Ryan Keen (22/01/2014)
Hello Ryan, how are you?
Hello, mate. I'm good thank you. How's it going?
I'm great. Where are you in the world right now?
I'm in Sydney at the minute.
You must be excited to kick off your Australian headline shows tomorrow night?
Yeah. I've just finished supporting Busby Marou on their going coastal tour and then I'm excited to do a couple of my own shows, one in Sydney and one in Melbourne.
Are they your first headline shows of Australia?
Yeah they are.
What sort of crowd do you think you'll get?
(laughs) I'm not too sure to be honest. It's hard to tell. I've done a few promo things and a few support gigs but because these are my first headline shows I don't really know what to expect.
What was the reception like at the Busby Marou shows?
It's been great actually. Really, really nice. The crowds have been really responsive and buying a few albums and stuff. The venues have been great too.
Have you done much sight seeing while you've been here?
Yeah I've been doing a bit of touristy stuff and trying to see as much of the wildlife as possible. I climbed up the Harbour Bridge yesterday which was awesome. On the tour itself I've been trying to surf as much as possible really, all over the east coast. As south as Torquay and all the way up to Brisbane and along the Gold Coast. It's been amazing.
Back to your live shows, how would you describe your live show to someone who hasn't seen you before?
I guess the thing that people pick up on a lot is my style of playing guitar. It uses the whole body percussively. It's called “percussive fingerstyle” guitar playing, it's all about drumming on the body and sort of hammer on some pull offs and harmonics and stuff. It's a very interesting style of playing. It's quite visual. I learnt flamenco [guitar] as a kid so a lot comes from that. It's quite a full sound as well. I play a sort of keyboard thing with my feet (laughs) so there's sort of bass, percussion as well as guitar and singing going on. I guess that's it really. Those are the things that make me sort of stand out a bit more because there's a lot of men with guitars singing out there (laughs).
(laughs) very true! What bands and artists inspired you to want to be a musician?
I've played guitar all my life and my parents used to listen to artists like John Martin, so I listened to a lot of him. In more recent years it's been artists like John Mayer, Chris Martin and even James Blake more recently. I find a lot of inspiration in their work.
Can you tell me a bit about how you started into music and the highlights of your career so far?
Yeah, sure. Like I said, I've been playing guitar all my life but the singing is something that is a lot more recent. I lost a friend of mine just over five years ago and he was fit and healthy and died very suddenly basically and after that I really got into music, before that I'd been too nervous really. That made me sort of realise a few things about life, like just how short and fragile it can be so I decided to use that and have a bit of courage to do music and that's when I started singing.
Highlights wise, playing the Royal Albert Hall in London for a couple of nights as a support act [for Leona Lewis]. It's such a prestigious venue and so many of my favourite artists have played there so that was definitely a highlight for me.
You've also toured with Ed Sheeran, that must be another highlight?
Yeah that was amazing. I met Ed on the London gigging circuit about a year before it all really kicked off for him. We became friends and were hanging out a bit to write and stuff and then the a team was released and it's just been a constant spiral upwards for him. It's been amazing to watch. He's currently had me on a couple of his tours around the UK and also to Paris which has been amazing.
Let's talk about your debut album Room For Light. Where did that name come from?
It's from a lyric in one of the songs, “a darker place has more room for light.” That's kind of the mood of the entire album. A lot of the song content is often a little more, sort of, darker I guess. I've lost some family members and as I said I lost my friend so it's based on these darker things that have happened. Saying that though I'm a happy person in general and very optimistic so it's all about looking at those things in the right way. I'm not saying all the songs are tragic (laughs) because they're not but that's just been my outlook on life, very optimistic. It's just an insight into my thoughts I suppose.
It seems like you have a very positive view on life even through all the hardships.
Yeah I think that can give you perspective at times. That's kind of my philosophy on it all, you don't know how many days you have left. Naturally you hope it's loads but I'm always trying to live life to the full. I know it sounds a little cheesy but that's how I feel.
What was the recording process like for the album?
It was awesome actually. Really, really good fun. I worked with a producer friend of mine, a guy called Patrick Wood and he's got sort of a converted shed in his garden, just a little wood shed, that we recorded it in. He's got a couple of decent mics and it was all about trying to capture that first performance really. We tried to get one solid take, just me and the guitar to try and capture the essence of each song. Once we were happy with that song we tried to build a bit of production around that but the production never got much bigger than what I do live. I usually perform with one or two other musicians in the UK but the idea with this but to add a bit more sound and depth around each song but we still wanted to keep that live feel to it. For example, you can hear me drawing breaths and my fingers moving along the fret board with that scratchy sound. It's got a real live feel to it, you know?
Absolutely. You don't want it to sound to fake which a fair few newer albums are sounding that way.
Yeah I guess that's almost the risk with the modern production method, you can make everything perfect. You can autotune, change the timing, change the drum sounds and just get everything so that it's technically correct but sometimes that can take from it what you're trying to add in. You can take out the soul and the character of it. We definitely avoided those kind of things.
