Tony Scott: 0:13

Welcome to The Jay Franze Show, a behind-the-curtain look at the entertainment industry, with insights you can't pay for and stories you've never heard. Now here's your host, Jay Franze.

Jay Franze: 0:42

Well, hello, hello, hello and welcome to the show. I am Jay Franze and this is your Backstage Pass to the Music Industry. This week, we get to talk with a country music recording artist. We get to talk with Rye Rivers. We'll talk to him about his recent name change, how he's been able to assemble such an amazing team at the start of his career, and, well, we'll discuss his songwriting process. Now, rye, he is not only an amazing talent, but he is an amazing person and I can't wait to talk with him tonight. So if you would like to join in, comment or fire off any questions, please head over to jfranzycom. Now let's get started. Well, we just mentioned your name. Let's just go ahead and get that over with right out of the gate here. What is the deal with the name change?

Ry Rivers: 1:32

Yeah, so for those of you who don't know, I recently changed my artist name from Ryan Adam, which was my birth name from my mother, to Rye Rivers. It was a big decision for me, being that my mother gave me that name, but it's something I've always felt like I needed to do and it suited me for earlier in my artist career I started off really in pop soul music artist career. I started off really in pop soul music is where I kind of started releasing music under Ryan Adam. But country is something that's always been true to my heart and something that's always been a part of me. I mean, I can remember times in recording studios with the producers for like a pop record or something and they're like you sound really country. Let's sing that a different way and I had to kind of change how I sang it. So it's always been something that's dear to me, to my heart, it's authentic to who I am, and it just felt like the natural time to make the name change because the new projects that I have coming out are absolutely country to their core. So it felt like if I was going to do it, now's the time to do it. Another factor behind it was there is a Ryan Adams and a Brian Adams. So for SEO purposes, I was like this just makes so much sense and I'm so happy I did it. Now, like seeing it everywhere and performing under it, and it was a. It was a lot.

Ry Rivers: 2:40

I didn't realize how much comes with changing your artist name. I mean you don't realize it and you don't think about it until you're like holy crap, all right, I gotta change that, I gotta do that. I gotta do merch. I gotta change my email address. I gotta change my website, I gotta. Oh, the hardest part is is transferring your catalog on the dsp switch, like apple music and spotify and stuff, so that all my music that I put out switches over to the new name. Some stores give you a hard time about that, not gonna say a name, but it's a forbidden fruit um where, like they don't, they won't let you change travel your music under your new name. So it's been a whole struggle but I think that I have a really good team with me. We've just kind of been working through it together.

Jay Franze: 3:20

Well, how long would you say it takes from start to finish when you decide to change your name, until it actually gets complete?

Ry Rivers: 3:28

I think it really depends on who you have working with you. I think it really depends on who you have working with you. If you're doing it completely by yourself, it can be very overwhelming and it can take you weeks. And it also depends on kind of how tech savvy you are in terms of, like you know, example, for the website you have to purchase a new domain name. Then you got to transfer your current website to that new domain name. Then you got to make sure everything else that linked to your old website links to your new website and all that like if like. For example, my email address is linked to my website, so I had to transfer all those and then make sure all those old email addresses forward to the new email address. So just the little technical nuances of it can be super annoying and if you're not well versed in it can be like completely overwhelming.

Ry Rivers: 4:11

Thankfully well, I guess thankfully, but I did this all the hard way. I've done it all myself. I've completely. I've done my whole artist journey by myself, so I learned how to do that throughout the years of doing this, so I had an idea of how to do it. All you forget as you do it because it's over like the process of many years. So it's like, oh crap, let me pull up youtube and figure out how to do this again. Ah, there, it is Okay. So, yeah, it can be pretty overwhelming, but but I'm happy with it. It was a lot of work and I knew it was going to be a lot of work, you know, on the front end, but I'm I'm happy that I did it and it's been working out really well for me so far.

Ry Rivers: 4:45

Well, as we talk about, the more authentic to who you are in the social media accounts and the website. How important do you feel branding is to you in your career? I mean, I think it's everything for artists nowadays Just stemming from. The. Artists are their own business, right, even in terms of like getting a record deal. The game has changed so much that labels back in the day used to have this whole infrastructure where they would discover talent. Bring you in, do the whole a and r thing, coach you do everything right, build you from the bottom to the top and then put you out there and you have a whole team behind it, where now the game's changed so much that they're looking at how can we insert ourselves and invest in you? They look for artists who already have things going on. They have fans, they have tours, they have merch, they're bringing in revenue and it's like how can we come in as a partner? Here's half a million dollars for your marketing to take you to the next level, and blah, blah, blah blah.

Ry Rivers: 5:41

So branding is everything. On top of that, the market is just so saturated. I think there's like a hundred thousand songs that get released on spotify every day. I mean it's some insane statistic. So how do you separate yourself through all that noise, and it's through your branding. Unfortunately, I think we live in the society today where people see you before they hear you as well. Right, right. So tiktok has completely changed the game. I mean, that's how music's discovered nowadays, fortunately.

Jay Franze: 6:13

But fortunately, you know, for independent artists, you can have a viral moment and make a whole career off of tiktok and stuff well, if it wasn't for those opportunities of tiktok, instagram and so on, you'd still be knocking on doors trying to prove yourself to somebody else exactly, and the gatekeepers and everything that goes with all that.

Ry Rivers: 6:32

So it's fortunate, but I think it's more fortunate than unfortunate. You know that we have that ability to do that now. So the long answer to your question is it's extremely important and it's, I would say, hand in hand almost with the music, the branding and the visuals and everything.

