Ryan Meyers

Ryan Meyers is a welcome new voice to the Catholic music scene. A mere 20 years old, he brings a fresh perspective colored with an alternative sound that is very familiar to young people today, but is new for Catholic music.

I have to admit that I felt unqualified at first to review his very fine debut CD, Learning to Dream. Although I am the mother of two teenagers, my musical roots are grounded in the pop, folk and soft rock movements of the 60s and 70s. So while I may not be up to speed on all the proper terminology of alternative music, I do know what I like, I and I like this CD.

Learning to Dream is tightly produced with energetic and skillful instrumentation and arranging. The eleven original songs are glimpses into Meyers’ life, thoughts and heart, and his plaintive voice is well suited to these songs.

Learning to Dream begins inauspiciously enough with “Sometimes in Silence”, a quiet and pensive vocal and guitar that nicely communicates Meyers’ belief that he is not alone. But before long, he launches into the meat of the album with the strongest track, “Invisible People,” a blunt, no nonsense song about those in the world who are considered “small:” the pan handler, the prostitute, and the unborn child. The refrain says it all: “We are the least of these, you look through us everyday. We are the least of these, we beg for your change, we stave for your love, we aren’t invisible, but we’re invisible.”

Other standout tracks include “Broken”, “Tell Me Tyler” and “Lose it All.”

Ryan Meyers dares to share his inner life and in a language both musically and lyrically that young people especially can understand. Learning to Dream breaks much needed new ground in the Catholic music world and is a worthy addition to anyone’s CD collection. † - Grapevine Catholic Music Magazine

In an era of MPCs and computerized musical arrangements, the sweet acoustic sounds of instrumentally driven melodies is becoming a scarce find. Ryan Meyers is a talented musician who is filling this void with sincere music and heartfelt lyrics. A devout Catholic he integrates his GOD-given musical abilities and creativity with inspirational messages of hope and faith into a tightly knit sound, with elements of acoustic pop and rock. Often dealing with real-life issues, which many people are afraid to face, he tackles issues such as regret and desperation

PM: How did you get involved with music in the first place?
Meyers: I’ve been in music as long as I can remember, but didn’t start performing or anything until my first semester of college. That’s when I met Doc Harbison, and we formed “The Elusive Dudes” at the beginning of the next semester. We traveled around playing praise & worship type stuff for a while, even worked full-time at a camp for a summer. It started becoming evident, though, that I wanted to do music as a profession and Doc didn’t. It was a clean break, though. He’s still one of my best friends in the world.

PM: What or who influences your music?
Meyers: As far as songwriting goes, I’m mostly just influenced by life. I think that music mostly says what we either don’t know how to say or don’t know we need to say. Great music strikes something in us that makes us go “yeah, I totally identify with that.” That’s what it’s all about. It’s an incredible thing to have someone say “that song meant so much to me.” Sometimes it’s something you never even meant it to be. Not too long ago a friend of mine e-mailed me and told me that one of my songs, “Tell Me Tyler” helped her get through the death of a loved one that died early. The song doesn’t really have anything to do with death, but it does have to do with understanding that we’re small and God’s bigger. That’s what she needed to hear, and that’s what makes this all worth it.

PM: What instruments do you play?
Meyers: I only claim any type of expertise with the guitar. I play around on the piano, and often write early versions of songs on the piano. I also used to play the drums and can still keep a beat if I need to. I just love music. If you put any instrument in front of me, I’ll at least try to play it. Especially stringed instruments. Oh yeah! I can also play this flute thing that we made out of PVC pipe at the day camp. It only has 3 notes, though, and I’m not altogether sure what they are.

PM: What does your Catholicity mean to you?
Meyers: I can honestly say that I have no clue what I’d be like without my Catholic faith. It’s such a huge part of who I am, how I think, everything. When I first came to know the Lord I explored a lot of different faith traditions, and none of them satisfied me like the Catholic Church. There’s been quite a few times where I’ve thought that things would be a lot easier, especially in music, if I detached myself from it. I don’t know how I’d live without the Eucharist. I don’t know how I’d separate myself from the Church Christ started. As many hardships that come with being a Catholic, especially lately, I can’t find any instruction that’s truer to the message of Christ. What other faith says pro-life means pro-life, no matter what? What other faith holds fast to the whole of Scripture, not just snippets of verses? What other faith can offer Christ Himself in the Eucharist? That’s why I’m Catholic. It’s everything that I am.

