Musician Ryan Downie (RYD) talks to Harry Norton about his upcoming gig in Hackney, his influences, Covid-19 and the future of the music industry.
I walk to Primrose Hill on a sunny Monday afternoon to meet RYD. What immediately strikes you is his distinctive moustache. He is wearing 60s styled glasses and hipster, I mean trendy clothing.
As we walk, he tells me how he first discovered music.
“When I picked up the guitar for the first time at William Ellis School in Highgate Road, Camden,” says RYD, 24, “and then developing my own taste in music.”
He says that his ethereal sound is inspired by musicians Bon Iver and Chris Martin.
“Bon Iver was the main reason why I started singing high because I loved his falsetto, although Chris Martin was my initial inspiration as he has quite a wide vocal range. I felt like I sounded better and more confident when I was singing high than when singing in my typical chest voice,” he says.
RYD performed his first headline show at The Waiting Room in Stoke Newington in January 2019. On Tuesday 24 March he has an upcoming gig at Paper Dress Vintage, after a short hiatus. What is so alluring about the borough for aspiring musicians?
“You always get cool venues to play at in Hackney that never let you down with the interior aesthetics. I think Hackney is quite a trendy area,” says RYD.
So hipster?
“No trendy! A lot of creative people live there, especially young people, who are in the creative field, who I think would be into my music more so than maybe other demographics,” he says passionately.
“But with Camden I don’t think there’s many decent venues for emerging artists to play at apart from Dingwalls, although its 250 capacity is quite a lot for a new artist to fill.
“There’s just way more wide-ranging venues that artists can actually play at and fill and even if you’re having trouble filling it, because it’s such a buzzing area, you’ll always end up with people that will attend who love culture and gigs in general.”
So with Covid-19 how are artists preparing? I tease him that his song “Plans’ with the lyrics “It’s getting hard to make another plan” seems fitting in the current climate.
“That could be the corona anthem,” he says laughing, “But in all seriousness with the current pandemic for sure it’s hard to plan because everyone’s tours are getting cancelled or postponed left, right and centre so there is a fear about what impact this will have on independent artists and the future.”
He tells me that live streaming gigs, on platforms like Instagram TV, will “definitely become a thing post-corona”.
“I don’t think it will be a good thing long-term as it takes away from the experience from actually attending a gig. If people stop attending them it’s going to be quite hard on people making money unless they can make that off of live streaming which I’m not sure how you would,” he says, concerned.
“I am worried that people won’t attend my gig as it is still going ahead as planned at the moment. You play much better when there’s people around you.”
He then plays me an exclusive preview of his new single ‘Sleep’ which can only be described as having a captivating bass and psychedelic sound. That is what RYD does – he cleverly composes a seemingly ethereal tone with lyrics that juxtapose it.
For example, his song ‘Work it Out’ sounds tranquil but the lyrics are much darker and cynical. “Most of my music is inspired by real-life experience but exaggerated life experience. ‘Work it Out’ is about a relationship with my ex-girlfriend, there was something that I found out about her and I wasn’t happy about it, like enough that in retrospect I should’ve broken up with her over, but instead I chose to ‘Work It Out’ and kind of see past that,” he says.
RYD says that he wrote it two to three months after the break-up and that song writing is almost like therapy, an outlet to express things you couldn’t necessarily disclose in person.
“You definitely can’t be as dark when talking to someone. Take Billie Eilish for example, she talks about some whack stuff like hanging herself. You could never say that in casual conversation, could you? But by having a creative outlet you can push those boundaries,” says RYD.
Despite Covid-19 threatening local gigs, RYD is hopeful about his future as a musician. He reminds me that “when Shakespeare was quarantined during the plague, he wrote King Lear. So here comes my King Lear!”
RYD was previously due to play at Paper Dress Vintage on Tuesday 24 March. It has since been postponed until June due to the coronavirus outbreak.