Jay Franze: 6:51

Well, let's take it a step further. As we talk about branding and we talk about the importance of social media when it comes to an independent artist, especially these days when it's all on your shoulders, you are still young in your career and yet you've already got a team started for you and everything like that. How are you doing it so early in your career a team?

Tony Scott: 7:13

started for you and everything like that.

Ry Rivers: 7:17

How are you doing it so early in your career? Um, I think I'm early in my career, but I've been doing it for so long. I'm just starting to now see the success because I've been working at it for so long and I think, when people around you and you find the right people and they believe in you and they see that it's a lot easier to build a team, you know, when they see that you're not the weakest link on the chain and you're working just as hard, if not five times harder, than them, which you have to be as the artist, you're the one leading the team. I think that and I think I think luck Again. I've been doing this since about 2018 is when I released my first single. So I would just say luck, yeah, honestly luck and hard work, just putting your head down, doing it so that when the right person comes along at the right time and they're willing to invest in your career whether that's financially, whether that's just jumping on board and being like, hey, you know better than one, just someone to even throw ideas off, who's in your corner and can maybe be there at your gigs and filming you, or being there when you're trying to shoot content Like no, that's weird, let's try this.

Ry Rivers: 8:20

Or how about this? How about this Just meeting on a weekly basis? Anything as simple as that. It's so monumental. It really does take a team and I mean, I'm just starting to get a team and it's already been like life-changing, to be honest well, you've got a very good team of people behind you right now, so you can't thank, you can't complain too much about that.

Ry Rivers: 8:41

I cannot complain at all.

Jay Franze: 8:42

I'm very lucky and very blessed all right, so let's talk about your location. I know I mentioned at the beginning of this that you were from Florida yep isida the original residence, or did you move to florida?

Ry Rivers: 8:54

nope, I am a true native, born and raised in my area one of the few one of the few.

Jay Franze: 9:00

Yes, I'm a rare breed what part of florida are we talking about?

Ry Rivers: 9:04

so I was raised split between pompano beach, florida, which is like a cozy beachside town just north of fort lauderdale for anyone who's kind of familiar with the area and super north of Miami. Split between that and Okeechobee, florida, which is I would call it Central Florida, where I was raised kind of on a farm there. That's where my dad lives and my mom lives here in Pompano.

Jay Franze: 9:26

Well, I ask you that because I spent time in Florida. I lived there for six years and spent some time, most of my time, in Orlando central.

Ry Rivers: 9:34

Florida.

Jay Franze: 9:35

And then I also spent some time out in the Tampa area Beautiful, so I'm somewhat familiar. My sister-in-law lives down, used to live in Miami, now lives in Fort Lauderdale.

Ry Rivers: 9:46

Okay.

Jay Franze: 9:51

So I have quite a bit of friends who are still down there. But the reason I ask that is I spend a lot of time around the different areas of Florida and they each have their different pocket of music, a different feel to their music. So how important do you think the location being split like that plays into your style of music?

Ry Rivers: 10:08

I think it's super important. I mean, besides my parents being such a huge musical influence on me, florida is just such a diverse state culturally and musically. I mean I live in pompano right now, which is like like anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes from miami. But miami is like a different world, like it's just so different than the rest of the the state and even just all the outer cities along the coast of florida is so different than the rest of like I would say anything from central florida to the panhandle.

Ry Rivers: 10:40

I would say florida is the only state where you go north to go south, where, like where I live, my dad's farm is like two and a half hours away from here and people who are native to okachobee have thick southern accents and it's it's just crazy because it's like then you go to pompano, where they sound like me, and then you go to miami and it's in the whole nother world. So it's just it's a really diverse state. I've always loved that about florida. There's so so much life here and different things, that and all the natural beauty that Florida has. I would not want to be raised anywhere else. I love my state.

Jay Franze: 11:16

I'm from Boston.

Ry Rivers: 11:17

Oh cool, a Yankee, as they say yeah, I have family from there, from Massachusetts. They live in a Needham and Plymouth okay, yeah, very cool.

Jay Franze: 11:28

Now, the reason I bring this up is because, being a northerner, and I currently live what I call North Nashville I live in Kentucky now. I spent 20 plus years in Nashville and just moved a little further north so we could raise the family up here Cool. But you come across more like people from Boston than you do from people from Nashville or even Florida, so do you feel like the transients that are in and out of Florida play a part in who you are?

Ry Rivers: 12:05

A lot of the transients down here are from New York. I don't see myself like that at all. I think I'm way more laid back than them. No shade to the New Yorkers. They move a lot differently.

Jay Franze: 12:18

I have nothing against New York my family's from New York but I am a Bostonian through and through, so you know we have to at least cut the line right there at the Yankees.

Ry Rivers: 12:27

Yeah, you got your car outside and your water and your coffee.

Jay Franze: 12:30

And park the car on Harvard Yard.

Ry Rivers: 12:32

Yeah, yeah, go watch the Sox play.

Jay Franze: 12:41

All right, enough of that, anyways. So your father had a farm and your parents were musical influences on your career, has a farm.

Ry Rivers: 12:44

He still has it. He still lives there.

Jay Franze: 12:46

What kind of farm are we?

Ry Rivers: 12:47

talking about. Just a simple farm. We have goats, chickens, pigs I had hogs at one point turkeys, I mean. He's retired up there now, so it's just more so for fun rather than like a for-profit farm. So he just lives out in the middle of nowhere and loves it.

Jay Franze: 13:07

That's awesome though.

Ry Rivers: 13:08

Yeah.

Jay Franze: 13:08

I love it If they were musical influences in your life. What style of music were they listening to?

Ry Rivers: 13:14

yeah, so my mom was more of like the r&b, soul, jazz stuff and my dad was definitely more country and classic rock all right.

