20 Questions with David Ryan Harris

Thursday, November 15, 2007


20 Questions with David Ryan Harris
Category: Quiz/Survey


1) What's the first album you remember buying? CD, tape, vinyl, or 8-track?

the first record i ever got was the Jackson 5's ABC. it came on the back of an Alphabits cereal box. The first record I ever bought was The Time

2) Who would we be surprised to find on your iPod?

Hank Williams Sr. maybe?

3) All time favorite line from a song?

"Words are trains for moving past what really has no name" (Paddy McAloon) Prefab Sprout, "Couldn't Bear To Be Special"

4) Why are you a musician?

because it is what i'm supposed to be. I think we all have (at least) one God given talent with which we are supposed to make a living and serve humanity. So for me, it was either "Musicain" or "Self-Taught Neuro Surgeon"

5) If you weren't a musician what would you be?

Probably a teacher of some sort. I have a thing for jobs that don't always pay very well

6) How did your family react when you told them you wanted to be a musician?

"Duh"

7) Most embarrassing moment on stage thus far (when/where)...

Crowd surfing in Huntsville, AL when i was in Follow For Now. I made it all the way to the back of the crowd , but hit an empty spot in the crowd, and thus, I hit the floor (mic in hand)

8) What is something about you that would surprise your fans?

I tend to put it all in my songs, or in my between song banter, so I can't imagine i could come up with anything really that surprising

9) Which line of your own do you wish you'd never written (or are proud that you did)?

Proud of:
You can try to turn your right cheek if you don't like getting involved, but a problem is still a problem and to turn your cheek will leave the problem unsolved.

10) What inspires you?

Human connection

11) Hidden talents?

???

12) Do you have any phobias?

Doorknobs in public restrooms gross me out

13) Bad habits?

Saying "yes"

14) If you could be a superhero what would your superhero name be and what
would your special power be?

to be able to make people tell the truth

15) Mac or PC?

People use PCs because they have to. People use MACs because they want to. MAC all the way

16) If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life what would it be?

I could eat the Yellowtail Jalapeno sashimi from Matsuhisa until i turn green, which given my complexion would take a long time

17) How do you define SUCCESS?

Being able to support yourself doing something that you love

18) What do you hope to have accomplished in the next year?

I hope to have elevated my profile as a writer/producer and to have written/produced something that sounds like I feel whether its for me or some other artist.

19) Name two things you simply have to do in your lifetime.

Sky and Scuba dive. Same day. Yongala, Australia. Great Barrier Reef

20) What's the best advice anyone's ever given you?

If you're gonna make music for a living, do it because you have to; not because you want to.

Source: The Hub

Old Interview/Review - Boundary Jumpers

Boundary Jumpers
Friday, February 04, 2005
MARTY HUGHLEY

Let's put this simply, shall we? David Ryan Harris is a musician you really should go to hear.

His name isn't widely known, and if you've heard him at all, chances are it's been in the role of sideman. But his own work is richly rewarding, eclectic yet accessible, brimming with chops and soul. Rock, funk, soul, blues mingle in refreshing ways that remind you why you liked any or all of those styles in the first place. Highly recommended.

Same goes for Citizen Cope. Like Harris, Cope (as he's called for short; his real name is Clarence Copeland Greenwood) makes music that doesn't conform to simplistic classification. He hasn't had the best of luck getting through the major-label mill and reaching a sizable audience. But he's gaining traction with his second release, the critically praised "The Clarence Greenwood Recordings."

Both singer/songwriter/guitarists play Monday at Berbati's Pan, on a bill headlined by Marc Broussard. All three acts straddle genres, show the influence of Southern roots, can groove well and play with passion, so the evening should have a certain cohesiveness to it as well as variety.

"Everybody has their own take on it," as Harris put it recently by phone. "Everybody's mixed up the pot. Marc has his Louisiana thing, Cope is more East Coast and mine is kind of a Southern thing, but now maybe also So Cal -- though not in a No Doubt way."

Broussard, at least to judge by his first major-label release, "Carencro," isn't nearly as imaginative or as compelling as the others. (Though he does serve as a common connection: Harris co-wrote two songs on "Carencro," and that album's first song includes the line "me and my daddy and a kid named Cope, making music that nobody would hear.")

Harris first emerged in the early 1990s as an Atlanta teenager in a punk/funk band called Follow for Now that tried to squeeze through the black-rock door of opportunity briefly opened by Living Colour. Then, as musical director for Dionne Farris, he helped the former Arrested Development singer reach the Top 10 with her hit single "I Know." In recent years he's played in John Mayer's band.

