Divine Magazine is pleased to bring you an interview with Ryan David Orr. Ryan is an indie-folk/indie-rock singer songwriter.
Tell us a bit about your company and why you do what you do.
I’m an independent musician. I write songs in the indierock/folk genres and promote my albums online and through performance. My mother was a singer/songwriter, and it sort of grew on me from a young age. Once I was skilled enough to play guitar and sing at the same time, I got hooked on writing original music. Now I love it as an art form and a form of catharsis.
How do you cope with stress?
I guess it’s different at different times, depending on how loud my mind is. I often use meditation or physical activity to de-stress. Other times I like to mix cocktails and cook elaborate meals. Sometimes I just spend time in the studio working on low-stakes projects. One way to start the day with low stress is to sit and read with coffee. That seems to set the tone for a low-stress day.
Where did you get your entrepreneurial spirit from?
Honestly, I got it from other independent musicians. When I first began recording my own material, there were a lot of indies releasing self-produced records (Modest Mouse, Bright Eyes, Built to Spill). Back then, “indie” was not a genre of music yet – it was an ethos. And it wasn’t as hip and cool as it is now. It was hard work, and it really just meant you didn’t have the backing of a major label. So, a lot of us set out to produce our own material, manufacture our own records, and be our own miniature record labels.
What do you do to gain self-awareness when everyone is out to flatter you?
I probably do this too much, but I look to the naysayers. At first, I hated it when my YouTube videos of my music or my music videos would get “dislikes”. But then I realized that occasional negative feedback meant that a broad range of people are listening. You’re never going to make everyone happy, and those closest to you will give you “likes”. But when you start to get a mixture of responses, you know that people are listening that don’t know you personally are. It’s important to listen to people who have no previous connection to your art. You don’t have to take their advice. I mean, if I took everyone’s advice about what I “should” do with my art, I would literally do nothing, because all those opinions contradict each other. But listening to and considering input can be very valuable.
What do you think is your greatest success in life?
I like to think that my greatest success so far is the ability to do things I love as a way of making a living. This means that I get to enjoy my work and never feel that it is a waste of time or that it’s not worth it. Part of my life is teaching college English and the other part is focusing on writing and performing my music. These are pursuits that I am passionate about, so they never feel like chores. Also, the flexibility of my schedule allows me to travel to perform and spend a decent amount of time on the other parts of promoting art, like marketing, producing, and PR.
Would you rather be the one in a movie who gets the hero/heroine or the baddie with all the good lines?
Great question. And the answer is, absolutely the baddie with the good lines. I actually studied acting for several years in college, and I feel I can fully embrace the role of the villain. I’m a pretty nice person in real life, so it would also be a good contrast to get to play around with.
As a kid were you ever frightened of a monster under the bed or in the cupboard?
Absolutely…many of them. My imagination was pretty active, so it didn’t take much stimulus for me to dwell on the hidden monsters. A great example of this is when I was about 7 years old, I watched Jaws for the first time. For literally weeks afterward, I was terrified to get in the shower. Yes, the shower. Not the bath…the shower. I was certain an enormous shark was going to burst through the drain in the floor and devour me.
Which are cooler? Dinosaurs or Dragons?
I have to go with dinosaurs on this one. Dragons are pretty sweet, but there is real-life evidence of dinosaurs everywhere. I live in Arizona, and this region has fossils and prints and bones all over the place, so it’s possible to actually envision the creatures in some real form. Plus, dinosaurs would probably only kill and eat us out of instinct rather than malice or a desire for our gold.
Do you have any lucky items, objects, or traditions?
Being an independent musician, I have had years of paying my dues in bars, restaurants, coffee shops, etc. In all of those settings, you often put out a tip jar and people drop stuff in to show their appreciation. On one occasion years ago, someone dropped a 2-dollar bill into my jar. They are fairly rare, so I have kept it in my wallet ever since, and whenever I play a show where a tip jar is prudent, the first thing that goes in the jar is that bill.
What movie ending really frustrated you? And how would you change it?
Well, a while back they made The Stand by Stephen King into a made-for-tv-movie. I guess when it’s a made-for-tv project, I shouldn’t have extremely high expectations for the ending, but in the end, there is this horrific CGI “hand of God” that comes down to interfere with the evil peoples’ plans to blow up the good people. The big shiny floating hand (that’s not attached to a body) picks up a nuclear bomb and diverts it. It was so corny, it ruined the entire rest of the 4-part series. I’m not even sure how to fix that, but maybe something a bit more subtle rather than a literal interpretation. Big floating hands in the sky are hard to take seriously.