Jay Franze: 13:26

Now again, just because you mentioned it, I need to know what. What do you consider to be classic rock?

Ry Rivers: 13:34

Classic rock. Anything from like the 60s to late 70s anything in that area I would consider classic rock. So I mean I was raised on a lot of Lynyrd Skynyrd, to Bon Jovi, to All right, well, you had me up to Bon Jovi.

Jay Franze: 13:52

I mean I like Bon Jovi, but it's a little bit more 80s 80s and 90s rock Boston. We're back in favor here. Boston's probably one of the best bands ever.

Ry Rivers: 14:06

Musically and vocally. Oh yeah, try and cover a Boston song. Good luck.

Jay Franze: 14:11

No, thank you. So, your parents being influences, were they musicians themselves?

Ry Rivers: 14:17

no, I am the only musical person in my family. My dad messes around with the harmonica. That is about it, I think. On both sides of my family the only other person, like my one uncle, is an artist, a visual artist, who plays the drums. But that is it. I am the only one completely self-taught.

Jay Franze: 14:36

I had to learn all myself so how did the influence turn into actually performing music?

Ry Rivers: 14:44

yeah, I always knew from a young kid music hit me differently. I always knew it was more than just infatuation or romantic about it. I knew it was the only thing that made me happy in life. I mean, I find myself still to this day, waking up and it's the first thing I think about, whether it's singing or songwriting or something. I knew it's what I wanted to do from a very early age. That's, I think, what forced me to put in my 10 000 hours and learn the craft of songwriting, kind of by myself.

Ry Rivers: 15:15

In this area, outside of a real writing community like what is offered in nashville or la, you know, down here in florida a lot of the music scene if you're in miami, the latin, you're in the latin scene, that's great. But outside of that, the the music scene down here is a lot of like gig driven. So it's a lot of people, you know, with that just out for themselves, just looking to make a living, where it's not like a real artist community, I'd say you know here, where it's just creators just trying to create and collaborate and stuff like that. So yeah, I just knew it's what I wanted to do and it's always touched me in different ways ever since I was a little kid. I started off with like poetry and beatboxing, actually just because I did go up around a lot of instruments, so that was something I could do by myself, you know.

Ry Rivers: 16:01

From there I um, you know, started taking piano lessons around like seriously, I would say around like ninth grade is when I really started to jump into it heavily. My mom tried to put me in piano lessons in like fourth grade is when I really started to jump into it heavily. My mom tried to put me in piano lessons in like fourth grade but I just was too young and ADD and didn't want to take the time to practice as a fourth grader and my mom's like all right, not paying for it. We tried. But once I got into about middle school, high school, I was like no, I need to learn how to play an instrument. That's how you, you know, write songs and stuff. So that's how I got into playing keys and stuff.

Jay Franze: 16:33

Well, you mentioned Florida being gig-driven. When it comes to the music scene, now, when I was there, it was in the 90s, and in the 90s there was a heavy rock scene. You had bands like Matchbox 20, von Ray and a few others that I really enjoyed, so the music scene was great for that, but that was in the Orlando area.

Ry Rivers: 16:52

I was about to say was it Orlando Right?

Jay Franze: 16:55

But then, as you started to go outside of Orlando, you ended up in the different pockets. But it's not just gig-driven, I mean, it's tourist-driven. So you end up with cruise ships, you end up with theme parks, you end up with hotels that are bringing people in to perform music. So the music scene is huge there and you can make a living playing music your entire life. Don't get me wrong Just playing covers at a bar or a hotel.

Ry Rivers: 17:18

You can get gigs and the best part about it is it's year-round, right. We don't have to deal with the weather or anything. You can be playing outside in December through December of the next year. So it's great, like, like I said, it's great for gigs. You can keep gigs all throughout the year. We do have a bit of a season down here, I would say, in terms of like tourism, where it does slow down, like september, the summertime, so that could affect a little bit, but yeah, for the most part you can get gigs because it's just such a tourist state. All right. So your parents were influences you started playing piano.

Jay Franze: 17:51

You wanted to write songs. For the most part, you can get gigs because it's just such a tourist state, all right. So your parents were influences. You started playing piano. You wanted to write songs. You started putting songs together. At what point did you start performing those songs out live?

Ry Rivers: 18:02

Yeah, I really started performing, I would say in early high school, because that's when I really started to force myself to try and get gigs and perform, whether it's like locally through educational things with the school or just like local talent shows or stuff like that. But gigging for real, for real, like where you actually get paid real money, I would say probably around freshman year of college, sophomore year of college. You know, that's when I really was like all right, we want to do this for real, this is what it takes, and you got to start making money with it.

Jay Franze: 18:41

What?

Ry Rivers: 18:41

college are we talking about? Not far from here, right up the road, Florida Atlantic University, FAU.

Jay Franze: 18:46

All right, and what was the major of choice?

Ry Rivers: 18:50

I double majored. So I majored in business administration and I also majored in commercial music business. So you know I wanted to have the business side of it, because I know that's a huge component of it. And it made my parents happy too, Don't get me wrong. They always believed in me, but it was just like OK, cool, we can do that.

Jay Franze: 19:09

Oh, I know exactly what you're talking about. I told my father I wanted to drop out of architectural engineering to go into audio engineering and he said that's fine, but you need to have a backup plan. Sure, so I have a degree in business as well as audio engineering.

Ry Rivers: 19:22

Cool. I mean it's a great tool to have, even just to learn the skills, if you don't use it. For me, college is all about making connections and learning new skills that you wouldn't have learned elsewhere. So I loved it for that and I always, always throughout my education, kept music in it somehow, so doing that double major, I loved it. You know, I got to be in the music program with all the music kids, but I didn't have to major in music and I could still do the whole business side and mingle and meet all those people that way, so it was great.

