Matthew Ryan

Since arriving on the scene twelve years ago with the brilliant May Day, Matthew Ryan has built a reputation as a songwriter’s songwriter, having released a string of critically-acclaimed albums and toured with the likes of Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle and Nanci Griffith. His latest album is called Dear Lover, a work that he says offers “ultimate heroism in the dim moments of the human spirit.” American Songwriter caught up with the Pennsylvania native, before he embarks on a U.S. tour in support of the new album.

You recorded, produced and mixed Dear Lover in your home studio. How did this compare to your experiences recording other albums?

I love collaborative work, and the feel of making records with a gang of friends and producers. But this was something I’ve always wanted to do, to try and make an album from beginning to end more or less alone. I wanted to make the most distilled music I could. In my experience, when working with others, there’s always periods of good flow in contrast with moments of real friction. I assumed the friction and tension wouldn’t happen when working by myself, but it did. It was comical.

I’m glad I wasn’t streaming the making of Dear Lover online because people would have been dialing 911 on more than a few occasions. Sometimes it was just frustration over not embracing my limitations and turning them into strengths. Other times it was technical shortcomings of my equipment. But I did have friends come and play some violins, bass, accordion or sing from time to time. So that helped break it up a little. Still, there were many times when Dear Lover felt more like Moby Dick than making music. But I persevered and I’m proud of the results.

You decided to release the album digitally, with hard copies only being made available through your Web site. What drove that decision?

Actually Dear Lover will be released traditionally on February 16th, 2010 via distribution by CIMS/Junket Boy. We’ll be releasing the single “City Life” to radio in the coming weeks. The early digital release and mail-order via my website was aimed at building awareness, or artist development if you will. We wanted to bring the listeners in to raise awareness for the coming record and become advocates for Dear Lover. Traditional press and marketing is important, but Monica [my publicist] and I believe that listeners are equally as important in building the story of a record’s life.

Critics often use the words “underrated” or “underexposed” when talking about Matthew Ryan. Do you personally feel your work deserves a wider audience?

Hmmm, that’s a tough question. I don’t know if anyone deserves anything, but I do want to reach as many people as I can. I love writing, singing and creating the most beautiful and honest music I can. And I love playing shows where you experience firsthand that sense of community that music creates. I feel honored that my music is part of the soundtrack to so many people’s lives in so many different parts of the world. It’s a beautiful thing. I’ve always felt that my work by nature was gonna create a winding but rewarding road, and that’s proving to be true. I’ve never wanted to be famous, so my decisions career-wise were always based upon what was best for things like integrity, longevity, privacy and a long list of other nouns I hold dear.

You hail from Pennsylvania. What compelled you to move to Nashville?

I needed a change of location to give me a different sense of what was possible. I wanted some adventure, not necessarily just in music, but in life in general. Where I was from the road ahead seemed pretty predictable. I love Nashville but I’m planning on some future changes in location as well.

You thank Wallace Stevens and Seamus Heaney in the liner notes to Dear Lover. What is it about their poetry that you like?

Well, it’s great stuff. It connects me with a greater sense of my own humanity. Great art communicates with those parts of ourselves that maybe we often want to ignore, or we lean too much on God, love and/or hate for. I find the poetry of Stevens and Heaney speak to a particular sense of things that I need to read and feel, it’s comforting and energizing. I feel more centered after I read a great poem, I mean the world we live in can be beautiful, but often it just feels like hyper salesmen caught in traffic. “Description Without Place” by Wallace Stevens is particularly special to me. From Seamus Heaney, “The Skylight” sets me straight every single time.

Your songwriting has maintained a confessional tone through the years. Is this an aesthetic choice, or a way of exorcising demons?

I honestly don’t view my work as confessional. Maybe it’s a northern characteristic to be cynically optimistic or something. I don’t think much about this sort of thing. I write and sing what feels true to me, and when I open my mouth, that’s how it sounds. The central theme in my work is perseverance. The “I” in my songs isn’t always me, it’s usually a combination of people, places and things including myself. It’s not hard to look around and see that the human story is essentially a struggle between dark and light. Often the characters in my songs are wanting something that’s within their reach if only they’d think to grab it.

You’re also in a band called Strays Don’t Sleep. Any plans to record again with those boys?

Neilson Hubbard and I were actually tinkering around with some new Strays songs over Christmas. So it looks like there’s another Strays Don’t Sleep record or EP on the horizon. The stuff we’ve started is beautiful, really wide and big screen music. Don’t know when we’ll finish it though, we’re both quite busy.

Any advice for aspiring songwriters who are trying to make music their career?

I would just say, do only what you love and everything else will….

Click here for American Songwriter‘s 2008 interview with Mr. Ryan.