What's the reception been like for the album?
Really good actually. Really, really positive. In the UK it did quite well, it even charted which was really exciting. It's just been released here in Australia, in December I think and we're pushing promotion more now. It's going to be released all over Europe in two months from now so it's really cool. It's only early stages but so far it's really good, especially public response.
That's really good. Congratulations.
Thank you.
What words of wisdom would you give to aspiring musicians?
You've gotta believe in yourself. With all these reality TV shows and the speed of the internet these days I think people often think these things will happen overnight. The reality is there's no substitute for hard work and it can take a long time and a lot longer than you'd like it to to get to where you want to be. Definitely what I'd say is take as many opportunities as you can because they can rise from the smallest and weirdest situations. For example I met Ed [Sheeran] playing in a small pub playing to maybe thirty five people about three or four years ago and from that tiny gig it's led to a lot of really good things. When I look back at my career and think about how I met a certain person or whatever it's quite often very random so it's all about taking the opportunities, believing in yourself and putting the work in.
What would you say is the best and worst thing about being a musician?
The best thing for me is that it doesn't feel like work, I mean I'm travelling the world. I get to travel and play to and meet interesting people in all different countries. It's fantastic, I absolutely love it. The only downside to it is, like anything there's pros and cons, it can take a toll on your social life. Even though I meet lots of people my old friends and family I see a lot less of these days because I'm touring a lot more. Generally for me though the pros outweigh the cons significantly.
I have noticed that you do tour a lot so how do you deal with always being on your road? And how do you go about keeping in contact with friends and family back home?
Well there's Facebook and Skype and Twitter and all those different social network type ways of doing it (laughs). With my friends we'll speak on the phone or text, same with my family. I try and Skype with my family at least twice a week if I can. Your good friends and family understand that I'm doing it and that it takes it toll on my life so it's fine. They support that. When I do get a few days off I try and see as many people as I can.
We'll make this the last question – once the Australian tour wraps up what are the plans for the rest of the year?
It's starting to fill out already. I've got a nice support tour [with Sunrise Avenue] starting in Europe on the twelfth of February. That's mainly around Germany but also touching around Switzerland and Austria as well. I've also got a tour in Scotland coming up and a lot of festivals all over Europe. Also, hopefully, the next Australian tour will come along very soon.
Yeah hopefully an Australian promoter will book you for a full Australian tour very soon.
Yeah that's what I'm hoping. I'd love to get back out here.
We'll wrap it up there. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me, it was a pleasure.
Thanks very much for taking the time to talk to me.
Matt Barton
Hello, mate. I'm good thank you. How's it going?
I'm great. Where are you in the world right now?
I'm in Sydney at the minute.
You must be excited to kick off your Australian headline shows tomorrow night?
Yeah. I've just finished supporting Busby Marou on their going coastal tour and then I'm excited to do a couple of my own shows, one in Sydney and one in Melbourne.
Are they your first headline shows of Australia?
Yeah they are.
What sort of crowd do you think you'll get?
(laughs) I'm not too sure to be honest. It's hard to tell. I've done a few promo things and a few support gigs but because these are my first headline shows I don't really know what to expect.
What was the reception like at the Busby Marou shows?
It's been great actually. Really, really nice. The crowds have been really responsive and buying a few albums and stuff. The venues have been great too.
Have you done much sight seeing while you've been here?
Yeah I've been doing a bit of touristy stuff and trying to see as much of the wildlife as possible. I climbed up the Harbour Bridge yesterday which was awesome. On the tour itself I've been trying to surf as much as possible really, all over the east coast. As south as Torquay and all the way up to Brisbane and along the Gold Coast. It's been amazing.
Back to your live shows, how would you describe your live show to someone who hasn't seen you before?
I guess the thing that people pick up on a lot is my style of playing guitar. It uses the whole body percussively. It's called “percussive fingerstyle” guitar playing, it's all about drumming on the body and sort of hammer on some pull offs and harmonics and stuff. It's a very interesting style of playing. It's quite visual. I learnt flamenco [guitar] as a kid so a lot comes from that. It's quite a full sound as well. I play a sort of keyboard thing with my feet (laughs) so there's sort of bass, percussion as well as guitar and singing going on. I guess that's it really. Those are the things that make me sort of stand out a bit more because there's a lot of men with guitars singing out there (laughs).
(laughs) very true! What bands and artists inspired you to want to be a musician?
I've played guitar all my life and my parents used to listen to artists like John Martin, so I listened to a lot of him. In more recent years it's been artists like John Mayer, Chris Martin and even James Blake more recently. I find a lot of inspiration in their work.
Can you tell me a bit about how you started into music and the highlights of your career so far?
Yeah, sure. Like I said, I've been playing guitar all my life but the singing is something that is a lot more recent. I lost a friend of mine just over five years ago and he was fit and healthy and died very suddenly basically and after that I really got into music, before that I'd been too nervous really. That made me sort of realise a few things about life, like just how short and fragile it can be so I decided to use that and have a bit of courage to do music and that's when I started singing.
