Checking in with Ryan Montbleau

posted in: Artist Features • Pop

This past weekend was a big one for independent music in Boston as WERS hosted its 60th birthday party and indie artists and music lovers came out of the woodwork to celebrate. Kicking off the festivities was Ryan Montbleau an OurStage artist and mainstay in the Boston indie music scene with a following that stretches well beyond our fair city. We caught up with Ryan after the show and he shared his plans for the year, some funny stories and thoughts on the industry with us. See what Ryan had to say in our Q&A below and check out his music at his OurStage fanclub:

OurStage and WERS are both all about supporting independent music and you’re not afraid to tout your own independence, what would you say is the greatest benefit to following an independent career?

Well, the obvious stuff, fist and foremost: you control your own destiny, you own all your music, etc. I couldn’t imagine a career where someone approved or disapproved of the music I make before I put it out. And then, in the long term, if you can stick it out, it’s just a much more natural and bona fide way to go. It’s grassroots. The roots we’ve been putting down, in a sense will never go away.

On the flip side, what has been the greatest challenge for you along the road and are there any lessons learned through your experience?

Lessons learned every day, I suppose. This is a challenging and straight-out wacky business, there’s no doubt. Doing it grass roots and one show at a time is a long road and the biggest challenge is just staying sane, keeping it together. One major lesson is that you can keep your eye on the prize, but ultimately you have to be realistic about where you are and just enjoy the trip. In that sense, your job is to go out and keep “making it” as opposed to dwelling on a day when you finally “make it.”

You have a great website and you post to your blog quite often; how has the internet and social networking effected the way you market yourself and communicate with your fans ?

Well, as everyone knows, the web has already changed the whole music industry, just turned it completely on its head. But part of the bi-product of allowing everyone to produce and distribute their own material is that there is SO MUCH stuff out there now. And everyone is vying for attention. So as an artist, you really have to go back to those communication tools on the web and connect with people one-on-one as much as you can. If you have one fan who has discovered you and listens to you with all of the other millions of choices out there, consider yourself lucky. And with the web, you can reach right back out to those people and keep them interested.

Have you learned any tricks of the trade along the way that have helped you improve or increase the work you do to promote your music?

My thing from the start has been to focus on the one person. I don’t like it when bands say, “tell three of your friends because this is a really big show for us,” etc. I don’t do that. I prefer more, “This is going to be the best show we can put on, so YOU should come have a good time”. If it’s a good thing, people will tell their friends on their own. It’s better to have one diehard than three passing listeners, I think. Not that there’s anything wrong with passing listeners either! But focus on the one, the rest will come.

You hit the pavement and play over 200 shows every year. You spend a lot of time on the road, so I’m sure you’ve built up a closet full of crazy stories and random circumstances, can you share one with us?

The very, very first tour I went on, I was selling merch and opening for a jam-rock band all over the country. There were six of us and three dogs in a conversion van with a trailer for the summer. No a/c, no hotels. On the last night of the tour the drummer and bass player got into a fistfight involving the lead singer as they all loaded out. I had met a girl at the gig and eventually we were all in the van, heading back to an apartment to hang out with Vince Welnick, from the Grateful Dead. So I’m in the back of this van, making out with this random girl, covered by dogs who are scared shitless because their owners are in the front seat screaming at each other at the top of their lungs and we’re going back to this random apartment to hang out with a member of the Dead. I’ll never forget at that moment thinking, “God, I love the road.” Maybe that’s not the best or craziest story, but it was the very first tour. It’s been seven more years of randomness ever since.

What is your favorite city or venue to play? Why?

That’s tough, there are so many. I have a special place in my heart for Utica, NY. And a lot of the big cities are great–Chicago, Austin, Vancouver, San Francisco. Some of my favorite venues are Higher Ground in Burlington, VT, The 8×10 in Baltimore, Eddie’s Attic in Atlanta. It’s hard to pick one, but it all comes down to the people. If it’s run by someone who really cares about music and about people, it’ll be a good place.

You are originally from the Boston area and are quite active in the local music community. How would you describe the Boston music scene and how would you compare it to others around the country?

I don’t know if I have the best perspective because I’m sort of never here anymore. We’re always on the road. But I try to stay active when I can. My favorite places in the Boston scene are mostly these little holes in the wall with some amazing music going down every night. I think boston is a lot like other towns in that there’s a lack of small to mid-size music venues nowadays. It seems like they’ve all gone or are going under, most places you go. As far as music, there are a ton of great musicians in and around Boston. Maybe its greatest attribute is that it’s an amazing place to learn. There’s good music and good musicians everywhere, you just have to go out and find it.

You have a full touring schedule from now through the end of April; what do you have in the works for this summer and the rest of the year? What are you looking forward to the most this year?

That west coast run will take us halfway into May. Then it’ll be mostly weekends and short runs built around the festival season. Then a big national tour with the band in the fall, with some solo shows in there too somewhere. Our mission for the rest of this year is to get the next record together. We’re already dying to record and will start soon. I think I’m going to have a solo-acoustic release coming out in the fall, and the band record should drop sometime after that. The thing I’m looking forward to most this year is taking a breath, touring just slightly less and getting down to business on the writing. Many songs are on the way…