Ryan Powers Boyle

Always one to do things his own way, Ryan Powers Boyle decided in 2007 to record a full-length album, his debut LP and first record since 2006’s Now Or Never EP. But rather than go out and audition a band, he resolved to do it himself -- all of it. He had no idea the process would consume three years of his life.



A long time coming, the seeds of that commitment were sown at age 4 when Ryan discovered the family piano. The instrument was a relic, a 1950s utilitarian mahogany spinet sitting untouched in his mother’s living room. Consulting sheet music fished from the bowels of the rickety brown piano bench, the boy spent long hours hunched over the yellowing ivories teaching himself to play. One instrument became two at age 8 with the saxophone, followed by the guitar at 12, the drums at 13, and others beyond that. At 14 Ryan began weekly recording sessions at the studio of prog-rock legend Mark Dye, a practice that would continue for the next four years and instill Ryan with intimate knowledge of recording practice, as well as the slow-building realization that sequestering oneself in the studio did not an insightful musician make.



Understanding shifted with the speed of epiphany, and Ryan grasped that to make truly poignant music he needed to understand life, or at least try. And there’s only one way to advance toward what Ginsberg described as his great desire, to become “a master at living.” You have to go out and live. Armed with a smoldering desire to experience, Ryan quit college and left his hometown of St. Petersburg. He tackled a wide assortment of jobs -- mental hospital, animal shelter, environmental activist, carpenter, newspaper reporter -- absorbing every ounce of experience he could wring. He made friends, dabbled at love, touched the light and got lost in the dark, studied anthropology and world religions, sought initiation from sages and advice from scoundrels -- trying everything possible to catch a glimpse behind the veil, all the while commuting each newfound realization into song, each revelation into verse.



Performances were infrequent, but a devoted audience grew to anticipate each appearance. Concerts were solo affairs, notwithstanding a segue into the avant-garde scene as a member of Chicago horn guru Johnny White’s experimental freeform jazz troupe. A pair of Ryan’s early demos were put onto MySpace, quickly attracting nearly 36,000 fans and over 1,000,000 listens to date.



A ripple of inner motion precipitated a move back to St. Petersburg and the start of principal recording. Three years later, the results are astonishing: Stationed at the crossroads of uncanny instrumental prowess and innate lyrical virtuosity, Ryan Powers Boyle’s self-titled release achieves rare heights by virtue of distillation through that most inimitable of filters: experience of an uncommon life. The sound is determinedly indie -- intelligent and fearless -- yet garnished with a scattering of world music and Beethoven-esque orchestral arrangements. But it’s the lyrics that truly set the record apart, diverging from standard indie fare in its arc from nostalgic reflection to stark confession, to epic narrative, all told with a mystical bent owing more to Gibran and Goethe than Dylan or Oberst.



Early reviews have been incandescent, garnering acclaim from LowHero.DLL’s Jonathan Chalker (“. romantic, wistful, sentimental, cautionary, meditative.the whole things plays like a vast epic poem .”) and WMNF 88.5 Grand National Championships host Alastair St. Hill (“. [it] pulse[s] with life and energy.a richly textured sonic landscape .”), as well as a selection as a 2010 AlternativeAddiction.com Next Big Thing.



Ryan Powers Boyle is slated for release on July 18.