Jay Franze: 19:54

Do you remember the first?

Ry Rivers: 19:55

gig that you played that paid you. Yes, yes, and it was an acoustic gig. So just me, and I had my accompanying me on piano as well, here in Fort Lauderdale at a bar.

Jay Franze: 20:17

Yeah, what was the feeling like when you received your first payment?

Ry Rivers: 20:22

See, bob and dad, you can make money doing this. I told you uh, it was, it was really cool, cause it's like wow, I just made money off something that I love doing and I would have done it for free, if they didn't even say that too loud yeah, I know that was back then. It's different now. Got bills to pay now all right.

Jay Franze: 20:46

So when you started writing songs for yourself, do you remember which song was the first one that made you feel like okay, I think I can make this happen.

Ry Rivers: 20:57

Oh yeah, actually early on, I would say in middle school is really when I fell in love with songwriting and I discovered putting singing, playing and telling stories together that you can make a career out of it, and then researching it and being like, wow, yeah, people do this for a living. This is crazy. And the people that you see on TV and hear on the radio aren't the only ones that are involved with making these songs, and there's actually a whole network of people behind all these songs who write them and bring them to your ears, and most people have no idea and they think it's just like one person in a room writing the song and it's the artist. That it's not true what song was this?

Ry Rivers: 21:40

that song was called um, please just stay. And I actually co-wrote it with a, a friend at the time, and she was actually the, the person who got me into singing. Because we did a, we did a talent show and I had missed the deadline for the talent show. And she was actually the person who got me into singing because we did a, we did a talent show and I had missed the deadline for the talent show. And she was like out front of the venue and she's like well, hey, you know what are you doing? I'm about to go do my um audition. I'm playing guitar, what do you do? And I was like, well, I beatboxed. She was like, okay, that's weird, but maybe we could just do it together. And I was like you want me to audition with you? And she's like, yeah, I was like, okay, cool.

Ry Rivers: 22:13

So, long story short, we did it, we made it onto the talent show and then, through like rehearsing and stuff, she was like so you don't sing or anything like have you tried singing? And I was like, no, not really like singing. I beat boxing, like I write poetry and rap and stuff. We talked about freestyle at my brother's parties. For him, it's like a fun thing to do and, um, she's like, well, why don't you try like beatboxing on a song and singing on it? I was like, okay, cool.

Ry Rivers: 22:36

So we did it and I was like, from there on I just fell in love with singing. I was like, oh my god, yeah, the voice is like a whole other instrument besides like playing piano. So from there I just dedicated my life to like finding my voice and fine-tuning my interest instrument and learning how to use it. And, yeah, we wrote that was the first time I would say I wrote like an official song together, like from front to back, and performed it and performed all around and figured out that I was, I think, somewhat decent at it. Yeah, that was, that was probably the first song and it was like it was like a little hit in our middle school, like we performed it at the show and then everyone loved it. So, like at all the different events at the school they'd have us it was, you know, us performing and it was super cool. It was like a little hit inside our school and everyone would sing it and like, oh my god, play the song. Play the song, that's pretty cool.

Jay Franze: 23:26

Yeah, let's take that a step further. So that's the first time you start singing and discover your voice and your voice is very unique. And because it's unique, do you feel as if you've skipped the part in your career of trying to sound like other people?

Ry Rivers: 23:47

No, because I think I mean that was pretty early on and for years I was still working on it. I mean I still work with a vocal coach today, fine, tuning it. I think coming from a non-musical family, too, was a big influence on finding my voice, you know, because it was a lot of. It was just all done through me. It wasn't like I had grew up in a family who sang and we were like singing harmonies and stuff like that. It was. No one in my family does anything with music, so it was totally me finding it all by myself and being like, okay, well, I love like country and I love soul and I love rock and like how do I put that all together? But my voice is, like, you know, kind of smoother and higher, but I love like singing runs, but also I want it to be like gritty, you know. So it was really just understanding my instrument and how to use it properly and then deriving, you know, my tone from that and stuff.

Jay Franze: 24:37

So you said no. Does that mean there was a time where you tried to emulate other people?

Ry Rivers: 24:44

Absolutely. I mean, I think all singers. That's how you start singing. It's your even from a young kid. You're, you emulate people. You know you emulate your favorite singers on the radio. So that's how you start singing, even from a young kid. You emulate people. You emulate your favorite singers on the radio. That's how people learn to sing.

Jay Franze: 24:56

Who were those influences?

Ry Rivers: 24:59

Elton John, steve Perry I would say two very big ones, but also growing up again with Boston. Aerosmith, earth, wind, fire, stevie Wonder, michael Jackson, bruno Mars, chris Stapleton, tim McGraw, it's a whole mix.

Jay Franze: 25:21

It's a diverse group of people for sure. No, Steve Perry was my favorite singer growing up. He's probably still one of my favorite singers ever.

Ry Rivers: 25:27

Ah, so good.

Jay Franze: 25:29

By far he earns the nickname of the Voice. Now, you did a cover of Journey and you actually did a cover of my favorite Journey song ever, and that's Faithfully.

Ry Rivers: 25:39

Yeah, oh cool. I hope I did it justice.

Jay Franze: 25:43

Can you tell me why you chose to do a cover of that song?

Ry Rivers: 25:47

I just I love Journey. They're one of my favorite bands, from the songwriting to the guitar playing, to Steve's voice, obviously. And when I look for covers I look for does it resonate with me and can I kind of match the tone a little bit? And if not those two things, then is it something I can completely make my own and it still resonates with me. So I love that song, I love the story behind the song and I felt like it matches my, my voice pretty well. So yeah, and I feel like if you can do a journey song and do it well, it's just like set you apart as a singer too well, I think that's definitely it.

