of accolades – what’s your proudest moment, no matter how insignificant...
 
I can think of a few little things but to be honest it has just been having the opportunity to live as an artist over this last few months. ever since the small accolades have been coming the people around me seem to be taking me much more seriously as a musician. Its a funny situation really, some of the songs i play now are ones i have been playing for years! but all of a sudden when the momentum starts slowly building on your career the people you have know forever look at you more seriously. I'll probably spend my whole life with no money or great possessions, but if im taken at lease slightly seriously as an musical artist the rest of my life, ill be extremely happy.

 
What’s the weirdest thing to have happened to you on stage?
 
Without any doubt the weirdest thing to ever happen to me on stage was at a gig in a small town in rural NSW. The crowd was more interested in drinking then listening, to try get some peoples attention i dedicated the next song to some really good looking girls at the bar. After singing Princes "could you be, them most beautiful girl in the world" to them we spend the whole night together drinking and having fun. The next morning i woke up in a beautiful girl sandwich and i happened to be the ingredients. It never actually happened.... But geez that would of been a great night


 
What’s the plan now?

Im just going to spend the rest of this year promoting my EP, there are a couple more tours being planed, at the moment Im doing a fairly small east coast tour but later in the year were going to try get a good stretch of shows from Melbourne back to the sunshine coast. Then really late in the year even some more rural areas in QLD. after these adventures hopefully I can afford to record again, i have a lot of new material i would love to track, aha 

 
Does world domination come into this plan?

World domination slips into every ones thoughts at some point, whether its with a guitar or in tight spandex, either would be fine, haha. No i don't really have huge goals of being rich and famous, i think if i can reach the level of guys like lior and josh pyke that would be amazing, those guys can turn up at any city they like and play to hundreds of fans. So not really domination of the world, the worlds very large. Ill take what ever i get dealt, whether that is playing stadiums or just to the stuffed animals in my room, woo!.
 
 
What is one clear thing that makes you stand out from every other artist?
 
Probably performing, i like to make my shows as interesting as possible whether its just talking in between songs or making the songs musically interesting in unique ways. I use a loop pedal and some other guitar effects, so its always fun to play a few songs with the full band then strip it back and loop some percussive beats to play over. Playing the odd covers is never a bad idea, 'Raspberry beret' by prince would have to be my trade mark i would say (yes prince is the man!). I've done loads of gigs over the past few years, i don't get as nervous up on stage as i ust to performing just seems like a part of my life now. I try to stay as true to myself on stage as possible, there is nothing worse then watching an artist that is trying to be something there not. So yes, i think performing is my strength, whether I'm not every ones taste or not i feel like at a show i portray myself fairly well on stage.

Who is your musical hero and why?

Ive had a lot of musical influences in a lot of different genres but John Mayer would of had the biggest impact on me. When i was finishing school i was obsessed with his first album "Room for squares", it was the first album i ever listened to that for some reason really made me want to write, all the songs were just so relatable to me at the time i knew exactly what he was saying. I kind of swap between being obsessed with different artist at different times, Ive had plenty of favourite bands and song writers but yes musically John Mayer has had the biggest impact on me, he is such an amazing guitarist and songwriter who has made such a strong connection with 20 something year olds like myself all over the world.
 
Have you any more useless but interesting facts?
 
Ian Peres played keys on my EP, he is the new bass player /keyboardist in wolfmother, he is a good mate of mine.

and i hate cheese cake

thanks guys = )

hi there, ryan here

just a thought.....
you know the old saying "live in the moment", well lately I've been really experiencing how true it really is. you see most people have a general direction, a path with some sort of destination in mind, for some people what that destination is, is super clear. for others its far more blurred, something that they're carefully not devoting too much of what they are to, perhaps because of a small fear of failure. then there's others who aren't even on a path, their situation was more something they fell into and are happy staying there because they have simple needs - I would love to fall into this category, being completely happy with what you have is an awesome thing.
but.... im not. ive got a path, sometimes the destination is super blurry and other times its slightly less so, but its still some sort of stumble towards some sort of idea. the whole living in the moment thing, well that's just it. the moment is all we have, whatever has happened in the past effects how we feel in this moment, and whatever we hope to do in the future also contributes to this moments feelings, but.. anything that has happened cant be changed (what ever the scars may be), and the things you may want to happen someday cant be controlled, all you can do is make the most of this very moment and see how those things turn out.
do anything you want, don't live through the eyes of others, if you don't like the norm, make something else out of what you got dealt.
i try to constantly remind myself that I'm the only one i have to face in the mirror every day, yep just me, not an idea of what i should probably make me.

so fill your life with the things you love. and just worry about...... yes you guessed it - This moment = )

ryan

alright im stuck on something.....
i've been playing guitar for a few years, yep.... my guitar, as for many he has been a good inclusion into the life of Ryan. I've put alot of thought into weather my guitars are male or female??? mmmmm, I've come to the conclusion that my acoustic guitar is definitely a guy..... named Wesley. BBKing would always compair his guitars to weman, he named his favorite guitar Lucille. I'm going to have to disagree with BBKing on this one, not that i cant see a few areas of comparison- if you have ever seen.. videos of Jimmy Hendrix at his best, he would almost physically make love to his fender strat wile playing face melting solos, you would have to assume Hendrix had female thoughts running through his head - but my guitar 'Wesley' would have no part in that. ..
..
Ok i better rap this up, My acoustic guitar is certainly male because of the following:

* firstly, i don't have to do alot to impress him, all he really asks for is that i play him every now and then, he is never mad when i open the case not once have a ever heard him say 'Ryan where the F%*@ have u been, ive been worried sick, do u know what time it is? well u can just forget about touching me now.... C*%"'

* secondly, Wesley at times can act as my mediator when it comes to relationships, ill be like "Wesley she broke me heart, lets write a song that will make her cry" but then he is always like "ryan.. if u keep writing sad songs no one is guna want to bone u"

* and finally my acoustic guitar is definitely not a female because the other night i caught him peeing standing up.

so i agree that guitars can indeed be female, but in the case of wesley -he is more man then ill ever be
thoughts.................?
Ryan