A Conversation with Ryan Aderréy – HuffPost 5.27.14

Mike Ragogna: Ryan, there’s an interesting quote made about your debut album What If. “If it was a movie, this promising singer/songwriter would be the self-assured lead character that possesses maturity, quiet confidence, leadership and, most of all, real talent.” How much of that is hype and how much is true…come on, you can tell me!

Ryan Aderréy: [laughs] Well, someone was hired to write all that, and I think they did a good job, but it’s all true. I think we’re bursting onto the scene and are doing it in a major way, so yeah, I’m going to say it’s all true.

MR: [laughs] What is your reaction to having a hit on Billboard?

RA: You know what, it doesn’t feel real. I woke up today and I looked at the framed picture of it we have hanging on our wall, and it really doesn’t seem like it happened. If you’d asked me a year ago if we’d be in this position, I would have told you were crazy. It’s surreal, but I’m honored and really proud, and am happy all the hard work finally paid off.

MR: Tell me about the hard work that went into this. I want to hear the Ryan Aderréy story from Ryan Aderréy’s perspective.

RA: Sure. I started in this business just producing. At the time I was going to Boston University and was playing soccer, and music wasn’t really my main focus. It was always a passion and was there on the side, but it wasn’t my main focus. I started doing music, and when I graduated I got a little attention from the production so I thought, “Maybe I’ll pursue this a little bit.” I got a little frustrated because it was going nowhere. I was in the presence of world-renowned vocal coach Anita Wilson. She heard me sing – just joking around, it wasn’t even serious – and she said, “If you come and work with me and really stick with this, you can be a singer.” And that’s exactly what I did. For about two years I went every day to her for an hour a day, and the rest is history.

MR: How did you get to the point where What If came together, creatively?

RA: It took a long time. I work with a writing team that I’ve assembled, and some of these songs they began a long time ago, in the ’70s, and they never materialized. They were brought back to the forefront when we went a studio down in Miami and we tried out some productions and some engineers. We tested it with radio and the radio wasn’t responding to it, so we scrapped it. That was a year wasted. Then we came back and found producer Zach Ziskin. who’s a Grammy-winning producer who’s worked for Warner Brothers and Universal. He made the productions modern and fit them to our melodies and to our vibe with the words. It took about two years just for What If to even materialize, so it’s been a long road.

MR: I think a lot of people would relate to “Without Hope.” What was your relationship like with this person and how did it inspire you to want to write that song?

RA: I wrote that song based on the experiences on one of my best friends. He grew up struggling in a household with abusive parents, and I think that, to this day, he hasn’t gotten himself out of that situation emotionally or mentally, but the point is that he never gave up. He always kept hope and he always put his head down and kept trudging along, and I think that is something that everyone can relate to. They’ve either been in it, or they’ve seen someone in it, and I really wanted to write about it. At first he wasn’t too happy that everyone was hearing his story, but then he warmed up to it and was really glad that the message got out.

MR: Do you think that maybe the people who were in his life and also heard it took a sober moment or two to think about it?

RA: I hope so. I’m not sure if they did, but I hope that if they heard it, they learned from it and decided at that very moment to change themselves as people and to better themselves and to be better parents. I really do hope so.

MR: Every song seems to have a message, for instance, “What Ifs & Broken Promises.” It seems that a lot of people can’t say “no,” or they have good intentions and that leads them to those “what-ifs and broken promises.” Do you think it’s fair to say that?

RA: It’s obviously going to be different on a case-by-case basis. I think you’re 100% correct that people bite off more than they can chew, and they don’t do it on purpose; they have the best of intentions and it just doesn’t work out and they end up playing the role of the bad guy. And there are also times where people are just mean-spirited, it’s just their nature and they end up acting the way they do.

MR: Another big moment on the record is “A Miracle, My Love.” What motivated that one?

RA: That was a personal experience of mine. It’s basically about waking up in the morning and feeling like you have nothing to live for. And then this person comes along and they completely change the way you see the world. You start seeing miracles in the smallest things you may not have given a second thought to before, and in doing so, they become your miracle. I wrote that because it happened to me.

MR: Ryan, you sound like a romantic.

RA: I am. I’m a hopeless romantic at heart.