Jay Franze: 26:27

I always see these people on american idol or the voice and you've got some amazing singers. But when they choose to sing a song that was originally done by an absolute icon, you either have to kill it or stay away from it. Yeah, from the band Heart, and that band was an absolutely amazing band with amazing vocal talent, and when I hear somebody do it, I just think to myself this is either going to be one of the best things ever or it's going to be a train wreck. There's usually nothing in between.

Tony Scott: 27:01

And.

Jay Franze: 27:02

I think you run into that same challenge when it comes to singing a Steve Perry song. You either have to nail it or it's going to be a train wreck. Did you think about any of that before you, before you did it, or did you just do it?

Ry Rivers: 27:17

I just did it. I knew I'd like the song and it resonated with me and I worked on it and I was like, yeah, I want to do this song. I love the song. I think part of that, too, is just again exploring your voice and finding all the things you can do through it, and you do it through covering people's music. Again, emulating. That's how people find their voice. We're all a collection of different sounds and influences that we heard growing up, and then you make it into your own.

Jay Franze: 27:42

Oh, absolutely. I always tell people that, when it comes to songwriting, when it comes to being a vocalist or a musician, or even an engineer or producer that works behind the scenes, that you take in all of these things from all these other people that you look up to.

Jay Franze: 27:59

And you're going to find things that you like and you're going to find things that you don't like, and you're going to pick and choose what works for you and then that's going to become your style. So you go from, like you said, singing soul music, singing cover tunes like Journey, and now you're focusing your career on country music. So, when it comes, to country music. Let's start with the story itself. How important do you feel storytelling is to country music?

Ry Rivers: 28:26

Everything. It's the foundation of it and that's why country's always been here for me, because for me and my writing it's always storytelling. I mean you can listen to pretty much all my songs and they all tell a story. You know, I mean I'm not the type of writer where it's just like looking for like little hooky pieces. For me it all has to kind of make sense and it'd have soul on it. So that's why I love country music. I mean the country artists and songwriters are the greatest storytellers of all time and that's what it stemmed from. I mean, back to the Appalachian Mountains and stuff. These were folk songs, they were stories. A lot of times it's how they taught people things. It's just a beautiful thing.

Jay Franze: 29:10

I love it.

Tony Scott: 29:13

That's essentially where I live.

Jay Franze: 29:14

So, yes, I completely understand that uh-huh so, when it comes to writing songs, do you start with lyrics then, or do you start with melody music? Where do you?

Ry Rivers: 29:22

start. Um, it kind of comes in different ways. Usually it does come with words and melody at the same time. I'm not usually one who a melody just pops into my head. Usually it's both at the same time, so it'll come into my mind. Then I'll be like okay, where do I want to take this? Like what, what am I? What are you trying to say? Right, like what, what is the story?

Ry Rivers: 29:39

You know whether it's me talking about something from my life, pulling from other experiences in my life, or that I see my friends deal with, or stuff like that. Or just like a cool song title. And it's like all right, I have a list of song titles in my phone and my notes on my iPhone. It's called song ideas and it's literally like hundreds of different title names. So sometimes I'll go into sessions and just go through that with people and be like oh, oh, you like that, that sounds cool. Okay, let's write that today. Or sometimes it's just like comes when I'm in the shower and, annoyingly, when I'm falling asleep and I'm like wait, I got to write that down.

Ry Rivers: 30:17

And you wake up in your morning you're like what the hell was that? But yeah, I would say storytelling is at the foundation of what I do.

Jay Franze: 30:25

It's funny you say you get it when you're falling asleep or in the shower.

Ry Rivers: 30:28

Oh yeah.

Jay Franze: 30:29

Those are the places where people's mind are most relaxed, and that's why those ideas come to you. So I can completely understand that, completely understand meditative state yeah, so when it comes to writing the songs, you get your lyric and your melody first, do you? Then, take it to an instrument, or then you start collaborating with somebody else yeah, so usually it's me at a piano.

Ry Rivers: 30:48

I'll get it, I'll record it in my phone on like a voice memo and then I'll sit down at the piano and put some chords behind it and try to write it from there. I'm not big on production, just because, you know, coming from not having anyone around me to kind of teach me the ropes with that and not really going to school for it I try to find what I can and stick to what I do best and that is songwriting and singing. So when it comes to production, I'll usually write the song out, record like a rough tape and then try to find a producer to help bring the idea to life.

Jay Franze: 31:24

Well, with your transition into country music and your team being based out of Nashville do you find yourself now going to Nashville and starting to work with teams when it comes to songwriting.

Ry Rivers: 31:36

Absolutely. Yeah, we've been commuting to Nashville back and forth now pretty heavily, so that's a blessing. I've always known since I was little even I have no idea how, but I've always known I wanted to be in Nashville, even before I even really knew what it was. As a young kid I've always been fascinated by it. For some reason I named my dog Nashville. Actually after Nashville it's one syllable now, and now it's Nash, but his government name is Nashville, his government name all right.

Jay Franze: 32:08

So what's the big difference between writing on your own, like you were? And now writing in Nashville. What's the biggest difference to you?

Ry Rivers: 32:15

I mean for me. I'm a people person and I love collaboration and I think you find out so much about yourself as a writer from collaborating. Like you can write alone in your room for so long, but you have to get out there and write with people because that's how you find your strength, you know, that's where you see where you fit in and how you can sit back and learn and listen and, you know, take ideas, and I think the best work comes from people working together. That's why I was so big on like building, you know, a team and the right team. But yeah, collaboration for me is huge and every time I go to Nashville it's always been such an amazing time and I just look forward to going back and forth a lot more and planting all my seeds everywhere that I can, so I can hopefully make the jump one day and just have to be there a lot longer we talk about your team again.

