When De Ryus first crept up on the industry a few years ago with his debut album The Truth on Arista UK/BMG, the urban music press instantly warmed to his soulful sound and applauded a prolific writing talent that seemed to be beyond his years. Hailing from Slough, just outside Greater London, De Ryus displayed a new lyrical freshness never before heard in urban music and comparisons were instantly made with the likes of Babyface, Seal and Roachford. The future looked bright!
However in an era where UK R&B received very little support, De Ryus album never received a major release. Still the album spawned many underground smashes including the garage mix of the lead single Grass Aint Greener (produced by No.1 Garage producer, MJ Cole) and the connoisseurs favourite Times Together. Simply described as stunning the latter topped Blues & Soul Magazines hip-list and was also voted as one of their songs of the year. The original version of "Grass Ain't Greener" was also a recommended single in Music Week - the UK's equivalent to Billboard Magazine.
Having earned much respect and gained a legion of supporters, De Ryus put the album to bed and immediately embarked on a new musical adventure, welcoming calls from both major and independent labels for writing and/or production work for artists on their rosters. Again, industry recognition followed and garnered collaborations with UK super Producers Linslee Campbell (The Lighthouse Family, 6 x Platinum) and another heavy weight in the British industry, the Full Crew production team whose credits include multi-platinum artists Craig David and George Michael - these projects (spanning over approximately a two and a half year period) again sent urban music fans wild on a street level.
In search of main stream success, De Ryus made a major life decision to not only relocate but also to put more effort into studying the more technical aspects of his craft. He moved to New York City to study at the world renowned Institute of Audio Research. My second day in New York, I turned on the radio and within a split second I had a massive smile on my face it was like Id gone a week without food and then all of a sudden someone had placed a plate of jerk chicken in front of me!!!!!! Then on top of it all being in Greenwich Village at I.A.R. Electric Lady Studios is only a couple blocks away!!! This is real. Im surrounded by people with gold and platinum discs Im surrounded by Grammy winners!!!
De Ryus completed the program with perfect scores and with his talent and attitude towards his art form catching the eye of several instructors. This led to collaborations with some of NYCs finest engineers and producers. These include Jake Ninan (Nas, R. Kelly), Daniel Grigsby (Keith Richards, Paula Abdul and a person favourite of De Ryus, Gwen Guthrie) and last, but by no means least, Grammy winner, Prince Charles Alexander (Destinys Child, Luther Vandross and many of the artists from the Bad Boy Entertainment label between 1993 and 2000)
With all this going on, De Ryus has also written, arranged and in many cases also produced material for his brand new solo set currently with the working title, Intimately Into Me. He has hopes of building on both his underground success and industry recognition within the UK by following in the footsteps of award winning British acts Like Soul II Soul, Seal, Floetry and most recently Estelle by breaking into the U.S. market. With stories like, Cheated In My Mind, instantly hypnotic head-nodders like Gorgeous & NowIGotAGirl, intimate ballads, You and SunRise - as well as the guitar driven R&B/Funk collaboration with Prince Charles entitled A Little More, De Ryus is quietly confident that it can happen.
So experience the music yourself and get Intimately Into the sound of De Ryus.
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