Many people would have been tempted, at a certain moment of their lives, to retrieve back to that comfort zone that is their place of birth. The place where you were born and raised, where your family and best friends live and you know they will always be there for you.
Ryan McGarvey has never been tempted by that. Since a very young age, the Guitarist and Singer/Songwriter from Albuquerque, New Mexico has always aimed to go to the next step of his musical journey, to risk the unknown and to push himself always to the limit.
He has certainly succeeded on that. McGarvey, since his 2007 debut album Forward In Reverse has not just collected numerous awards and played with the cream of the blues/rock worldwide but also gained the unanimous blessing of the music press on being one of the most inspired and talented guitarists of the last decade of rock and roll.
In the last couple of years, McGarvey has been incessantly touring his latest album to date, the 2014 The Road Chosen and Bluebird Reviews has had the opportunity to talk to this extraordinary artist at The Borderline in London, United Kingdom, where we discussed about life on tour and what the future has got installed for McGarvey.
(Photo courtesy by Supro)
BBR - Ryan, welcome on Bluebird Reviews, great to finally meet you. This has been, so far, a sort of Neverending Tour for you, after the 2014 The Road Chosen album. Have you written new material whilst touring the world, in the last couple of years? If so, when can your fans expect to hear a new Ryan McGarvey's album?
RMG - I have indeed. I'm expecting to release the new album by this fall and then to be back on tour again to support the new album. There are quite few musical projects I am involved into right now. There should be a live CD and DVD hopefully released this summer to celebrate the amazing time I had on the last couple of years on tour. Then I have also an album of rock material ready to go, an album of blues songs ready as well, which is something I wanted to do for a very long time and I am also considering to release an album of acoustic material, which is something else that I really wanted to release for quite some time. Quite a lot going on. We are playing some new stuff in what I call right now Part 2 of The Road Chosen Tour and it's very interesting for me to see the way the crowds react to the new songs.
BBR - You have been always recognised as one of the most inspired and talented guitarists worldwide of the last decade of blues/rock. Given how constantly you are touring and playing night after night, how often do you get to do some practice on your guitars?
RMG - I get that a lot and I am also a complete hypocrit with myself because I am always the one telling everyone "Hey, you have to practice more because if you skip a day, you'll need two days to get back to where you were". And that comes from somebody that never gets to practice anymore, really! (chuckles). I guess that, the fact we get to play every night, helps me to make it up for that. At the end of the day, I pick up a guitar at least once a day anyway, even when I am at home, when trying something new, like a new guitar riff or an idea for a song I have in my head. So the chances I get to skip practicing on guitars are virtually zero.
BBR - Ryan, out of all the three album you have written so far, which is the song you are most proud of?
RMG - It's a good question. I was trying to think about this the other day and I guess, for me, is more a matter of having a favourite song for each album I have written so far. It's all related to state of minds, feelings, on why I have written some particular lyrics on a specific track in a particular time and what they mean to me. On some of the slower songs, the ballads, I can picture exactly what I was writing about. To those slower tunes, I also like to give things a twist, because I like to write and sing my songs in a way that doesn't feel necessarily related to personal stuff but they could be songs in which virtually everyone can see themselves and their lives reflected in somehow. I love the fact that after the shows, people come up to me and say how much they felt connected to some of the songs and what they meant to them. To come back to your original question, I would say that some of my favourite songs from my albums, perhaps the ones closer to my heart are My Heart To You, Always & Forever and So Close To Heaven. I guess I like those songs particularly because I liked the arrangements and every aspects about those tunes.
BBR - Many fans and people in the music industry have always applauded and highly appreciated the fact that you release albums containing solely original material. Have you been ever tempted to record and release a cover album containing songs of artists of the past and present, very close to your heart?
RMG - I thought of doing something like that. Most of my favourite music, growing up, have been covered by the late great Jeff Healey. I have always loved the way that he covered songs in a very wide spectrum and in a very cool way. We have been playing live few covers through the years and I would love the idea of recording an album of covers, one day, and to give them my own interpretation but still respecting the core of the songs themselves. Maybe someday will happen, you can never tell!
(Photo by Rhonda Pierce0
BBR - Ryan, why do you think that a genre like the blues has been able to survive for almost a century now, in an industry where even iconic bands like Radiohead do not sell records anymore as much as they used to?
