Imagine the scenario: You’re a local band that enters a competition to be the warm-up act for three Jane’s Addiction shows in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. Four months later, you get a call from the contest organizer saying your band has won the competition! It’s the scenario all young bands dream of, right? Now, imagine your singer left the band three months before you got that life-changing call, placing the band in a state of indefinite hiatus. What do you do? Do you scramble to find a replacement singer? Do you attempt to make amends with the singer that helped you win the competition in the first place? Do you decline the offer entirely?
That’s exactly the decision guitarist/songwriter Ross Ryan was faced with when his band Boys won the Guitar Center “On Stage: Jane’s Addiction” competition organized by OurStage.com. Boys won on the strength of the song “Gossip” – a pounding rocker that sounds like Concrete Blonde’s “Bloodletting (Vampire Song)” on an overdose of steroids. “Gossip” was hand-picked by the members of Jane’s Addiction from thousands of entries as the song they liked most. But, as you’ll see by this interview, deciding what to do next was not an easy decision for Ryan to make.
Gossip by Boys Music
Boys came into existence when vocalist Kyle Simmons – one of the most enigmatic icons the Denver music scene has to offer – left the band Speakeasy Tiger in a very public and messy fashion just as their star was rising in the Spring of 2010. Ryan, also a member of the alt-rock outfit Life in Electric, lobbied hard for a collaboration with Simmons. When she finally relented, Ryan (along with Life in Electric’s bassist Zach Newton and drummer Ryan Ramirez) formed Boys and played their first gig together in July 2010. In May of 2011, they submitted “Gossip” for the chance to play with Jane’s Addiction.
Michael Thompson: How did you find out that Boys had won the “On Stage with Jane’s Addiction” competition?
Ross Ryan: Out of the blue, I get a call from OurStage telling me we are in the top X amount of bands and they would be picking in the next couple days. Obviously I was still skeptical that anything would happen, but it did, and we won the spot. We were judged out of nearly 3000 band entries, which shows that Boys was definitely on to something.
MT: What was your reaction when you got that call?
RR: It was rather shocking. We submitted for it back in May and honestly had just forgotten about it all together. So much time had gone by that it wasn’t even a thought anymore.
MT: Not long after Boys played the Global Dance Fest Battle of the Bands in June, Boys’ Facebook page was de-activated and Westword Magazine reported that Kyle Simmons had left the band. What went wrong?
RR: In the beginning, writing music was never a struggle. Boys was fortunate enough to get some important people involved in the beginning and that grew rapidly. We had a lot of opportunity there for us and it just sort of happened and kept happening, we didn’t have to do anything but create. But from the moment of conception, it has been an internal uphill battle. This is the first group I’ve been a part of where the battle was one more waged within the band then one fought out on the battlefield. Boys went on an indefinite hiatus just following the Global competition. I can’t really speak on the reasons for the split, as it does get very hairy and drama filled. But to me a band should be “us against the world” not us against each other, and that is what it had become at that time. Kyle was off doing Kyle, and I was doing me, and the other guys were concentrating on their own lives as well.
MT: How did the decision to come back from indefinite hiatus to do the Jane’s Addiction shows go down?
RR: We had the option to pass it on, but I got Kyle on the phone and we talked it out and agreed that Boys should take this opportunity and perform. It’s an opportunity we all earned and should share part in.
MT: What happens after the three Jane’s Addiction shows?
RR: What ever lies beyond this we don’t know. We are taking it day by day right now. When Boys works together, it works amazingly well. If we can make this work right now then maybe we can rebuild our working relationships together again. A lot of damage has been done and its a lot to work through. But I believe that not all bands have to love each other. Most of the greatest bands can’t even stand one another but they make it work because of the art.
Boys (L-R: Zach Newton, Kyle Simmons, Ryan Ramirez, Ross Ryan)
MT: Kyle was once quoted in a Denver Post article as saying “[There is a] line you draw between how much business you put into your passion”. What does this statement mean to you?
