Ryan Meeking and The Few

“I’m not part of the herd,” Ryan Meeking sings in Morning Bird, the opening track of Night
Owls, the new EP from Ryan Meeking and The Few.
And it’s true. Take one listen to the EP and you’ll realise that Ryan Meeking is not chasing
the latest pop trends. He’s forging his own path. These songs are timeless.
Not that Ryan wants to hype what he’s doing. “This EP was simply a good opportunity for us
to get a snapshot of where we’re at right now,” he explains. “It’s something we can give to
people and say, ‘This is Ryan Meeking and The Few.’”
So who is Ryan Meeking?
“I’m a country boy,” he smiles. “But I never wanted to be.” He grew up in Kyabram
(population 6000) in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley. At high school, he discovered the Red Hot
Chili Peppers and Jeff Buckley, and formed his first band with his best mate, The Few’s bass
player Simon Rabl. They called themselves Noodles Romanoff and The Flustered Peacocks.
They made it to Melbourne, did an interview on PBS, and broke up.
Ryan and Simon later formed The Few with drummer Corey Gaal and guitarist Brett Scapin.
“I love these guys,” Ryan says, “they all play with feeling, more with their hearts than their
heads.” Just check out the gentle Thunder Without The Storm and the dynamic Shouting
Underwater.
Much of Night Owls was inspired by Ryan’s songwriting trip to the UK and Ireland. He
walked the zebra crossing at Abbey Road, fell in love with Galway in Ireland, and busked
with Kyle Gass from Tenacious D at Westminster (true story). And an encounter with a night
owl in Eastbourne inspired Morning Bird.
Night Owls follows 2008’s Broken Cars & Empty Pockets EP. The band sold 1500 copies at
gigs, and the lead track, Layers, got strong support from Triple J and public radio.
Asked for the highlight of his journey so far, Ryan pauses, before declaring: “Every time I’ve
made a noisy crowd silent.”
“Throughout the set, there was a slow but sure shift of the entire crowd towards the front, so
that by the time Meeking announced the last song, there were people pressed against the
front of the stage, seemingly unaware that they had moved forward. A singer that
commands a stage presence like that is definitely one to keep an eye on” (FasterLouder.com.au)
One fan recently approached Ryan after a gig and said: “Your music makes me wanna hold
hands with my friend and jump a skipping rope.” “That was a little out-there,” Ryan laughs,
“but I like it.”
As for the title of the new EP, Ryan confirms, “We are night owls. Most of our friends went
to uni and now have ‘serious’ jobs, but we’re in a totally different time-zone. I just function
better at 1am than I do at any other time of the day.”
And perhaps Ryan Meeking is a throwback to another time, a time when artists were all
about career development, not reality shows. When the song was everything.

'I am a morning bird', Ryan sings, 'and I'll be singing longer than you'll ever know.'