3/29/2023 0 Comments Strays dont sleep![]() ![]() There's only one way to truly express and understand the interiors of each other, and that's to talk. What Neilson and I went through was so foolish it's almost a dark comedy in that it was spectacularly avoidable. Matthew: Whenever you go through a hard time with someone it takes time to see clearly the fullness of what happened. Was it just a matter of circumstance during the pandemic that allowed the time for you two to collaborate again, or was Strays Don’t Sleep always sort of on the backburner? In the meantime, you’ve been busy writing and releasing your music while Neilson has been busy producing. In an email interview, I asked Matthew Ryan about teaming up with his old partner again, the ep and the work he’s been doing with the Western States Center.ĪnaLee: A Short Film for A Long Story is out this week and I guess it has been sort of a long story for Strays Don’t Sleep, the duo you and Neilson Hubbard formed over fifteen years ago. The two have reconvened for a lush, yet minimalist approach to the four songs on this ep. After releasing their self-titled debut in 2005, their individual careers took off in different directions – singer-songwriter Ryan releasing twelve albums over fourteen years while Hubbard was becoming one of Nashville’s most sought after producers. Living and staying open and curious in our nows is the most important thing we can do to remain creative.Strays Don’t Sleep is an ambient folk collaboration between Matthew Ryan and Neilson Hubbard, A Short Film for A Long Story, out October 30th, is the duo’s first new music in fifteen years. ![]() ![]() Outside of music, what do you like to do that you feel contributes to the creativity that you tap into for your music? I just would never want to be permanently corrupted, my aim is to take the punches that come and still stay beautiful. I guess at the end of the day, I would hope to achieve a kind of undefeated sense of possibility in my life and work, to remain hopeful without fairy tales but to know that life and what we do and hope for can be difficult, but it is the doing that matters. I love only a couple things more than being arrested by a song, coffee and my gang. I love driving and listening to music too. It’s best when it’s either physical and together, or alone. Something special happens for us in the presence of music and music lovers. I love playing music with and for people in a quiet room. Other than welcoming and doing the best I can on the behalf of the songs as they come, I don’t create maps for “success.” I do enjoy the blue collar work, the beauties and rituals of touring and sharing the music (when there’s not a pandemic). Probably to the detriment of a measured sense of things, I don’t think of goals beyond creativity. What do you think is the most realistic goal you can achieve as an artist/band? What do you hope to achieve? So every new song or collection brings a wild sense of possibility. Fortunately, I also entertain a healthy amnesia. I’m dogged by the romance that a beautiful song should be enough. What do you find to be your greatest struggle when it comes to the music business? Once that’s happened, it feels like anything is possible. When I’ve removed my expectations in the work I do, and the work feels exactly as intended… That’s success to me. It gave me a sense of possibility beyond what was in front of my nose. I found it incredibly inspiring that such amazing beauty was being painted just miles from the world I knew. It’s a humbling and widening experience that I always greet with gratitude no matter what the song eventually does (or doesn’t do) in the world.Īnd it occurs to me now, I remember when I first started driving and exploring on my own, I went to The Wyeth Museum in Brandywine, Pennsylvania. As far as defining moments? I guess I would lean towards the mystery of it, how an idea or mood becomes a life of its own so that it can walk with others and their stories and interiors. There’s no explaining that sensation when a song comes, as if ghosts are giving you something important to pass along. I loved music so much, it felt like weather to me, something I could move through or occupy just like a room. I started writing songs when I was about 17. I’ve taken the architecture and smokestacks I knew there everywhere I go. And while when I was a kid I envied the prettier places I would see from time to time, I wouldn’t change (virtually) anything now.Ĭoming up in a hard place, if you navigate it right with art and hope and curiosity, you end up with this combination of hunger and empathy. It was a troubled town, manufacturing and oil. About 20 minutes south of Philadelphia along the Delaware River. ![]() Where are you from and how did you get started in music? Any defining moments along the path to the present day? ![]()
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