MR: Are you a hopeless romantic because that’s maybe what you witnessed in your family? Do you think that may have influenced that and/or your creativity?

RA: I think so. It’s what I witness growing up, and my family’s very creative and I think that by nature creative people are very emotional, and can be hopeless romantics. I think it was a combination of the two.

MR: What is it that you picked up from your creative family?

RA: My father was a songwriter in London for a long time. He was a part of Apple Records. My grandfather was the lead trumpet player for Tony Bennet, and my mother sang background and reference tracks all the time. It’s just in my blood.

MR: Did you think you ever had a chance to escape music?

RA: [laughs] No, probably not. I remember growing up on weekends and hearing The Beatles, Jackson Browne and Bob Dylan on the stereo. It was around twenty-four seven.

MR: Do you have any favorite artists and/or songs from that period?

RA: I love Bob Dylan. I credit him for a lot of the better lyricists today. I always loved Jackson Browne melodies. I thought they were very soothing and very easy to listen to. The Beatles are an obvious answer. Santana, too; I grew up listening to Santana’s guitar playing and I thought he was a genius.

MR: What do you strive for when you’re creative something and what’s you creative process?

RA: In terms of songwriting, I don’t think you fake it; I think you have to go off personal experiences, so I sit down when I want to write something and think, “What am I going through right now that others can relate to?” I know a lot of songwriters just write theoretical ideas and they might not be going through it, or they might not have ever experienced it, and I think that the audience will eventually catch onto that and see through it. I try to be relatable, and I want the audience to say, “I’ve been through that, and it’s really nice that I can hear someone else say that they’ve been through that, too.”

MR: Can you remember the first song you ever wrote?

RA: Yeah, I can remember it, but I’m not going to share it because it was pretty bad.

MR: [laughs] So in your opinion, over the years, you’ve gotten better.

RA: Yes, I think I’ve grown over the years as a songwriter and as an artist and I think that’s ultimately the goal.

MR: Ryan, what advice would you give to new artists?

RA: I get asked this a lot, and my biggest advice I have–and yes, recording songs and putting material out for listeners to hear is vital–is to network. There’s no bridge too small you can build, and you never know, one thing leads to another, leads to another, leads to another. It’s all about who you know. So put out as many recordings as you can, keep your listeners happy, but network. But do it the right way. Go shake hands, don’t just ask for a handout or say, “Hey, can you listen to my song?” No. Say, “I’d appreciate if you’d listen to this, and I’d be more than happy to do X for you.” If you do that, people really appreciate it, it stays with them, and they’ll remember you for future opportunities. So network, network, network, and do it the right way.

MR: Nice, thanks. Have you heard “A Miracle, My Love” playing on the radio yet?

RA: I have. We were in Indiana and Illinois and we heard it in the car. We’d never heard it live on the air, and we were thrilled.

MR: When are we going to hear the David Guetta remix of “A Miracle, My Love”?

RA: Anytime that David wants to contact me, he’d be more than welcome to take one of the songs and remix it any time that he felt like it. Also, my favorite electronic group is Cruella, so if they wanted to do a remix of it, I think I’d die and go to Seventh Heaven.

MR: [laughs] What does the future hold for Mr. Ryan Aderréy?

RA: Well, we’ve already recorded the second album. As we speak I’m down in Miami doing the second single. June 2nd we go on the tour to the west coast. We start in San Diego at Summer Sessions, which is a really big singer/songwriter showcase we were invited to. So we start there, and make our way up to LA where we play The House Of Blues. Then Las Vegas, playing The Hard Rock, and we’re just going to touring the west coast for the whole month of June. That’s what the immediate future holds.

MR: Your answers are pretty succinct and on point with brevity. So I want to know what sports coach worked with you in order to answer questions?

RA: [laughs] Well it was when I went over to play in Amsterdam. I was playing professional soccer for about three years and they had an interview coach. So I have been coached since about 2003. I know how speak. You’re exactly right, they tell you when to stop, not to stutter, not to use “Uh” or other fillers. They tell you all the tricks. I’ve been coached-up for a while.

MR: Aha! Ryan, I appreciate the interview. Did we cover everything?

RA: You can go to my website, www.ryanaderrey.com, and all the big ones like Facebook and Twitter, and they’re all /ryanaderrey, so they’re very easy to find.