Ryan spent his young years growing up near Wilmington, Delaware. Slow to explore a serious pursuit of music early, he spent most of his time focused on sports and other outdoor activities. It wasn’t until the age of 19 as a sophomore in college that Ryan began to develop a love and understanding for creating music with the help of friends with similar interests.
Ryan’s natural gift for music is his ear. Always the one to understand melody as well as harmony and instrument progression, he focused on ways to record his ideas technically using computers and other electronic equipment, since he had no comprehensive study in music theory before these years. From the beginning, this approach to music has molded his unique style as a writer.
When Ryan finished college he found his way to Orlando, FL, intending to get involved with the production staff at Disney. When that opportunity fell through, and by what he believes was the hand of God, he found a position as a technical instructor at a recording arts school in Winter Park, FL called Full Sail. Up to this point, Ryan had not finished any serious musical projects of his own. In 2003, at the age of 26, Ryan finished a 2 year project called “Life Stories”. This 13 song album represented much of Ryan’s growth as a lyric writer and music programmer through the previous years. In his first work, Ryan made it a point to reflect on the obstacles and triumphs of life, which we all face, making it a deeply personal and relational experience. In the following year, Life Stories would also serve another purpose as the primary reason for meeting and developing a deep friendship with the woman who would become his wife, Dana Summers.
Ryan’s music contains arrangements of many vocal parts along with electronic synths and grooves. It is a unique style in that he almost always uses the progression of music and movement to build the song up to the end, reserving the premium sound for the end of the song. Most of the tracks he writes begin simple and unassuming, while introducing more rhythm and complexity with each section.
Ryan’s current goal is to work toward a comprehensive understanding of more music theory, picking up the guitar and the keys with the intention of becoming a more diverse music programmer and a more dynamic performer.