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Words by Nicholas Smith :: Images by Christopher Kontoes
Ryan Montbleau Band :: 04.20.06 :: Avalon :: Boston, MA
Ryan Montbleau Band :: 04.20 |
If the words "everything happens for a reason" are rooted in any truth whatsoever, then me and the man behind the camera lens were meant to see the Ryan Montbleau Band perform at the Avalon in Boston. Without getting into any of the incriminating details, there were hurdles and those hurdles were overcome. Music is a magical force, and the magic was on our side that night. If nothing else, enjoy those couple pictures. They weren't easy to take.
The payoff was Montbleau sitting front-and-center on what looked like a wide cushioned piano chair with no back, slap-picking his acoustic guitar, looking out at the wall-to-wall packed dance floor of the Avalon, singing into the microphone with that passionate stretch of the mouth, wincing of the eyebrows, slight twisting of the head gesture that comes natural to all soul musicians who play from someplace deep-down. Around him were his band: viola player Laurence Scudder bringing a little of that country twang, acoustic upright bass player Matt Giannaros picking fat bass lines, drummer James Cohen keeping the rhythm alive, and keys-tickler Jason Cohen stringing along some nice tonic melodies.
Ryan Montbleau Band :: 04.20 |
Fresh off the release of their first studio album, One Fine Color, the Montbleau Band were noticeably excited to be playing the Avalon, which is a kind of hip, popular downtown Boston venue that is synonymous with "only good, deserving bands play here." The Red Sox were playing that night, so if you went out to smoke a cigarette by the back of Fenway's illustrious Green Monster, a hard hat might have been appropriate given the possibility of wayward homeruns with Ortiz at bat. I think Boston is the only city in America where a music-loving dreadlocked dancer will stop mid-song to ask his friend, packing the proverbial bowl, for the score of the baseball game.
One Fine Color is a fine example of a singer-songwriter's lyrical playfulness being supported by a band that is interested in jamming. The 13 songs on the record offer up a range of themes, from the slow-moving ballad-like emotions of "Boat Song" to the sunny, shake your hips and smile rhythms of "Inspired by No One." It's obvious Montbleau has a touch of the poet kicking around his noggin, and the band is seemingly focused on delivering acoustically charged, emotional sounds.
On stage, the boys rock. Montbleau is up there kicking his legs around, wailing on his guitar, glancing back quickly to make sure the others are having as much fun as he is, and the music moves in unpredictable ways, inviting a dance or a pensive meditation on what Ryan's driving at when he sings, "Take me under and make me understand. Block my lungs off and make me appreciate the end." Hot damn, Ryan, lyrics like that have to start a fire. The title track of the album is more of the same:
I used to dream in One Fine Color,
Sweet lazy sublime shade of red,
But now it's just the black and white or some strange psychedelic nightmare,
Whole mess of colors swirling 'round instead.
In a phone conversation, Montbleau talked about the early years, the pressures of releasing an album without the help of a record label, and how cool it is to play music and keep the musical momentum churning...
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I mean last night with Soulive, I've been dreaming about a gig like that for years. I want to go up there and play and really kick some ass.
-Ryan Montbleau
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JamBase: On your website, you explain that your first tour in '03, a solo tour, met with some complications.
Ryan Montbleau Band :: 04.20 |
Ryan: Ya, it was a bit of a nightmare. My routing was ridiculous. One drive was from Denver to Seattle. In retrospect, it was kind of dumb, but I don't regret it.
JamBase: Seems like you've come a long way since '03, from solo traveler to band leader.
Ryan: We've come a long way. It's been a crazy couple years. The music has the same spirit. It's all been one journey. There was no real turning point or change of philosophy. I've just been trying to get myself out there - playing everywhere I can and trying to make it happen. The last two years, we've played about 200 shows a year. We've been doing a big triangle from Maine to Chicago to Georgia. And now we have a record behind us, some good promotion, and we're picking up some momentum. Ya know, the lesson I learned from that first tour was that you can easily spread yourself too thin. You have to get something going in your home area and then branch out slowly. I wasn't ready for a national tour, but now we're psyched to get back out to the West. It all keeps growing. I don't expect things to get huge over night. And when it does grow, it grows exponentially. I mean, last night we opened for Soulive. We're getting somewhere.