Harris' big solo shot came in 1997, when he released an album through Sony, on a boutique label led by Pearl Jam producer Brendan O'Brien. It was a brilliant amalgam of the Stevie Wonder, the Allman Brothers and the more earnest side of Prince. But its unclassifiability and the vagaries of record biz politics and promotion doomed the record to relative obscurity. Later, he teamed up with ex-Black Crowes bassist Johnny Colt in Brand New Immortals, issuing an album on Elektra. Harris' more recent works "Soulstice" and "Atlanta" have been put out on his own and are available online. Perhaps the cultural climate is better suited now to accept music that goes beyond category.

"(In the mid-'90s) we didn't have the culture of iTunes and of indie music being low-hanging fruit," he said. "I think the thing that's changed is there being a greater number of people who seek out new things. I don't have to homogenize what I do so much."

Harris won't be bringing a band for this tour, but that shouldn't diminish the power of his presentation. Citizen Cope, in a separate phone interview, recalled being "blown away" seeing Harris open for Farris long ago with a solo acoustic set like the one he'll perform in Portland.

Cope will have a four-piece backing band including players who've worked with the likes of OutKast and Robert Randolph. The inspirations for his character-driven, cinematic soul-rock range from Willie Mitchell's productions for Al Green to Radiohead to the photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson.

"I don't want to sound like anybody else," Cope said. "But at the same time, I want people to enjoy my music and be inspired. Ultimately, people like they sound 'cause they sound like they sound. But you make more of an impact when you change the boundaries of what came before." DAVID RYAN HARRIS

Source: The Oregonian

Old Interview/Review - Brand New Immortals Biography

Brand New Immortals - Biography

[Review: Tragic Show 6/30/01]


Brand New Immortals' name may give some clue as to their real mission: Not out to save rock, just turn its eternal flame up a notch. Powered by a phosphorous blend of compelling lyrics, saw-toothed guitars, and sonically honed percussion/loops, their 12 song debut, Tragic Show, tips its hat to the rock/blues and even funk roots of the Immortals' rollicking cast: vocalist/guitarist David Ryan-Harris, bassist Johnny Colt and drummer Kenny Cresswell.

Johnny Colt, resident multi-hyphenate of the band (ex-Black Crowe, current yoga-aficionado, revered bassist, and accomplished songwriter) points to the band's dedication to songwriting as their greatest strength. "David and I had known each other for a long time. We agreed on one rule when we set out on this journey. We were not going to do anything until we had written a set of songs that moved people, that we thought had the potential to affect people's lives."

Consider that tall order accomplished. Steel-eyed rockers like "Reasons Why," and the punchy "Black Sun" are complemented by the funked-up sprawl of "Kalifornia" and "High Time." All 12 songs were good enough to draw the attention of longtime friend/acclaimed producer Brendan O' Brien (Pearl Jam, Rage Against The Machine, among others). O'Brien's deft touch helps make Tragic Show one of the most solid rock debuts of the year.

"We all started intersecting at the right time," says David. "I was working on a project with Brendan when he had his label deal at Columbia. He and Johnny and me all knew each other from our Atlanta days."

David made his first splash on the Atlanta rock scene with the eclectic cult-band Follow For Now. Brendan, also relatively unknown at the time, produced their early demos. "The Crowes were just starting back then," recalls Johnny. "We weren't known outside of Atlanta yet. Follow For Now was the hot band and we were right behind them." The close relationship now enjoyed by David and Johnny wouldn't really kick in until much later. But Kenny knew Johnny quite well during those formative years. "I was in one of Johnny's first bands, even before the Crowes. We always stayed friends," he says.

Johnny torpedoed to rock stardom with the Black Crowes, and David rolled with Follow For Now. The two Immortals would meet again, however, on a mid-'90's H.O.R.D.E. tour that seem to spark the possibility of working with each other. "It was one of those tours that just had a great camaraderie, a great spirit of community. He played me about 30 songs he was working on. We renewed our friendship, and kicked around the idea that maybe we'd do something together."

In 1998 Johnny left the Black Crowes. "Instead of expanding creatively, my role seemed to be diminishing," he says. "It was just time to move on." Intermittently, he also took time off to do some soul searching, traveling to India and taking up yoga. In fact, the band's moniker - Brand New Immortals - most likely was coined because of Johnny's exploration of a tenet of yoga known as Vendanta.

"Basically, it follows a philosophy that we are immortal, that there isn't any division between people, that we all stem from a universal tide. It reflects the transcendence of karma that says we are never born and we never die."

But they do rock - and thus, Brand New Immortals were born.

"I don't know if you could say we really had a charter for the band," says David. "But we all had our influences. Things that might not immediately come to mind if you knew our previous work. Bjork. Band Of Gypsies. Parliament. All that informed what we wanted to do."