Jay Franze: 33:07

Yeah, are they the ones arranging these songwriting sessions?

Ry Rivers: 33:11

um, it's kind of half and half. So, you know, whenever we can get in there and collab with people from people that they know, and then for me, again, just going there and planting seeds and making connections, going to write-arounds, doing open mic nights and just you know, naturally grassroots meeting people. So I would say it's a mix. I found my way there on my own, again, always wanting to be in nashville. I wrote this next single that I coming out, which is kind of the basis that started this whole thing, my song called Kiss a Cowboy so kind of a cool story behind it.

Ry Rivers: 33:46

I was at a music festival, a country music festival down here in Fort Lauderdale. It's super cool. It's called Tortuga Music Festival. It's literally on the beach in fort lauderdale, like they have to put down plastic barriers because the tour buses drive up on the beach and you know behind the stage and they build everything on the sand. So I've gone to this music festival like seven years in a row because it's literally like 20 minutes away from my house and it's the sickest thing ever and it's all country music and it's amazing. So I was there and that's where the idea for this song hit me and I was like, oh my god. So I had to keep it in my head all weekend. Granted, this is a three-day festival, there's lots of drinking and stuff going on, so I'm like put it on my phone, trying to keep it in my head, and I was just like talking with my really good friend about like all the different ways it could be written and stuff. So finally, long story short, I I get home Monday morning after the festival, sit down on my piano hungover as hell and literally just hit the first chord and it was like the fastest song I've ever written.

Ry Rivers: 34:43

So I wrote it, worked on it again by myself here and I was trying to find my producer for it. I knew I wanted to do it in Nashville, being the nature of the song. So I came across a gentleman named Trey Bruce Really cool dude, really prolific song songwriter producer up there in Nashville. How that came about was super interesting too. So you know, I was, I was manifesting going to Nash. I knew I wanted to go there.

Ry Rivers: 35:06

I was trying to figure out like how to connect with producers and stuff, being from here, not really knowing anyone there and not having like a super huge following, you know yet. So we link up. I saw him I think it was like american songwriter or something. He was like one of the interviewees there. So I reached out to him via instagram, didn't hear anything back and I was like, hmm, so there's a program called sound better which musicians can use to hire other musicians whether it's like background singers, producers, producers, stuff like that. So I was on there I was like, oh my God, there's Trey and you could hire him to do a sound check, which is where, like, you submit your song, demo, whatever, to a music professional and you pay and they give you, you know, a critique on the song and blah, blah, blah. And he gave me some really good critique and I was like cool.

Ry Rivers: 35:52

So I went back and like kind of rework, rewrote the song a little bit, tweak some things, and then a couple months go by you know I'm performing it live. I think I got it locked in and I finally DM the beginning. I was like hey man, you know, I reached out to you a while ago. I'm, you know, ry Rivers. You gave me my feedback on the song. He's like oh, shoot, yeah, I love that song. And I'm like cool, well, I'm actually looking for a producer in Nashville to produce it. And he's like hell, yeah, dude, I would love to do that, let's set it up. So go through the whole thing, set it up, I fly up there to record it. We have a super fun time. It went so well.

Ry Rivers: 36:26

We ended up actually co-writing a song together. Because when we were there after you know, we finished the recording session I was like, hey, man, look like I have all these other songs I want to show you. I can write like I'm not just like a one trick pony, like I don't just have one good song that I got lucky with. Like here's all these songs, so we play them and we get to one and he like starts it over. And he's like, wait, it's like that one's really cool, but we need to rewrite it. And I was like, well, what do you suggest? And he's like blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, well, why don't we write it together? He's like that's what we're doing. Grab a guitar. I'm like, okay, cool.

Ry Rivers: 36:56

So like we end the recording session, now I'm writing a song with with trey bruce. My mind is like blowing. I'm like what the freak is going on right now, like what is real. So now we have that song that we're working on together too, and it was just like it's just one of those things where you put yourself in these situations and something you've been working towards for so long and weird little things just start going right Like little signs, little, even crazy little things, and you're just like this feels right, I'm meant to be here, like reaffirming that I'm doing the right thing and I'm meant to be where I'm meant to be. So it was super cool.

Jay Franze: 37:30

That is really cool. Take a second to walk us through that recording process.

Ry Rivers: 37:36

Yeah. So Trey is a full blown, through and through country producer. He's had a lot of like classic country hits. But his house is super cool. His studio is in his house and it's out there in Franklin Tennessee, so just outside of Nashville. So it's super chill. We go there. He has his dogs, his family. You go downstairs into his basement and it's a whole really sick studio there. He has his dogs, his family, go downstairs into his basement and it's a whole really sick studio.

Ry Rivers: 37:58

So I think we did it, uh, over the course of like two days, which is really rushed. I mean, sometimes it can be that fast. But for the most part it's like you know, when I go to nashville, I'm there and it's usually like boom, boom, boom, boom and I'm handling business right because I'm there usually like a thursday through sunday or friday through sunday, because I still have a day job. You know I'm not at the point where I have can fully sustain myself financially with music, yet I'm working on it, but I still, you know, work a regular nine to five, monday through Friday. So when I go to Nashville it has to be like boom, boom, boom and I have to get it.

Ry Rivers: 38:26

You know, done, done, done, done, done. So it was. It was super fun. It was a really cool learning process just learning from someone who's such a titan in the industry and going through their process and comparing it to like everything else I've done and seeing how you know the ins and outs of it, and it was a really cool learning experience and it was a lot of fun.

Jay Franze: 38:44

I'm super excited for this song did he bring in session players for the song?