JamBase: How does it feel to be opening for a band like Soulive?
Ryan: Oh my god, so good. We had a moment earlier today when we were practicing with the band. We were in mid conversation, and the bass player says, "Dude, we opened for Soulive last night." And we all just started laughing. Even last night, when Soulive was doing their sound check, I was walking around doing my pre-show routine and I thought to myself, "That's Soulive out there." It was almost surreal. But at the same time, I think we deserve to be there. I think it was right for us to be on that show.
JamBase: Do you feel some good momentum with promoting the album and touring?
Ryan Montbleau Band :: 04.20 |
Ryan: Yeah, definitely. I think there is some great momentum going on. I feel like there is some buzz, and the band is getting a lot tighter. I mean, we're still trying to get better and better, but we're definitely getting a lot tighter.
JamBase: Is there pressure to produce?
Ryan: Only to get better. I don't want to just go up there and do the gig just to do it and say, "Okay, we did it, now let's go get drunk." Ya know what I mean? I mean last night with Soulive, I've been dreaming about a gig like that for years. I want to go up there and play and really kick some ass. There's a little pressure because of the hype and stuff like that, but we just want to show that we deserve to be there and we don't take it lightly.
JamBase: How organic is the recording process for you? Did you know what you were going to play before you went into the studio to record One Fine Color?
Ryan: For the most part, we knew what we were going to do for this one. We kinda had to. We did this all on our own, and we didn't have a producer. We've been playing most of the tunes on the road for the last couple years, so we've been tweaking them and revamping them. It was almost like making a set list going into the studio. There was a little bit of magic in the studio. There were some things that came out better than we planned, but for the most part, it's just us doing our thing, which is usually a pretty organic process.
JamBase: Was it a conscious decision to do the album on your own? Are you looking for a record deal?
Ryan: Part of the reason we've done it on our own is that I don't really have any other options. There certainly have been some offers and some talk, but really, there aren't too many people beating down my door. There is really no doubt in my mind that a record contract will come in time. You can't really do it on your own forever. It's hard. You need help. And help comes in many different forms, I don't mean only money. But I'm in no rush to get that. As we grow and people come along to help us do what we want to do, to get the music out there, it'll come. By no means am I avoiding a record contract, standing up and saying, "I shun the industry." There's definitely some messed-up stuff going on out there, but at the same time, it's hard. We're struggling, paying the bills and all that. I'll talk to anyone, and we could use the help at some point. I always want to keep our interests there. We want to do our thing.
JamBase: The album has a raw quality to it - a live, energetic sound. Was that intentional?
Ryan Montbleau Band :: 04.20 |
Ryan: Yeah, absolutely. Our whole thing is built around the live show. That being said, in the future I do want to continue to make albums, and I don't know that every single album that I'm going to make will have that live thing, but for this one, it had to happen. We wanted to capture what we were doing on stage. It's not completely the way we'd play in a live show. We're definitely happy with the album.
JamBase: Have you always sat down on stage when you play?
Ryan: Oh yeah. That's the way I feel most comfortable. People have been telling me over the years, "We have to make you stand up," and all that. If that's going to make it sound better, than I'm sitting down. But actually, it's starting to hurt! I'm thinking about standing up when I play the electric. It's fun to stand up and dance around a little bit. I definitely think it's all about what makes you comfortable and how you sound is the important thing.
JamBase: How much does your background as an English major in college help you lyrically?
Ryan: It's huge. It's absolutely essential. I couldn't do what I'm doing now without that foundation. Getting that deep into words and reading that kind of profound poetry and taking poetry workshops and working on it and writing, I got heavily into writing in college. I still try to write every day.
JamBase: Who's influenced you lyrically?
Ryan: I've always liked Paul Simon's lyrics. He's so simple. He puts things so simply that by themselves they don't seem to mean anything, but for some reason when you hear the words, they just break you down. And I just love everything that Martin Sexton does. "Glory Bound" - that's the tune, the anthem.
JamBase | Boston
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