Kenny adds that the strong mutual friendships seemed to anchor the band to something real. "I was Johnny's roommate. In some ways it's all so simple. This is an opportunity to play with my very best friends in a really good band. When we're on stage we can simultaneously read each other. It's almost second hand. Our relationship to each other gives this group its backbone."

A quick listen to the poignant "Satellites" or the haunting vocals of "If I Had A Dime" confirms a mystical, indefinable quality to Brand New Immortals - timeless ingredients that could be attributed to their organic roots. "Look at a song like 'King For A Day'" says David. "It's not a song a 19 year old could write. It's got an old soul flair to it, but at the same time it's more pumped up."

In fact, the lyrics of the song pose an age-old question - one certainly appropriate for a band who dare call themselves Brand New Immortals: 'Am I a king for a day, or a fool for a lifetime.' About to launch a whole new chapter of his career, it's a question Johnny has no doubt asked himself. "I think Brand New Immortals was a way for us to re-discover what we've always been," says Johnny. "The minute David and I started writing songs together, it was like we were reborn. I never had so much energy. I never wanted to be out on the road so bad. We have all been in a number of bands. We decided if we were ever going to do this again, you better believe it's going to be special."


Source: hiponline.com

Old Interview - Everything Old is New Again

Everything old is New again

The not-so-unlikely success of the Brand New Immortals

BY LEE SMITH
Published 09.30.00


Inside a cavernous rehearsal hall, the Brand New Immortals are finishing a blazing version of "Kalifornia," a track from their just-released EP. The song seems a fitting prelude to an upcoming trip planned to the Left Coast to play the infamous Viper Room. "I'm gonna go there and just punch somebody," jokes David Ryan Harris, the soft-spoken front man for the band. Harris and company, however, won't have to pick a fight with anyone to make their big dent.

Harris, the former leader of Follow For Now, is joined by former Black Crowes' bassist Johnny Colt, drummer Kenny Cresswell, of the now-defunct blues-rockers Gracie Moon, and Mac Carter, guitarist for the recently reunited Kathleen Turner Overdrive. Individually, the members have been making a name for themselves since the '80s.

Today, this locally bred supergroup is currently making their presence felt beyond Atlanta. After being thrown into regular rotation at local modern-rock station 99X their song "Reasons Why" has been subsequently added to playlists across the country, bringing major label reps with begging pens. But the band has actually been working on their overnight success for over two years now.

"I liken all this to how Michael Jordan refers to things as 'going in slow motion,'" says Harris as he calmly takes a sip of coffee.

The Immortals' growing fame is somewhat amusing, considering the fact Colt and Harris started it as a salute to Atlanta producer Nick Didia's love of Bruce Springsteen. "He [Didia] always teased me that I look like Bruce," says bassist Colt. "So I called Dave and asked him to come be Clarence Clemmons as a joke."

Colt had left the Black Crowes in '97 and was eager to try his hand as a songwriter. In Didia's house is the 2-inch tape machine that the Black Crowes recorded their Southern Harmony And Musical Companion album on. "So I just went to work in his basement, teaching myself to engineer and sing," Colt explains.

The plan was to do only one song, "but we all got in a room -- with Phil Zone, Joey Huffman and Harold Sellers -- and wound up writing songs." "We had more rehearsals than shows," Harris says.

The makeshift Springsteen tribute band was dubbed the New Immortals. "I told David, obviously you need to be singing. I will get back on the bass and we will do this right. That's when it really locked."

"See, we all were slightly shell-shocked," says Colt. "David was leaving Sony after his solo record and I had just left my family, basically. The Crowes were the people I had been with since I was just a kid."

As the leaders' nerves calmed, they began to enjoy the process more. "We walked in with a really good idea of what we wanted the Immortals to be sonically and structurally and I think we hit it."

Harris and Colt went through an intensive period of writing; then the band started playing live last year.

"They know how to handle it and they don't have to rush into anything," says 99X Program Director Leslie Fram. "All that has to happen is for anyone to come see this band live. Johnny has got the look and the moves and David is such a star and has one of the best voices out there." After seeing the band at this years' Music Midtown, Fram decided to add their song "Reasons Why" to regular rotation then asked the Immortals to headline the "Locals Only" stage at this years' Big Day Out.

Harris is excited about playing to the big crowds at the event. "It will be one of the first shows we've done since 99X has been playing us," he says. "It's actually generated a Brand New Immortals crowd. We have only played maybe 20 shows total and it's difficult to build an audience without airplay. Now the album is out, it will be good to interact with people familiar with the material."

All the Immortals agree that Music Midtown was the turning point for the band. Though it was more or less their debut as a band, the big stage performance was old hat for the members.

"They looked like they'd been playing together live for 10 years," Fram recalls. "To really make it in this business you have to have the whole package and these guys have it all."

