Ryan McCarthy

I am a songwriter by breed. Songs have been filling my head at least since the day I was born, I'm sure. I think, in my last life, I wished to come back as a song and this is as close as I could get.
After spending the first half of my life playing various instruments, including one's I invented myself, I still was unable to create the sounds that I heard in my soul. Then, as a teenager, I picked up a guitar, wrote a song that day, played using only one finger sliding up and down the strings and that was the beginning of the next 14 years of my life.
I purposely taught myself how to play, because I didn't want to write like anyone else. To this day, I can't even name the strings, much less tell you what notes or chords I'm playing. I had to invent every single chord that I play from scratch, which I feel has given me a unique intimacy with the instrument as well as a unique toolbox full of partial chords, unusual tunings and my own style of phrasing and progressions.
I have been fascinated by performing and showbiz all my life, but I really didn't set out to be a performer. However, as a songwriter, I had to continually challenge and push myself to play better, to sing better, to recreate the songs as I imagined them. All this by my own ear, by my own critique. I feel now that I would never change the way I've come if I had the chance.
Many people ask what my influences have been. I grew up on classic rock, rap, hip hop, 80's pop, metal, 90's 'grunge' and indie and modern music of all flavors. And I honestly believe I have been influenced by them all in small and large ways. But, when it comes down to it, I just string notes together that I feel belong together. John Coltrane once said, "Forget the rules, play what you feel," and I agree.
So, now, at this point in my life all I want to do is play my songs for people, wherever, whenever I can. I want to use music to share with others what I love, what I think, how I feel, not only lyrically, but also through the instrumental aspect of the music. When I hear music, I see it in my mind very visually. There's color, form, movement - that's actually how I memorize my songs, by the picture they become. I want to be able to take that picture, that painting and say, "Do you see the beauty here?"
I guess that's my story. Music. It's all about the music.