been a while...

Ryan:
It's been a while since I've gotten a bit personal. Guess tonight is as good as ever. It's been a crazy 2010. Huge life changes involving my day to day, and big changes for the band as well. It's almost complete chaos in the old noggin, and I'm still letting the dust settle where it may. But while it ever so slowly floats to the surface I plan to collect as much of it as I can and translate it into music, art and photography. I guess much like most of us, this is what balances me, and lately I've let it sway a bit as I try to figure out wtf is going around all around me. I'm learning that no matter what, you just gotta do what you love, love who you are, and love those around you as much as possible. Also, I've learned that you never should back down to anything, even if it seems impossible. The last few years were on the brink of impossible, and now I'm really being put to the test. I figure it will come out in the new album, which yes, is long overdue, if not for all the amazing fans, but also for my own sanity. I hope you stay in touch and keep listening. A Shoreline Dream and Brim Liski will soon reveal the inner workings of the mayhem. I promise!

recollecting - SXSW among other things...

Ryan:
SXSW & Nx35 = a blur of outstanding times. I can only wish to do this more and more often. Step out of the day to day insanity of business, greed, stressed out people and complicated relationships, to hit the road with the guys I love making music with. It was an honor to play, an honor to have fans support our shows, and an honor to be able to share new music with people wanting it (without worrying about their pocket books first). It's sad to think so many extremely talented musicians out there aren't making a living doing what they do best. That they have to take these short "vacations" to let out their musical passion to only have to come back and serve up their second careers again at home. I think about this more and more as my life has changed a great deal in the past few months, and I have more and more time to ponder this. All I can say is you really should support the musicians you think are great cause I bet 80% of them (even the label artists you love) are barely scraping by. Music is far more valuable than another cup of starbucks, if you catch my drift.

the number one flaw

Ryan:
Time for a bit o' ranting and raving if you will. Don't mean to offend, but I for sure am using this to speak some mind. Taking some time out from mixing "manhattan beach" to do this as my ears need the rest. The issue is this. . . I want to see a day where musicians and artists as a whole are all paid what they're worth. Instead I'm starting to see independent artists lose faith and lose money, forcing them to hault their creativity while they figure out how they can actually afford to make it happen.

Why is it that artists starve while the artistically defunct gain enormous amounts of power? Well it's very easy to figure out if you can see that it's almost entirely based on genetic lifestyle decisions developed by previous generations. Some grow up learning that winning the race of financial success is number one priority, while others learn to create and develop new concepts and visions. Problem is most of the time these "creatives" can't think beyond their lifestyle boundaries. They put up a wall when they are put in a situation outside of their norm. And yes, most people do this cause it takes quite a great deal of energy to think outside of your everyday. Artists don't want to deal with money, and business people don't think they can create. But it's when these two simple elements join forces that we can finally realize the full "idea" without any explanation.

I often times see the best creative ideas in music, movies & video games lose all their steam due to the guy with cash and his disciples climbing the same ladder, pouring water down to a seed, which was sadly already burned by the sun. Other times I have taken witness to the best idea finally finding it's way out there, eventually down the road getting destroyed by something copied and distributed in higher quantities.

The true passion of whatever "it" is needs to get out there, and people need to learn to understand each other a bit more. Closing any door, for whatever reason does nothing but hinder the evolution of art. The music and movie industries need to wake up and stop feeding copied art done poorly to the masses. It's destroying art as a whole, and tearing apart the artists trying to do what comes naturally. Only till both sides can talk will it happen.

It's sad, but if you can't operate on both sides of the fence (creative & business) then you're gonna find yourself burned. And it's not that you have to do both, but you need to understand and talk to both in a logical manner. This is the number one flaw of the creative industry as a whole. Communication. Without it, it's nearly impossible to let the best ideas show their full strength.

We seriously as a whole need to start communicating again. And I'm not saying everyone cause there are key people out there making it happen (I for sure know quite a few!). I just think more of us need to do the same, or be doomed with some very lonely futures. The family lives on and spreads itself out there. Why not teach it the right thing to do. Maybe then we won't need to build more jails like the one above.

Yes, it was random, but random is good. Thanks for listening!