Ry Rivers: 38:50

being the nature of the whole process of me living down here was it was different than going into a studio and being there for two days and just tracking a whole band and stuff and working with the budget that I gave them for production. So we had to do things a little differently than if you had a big budget from a label and stuff like that. So I think he brought in two session players just to track a dobro, but everything else was him and I on it.

Jay Franze: 39:18

So with that said, does he play drums?

Ry Rivers: 39:22

He does play drums but he actually has this whole file on his computer where he's gone into different studios and tracked all these different drum sounds and had drummers play all these different drums so he can go ahead and just program all the drums that he wants from real drums, which was super cool. I've never seen like Hans Zimmer on 60 minutes where they interview him and he's done the same thing. But his catalog is like thousands of different instruments where he's like spent the time and money to go in and track all these different things and he's like oh, you want a violin.

Jay Franze: 40:01

And that's not like a fake violin, it's someone who's actually played and stuff super cool.

Ry Rivers: 40:03

What was the biggest memory from that time, I think? Meeting, trade, working with trey and co-writing with him. I mean that I look back at chris, my manager, who was in the session with us, like when trerey was like, yeah, let's rewrite it. I look back at it I'm like we just couldn't believe it was going on and I'm like, yeah, okay, let's do it. So I think that was really cool that. And then things just falling into place and just you know universe telling you you're doing the right thing.

Ry Rivers: 40:30

I went to the Commodore Grill, which is a really cool open mic night spot in Nashville where a lot of big artists have come through, and I went just for the open mic night, right, because I didn't know anyone there. It's my first time playing, so they just put you on stage at 10 o'clock and you get to do like the open mic night. I go there. Some writer canceled so I got to go right into a writer's round. So that was super cool to do that and just for the first time, doing your first open mic and actually be thrown into like a real writer's round and being able to play these songs. I even I think I played kiss a cowboy for them.

Ry Rivers: 41:05

That day on a track I was like text train. I was like, hey, can you just I know this is really random, but can you just send me like an instrumental of the track? I know it's not even done yet, but just something I can sing to, even if it's just guitar and chords. He's like, all right, I don't know if it's gonna sound good, but here you go. So I got to play it right from the studio, then going out and performing it live, which is my favorite thing to do. I am a performer and I love connecting with people. Playing live is my favorite thing to do and it's a part of my craft that I've worked on tirelessly to be the best at. So to be able to just do it live right after the studio was really cool and see how people react, which people really liked it, so that was super fulfilling we talked about branding earlier.

Jay Franze: 41:47

When it comes to your career, your identity, your social media accounts and so on, how important do you feel charisma is to live performance?

Ry Rivers: 41:58

I think it's like monumental instrumental, if that's the word.

Jay Franze: 42:04

So what do you do to hone that craft?

Ry Rivers: 42:09

Stage miles. I think the more you do it, the more comfortable you get at it and the more you work on your craft and get comfortable with what you want to do on stage, the easier it comes and the easier you can get into that flow state and just be yourself and enjoy living the moment.

Jay Franze: 42:22

Do you feel like you have natural charisma?

Ry Rivers: 42:27

I think so I definitely think I'm an introvert. I love again, I love connecting with people and talking with people and meeting new people. So that part of it for me I feel like comes natural. But I do enjoy my downtime. I absolutely need my alone time, like sometimes before I might come off stage and I'm just like I just dream. You know, I got to recharge, have a second to myself, sleep, eat some food and then I'm good to go.

Jay Franze: 42:55

Well, being so young in your career, there still has to be some challenges that you've gone through. So what are some of the challenges you've had so far?

Ry Rivers: 43:04

Absolutely. I mean, for the longest time I was doing this completely by myself, right? I don't come from rich parents, I don't come from a musical family, so I was finding my way for the longest time and I think until I linked up with my manager, chris, it was kind of just like shooting in the dark, working on this, doing that, trying to put it all together, but it could be extremely overwhelming by yourself. So I would say I would say that was probably one of the biggest challenges was just like all right, where do we put the put the focus? All right, let's break it down into three pillars let's do recording, let's do live shows or let's do social media and let's just pound those three things and get those where they need to be to take it to the next level.

Jay Franze: 43:48

So what setbacks have you had so far?

Ry Rivers: 43:53

I mean, where do I even start? I've had my equipment rained on. That was really crappy. Um, I did a gig here in florida and, being the nature of the beast, sometimes rain just comes out of nowhere and it's like a hurricane and it can last for 10 minutes but it can piss down like 10 gallons of rain. And I did it. I did a gig with my band and like all of our stuff got rained on and destroyed and as the band leader who does that, fall on right for the liability and stuff. So that sucked. That was a lot of hard hours. That went into saving up to buy all that equipment and just gone like that. So, so that was pretty rough.

Ry Rivers: 44:35

I would say that's a professional one. Personally, I would say growing up in a split household wasn't always the easiest thing for my brother and I. I would say from a very young age, as far as I can remember, our parents had a struggle financially and I think that took a big toll on their relationship. So watching them struggle to the point where you know they just had to separate and go their own ways and again being split kind of between those two places took a little bit of a toll on my brother and I, but you know, it was for the best at the end, and sometimes in life, two people just don't work out and I still have two amazing parents, you know, who would do anything for us and gave us a great upbringing what parent did you spend your time with?

Ry Rivers: 45:22

uh, my mom, just because I lived with her, you know, for the most part, and it was more like going to visit dad so how was it to maintain their relationship with your father?

Ry Rivers: 45:34

um, yeah, sometimes we didn't always see eye to eye. I think he's just have very budding personalities, so sometimes when we get together it's like we don't always see eye to eye. So it was a struggle at some time. You wouldn't see him for a while and have to go and see him, and he'd be busy working and stuff, just trying to keep his head above the water.