PM: How do you go about writing a song?
Meyers: It’s different every time. Sometimes a melody or hook will get stuck in my head until I do something with it. Other times I’ll have played a guitar riff for months before something finally comes of it. Other times I sit down and write the lyrics and put them away until music comes. It’s such a process, songwriting, and I haven’t discovered any clear-cut formula for doing it right. There are some common denominators, though, however you go about it. Rewrites are the most important part of songwriting, in my opinion. Sometimes what seems like a great lyric when you’re in the moment of creating it isn’t so much when you come back to it later. Rewrites often distinguish a decent song from a great song. Other than that, though, it seems like a different deal every time a new one comes along.

PM: If you could perform with any artist, who would you like to perform with?
Meyers: I’d love to split a gig with Danielle Rose. She sings like an angel, and is an absolutely phenomenal songwriter. Not only that, but she’s Catholic, too!

PM: What kind of music do you listen to?
Meyers: Recently I’ve really broadened my musical horizons as far as what I listen to. My friend Joe Zelek (who also happens to be an amazing Catholic singer-songwriter) and I like to bat artists back and forth, since we both dig the indie scene a lot. Every couple of weeks I’ll find an e-mail that says something like “Dave Barnes rocks!” and I’ll check it out and usually enjoy it thoroughly. I’ve been listening a lot to Switchfoot’s newest lately, and I love the Normals. Big fan of Matt Wertz, Coldplay, Nichole Nordeman, Bebo Norman, Shane Barnard, Elton John, Caleb Carruth, Vanessa Carlton, Ben Folds, Counting Crows. I just love music altogether. I’d say that the 5 albums that have been in my player the most lately are:
The Normals: Place Where You Belong
Switchfoot: Beautiful Letdown
Paul Hannon: Pedal Hard
Joe Zelek: Long Distance Sunday
Steve Tannen: Big Senorita

PM: How would you categorize your music?
Meyers: I guess it could be best described as acoustic pop. There’s definitely some moments of real-deal rock-and-roll, and hints of other stuff, too. I think my favorite thing about the project is how it explores a lot of ground musically. A lot of artists find one niche sound and stick with it. I’ve kind of decided to do a little more exploring.

PM: Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
Meyers: Well, I guess I hope to be about 2 or 3 successful albums deep by 2008. Married, a few kids, possibly a record deal. I’m not real concerned about the last one, though. The only advantage I see of being signed is that you don’t have to do a lot of the work yourself. There’s a lot of tedious tasks to perform in music business, and that would be nice. It’s kind of cool to have complete control over the whole thing, though. Anyway, there’s no telling what I’ll be doing in 5 years, but I sure hope that it’s playing music.

PM: What do you hope your music will do for listeners?
Meyers: I hope it’ll make them tap their feet. I hope it’ll make them smile. I hope it’ll make them think about things in a new way. I hope it’ll bring them to a place of familiarity. I mostly hope it’ll make them smile.

PM: Your debut album is about to be released, what can listeners expect to hear, feel, experience through it? What do you hope they will hear, feel, experience?
Meyers: I think listeners can expect to hear a lot of personal songs. I think that it’s usually the case that debut albums are very intimate. It’s coming from a very innocent place, as far as music is concerned. Letting yourself out there, you know? I hope that it’ll be an album that they’ll remember the first time they heard it. Everybody has those few albums that every time you put them in, you remember that first listen. I hope that the project is one of those albums for a lot of people.

PM: What is your favourite sacrament and why?
Meyers: I love the Eucharist. It’s such a mysterious and beautiful gift. I don’t know how to describe why I love it so much, but I guess it’s because it’s so powerful. Christ, who is God himself humbled himself to the point of becoming man for us. As if that wasn’t enough, he appears to us in the presence of something so simple as bread and wine. How cool is that?

PM: What is your favourite Bible verse?
Meyers: I’m a Scripture nut, so that’s pretty hard. I think I’ll have to go with 1 John 4:18. It’s so powerful and convicting.

PM: Other than music what do you enjoy doing?
Meyers: I’m a real computer geek. I enjoy doing webpage design and that type of stuff. I also love to watch movies. There was a period last semester where I averaged something like 1.7 movies a day for 3 weeks. It was amazing.

PM: Where are you from?
Meyers: Born and raised in the great state of Mississippi. I was born in the capitol, Jackson, but have lived in Hattiesburg as long as I can remember. Hattiesburg’s called “The Hub City” because it’s smack dab in the middle of New Orleans, Mobile, Birmingham, the Gulf Coast, and Jackson. My friends joke with me that it’s an hour and a half from everywhere. It really is, though. Except Rome. Long way from Rome in more ways than one.