"The next few shows coming up are going to be definitive statements by us to set the record straight as to where we are coming from," promises Colt. "The unknown should be known around the time of Big Day Out."

Source: CreativeLoafing.com

Old Interview - The Three Lives of David Ryan Harris

The Three Lives of David Ryan Harris
Writer: Stephanie Ramage
Scrapbook, Issue 7, Published online on 01 Dec 2003


Hate is a strong word. But there are definitely things that singer-songwriter David Ryan Harris resents. Cell phones ringing at his shows, for one.

“Hey, watcha doin’?” the beefy black musician mocks in a reprimanding falsetto, bringing his music to a halt. “I’m at the show. Where are you? Why aren’t you guys here?”

People cower in the audience, a few slink out, digging in purses or unsnapping phone holsters. He continues in a prissy, breathless way that brings the Olsen twins to mind: “Oh, no, I gotta go, he’s making fun of me…”

Then Harris chuckles and tells the standing-room-only crowd about how his much anticipated CD, out in November, was a long time coming, but is hopefully worth the wait and the money. Despite the note of financial sobriety, Harris is doing pretty well. “Of the three record deals I’ve had, I probably made the most off of the first CD I put out myself,” he says.

That would be Atlanta, the acoustic solo project released in 2002 that hums, shuffles, wails and moans with the slow, dark sweetness of gospel, blues, and rock — all rolled into one heartfelt missive from Harris to the fans who’ve seen him through two bands and, seemingly, three lives.

Harris barreled into the public consciousness in the early 1990s with the band Follow For Now, an angrily grinding funk-rock group around which mosh pits seemed to forever bloom. Signed to Chrysalis, FFN succumbed to ego in 1994 as accusations surfaced that only Harris’ songs were being performed despite a supposedly collaborative charter.

After the hurricane of Follow For Now, Harris found peace in near-anonymity as Dionne Farris’ guitarist. Farris, formerly of Arrested Development, endured the spotlight while Harris contemplated the confusion of his life; he wanted to be with his kids and play music. “I couldn’t understand how God could have given me this talent and then put me in a world where I couldn’t really take care of my family the way I wanted to with it,” he says. His marriage ended, a subject Harris eases away from with a drawn-out silence and the slowly enunciated phrase “That did not go well.”

His 1997 self-titled solo album, released on Columbia, was promotionally starved and died quietly.

Fast forward to life number two. Harris joined the Brand New Immortals, along with bassist Johnny Colt, formerly of The Black Crowes, and friend Kenny Creswell. The Immortals were signed in 2000 to The Music Company, a short-lived imprint of Elektra headed by Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. “I’d quit drinking and quit partying and Johnny and I sort of met under those conditions,” says Harris. “He’d quit drinking and his thing had to do with disillusionment and feeling like he wasn’t developing creatively. Kenny was around and a friend of ours and we were making music just to make music.” Brendan O’Brien produced the band’s only release, Tragic Show, a record that fell through the cracks of commercial marketing. It was melodic but not soft enough to fit into the singer-songwriter bin and not hard enough, in Harris’ words, “to be like Drowning Pool.” When the label folded, the band dissolved amicably, a little dazed by their whiplash love affair with Elektra, but not broken.

Life #3: Harris began spending more time with his acoustic guitar and decided to “get rid of the variables” — the sound mix. He took a deep breath and dove into the crystalline waters of acoustic solo-hood. In September of this year, after five months of recording the latest as-yet-unnamed CD with a full band, Harris told Paste, “I don’t know if I’m going to keep any of the tracks the way they are. I don‘t know if it’s where I want to be right now. The success of the acoustic shows has been really eye-opening. [The album] may be acoustic.”

This revelation came after wrapping up a tour opening for John Mayer and Counting Crows. Mayer and Harris became friends while playing Atlanta’s club scene. They bonded over their mutual love of blues artists like Howlin’ Wolf and Robert Johnson. Last spring, while Harris was playing a gig with Edwin McCain in Nashville, Mayer called and invited him on tour. “I don’t really want to go far out there on this one,” says Harris, feeling his way along the words. “I don’t want to give myself an endorsement, you know, that isn’t there. But maybe, I guess, I don’t know, but just maybe, I was an influence. We’ve hung out together and played guitar. We get along well with each other. Our voices, I think, are a little similar. I guess, in a lot of ways, I was sort of Obi-Wan Kenobi to John."

Source: Paste Magazine

DRH - IK Multimedia 7/30/07

“Getting A Real World Tone In A Virtual World”
David Ryan Harris, guitarist for John Mayer, on the new AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix™

Armed with a voice that falls somewhere between Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway, David has been searching for the truth in music. His songwriting combines beautiful haunting melodies with sharp storytelling and guitar playing that is blues influenced and rock sharpened. It's this combination of tremendous talent and devotion to the truth that immediately connects him to an audience. David has worked with numerous artists from Dave Matthews to jazz singer Cassandra Wilson, from Widespread Panic to Santana, and Dionne Farris.