Highlights wise, playing the Royal Albert Hall in London for a couple of nights as a support act [for Leona Lewis]. It's such a prestigious venue and so many of my favourite artists have played there so that was definitely a highlight for me.
You've also toured with Ed Sheeran, that must be another highlight?
Yeah that was amazing. I met Ed on the London gigging circuit about a year before it all really kicked off for him. We became friends and were hanging out a bit to write and stuff and then the a team was released and it's just been a constant spiral upwards for him. It's been amazing to watch. He's currently had me on a couple of his tours around the UK and also to Paris which has been amazing.
Let's talk about your debut album Room For Light. Where did that name come from?
It's from a lyric in one of the songs, “a darker place has more room for light.” That's kind of the mood of the entire album. A lot of the song content is often a little more, sort of, darker I guess. I've lost some family members and as I said I lost my friend so it's based on these darker things that have happened. Saying that though I'm a happy person in general and very optimistic so it's all about looking at those things in the right way. I'm not saying all the songs are tragic (laughs) because they're not but that's just been my outlook on life, very optimistic. It's just an insight into my thoughts I suppose.
It seems like you have a very positive view on life even through all the hardships.
Yeah I think that can give you perspective at times. That's kind of my philosophy on it all, you don't know how many days you have left. Naturally you hope it's loads but I'm always trying to live life to the full. I know it sounds a little cheesy but that's how I feel.
What was the recording process like for the album?
It was awesome actually. Really, really good fun. I worked with a producer friend of mine, a guy called Patrick Wood and he's got sort of a converted shed in his garden, just a little wood shed, that we recorded it in. He's got a couple of decent mics and it was all about trying to capture that first performance really. We tried to get one solid take, just me and the guitar to try and capture the essence of each song. Once we were happy with that song we tried to build a bit of production around that but the production never got much bigger than what I do live. I usually perform with one or two other musicians in the UK but the idea with this but to add a bit more sound and depth around each song but we still wanted to keep that live feel to it. For example, you can hear me drawing breaths and my fingers moving along the fret board with that scratchy sound. It's got a real live feel to it, you know?
Absolutely. You don't want it to sound to fake which a fair few newer albums are sounding that way.
Yeah I guess that's almost the risk with the modern production method, you can make everything perfect. You can autotune, change the timing, change the drum sounds and just get everything so that it's technically correct but sometimes that can take from it what you're trying to add in. You can take out the soul and the character of it. We definitely avoided those kind of things.
What's the reception been like for the album?
Really good actually. Really, really positive. In the UK it did quite well, it even charted which was really exciting. It's just been released here in Australia, in December I think and we're pushing promotion more now. It's going to be released all over Europe in two months from now so it's really cool. It's only early stages but so far it's really good, especially public response.
That's really good. Congratulations.
Thank you.
What words of wisdom would you give to aspiring musicians?
You've gotta believe in yourself. With all these reality TV shows and the speed of the internet these days I think people often think these things will happen overnight. The reality is there's no substitute for hard work and it can take a long time and a lot longer than you'd like it to to get to where you want to be. Definitely what I'd say is take as many opportunities as you can because they can rise from the smallest and weirdest situations. For example I met Ed [Sheeran] playing in a small pub playing to maybe thirty five people about three or four years ago and from that tiny gig it's led to a lot of really good things. When I look back at my career and think about how I met a certain person or whatever it's quite often very random so it's all about taking the opportunities, believing in yourself and putting the work in.
What would you say is the best and worst thing about being a musician?
The best thing for me is that it doesn't feel like work, I mean I'm travelling the world. I get to travel and play to and meet interesting people in all different countries. It's fantastic, I absolutely love it. The only downside to it is, like anything there's pros and cons, it can take a toll on your social life. Even though I meet lots of people my old friends and family I see a lot less of these days because I'm touring a lot more. Generally for me though the pros outweigh the cons significantly.
I have noticed that you do tour a lot so how do you deal with always being on your road? And how do you go about keeping in contact with friends and family back home?
Well there's Facebook and Skype and Twitter and all those different social network type ways of doing it (laughs). With my friends we'll speak on the phone or text, same with my family. I try and Skype with my family at least twice a week if I can. Your good friends and family understand that I'm doing it and that it takes it toll on my life so it's fine. They support that. When I do get a few days off I try and see as many people as I can.
We'll make this the last question – once the Australian tour wraps up what are the plans for the rest of the year?
It's starting to fill out already. I've got a nice support tour [with Sunrise Avenue] starting in Europe on the twelfth of February. That's mainly around Germany but also touching around Switzerland and Austria as well. I've also got a tour in Scotland coming up and a lot of festivals all over Europe. Also, hopefully, the next Australian tour will come along very soon.
Yeah hopefully an Australian promoter will book you for a full Australian tour very soon.
Yeah that's what I'm hoping. I'd love to get back out here.
We'll wrap it up there. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me, it was a pleasure.
Thanks very much for taking the time to talk to me.
Matt Barton