Interview With Ryan Clark of Demon Hunter

Interview with Ryan Clark of Demon Hunter

Camaren: First things first, thanks for taking the time to sit down and talk with us. Now you’re promoting your latest release “Storm the Gates of Hell”, about a third of the way through the tour, on the road with Living Sacrifice, Oh Sleeper, Advent, and the Famine, how’s it been so far?

Ryan: Awesome. Yep. You know, a lot of these guys we’ve known before, the Living Sac guys, we go way back with them. The Famine guys as well, and we’ve known the Advent guys for a while now. Oh Sleeper’s kinda a newer band on the label, so we’re getting to know those guys. So ya know, all the guys are great, and it’s just been a lot of fun.

Camaren: I know you’ve worked with a large handful of bands as far as recording goes. There was a question on the Tooth and Nail podcast regarding which Tooth and Nail artist, had worked with, or been featured with the most other bands, and I thought to myself, it had to have been you. As, you’ve worked with numerous bands, from Kutless, Anberlin, Thousand Foot Krutch, Falling Up, Becoming the Archetype, Advent, among others. So my question is, how have the guest vocal experiences been, any memorable moments in the studio?

Ryan: Yea, you know they’re usually pretty short and sweet. A lot of the times I just go in there…. the producer who does a lot of their records, does our record, so you know if he needs a screaming voice, he’ll talk to our band about it, or he’ll just request me. Sometimes the band’s there, sometimes there not even there.

Camaren: Yea, you know, I had heard Falling Up didn’t even see you, when you recorded with them.

Ryan: Yea. It was after their record was already done, they actually had that part, kinda loped off for someone else, and they had trouble writing to it, as it’s an off time part, off time signature or whatever, so Aaron, said “we should have Ryan give it a shot.” So that’s where I came in.

Camaren: On Summer of Darkness, the vocals were kinda growled, produced, very in your face and intense. Switch over to the Triptych, things sound a little bit more muffled, a further away type shout. How did you determine what you wanted “Storm the Gates of Hell to sound like?

Ryan: We just tried different things, as far as with mics, and the way we did vocals. The first two records, I used a mic on a stand with a screen, and I stood up and did it. Screaming for me like that is a little bit odd, as when I’m doing it live I tend to cup the microphone which muffles it a little bit. It’s a little easier for me to do certain things, to hold out certain notes, when I’m able to hold the microphone. So with the Triptych, what we decided to do was have a handheld microphone, like a real standard mic that I would use live. I was able to have the mic, and cup it with headphones on, that’s kinda why it has a gritty feel. And with the newest record, I sat down with a nicer microphone, which was still handheld, but I was able to sit down, crouch, and do whatever I needed to do, to hold certain notes. It was somewhere between having that real clean scream filtered mic and the handheld.

Camaren: Got ya. So changing gears a little bit, I know you’re full time job is graphic design with Invisible Creature. How’s it been balancing things out, with the summer tour, and graphic design projects?

Ryan: Well, it’s a lot of prep work in order to “get out.” So what that means is I had to be real ahead of schedule on everything I was working on. I had to say “no” to a lot of projects. I have a really great designer, back at work that’s kinda picked up a lot of slack for me. I just did everything I could to get ahead of schedule, and so when I get back it’s gonna be a lot of catch up. Also ya know, outside of just preparing to leave that, we’re preparing to take this whole thing on. So it’s definitely a lot of work. Practicing late nights, practicing early mornings before work.

Camaren: Yea, I read an interview where you were saying you practice the lines, as you may forget them. There’s got to be a lot to memorize.

Ryan: Yea, some of the songs are word heavy to begin with. There are some songs we don’t play live, until you know a year later, maybe two years later. So I’ll end up listening to the record in my car, or in my spare time, or whenever I can get a chance.

Camaren: Working in the music industry has got to have you flooded with new artists and music all the time, I know just from being a writer who covers the indie and Christian scene, that’s there’s so much out there. How often do you find yourself listening to new stuff and if you had a 160gig iPod how much of it would be filled?

Ryan: Well I have an 80gig iPod, but I only fill that up sporadically when I go out of town. I think I have about 150 gigs on my computer.

Camaren: Wow. Not Bad.

Ryan: Yea. I have about 5000 cd’s at home. I mean I get tons and tons of new music. Some of its free, some of it I’ll download, see if I like it, listen to it on Myspace, so I’m constantly listening to new music.

Camaren: Any current favorite artist?

Ryan: Uhh… well recently…

Camaren: Anything you listen to on the bus?

Ryan: We don’t listen to a ton of music on the bus, we watch TV, or talk and hang out. The music system in there, for some reason it just doesn’t work very well to listen to music and hang with people.

Camaren: You’re probably “music-ed” out anyway

Ryan: Yea I listen to music all day every day.

Camaren: Any creepy fan experiences, people who call you up, people who see you on the street? Anything weird?

Ryan: Oh yea, everyplace we go. There are always weird fans. We love everyone, but there are a lot of fans, who I think don’t understand the “tact issue.” There’s people who will talk my ear off, when theres a lot of other people to talk to. There are people who like to ask questions that are kinda pointed, to try and get me to, ya know…

Camaren: Slander something?

Ryan: Yea, say something that they want to hear, but that isn’t really there, or doesn’t exist. There are fans who want to take a picture with every member individually, and then every member together, and then two members at a time, and them with their girlfriend and the band, and then them with their kid with the band, and then those three with each individual member. And you know, that’s fine but…

Camaren: But you can’t sit there all day, and take pictures with every single person, in every single way.

Ryan: Yea, there are some boundaries and rules, or stuff like that, that a lot of fans don’t understand, and it’s fine, we don’t get mad at them, or anything like that. But, sometimes we do want to write out a little rule book… “You come up to a guy; he’s trying to get his suitcase out of the bus… probably not the best time to ask for photos.”

Camaren: Yea. Let him be. A few more questions. I know Tooth and Nail is one of your clients with Invisible Creature, do you guys do any A&R work with Tooth and Nail, I know you guys helped Becoming the Archetype.

Ryan: Becoming the Archetype, was the first one that I kinda “headed up” as far as the A&R stuff. I’m real busy with design stuff, so it’s hard to find time to do the A&R side of things. With that comes, ya know… I’m talking to producers and mixers, talking budgets, which isn’t really part of my job, but I’m kinda taking it on as a project. So yeah, I did that with Becoming the Archetype, and then we started talking again to Soul Embraced, and so I’m doing Soul Embraced A&R right now. And then we have a new band, that myself and Jimmy Ryan are kinda co-A&Ring that we’ll be announcing in a few months.

Camaren: One last question. Some are critical of the band’s initial dark appearance. And you’ve always provided a through explanation of all the songs, normally posting them online. So my question is: What is the lyric process like?

Ryan: Yea, I write a lot of the music. A good chunk of the music, my brother and I write together, all the melodies and that sort of stuff. Theres some stuff that I write on my own, at home, just sittin with my acoustic guitar. Most of the ballads are written that way. And then my brother and I will get together before going into the studio, and we write the rest of the stuff. And it flows really easily and really well. We end up writing songs really quickly, but it works for us. We don’t write throughout the year or anything like that. We kinda cram. Sometimes I stumble writing lyrics, and I can’t really get what I’m looking for, and sometimes it just comes like that [snaps]. I write a lot when I’m traveling, or when I’m on a road trips.

Camaren: Well thanks for taking the time, I appreciate it, and I’ll probably be seeing you at Cornerstone.

Ryan: No problem. I’ll cya then!