PM: What has been the hardest part of making your album?
Meyers: Other than money, the hardest thing is promotion. I’m a baby when it comes to the music industry, so I have no clue what I’m doing. It’s been really cool to watch it fall into place, though.

PM: What were the “elusive dudes” all about?
Meyers: The elusive dudes were all about some Jesus. It was a really cool dynamic, since Doc is a Baptist and I’m a Catholic. We played every week on campus, and just worshipped. It was a really cool thing. I miss it a lot, but I’m having fun with this, too. It was a great time in my life, though. Everything was just right.

PM: How old are you?
Meyers: As of last May I’m 20 years old. Don’t know how much I can elaborate on that one ;)

PM: Pick one song from your album and describe it a little? What inspired you to write it? What is it about? What do you hope a listener will hear in it?
Meyers: I’ll go with “Traveling Song” for 500, Alex.
Traveling Song is a real easy flowing song, musically, but the lyrical content isn’t quite so easy. The opening line: “Will you think of me when I’m long behind?” sets the tone for the whole song. It’s a real thought-provoking song about moving on. Will the things you leave behind even matter later on? Will the people you leave behind remember your name? It’s a hard reality to face that some of these relationships that seem like such a big deal won’t be so much in the future. What you come to realize through the song is that some of them will. Even though you wonder, in your heart you know that some of these relationships go deeper.
It was a very healing song to write. I was experiencing a lot of these emotions as my life started to make a lot of transitions. A relationship was ending, my career path was changing, some of my friendships were dissolving. It was a real hard time, and I just found myself wondering whether the impression that I’d made on some of these people was a good one. Would they remember me as the person that had made them better, or would I just blend into the rest of the people that didn’t really make a difference? With these emotions going on, I started writing the lyric as a writing exercise. I wanted to write something with some real imagery, and this seemed like the perfect setting. You can almost see someone driving away from their hometown singing this song. Everyone that I’ve talked to has a different favorite line for this song. It just seems like it hits a universal chord with everyone.

PM: If you could say something to one of your listeners, what would you say to them?
Meyers: For the last interview I did, I said this super-profound thing, but now I’m kind of at a loss for words. I think that the one thing I’d love to say to each of them is “thank you.” - Phatmass

Ryan Meyers

It’s not often that you purchase a CD, put it in your CD player and drift off...drift off into the mind and soul of the artist who so tirelessly put the music together that touches your own heart...

Welcome to “Learning to Dream” – the first official release of recording artist, Ryan Meyers.

Lyrically, this album is far ahead of so many other artists. In his atttempt to describe the world from his own point of view, he paints so many different pictures for the listener to delve into. “Invisible People” is a track that calls us all to look past one’s exterior, into the depths of God’s own image – present in each of us. And, he does it quite wonderfully. By taking the listener into the mind of a homeless man, an exotic dancer, and an unborn baby, he asks the listener to see the face of God in each of them – regardless of what we may “see” for ourselves.

I suppose my favorite track on the album is “Walk Away”. On this track, Ryan uses his melodic voice and beautiful lyrics to play the voice of our Lord. In describing the love of God for those who may not know that He listens, Ryan is able to relate to our most intimate desire: to be loved, to be wanted, to be desired.

From “Walk Away”:

“I heard you praying in a dark room/
Where you were sure no one would hear you/
I heard you praying for a love so good/

And I love you/
I know where you are and/
I know where you’ve been/
But still I’m calling out your name/

I know just how hard a little life can be/
But you can leave it all behind/
Come walk away with me”

If this track doesn’t make you push the repeat button on that CD player, I don’t know what will. This track, along with so many others on the album, take our most intimate desires of our Lord to the next level by describing them with melody and the most calming of voices. Along with "Walk Away", I was stuck on "Invisible People", "Traveling Song", "This Road", and "Picturebox". Amazing tunes - each with their own unique message.

Production on the album is superb – handled by both Ryan Meyers and Miko Ofca. The sound is acoustic pop and will please the ears of each listener. Lyrically, it is superb. When asked how Ryan goes about writing a song, his reply was that he was “...mostly just influenced by life.” According to Ryan, “great music strikes something in us that makes us go “yeah, I totally identify with that.” That’s what it’s all about. It’s an incredible thing to have someone say “that song meant so much to me.”

Your Catholic CD collection is not complete without “Learning to Dream”. Ryan’s hope is that his album will “make [his listeners] tap their feet. I hope it’ll make them smile. I hope it’ll make them think about things in a new way. I hope it’ll bring them to a place of familiarity. I mostly hope it’ll make them smile.”

It’s done just that and more for this listener. - Illuminate Magazine