photo courtesy Elliott
Write, record, promote, tour nationally - rinse. Repeat for six years.
Tiring? Ryanhood thought so, and decided to come home last year for a reprieve from its DIY efforts to break into the music biz. It's not like the band wasn't making headway. The pop duo got plenty of cred by opening for the likes of Jason Mraz, Matt Nathanson, and Train.
What happened, wrote Cameron Hood via email, was "We just got so fatigued from meeting with labels and managers and big wigs who would basically say, 'Yeah, you guys are really talented, but we don't know how we would sell you.'"
Hood clarified that he and band mate Ryan Green didn't burn out on writing music; it was making the sales pitch. "We had to give ourselves permission to stop thinking about how we would market ourselves, how we were going to succeed and all that. Within a few months of being home, we were both feeling a lot more creative. We stopped asking, 'How will we market this?' and only asked, 'Is this beautiful? Does this move me?'"
"There's nothing like having the Catalinas to set you straight when you get turned around."
Re-focusing on those values, Ryanhood started recording its new album "After Night Came Sun" last December at Ryan Alfred's home studio. Alfred is credited as a producer, engineer and coach. "He just kept pushing us to make our performances as real and emotional as we could make them. I'm really grateful to him, because he got a lot out of us, and he kept it fun the whole time."
The 12-tracks definitely emanate emotional realism via romantic pop with top-notch musicianship and superb production, with songs that express the duo's personal and professional struggles and evolutions.
Highlights include:
- "Second City" is about 1871's Great Chicago Fire with fab pop sensibilities and hooks, Green's mandolin gives it an Irish ting; the percussion aptly accentuates the singing and instrumentation. Hood wrote the lyrics, inspired by the city's fire, its rebound and his break-up with a Chicago girl. "I was pretty taken with the concept that almost the entire city had burned completely to the ground, and then had been rebuilt even bigger and more beautiful the second time. When the relationship ended, I had that over-dramatic feeling like everything in my life was falling apart. But I thought, "You know, if a whole city can bounce back..."
- "Something More" is a soaring, heartfelt ballad about self-exploration and discovery that includes beautiful stings (Ben Nisbet, violin; Emma Votapek, viola) and lovely backing vocals.
- "The Meaning In Me" covers the universal theme about losing oneself. I've fallen apart, pretending I'm ok but I feel so far away, and I've lost the meaning in me. Scribed by Green, Hood explained that it speaks "to that feeling of being all about appearances and selling things, but losing your heart in the process."
There are many more exceptional cuts on the album, which features a stellar line-up of Tucson musicians, including: Silver Thread Trio, Chris Giambelluca, Nadim Shehab, Gary Mackender and numerous others.
Overall, Hood said he is "happy that we got to drop the business part of music for a while and make a big, colorful art project. We're better at songwriting than spreadsheets."
The CD release is Friday, November 4 at Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St.; Silver Thread Trio opens. Check out Ryanhood.com for links to tunes and videos. Visit TheZMag.com/article-816-ryanhood-coming-home.html for the full interview with Cameron Hood.