RMG - I guess that the main reason is that the blues it's one of the very few pure and honest genres. It's one of those styles that speaks very openly to people, you just can't fake it. I have to say, though, that yes, certainly the blues is a very genuine and honest genre but I guess that what you asked is mostly related to the type of artist you are watching, on the night, more than the genre that he or she is playing. It happened and still happens to me, at times, to see somebody playing live and to think "This guy really sucks". But some other time there have been artists that have been mindblowing to watch. Their music was speaking to people and the crowds were finding a true connection with what the artist was playing because they were able to feel what he was playing. But, coming back to your question, at the very end, it all comes back to the blues. The younger generations may go to a rock, a rap or even a country music concert and during the performance, not to be able to figure out that some of the guitar riffs on some of the songs may come straight from the blues. The root of all genres.
BBR - How was the music scene of Albuquerque, back when you were a kid and how eventually did it influence your growth as a musician?
RMG - It was pretty cool. There was a good number of bands, blues bands back in those days. I remember playing in a bar band for something like 4-5 hours every night, for good crowds or sometimes even for a couple of people. But into my head, back then I always had goals and I have always been a very motivated person and wanted to move forward. I remember that, at the time, there was a club I always wanted to play into but I had not managed so far to get any bookings there. When I then succeeded to finally play there, I was getting so many booking request from that venue that I was getting a bit bored and tired of it and just wanted to move to something bigger, more challenging for me as a musician. I have always wanted to move forward, in my career and grow up more and more as an artist. Growing up musically, in Albuquerque, has been certainly a positively, formative experience for me.
BBR - Ryan, the number of followers you have in Europe is almost superior to the one you have back in the States. I have bumped into few people today telling me that this is is going to be the fourth or fifth time they are coming and watching you playing. What is really the secret behind your phenomenal popularity?
RMG - To be honest with you, it is really hard right now, in the States, touring regularly for an artist. Over here, in Europe, it is completely a different world. The kind of promotion we get in Europe is different and bigger. It's different for an artist or a band in terms of fans appreciation too. The fans here in Europe come and see us, on an average in a Tour, something like five or six times, following us around in many different parts of the continent. Maybe the fans here in Europe have got more opportunities to follow us around because countries are in a much closer proximities then in the States. But it's truly remarkable, here, as I said, not just the promotion that we get as artists but also the loyalty of the European fans. If you get somebody coming to one of our shows for the first time and he or she will love what they hear, than the fan here will not just come to more than one show but will also buy your entire discography! And at the next show, that very same fan will know already by heart all the lyrics of each song and sing them loud. It's so rewarding to meet the crowds after our shows, all dressed up in our merchandise, coming up to me saying: "Man, I saw your advertising poster in the streets and I couldn't miss the chance to come and see you and get to hear you playing live again", which is so awesome to hear for me. I had that happening at home in the States sometime but that certainly doesn't happen as often as it happens here.
BBR - B.B. King once stated: "I've said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed". What colours has music brought into your life as a musician and as a human being?
RMG - That's a tough question. It's a very beautiful one, wonderful for sure, although I cannot immediately tell you what the colour might be. I think of this musical environment as a tight-knit big family, where people you have never met in your life which you are a fan of or bought their CDs have the extraordinary capacity to bond with you almost immediately. The minute you run into them, it becomes a completely mutual thing, because you find out they feel exactly the same thing about you. And if you see someone that you really admire, you feel connected to, it becomes, as I said, an instantenous bond. I remember, once, I was at a merchandise table in Denver, Colorado, at a music festival, after one of our shows. After we had been there for so long time, meeting and greeting fans, selling our CDs and all the merchandise, there was still a huge crowd waiting to meet us but the organization told us to move away because there wasn't time left anymore. As we were leaving, a guy steps out of the queue and comes to me saying: "Hey Man, I just wanted to say I really enjoyed the show" and all that stuff. As I thanked him and we were parting company, he said something like he was going on stage and play later and headlining the show, so I said: "Wait a minute. Are you Bernard Allison?" And he said Yes, and I went "Oh, my gosh, I love your music, Man". So, to cut a long story short, in the end, we hugged each other, like old friends would do, with all the people around us taking photos and what have you. It was like that special feeling that gets through me when I get to see friends like Kenny Wayne (Shepherd) or Joe Bonamassa, probably two of my closest musical friends. The special bonding, the cameraderie, that great friendship on and off the stage. Hey, I think I made up my mind about the colour you asked in your question. Let's go for red, a very harmonic colour, which defines probably in the best way possible what I just said.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
