Kieran Webber
Director and Founder of CLUNK Magazine, CLUNK Events, and other CLUNK affiliate businesses. You’ll probably find me tucked away somewhere sending emails, listening to music, and creating content.
We chat with Bristol’s Ryan McMurtry about his new single ‘Summer Rain’, life as a Bristol based musician, and much more
As part of his upcoming EP, Bristol based Ryan McMurtry dropped his latest single ‘Summer Rain’, an apt single for this somewhat disappointed summer (weather wise at least). It’s a golden tinted number that has a retrospective sound akin to Neil Young.
After the stunning serenade from Ryan we wanted to find out more about his solo project, the influence behind his upcoming EP, and much more.
Kieran: Cheers for taking the time to chat with us today! How have you been?
Ryan: I’ve been great, thank you. Spending my time endorsing Guinness (unofficially) in beer gardens across the city.
Kieran: How’s your summer treating you so far? Any highs? Any lows?
Ryan: The summer has been busy but in a good way – some lovely gigs and festivals in Bristol and beyond with my bands, Sugarmoon and Play Misty. Play Misty’s debut EP ‘At the Cube’ has been on BBC Introducing in recent months, which has been exciting for us and I’m so happy to be releasing solo music for the first time this year.
Kieran: What’s life like as an artist in Bristol?
Ryan: The music scene is always thriving in Bristol and it’s great to be involved in it. The standard of artists and musicians is immense, so you need to always push yourself to be getting gigs and feel like you’re making progress. If you go somewhere with live music on in Bristol, there’s a good chance you will witness someone who’s better at your instrument than you. I find that to be nice and humbling!
Also, when it comes to finding people to collaborate with, you’re always spoilt for choice.
Kieran: You have a real 70s tinged retrospective sound so I am curious to know what artists influence you?
Ryan: I think my taste is quite eclectic, but I do love music from the 60s and 70s. I listened a lot to the work of Fred Neil and Ronnie Lane, underappreciated folk songwriters from that time, in the build-up to writing this new solo stuff, so I think you can hear that.
I am trying to be better at listening to modern music rather than just defaulting to older stuff. Some contemporary artists I love at the minute include Maple Glider, Lemon Twigs, Chris Brain and Bristol’s Eve Appleton Band.
Kieran: In general, within music, there seems to be a yearning for the past in multiple genres. Why do you think this is?
Ryan: I think people maybe see the past as some kind of ‘golden era’ for music, especially if you like anything guitar based. It doesn’t help that making a living from music is so difficult today.
But I don’t think it means guitar music has got worse or anything. There are just so many genres and styles today to compete with guitar music, also electronic music can seem easier to do original stuff but also pay the bills. So it totally makes sense that today’s artists take up those genres. If they were around 30 or 40 years ago, they might have been in a band or playing folk or something. If you’re doing folk-pop / Americana kind of stuff today, you really do need to do it for the love!
For me personally, I listen to older music a lot mainly as I just love the simplicity of the records and the focus on melody. With modern production, you can add tracks forever if you want. But being brave and making a song with only a few elements still really appeals to me.
Kieran: You recently dropped your latest single ‘Summer Rain’, can you talk us through this song and what it means to you?
Ryan: It’s part of an EP that will come later this year where the tracks are touching on time. ‘Summer Rain’ is sort of about the transience of time, feeling a bit lost in it, thinking about the past and worrying about the future, dealing with change. I’m sure we’ve all lost ourselves in time to a degree over the last few years. So, if you like worrying about time and life, this one’s for you.
Listen to ‘Summer Rain’ here:
Kieran: Can you walk us through your writing and recording process for this release?
Ryan: I had some ideas swirling around for doing something with echoey, tremolo electric guitar which sort of matches the idea of being in a dream or between times or places. So, I wrote it on acoustic guitar like I do most of my music, then had my Sugarmoon bandmate Ollie Grant record drums, then I laid down the bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar and vocals myself. That’s pretty much it – only five elements.
It was produced by Nathan Long and mastered by Emily Magpie. Everyone involved is based in Bristol.
Kieran: Did you do anything differently with this release that you think you will take over into the next release?
Ryan: The full band / electric thing is quite different for my solo stuff. I usually make it more acoustic and often it’s just me and the guitar – I felt like mixing it up this time as it suited the songs and the ideas. But it certainly gives you way more options and I’ll be open to full band solo stuff again in future – when I can afford it!
Kieran: Lastly, what else can we expect from you in 2024?
Ryan: There is lots to come still this year for me. The rest of the EP will come in Autumn, it’s ready to go but will feature an animated video on one song that I’m mega excited about, by the stop motion animator Harriet Bradbury. Once that’s done, you’ll know.
And check out my bands Play Misty and Sugarmoon who have lots coming out this year too.
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