Jay Franze: 46:02

Yeah, Did your brother experience that same relationship?

Ry Rivers: 46:07

Yeah, because him and I lived together here with my mom. So going back and forth, I would say yeah.

Jay Franze: 46:14

So his experiences were the same, essentially, as yours. Well, we talk about the connection. We talked about social media earlier and the importance of building the brand and everything.

Ry Rivers: 46:25

So what are you?

Ry Rivers: 46:25

doing these days to connect with your audience and continue to strengthen your brand yeah, so it's been, um again, just getting the best songs we can record it and putting those out. I feel like so many artists did this thing where they hoard their music and it's like, dude, no one's gonna ever hear it unless you get it out there. And just getting it out there, doing it in a crafty way so it doesn't seem like it's shoved down people's throats, and doing it authentically to yourselves and to who I am yeah, that, and and then just having a budget to put together. You know, when you have, when you do get the gigs that matter, having the like, a right videographer there to capture that, because it's so important.

Ry Rivers: 47:11

You know, I think a lot of times artists get these gigs and they don't they drop the ball when it comes to the videography and the content behind it. You know, I think a lot of times artists get these gigs and they don't they drop the ball when it comes to the videography and the content behind it. You know what I mean. You can talk about all these gigs you had, but the proof is in the pudding and the proof is social media. So if it's not posted, you're ghosted. I just made that up.

Jay Franze: 47:28

But yeah, I was going to say you might want to save it, but now maybe let's let that one.

Jay Franze: 47:33

Go Again back to the social media and the strength of it all and everything I know. When I was growing up, it was a lot earlier than you and we didn't have social media, so getting your music out there to people was a much different approach. These days, with things like TikTok and Instagram, where you can release music every single day, if you wanted to, multiple times a day, I've noticed a lot of artists have to release a different spin on the same piece of music every day. How do you keep your fan base from getting burnt out on a piece of music, especially before something even gets released?

Ry Rivers: 48:12

I think it probably just stems down to how crafty you can be using it and keeping it authentic to who you are, and I think it makes it kind of more fun too that you can release your song in so many different ways. Now you know what I mean. Like I think it was sabrina carpenter. She released her song espresso on like nine different variations. It's like sped up, slow down, acoustic, just drums, just vocals. I was like when did releasing an acapella become cool? Like all right, I've always loved that. But okay, cool like yeah, let's just put that out. Cool, another single for six weeks that you can write on and just help tickle the algorithm. Sure, why not?

Jay Franze: 48:52

You mentioned your videographer as well and your video headspace headspace head trip, head trip, where you're flying. So, how did you go? How did you guys create the effect of you guys flying?

Ry Rivers: 49:07

Yeah. So that was a fun one. That was a learning experience. Again, I do this. I did that all by myself. That was before I have a lot of the team that I have now. I did that all by myself. That was before I have a lot of the team that I have now.

Ry Rivers: 49:20

So it was working with a limited budget and just being creative and trusting your artistic vision, with a friend and your friend also helping you out too, because my friend was the director of it and it ran through his company. We're the same age. So we kind of came up together and I came to the point I was like, dude, I think I'm ready to do like my first music video, like a real one, like the real way, like let's do it right. Here's the song. And we just went to starbucks and just like got high on caffeine and just came up with like a hundred different ways we could do it and we solidified this version of it. We're like, okay, well, we need ride to fly. How are we going to do that?

Ry Rivers: 49:57

And he ended up having, um, this connection at this huge church out west here in florida. It was like one of those mega churches, so they have like the whole green room, the audio video department, all these green screens and stuff. So we came up with this flying concept of like you're on a head trip, right, like you're flying through the sky, and we were just. It was. It was really cool, it was really diy, but we were able to bring it together with a small team and execute it and we did that in, I think, two days. Being like a low budget thing, we had to make work with what we had and be super creative. So that was a lot of fun.

Jay Franze: 50:30

It was a learning experience, definitely but it was a lot of fun. It came out very cool yeah, and it was.

Ry Rivers: 50:35

I mean, it was again, I just owe it to being surrounded by great people and great friends. Like all the extras was just all like friends and family that you see in like the audience and stuff and that we just used like clips that we could find to like sink in with it and make it look even bigger. So it was like having like 20 of my very good friends drive out there with us for the day and just act like they're the audience and wave, and it was a really fun, really fun experience.

Jay Franze: 51:01

All right, sir. Well, we do this thing here we call Unsung Heroes, where we take a moment to shine light on somebody who's worked behind the scenes or somebody who may have supported you along the way. Do you have anybody you'd like to shine a little light on?

Ry Rivers: 51:12

Well, always it starts with Mama number one, love on. Well, always it starts with mama number one, love her. She's been such a huge role, smart man, yeah, role model of my life. Love you, mom. And then, number two, my manager, chris. I mean, when he came into my life or my career, it's just been such a cool learning and beautiful experience to share everything with him, just not only as a manager but a friend, just to bounce ideas off and have someone there besides family and my mama in the corner, you know, for you doing this journey with me, so that, and then my vocal coach too. She's been an amazing, amazing, amazing light in my life as well. Shout out, miss Candy.

Jay Franze: 51:50

A big thanks to Rye for taking the time to share his stories with us and thank you for taking the time to hang with me here. I know I've said it, but I will say it again I really do appreciate it. If you know anyone that would enjoy this episode, please be sure to share it. You can do that and find the links to everything mentioned over at jayfranze. com/ episode 121. Thanks again for listening and I'll see you next week.

Tony Scott: 52:20

Thanks for listening to The Jay Franze show. Make sure you visit us at jayfranze. com follow, connect and say hello.