David Ryan Harris: Inspired by Lyrics

David Ryan Harris is a soul singer.  And a guitar player.  And a producer.  And a song writer.  And not necessarily in that order.  As a musician he has toured,  and recorded with great artists like Richie Sambora, John Mayer, Dave Matthews, Santana, Better than Ezra, and others. He’s also a brilliant vocalist, and a talented songwriter with a solo career that he describes as “still beginning.”  He released his first solo album, “Bittersweet” in 2007 and he’s about to release his second, “Light Years.” He stopped by the SiriusXM studios earlier this week to perform some of the songs off the new album live, and talk music with Ron Bennington.  Excerpts from the interview and clips from the performances appear below.

* * *

Harris, who funded the new album through crowdsourcing, talked about how he got his start as a musician.  He was a little kid who just loved to sing all of the time, he told Bennington..  Eventually he realized that he didn’t just want to sing other people’s songs, and became inspired to write his own.  With  a great love for lyrics and stories,  his early inspiration came from songwriters like Stevie Wonder, and Elvis Costello.

“…Elvis Costello and Stevie Wonder were like my two, sort of storytellers.  I felt like when I listened to Songs in the Key of Life I sat right between the speakers and I felt like I was in his world and he was telling me a story.  And I felt like once the songs were done,  I knew something about that guy singing that song.  And the same with Elvis Costello except, I didn’t know anything about him,  I just knew about how he observed the world.  So I just wanted to be somewhere in between those two.   When you get done listening to my record, you kind of know what I’m about and  you know how I observe things and see the world.”

He was still pretty young when he realized that the songs weren’t just songs– they were about something.  “You feel like you put a little puzzle together.  Like, ‘oooh I know what he’s talking about.”  Getting the metaphors was a particularly great feeling.   “You almost felt like you were having a secret conversation with the songwriter.  Like ‘aww I got you, I know what  you’re talking about.’”

Then he started playing guitar when he was sixteen, and soon after started playing in a band.  “I met four other dudes who liked to do it all the time [too].  And we never had any designs on like—we’re going to do this and get a deal.  We just did it because we loved it.  And then people liked it and it just sort of progressed from there.” By his mid twenties, he knew he didn’t want to do anything else, dropped out of college, and pursued his music full time.

In addition to his solo career, Harris has spent years working with other bands– whether touring with them as a guitarist, recording in studio with other bands, or producing other musicians.  He’s learned a lot about the business from spending so much time around music and musicians.  “People ask all the time, what’s the secret or what’s the shortcut or whatever.” He tells people,

“Number one…just be cool to be around.  Because you only play for like an hour–  hour and a half.  Which means you got to be around these people for like twenty something hours.     So if you’re not a person that people want to be around—you don’t get the gig.”  When he interviewed with Richie Sambora to go on tour, “there were no guitars…. my audition for Ritchie was, to go to his house and we got food.”  Of course, you have to have the skills, but “once you get to a certain level, they just assume that you’re proficient enough to be there.”

After having a career for twenty five years in music, with much more to come, he feels grateful.

 “I didn’t know how I was gonna make it at times but I ‘m really grateful to be ablle to have had a career.  You talk about stardom…and that kind of freaks me out. I  just want to make music because I love it.  I mean I want to go to the grocery store and I don’t want people in my bushes.  So if that means that there’s some kind of ceiling on myself, I’m fine with that.”

You can preorder the new album, “Lightyears” on pledgemusic.com. And of course you can hear the interview in its entirety exclusively on SiriusXM satellite radio.  Get more info on the man and his music at onesheet.com/davidryanharris and follow him on twitter @drh3.

* * *

.

.

================================================

Pre-order Lightyears on pledgemusic.com and find out more about David Ryan Harris on onesheet.com/davidryanharris and on twitter @DRH3

.

You can hear this interview in its entirety exclusively on SiriusXM satellite radio.  Not yet a subscriber?  Click here for a free trial subscription.

.

You can learn more about Ron Bennington’s two interview shows, Unmasked and Ron Bennington Interviews at RonBenningtonInterviews.com.

* * *