MANCHESTER, NH – There’s something about a musician performing with a guitar in his hands while singing his heart out. If done right, they possess the ability to take over a room by themselves while letting the stripped-down nature of their songs have the spotlight. It’s a prime example of beauty in simplicity and it’s a genuine representation of music being the panacea for the masses.
The frontman for the local alt-country band Regals, Ryan Rock Egan, is doing exactly this on April 2. The show is going down at Bad Brgr and it’s an opportunity for anyone in the Manchester area to witness the craft of songwriting in its purest form while enjoying delicious grub.
Egan and I had a talk ahead of his performance about a new album his band put out, sharing the bill with a couple singer-songwriters from the South, and plans for the near future.
Rob Duguay: You and the rest of Regals started the year off with the release of the album “Regaltown, USA,” so what was the experience like making it? Did you do it all yourselves or did you work with a producer? Also, what would you say is the collective vision you had for the album?
Ryan Rock Egan: The album was recorded over the course of about two years. We did some of it DIY and we went to two different studios. We recorded some of it at Blackheart Studios in Manchester and we did another section of songs in Clinton, Massachusetts with our homie Jason Duguay at Project Sound Recording. I also self-produced some of the record and some of it was recorded with our buddy Ian Anderson, so it was kind of a collective effort between a few different producers, studio engineers, and DIY hacks like myself. Basically, the whole vision of the record is a small town atmosphere, all of the going-ons, and everything that comes along with it.
Living in that circular loop of everyone knowing each other, you’re down at the bars, and you can’t get away from all the same faces and everything that comes along with drinking and mild alcoholism, as they say it. It’s a collection of some of my personal grievances and how I process them is through song, that’s how it all kind of came together.
RD: Following the release of the album, I know you guys put out a music video for the song “Exile” off of it, and it’s an interesting video in the sense where it’s half and half. The first half has you and a friend of yours walking around the woods and the second half has you and the friend hanging out at an apartment while giving somebody a haircut. How did the idea for the video come to be?
RRE: It’s kind of funny. Basically, our friend Ian who helped us record the song “Demons” had a hair situation and he really needed a haircut but he didn’t know where to go because it was a little embarrassing. He asked us to cut his hair, and we were like, “Well, we’ll do it, but we’re going to film it because we need to make a music video.” We thought it would look kind of interesting, so that’s kind of where that came from. Then we decided to make a weird story out of it that’s a bit disjointed and up for interpretation, but I thought it had a little bit of a Brokeback Mountain kind of feel to it. It’s thought-provoking and strange enough for a song that’s very heartbreaky and yearning, I thought it had a nice symbiotic relationship.
RD: You have this show coming up at Bad Brgr where you’re playing solo, so when it comes to performing by yourself, do you approach it any differently versus performing with a band? Do you have a different mindset with it?
RRE: Oh, for sure. I just went on a U.S. tour playing solo back in January and February, and one thing I really liked about playing solo was that I could create my own tempo with the tracks, slow things down a little bit more and let my voice travel in a different way rather than when we have the full band ripping and we have to stay on the track. With being able to play by myself, I can let the room take some empty space while letting my voice do a little more work. Over the course of the tour, I learned to really have fun with it while approaching all of the songs in a new feel that I really learned to love.
RD: As part of the show, you’re going to be performing with two musicians from Little Rock, Arkansas in Adam Faucett and William Blackart, so did you meet these guys while on the road, or did this bill come together in a different way? What are your thoughts on the whole thing?
RRE: I’m really stoked about the show. These guys are really great musicians and I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting them yet, but a friend of mine, Nick Ferrero, who was in the defunct punk band The Graniteers, knows them personally from years of touring and stuff. He thought that I’d be a great match for the show, which I agree with, so he got in touch with me to put the show together. I’m super psyched about it because I didn’t get to go to Arkansas on the trip so it’s going to be cool meeting a couple guys from there and have new contacts for musicians in my rolodex.
RD: Every time a show happens, it’s kind of like a networking event, especially when you’re performing with people from out of state. Looking forward to the summertime, what are your plans either as a solo artist or with Regals? Are you guys just going to focus on playing a lot of shows in support of “Regaltown, USA?”
RRE: In the next few months, we are going to be working on the next record. We have a lot of songs that are already recorded, we’re pretty far along on them and we’re trying to balance that with playing a lot of shows. We have a lot of shows happening in the future, including a really cool one on April 24th at the Bank of New Hampshire Stage in Concord that I’m looking forward to. There’s a bigger stage, so it’s going to be cool to have the band spread out while rocking it out. We’re still booking out into the summer while doing a lot of shows in Maine and Upstate New York along with trying to find a balance in between that and finishing the record in a timely manner hopefully by the end of the year.