Currently David is touring with John Mayer. Read what David thinks about AmpliTube Jimi Henrdrix™ and the cruel joke his cousin told him.

"I had been playing guitar for about a year before I actually went and bought the JHE Smash Hits. I was actually afraid to listen to Hendrix because a cousin of mine (as a cruel joke) had told me that Jimi thought he was possessed by the devil. Anyway, I bought the record and was transfixed by everything about it. I love so many of Jimi's songs especially 'All Along The Watchtower' because it shows so many sides of his playing. I checked out the presets, just to get the points of reference. My actual guitar rig contains a lot of the elements that are in the AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix, so it's been a real life saver to now be able to get a tone that is close to my 'real world' tone in the virtual world. My favorite presets are 'Love or Confusion' and 'Have You Ever Been (To Electricladyland)' because they're both great emulations of the originals, plus they're good starting points to tweak from." ~David Ryan Harris


Do you wanna be experienced? Check out the new AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix™ today!

IK Multimedia. Musicians First.
2007-07-30


Source: IKMultimedia.com

DRH Dreamsawake.com Interview, '04

Interview with David Ryan Harris

by Stephanie Shum

After enduring a couple of somewhat awkward and downright weird moments during our interview (unfortunately, said moments did not make the editorial cut), I can safely conclude that not only is David Ryan Harris an extremely talented vocalist and all-around fabulous musician, he is also able to laugh his way through tough situations -- a trait that is undoubtedly beneficial to have as a performer. Read on as Dreams Awake catches up with David after another solid performance.

Dreams Awake: Just a few random questions to start off with. If you could be on any reality TV show, which would it be?

David Ryan Harris: It would be Paradise Island, uh, Paradise Hotel. It is a good show. They're also young and stupid and it's very high school, so I would like to be on it to be the one that's not young and stupid.

DA: Besides your guitar and other musical instruments, what is something you have to have with you when you're out on tour?

DRH: Cell phone. Must have cell phone. It's an appendage. And I know that I should have it removed -- lanced -- but I'm addicted.

DA: You play many different instruments, guitar, drums, piano, among others. Out of those you currently aren't familiar with, which do you want to learn the most?

DRH: I would like to really be able to play piano. I play piano well enough to record songs but I'd like to be able to just ... I'd like to be the guy who walks past the baby grand in the lobby of a hotel and sit down and play Schubert or someone. That's not me; I can't even play Chopsticks really.

DA: What is in your CD player right now?

DRH: What is in my CD player? I don't have a CD player. See if you asked me what's in my iPod ...

DA: What is on your iPod right now?



DRH: In my iPod in heavy rotation: I've been listening to this guy Gavin DeGraw and this other guy Teitur, who I like a lot. He's probably my favourite new find.

DA: So I guess that answers my next question which is: name someone, an up and comer, you think everyone should listen to.

DRH: Teitur. T-E-I-T-U-R. I think his record's called "Poetry & Aeroplanes." Terrific.

DA: For those who still have not yet heard your music, how would you describe it to them?

DRH: It is everything except country music and at this point, hard rock. I mean, actually, I think it probably has more elements of country than hard rock. It's real ... it's very organic, I think, without being granola. It's based on my voice which really is kinda like a classic soul kind of voice and you know, written on guitar -- in that a lot of the songs are based around guitar, I guess it's got sort of a ... not really folk ... I guess it's just solo and acoustic guitar.

DA: Which of your songs do you think is the best "intro to David Ryan Harris" song and why?

DRH: Wow. Um, I would say "If I Had a Dime" because it's just really strong lyrically without being too ... you know, it doesn't have a lot of crazy metaphors necessarily. And musically and melodically, I just think it's really strong -- it's one of the better things I've written.

DA: Your first break into the music scene was with your band Follow For Now. When your experience with the group was over, what kind of lessons did you walk away with?

DRH: I don't know if there's enough space on that minidisc. Just that if I was going to succeed or fail, I didn't want to do it based on someone else's mistakes or someone else's ... I didn't want to ride on someone else's coattails. I just want to be a bit more responsible for my own ... destiny. I felt like I did a lot of, I guess at the time, I felt like I did a lot of work, but got more grief within the structure of the band than was necessary. I got more grief than I felt like I deserved and I really like the idea of being in a democratic situation. I haven't found anything that musically, as far as a group is concerned, I haven't found anything that was anywhere near a gratifying, you know, we had a great time -- actually, I had a dream that I was playing a Follow For Now show like two nights ago -- I listen back to the music and it's great. I have people come up and they tell me about their memories of shows and how frenetic they were. It was a really wonderful, wonderful time in my life and I wouldn't trade those days for anything.