RR: There are several ways to interpret that. One could take it as her saying she is so passionate about her music that she doesn’t like to involve business out of fear that it may hinder the art in someway. I personally don’t like to put a lot of business into my passion, because I tend to think it can become something the dilutes the art. Business should be the thought after the art has been created. I don’t go into a project or begin writing a song with a business angle in mind. But I do realize the importance of business sense in the music world if you want to “make it big.”
MT: Are you concerned that Kyle may be averse to “making it big”? Do you personally want to “make it big”?
RR: I know Kyle wants to succeed with music to the fullest degree possible, as do I. I do think that we both have very different reasons for that. I think that “making it big” means very different things to the both of us. You’ve really got to evaluate what success means to you and what the important aspects of it are. Is it fame? Is it money? Is it the persona of being cool? Or is it the true art? The chance to make an impact in peoples lives? The opportunity to travel the world doing what you love? In the wake of success, some people can sort of sabotage themselves, boobie-trap themselves in their actions. I think this is an unconscious thing, but I do believe it happens more often then not. The only person that can really hold you back from attaining anything is yourself.
MT: You originally became involved with Boys after your other band Life in Electric went on indefinite hiatus in the Summer of 2010. But Life in Electric seems to be back in business with a show scheduled for October 16th at the Hi-Dive. Did the problems with Boys lead you back to LiE, and what were the reasons LiE went on indefinite hiatus in the first place.
RR: We took a break because everyone agreed we all needed some time to focus on other projects or other aspects of life. I think that is important sometimes to do. It allows you to come back to something if you really want it and possibly find new life there. We had put so much energy into LiE over the course of 3 years that I think we were just all really needing to branch out and explore some other things for a while. Boys played a huge role in how long it took for LiE to get back together. A lot was being put into Boys at the time and I needed full focus on that.
You gotta know, we had a lot of opportunity on the table with LiE at the time that Boys began. I basically walked away from that opportunity to pursue something that I was feeling more passionate and connected with at the time. Now that doesn’t mean I love one more then the other. Its all just a matter of where the heart is at that moment. And that’s just where it was. The Boys hiatus definitely gave us the opportunity we needed with LiE to get some of that back on track and begin talking about working together again. It is just to much to juggle both those projects at once as they both require a lot of love and attention. LiE as of right now is just doing a couple shows. We have just released an EP containing previously unreleased material from our recording sessions last year. If everyone’s lives allow, we should be recording new material sometime early next year. But that is still all to be decided. We are just looking forward to getting back on stage and doing what we do.
Life in Electric (L-R: Ryan Ramirez, Zach Newton, Jason McGinnis, Ross Ryan)
MT: If that isn’t enough to juggle, you also seem to be very passionate about creating electronic music.
RR: Since I started LiE back in 2007 I have had this idea of an electronic project called ForeverKid. Just before Boys’ hiatus in June I began digging deep and I have found what I really believe my true calling is, which is producing electronic/computer based music. And that is where I have been these past 3 months since the hiatus of Boys and where I plan on returning to after the Jane’s shows. I’ve literally been living in my basement studio crafting this new monster I call ForeverKid. I’ve also taken it live a few times with a few DJ gigs in Fort Collins and I am doing my first one in Denver on Sept 30th at Cassleman’s. I’ve got big plans for this venture and I plan on putting most of my creative energies and time into it throughout the rest of the year and most likely next year as well. With computer based music anything is possible. Your not tied to the boundaries of bass, guitar and drums. Your not at the mercy of the vocal melody to direct the song. Its freedom to move the music in anyway you would like. ForeverKid allows me to do all the things with music I have always wanted to do with out compromise. My driving force is that sound in my head. The sound I’m always chasing and never quite obtaining. And that is what keeps the hunger inside going. That is what keeps art alive.
MT: What about opening for Jane’s Addiction are you most looking forward to?
RR: I’d say the biggest thing I’m looking forward to is the opportunity to go out and perform in front of such a large audience and supporting such a large band. I saw them perform a few summers ago. I was front row right in front of Dave Navarro. I remember being amazed at the kind of performance they delivered. It really is crazy to think I will be sharing the stage with them within a few days from now! I’m a performer first and foremost. Performance has been the driving force behind my musical career. Those few moments on stage are like the pay off for all the work you put into it. At least to me it is.
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Everyday (in the Mile High) 