It's tough, when you create, when you're being creative, you don't think about comparisons; you only think about what you're trying to say, what you're feeling at the particular moment applicable to different days, different seasons, and all that.

The ubiquitous Matthew Ryan is coming to town, pulling his latest album (his 11th!) Matthew Ryan vs. The Silver State in tow, an album full of grit and heart and misery and yearning. He's garnered more than his share of press accolades—everything from "With his gritty, slightly off-kilter delivery and his band's orchestral arrangements, singer-songwriter Matthew Ryan often sounds like a young Bruce Springsteen fronting Death Cab for Cutie" (Charlotte Observer) to "Exceptionally strong singer/songwriter album from a former major-label artist from Nashville. Excellent vocals and the sensibility sometimes resembles a strange cross between U2 and Paul Westerberg, which is an interesting place to dwell" (USA Today)—and with good reason. One listen to brand-new release Matthew Ryan vs. The Silver State and you'll instantly hear why Ryan deserves all the praise that's heaped upon him, and more.

He's also a tremendously down-to-earth interview subject, waxing poetic on a variety of topics while also keeping his feet planted firmly on the earth. I recently had a chance to exchange more than pleasantries with Ryan in honor of his summer CD release tour; below are excerpts of our conversation.

You're getting ready to embark on a two-week headlining tour. Are you looking forward to it? 

I love touring, I do. I try to keep it two to three weeks every time; there's really no reason to go out there and to be like an astronaut.

What was the reason for changing to a band name instead of just your name?

I never really viewed myself as a solo artist; I grew up loving bands. It's funny, as you go further in, you start to realize that so much of what we do is based upon perception as artists, so I didn't realize it would affect the way I was perceived. I was always striving for, even early on, for a band's feel. Everyone that's in the band now has been with me for years, so it's only right.

One review described your sound as "what would've happened if Bruce Springsteen went on a three-year bender and pulled an all-nighter, recording an album afterward." [Colorado Springs Independent] Were they anywhere close to capturing your writing process?

I don't know; I mean, I don't drink that much.

That's probably good.

It's tough, when you create, when you're being creative, you don't think about those things; you only think about what you're trying to say, what you're feeling at the particular moment applicable to different days, different seasons, and all that. I don't really think about that stuff that's like what other people say; sometimes it troubles me. As much as I love Springsteen—and I really do, I think he's really great—I never intended to be a character actor; you know , it's not Robert DeNiro playing Springsteen in Taxi Driver. [Laughs]

How is that you manage to crank out records so fast?

I'm sure you understand, as an artist you don't really control when you're going to be creative. If anything, my process of being creative is to maintain. There's a quote that says happiness is when a man is in harmony with the life that he lives, and that applies to creativity and the hope that, whenever you write something, you want to share... Every time I write, I get extremely naïve; I want to share it with people but it doesn't necessary serve the overall cause of campaigning and efforts, but I hope it just adds up and creates its own momentum.

Your "dramatic intensity" has been compared to songwriters such as Glen Hansard and Damien Rice; in fact, you've garnered a lot of comparisons to Irish musicians.

I've been compared to a lot of people, and again, I don't want for it to sound bad, but I'm trying to make my own life. Glen Hansard has been doing it a long time as well, and I guess in the perception of things and the media and the collective thoughts, you just have to carve out your own country, and that's what I'm trying to do. I get frustrated sometimes; I've been doing this for 11 years. That sounds reactive because those guys are great, Damien Rice is excellent, and it sounds like I'm being reactive, but I guess just as a human being. you wouldn't want the restaurant you like and the coffee house you like and the bar you like to be mistaken for someone else every time you walk in. That's not really what they are saying, but I guess it's just trying to give readers something and listeners a jumping off part. There's so much ego involved in this stuff; I guess I make my own country.

Looking back over your career, do you think you're where you thought you'd be after 11 years?

I don't know where I thought I'd be; I think it's more emotional and financially secure. Things aren't bad, but it's really a very blue-collar effort that I live in and work very hard to make a living ‘cause it's all I do. You know, if you do what you love, you never work a day. I look at a lot of friends I went to college and high school with and the lives they are leading and I can't imagine myself there. I don't know how they do it, and it's not coming from a high place. It's only been the last couple of years that I've started to really understood where I hope to be.

You've been in Nashville quite awhile [since 1993].

I can't believe how long it's been.

What does that town provide and what do you see there than any other city?

That's one of the weird things in life. But I have some work to do first because I have a way I want to live; at this point in my life, I don't look at paying two grand for a 400-square-foot loft in Brooklyn as romantic. I like the land and the space. I have ambitions to live elsewhere. It's really weird; I don't know if Nashville is like anywhere. It's part of what becomes more obvious as the smaller the world gets through technology. [Laughs]

It's the people that change, but they don't.

And even the people are pretty similar. Me and my friends and I joke, there's really only seven people in the world.

And what are those seven people?

Ha, well, I can't tell. [Laughs]

What has shaped the personal natural of your songwriting the most?

Honestly I think my home life when I was a kid and where I grew up, a rough belt city on a river. There were plants and factories and those things were getting shut down, all the stuff that economists and some artists worry about. I think growing up in a place like, that you have a keen sense about what's going on around you so you don't end up in a place you don't want to be in. I think what I'm writing about, it gets pretty hard, but that means you have to dismantle the way things are in order to get to where you want to be.

Do you think that growing up in such an environment shaped you into what you were saying is your blue-collar life?

At a very early age I understood that you had to work hard. We grew up right literally right by the projects, major humungous projects just south of Philadelphia in a city called Chester. And even within the poor integrity and dignity are everywhere, and the lack of integrity and the lack of dignity, that's everywhere, too. But from a very early age I saw people doing it right and I saw people paying attention. For whatever reason, whether it was my heroes from early on, I've just also aspired to want the other point, the end to be far away from where I began.

How far do you feel you are from the far-away end point?

Not as far as I would like to be, but my dad would probably say differently.

Lastly, what do you bring to your live performances that sets you apart?

I don't know. I think with the listeners that come to my shows that have developed over the years, in many ways there's a collective queue that's available. I always felt that anything was possible; it's something I strive for more and more because that makes for a better night's sleep. It's something that's hard to describe, but more and more there's people singing along. And it's really beautiful, because it's really is about that. We all struggle in our lives. That's not being dark; if you aspire to anything, you're gonna have to fight for it. Really anything worth having isn't given to you.

I don't know what it is. The feeling in the room, I've gotten that a lot more recently. And it's beautiful, because that's always what I wanted. Maybe I didn't know quite how to express it a few years back. For me, it's such an emotional thing; I think it's something that has to be experienced.

PLAYBACK:stl presents
Matthew Ryan vs. The Silver State
w/Rough Shop and One Lone Car
at Off Broadway
June 18, 9 p.m.
$10 adv/$12 dos

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