DA: And now, the same question but after Brand New Immortals dis-banded.

DRH: Probably more of the same; just to be a little bit more reliant on myself musically. I like the idea of collaboration but sometimes just because I just don't want to be the only guy up there. So it's really kind of a lonely thing. When John was first going out, it was him and Dela. So just musically and also at the end of the night, you have somebody to kind of hang out with. All the fans come up and they're very appreciative, and I'm appreciative of them being appreciative, but at the end of the day, I'm not hooking up with chicks, I'm going to my room. So sometimes, that's kind of lonely so I guess the lesson was I just have to be okay with that. I have a lot of confidence now in doing what I do in front of whoever. I don't know how many people were out there tonight, but I think it's kind of ballsy for a guy to go and stand on the stage in front of people who don't know him with just an acoustic guitar. I was afraid of doing that before but not anymore.

DA: Obviously, you have experience as both a solo artist as well as a band member. Which do you prefer and why?

DRH: I would love to be in a band if I found at least 2, you know, maybe 3 other guys, I felt were bringing something really creative to the table. If I had a bass player, I don't want to have to tell the bass player what to play but at the same time, I don't want him to play something that I don't want to hear. So you multiply that by 4 musicians ... I mean, the Beatles were probably, in my estimation, the best example of 4 distinct personalities who all brought something incredible to create something that was much larger than any of them which, people talk about it all the time, them individually didn't come close to the musical impact that they had when they were all together. I would love to be a Beatle. I would love to be George, Ringo … I don't know if I'd want to be John or Paul.

DA: What do you think sets you apart from the all the other young male singer-songwriters out there?

DRH: I'm just better than them. No, uh, really, it's probably my voice. I mean, a lot of the singer-songwriters that I hear, the vocals aren't necessarily bad, but I'm a singer first -- at least that's the way I look at it. I think that's what people gravitate towards first, and then hopefully, they listen to the lyrics next. And then if that picture's nice enough to make them want to pay attention to the guitar, then we're done. It's a done deal.



DA: Tell us about your latest EP, Atlanta, which you recorded on your computer. How did you come about deciding to record and mix it on your own?

DRH: That is where I feel the most, um, it's just where I feel the most creative because I don't have the time constraints of being in a big studio. There is something to be said for being able to just roll out of bed and record in your underwear. Whatever, you just have a different head space, a completely different space. And I wasn't really sure how I wanted to go about doing it, like I had a sound in my head but it certainly wasn't an option for me to go fishing around for that sound in my head in a big studio and part of the reason why the EP was even necessary was that I didn't have anything recorded that was representative of the acoustic shows. So although the CD's not totally acoustic, I think ... it isn't a bait and switch that an acoustic show and the Brand New Immortals CD would be. Like if people see me play acoustic and then they buy the Brand New Immortals CD and they're like "okay, I guess it's the same thing" and just smile and nod.

DA: How long did the whole process take?

DRH: I don't know, maybe 3 months, off and on. A lot of give and take, trial and error. Basically, my thing was I wanted to start with maybe a metronome at least, a drum beat at best, and acoustic guitar and then I would put the vocals on. And if the song could exist without more stuff, then I wouldn't put more stuff on. Some of the songs, like "Strong Enough" for instance, had drums on it, but I took 'em out and it still worked. A lot of songs had bass on them. Whatever I could take out to get close enough to the acoustic and vocal, I took out. So that was like the process and some things were more successful than other things. I mean, it's a good representation of that time in my life and me being in Atlanta and living where I live.

DA: You have a new album coming out soon. What can we expect from it?

DRH: I don't really know. I have some live stuff that I recorded that I think is really good and really kind of captures the experience of being at a David Ryan Harris show but there isn't enough material to fill out an entire record. And then I also have some new songs that have been recorded more for a band but there's not enough of it to make an entire record and to be perfectly honest, I feel that I have had a fair amount of growth as a songwriter and it just needed to be represented in the songs and the package and the recordings and all that so I'll just keep plugging that up until I get it done.

DA: Let's talk about your songwriting process. Who would you say are some of your influences?

DRH: Songwriting-wise, certainly Stevie Wonder. Um, you know, although I really love the energy and the aggression and sort of a "working man, blue collar" thing of Lennon, I would probably rather be McCartney just from a melodic perspective. I do find myself saying sometimes "what would Paul McCartney do here?" So, there's Stevie, there's Paul McCartney, there's um, Prince ... lots of people. I guess it depends on what I'm working on at the time. Some songs, lyrics are really their focal point and then I have a different set of influences and then if it's more of a groove thing, like Sly and the Family Stone or ... Prince or something.

