audreyryan

I grew up on an island off the coast of Maine called Mount Desert Island. My home was very musical one and my dad played guitar and my mom sang and played piano in the living room and the organ at church. My dad was into the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and John Fahey, but the songs he played were more of a country-western nature and I remember him singing "hey good lookin' whatcha got cookin'" in our kitchen as my mom made dinner. Mom would play ragtime Scott Joplin tunes and sing ballads like "Blue Boyou" by Roy Orbison. Reluctantly at first, I learned to play guitar starting around age ten and through middle and high school learned a lot of folk tunes to the likes of Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, John Fahey, and Dylan. In college I discovered jazz and became immersed in Miles Davis, Coltrane, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock and all those greats. My main college gig was playing fiddle in bluegrass, celtic, and jazz bands and trying to be like Stephen Grapelli in jazz ensemble (never got quite that good). I also managed to spend a few years living and traveling abroad in Africa, Asia, and Australia. All the while I was writing songs and building up to a point where I might play them with other people in front of other people. When I graduated college I moved to Boston and started a band, that was four years ago...for more info on my "career stats" keep reading...///... Since releasing my debut record, "Passing Thru", in 2004 I've been touring a good deal with a band and solo. I self-released two EPs in 2005 and 2006 sold exclusively at shows and then started recording my second full-length with help from Stephen Brodsky (better known for his work in "Octave Museum" and "Cave In"). We recorded 14 songs in my rehearsal space and his during the course of 2006 and 2007. It was mixed by Andrew Schneider at Translator Audio in Brooklyn, NY in January and was mastered by Nick Zampiello in May at New Alliance East. The name of the record is "Dishes & Pills" and it was released in the UK this fall by Folkwit Records, and we're still trying to nail down a US label to release it. In case you're wondering more about what kind of music this is, it started out in the jazz/pop vein and has evolved into an eclectic form of experimental folk, singer-songwriter indie rock of some alien breed using backwards loops, finger pianos, and other unique instrmentation. Overall this music blends together my early influences of Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and Bob Dylan with contemporaries such as Robert Wyatt, Radiohead, the Flaming Lips, Wilco, Steroelab, Beck, and Arcade Fire. "Ryan is like Joni Mitchell and Radiohead playing some kind of hybrid indie music that- and this is why her stuff is so good - just doesnt exist anywhere else." (Leo Weekly). I perform nationally and internationally and live on the east coast...