Through awkward family photos or an old VHS tape, there is a variety of ways to capture the years gone by and the moments that change you – for better or worse.
When you’ve been a songwriter for over a decade, you have a lot of those moments immortalized in music.
Musician Ryan McMahon knows this well.
“I’m not an old man by any means, but I’m 35 and I certainly have a different way of looking at the world than I did when I was 25,” said Ryan McMahon over the phone from his home in Ladysmith, B.C. where he lives with his wife and three kids.
As he discussed the progression of his music, he explained that with age writing has become different for him.
“Instead of writing these songs which were more along the lines of being complaint anthems, now at the tend of the songs there is a little bit more of a ray of hope around the corner. Trying to fix the problems instead of just bitching and moaning about them,” he said.
McMahon’s sound is something that is influenced by an eclectic mix of artists, described cleverly on his website: “as rock as folk can get before it starts to roll.”
McMahon described his influences while staring at his vinyl collection and began to list some of his favourites – CCR, Elliot Smith, Beck and Bonnie Prince Billy. He is also sure to mention his love of early punk rock with bands like the Ramones and Buzzcocks, vocalists like Tom Waits and James Brown and the Seattle grunge scene of the early 90s.
“We can go all day on influences,” he said.
Although McMahon is a solo artist, he is also part of the trio The Lion The Bear The Fox (LBF), with McMahon representing the latter of the three.
He described the musical collective as something similar to that of Blackie and Rodeo Kings, where during the band’s downtime each artist is able to work on solo material.
“We all support each other and it is hopefully a situation that we can perpetuate into our 40s and 50s and beyond that,” said McMahon. “The goal is to be lifetime musicians.”
With that comes a lot of work. McMahon mentioned that he is in the middle of pre-production for a new LBF record and is also in the middle of recording his next solo record, which is being produced by The Lion – Christopher Arruda.
“We kind of keep things in-house. It’s like a little ma and pa business,” explained McMahon.
He said during a touring stint with LBF, Arruda began to share homemade demos of his own material and McMahon was impressed with the quality of the demos and the fact that they sounded nothing like a demo at all.
“I thought about it for a little while, because I didn’t want to make an album that sounds like an LBF record. I wanted to distance myself from that,” said McMahon. “So far, we’re done over half the record and we’re really happy with it. It sounds like nothing else I’ve ever produced.”
You can see McMahon play at Legacy Guitar and Coffee House Friday, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m.