DA: Where do you like to write?

DRH: I don't really have any real place. I thoroughly enjoy singing into my little Dictaphone thing ... for ideas. The guitar sounds really good coming out of it. So, anywhere. I mean, I feel like you don't really write the songs, they're already out there. You just have to be quiet long enough to pick them up.



DA: What comes to you first, the lyrics or the music?

DRH: Probably the melody. It takes a long time sometimes because I adhere to the actual rhythm of the melody and sometimes it's really hard to put words over the rhythm. I guess that's any songwriter's problem.

DA: Have you written a song that just came flowing right out?

DRH: "If I Had a Dime." I almost feel bad or guilty taking praise for it because it came so quickly and from somewhere else that I don't really feel like I wrote it. Like I sat down and was like "where the hell did that come from?"

DA: What is the song you're most proud of lyrically?

DRH: Hmm, I don't know, I guess it changes from time to time. I mean, when I wrote "Turn Around," I really liked some of the lyrical phrases and that. I like "Pretty Girl" now just because it's really simple and I have a tendency to run myself in circles lyrically and have to try to have everything said a certain sort of way and "Pretty Girl" kind of does away with that in a really simple way that's very reflective.

DA: At what point do you feel confident enough in a song that you can perform it in front of an audience?

DRH: Soon as I can do a verse, chorus, verse, chorus -- I don't mind screwing up. I guess it just depends on the audience but it doesn't have to be all done up for me. Most of these people, they never heard any of my songs so they don't know if I'm screwing it up or not.

DA: The list of people you have collaborated with is impressive: DMB, Dionne Farris, Mariah Carey, Santana, just to name a few. Which artist or artists would you like to collaborate with next?

DRH: I would like to do a record with The Roots. Just because it's a band first and foremost but they have a grasp of a lot of different elements that I think ... just the ability to be able to communicate your ideas to someone that can quickly go from genre to genre or sound to sound -- a luxury that a lot of people don't have. So yah, I'd like to work with them. I like what they've got going on. I think they would appreciate where I'm coming from.

DA: And finally, think 3 years down the road. Where would you like to see yourself?

DRH: 3 years down the road? I don't know, hopefully, I would still be making music CDs, for myself. I like the fact that at this point, I don't have to do them on any real sort of schedule. I don't really want that to change. I don't want to have to go on the road. I enjoy it but I don't want to have to do it. I really would like to be able to continue doing what I do yet still maintain control of my life. I think that's what anybody wants to do. Nobody wants to have to work. Nobody wants to have to practice piano or do things they don't want to do. And I've been fortunate enough where now, I don't necessarily have to go on the road. And I think my shows are better for it, my attitude is better for it and hopefully, the music is better for it. So hopefully there will just be more opportunities for me to do that.


Source: http://www.dreamsawake.com/interviews/drh/index.htm

DRH in ATL Journal-Constitution, 2003

IN THE DRESSING ROOM

WITH DAVID RYAN HARRIS at Smith's Olde Bar. Talk about low maintenance.

by Sonia Murray

All the man required for his amazing set was bottled water ("Gotta stay hydrated!"), Sweetwater 420 ("Had to have it because I can't find it in Los Angeles") and a bottle of Camelot merlot (well, just because).

Privacy wasn't even a must. Opener Teitur shared the sole seat in the room -- actually a bench -- with Harris, who didn't seem to mind as the burgeoning singer-songwriter did a Catwomanlike growl to warm up. People just casually floated past the opened door as Harris tuned his new Martin acoustic guitar. That kind of thing.

"This is home," sighed Harris, who after stints as a member of Atlanta rock band Follow for Now, Dionne Farris's guitarist, a solo moment and more time as a member of Brand New Immortals, decided to leave Atlanta last year for California.

Since then, a busy Web site (www.davidryanharris.com), a song on the "Biker Boys" soundtrack -- plus more songs in the movie -- and some studio work with John Mayer have kept the bills paid. "But what's been priceless is the freedom to move at my pace," he says. "Not to knock major label deals, because I've had three -- and they have given some people a great platform for their work -- but this kind of creative space and time has been amazing."

Oh, and before he left to play, it was hard not to notice the "window advisory" behind his bald head, which read: "If your band sticker ends up on our window, you will be asked to pay for a new window along with jeopardizing any chance to ever again grace the stage here at Smith's Olde Bar.

"Thank you in advance for your professionalism and courtesy."


***Thanks to Furious Rose for submitting this interview.

DRH in Marist College paper, 2003

CD REVIEW: David Ryan Harris breaks onto pop-rock scene

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. -- In the last year-and-a-half, the sonic landscape has been overrun by fresh-faced American Eagle ad's armed, like an of army of pop-rock terminators, with acoustic guitars and sly, "trust me" smiles. The likes of John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Jack Johnson, and a host of others whose names don't necessarily begin with the letter "J" have made it nearly impossible to turn on MTV or pick up a copy of Rolling Stone without being force-fed a sticky-sweet brand of Dylan-esque bubble-gum wads that don't even muster enough conviction or talent to pass for Stealers Wheel, let alone Mr. Freewheelin'.

Enter David Ryan Harris, a college drop-out from Atlanta who, on paper, appears to be just another [expletive] with a guitar. The biggest difference (and there are many) between Harris and his contemporaries is a genuine gift for singing. Harris employs a soul-stirring mix of Lenny Kravitz grit and Stevie Wonder grace, a credit to both his own vocal ability and his sophisticated sonic palate (Harris paid homage to both Radiohead and Prince during the course of his performance at the Nelly Goletti Theater Sept. 6).

Lyrically, Harris finds himself mulling over the lessons learned from past relationships, rather than pining for the girl lost in the process ("Strong Enough", "Do What You Want", "Turn Around"). When not contemplating the fairer sex, Harris takes care to maintain a social awareness, if only for a song or two. With "Dickin' Around", a Stevie Ray Vaughn-influenced ramble denoting society's tendency to ignore its problems rather than confront them, Harris brandished his guitar like a seasoned pro, going as far to pay homage to the Voodoo Child himself with a behind-the-head solo.

Though not exactly a rarity in today's pop community, Harris separates himself from the pack in a number of ways, not the least of which is a distinct R&B approach to a genre of music that, until now, has been rooted almost entirely in alt-country and mainstream rock n' roll. Only time time will tell if his unique approach will pay off.


***Thanks to Furious Rose for submitting this interview.

DRH in ATL Journal-Constitution, 2001

ARTS ONLINE

BIGWIG BOOKMARKS: David Ryan Harris

David Ryan Harris has been a a fixture on the local music scene for many years. He spent eight years fronting Atlanta rockers Follow for Now, then launched a solo career. Now he's embarked on another high-profile gig. Harris' latest band, Brand New Immortals, will release its major-label debut, "Tragic Show," June 26 on Elektra Records.

As you might expect, Harris has a few music sites on his favorites list, and his home page shouldn't be too surprising either. "My home page is set up to be brandnewimmortals.com," he says.

Other places Harris visits:

www.sonicfoundry.com -- Creating music in the new millennium often involves a computer, with sound files such as wavs and programs that manipulate them. This site "has an amazing program called Acid that is available for download," Harris says. "It's a loop creation tool. It's a really cool Web site, and they have lots of links to other places where you can find wav files."

www.handspring.com -- With his busy travel schedule, it's not surprising that Harris has a hand-held computer, and this is where he gets the software for it. "They make Visors. Basically, it's a Palm-type thing. Sometimes I'll download a couple of games that keep me from doing work." But those games have the advantage of making him look busy. "People see me in the airport and say, 'Boy, that guy looks like he's working hard.' "

-- Shane Harrison


***Thanks to Furious Rose for submitting this interview.

DRH in ATL Journal-Constitution, 1997

Pop Music
PREVIEW
David Ryan Harris.

Ex-Follow for Now vocalist Harris steers his soul to solo waters

Expectations have hung over David Ryan Harris' head since he and four other black guys ---some with dreads ---stepped on the stage. And didn't sing reggae. Or R&B.

No. His band, Follow for Now, was a rock band, folks. A few years later, more expectations when Harris served as the musical director on the tour of local vocalist Dionne Farris, whose critically r received debut, "I Know," generated all the attention that goes along with being the New Big Thing.

This week, more expectations for Harris. The 29-year-old Atlantan's eponymous solo debut hits the Billboard charts with a record mixed by Grammy-nominated producer Brendan O'Brien, on O'Brien's new Atlanta label.

Expectations. Expectations. And more.

"Yeah, and I tend to stay really separate from it," says Harris, sipping a "Shot in the Dark" espresso at the Little Five Points Aurora Coffee, just a few doors down from where he'll have his CD release show tonight. "Especially now that I'm married and have kids, I don't really get out. Which could be a good thing or a bad thing. But it allows me the time to figure out who I am and just try to really please the spirits that are giving me my gift.

"The thing that's strange but different is that for as long as I've been at this it's still like my debut," adds Harris, who gets so many enthusiastic "Hey mans" from the people in this area ---papered with his fliers ---that you would think he was passing out money. "No matter how big (Follow for Now was) here, we didn't sell any records in Wichita. So I'm just focusing and trying to make sure that my first step is the step that I want and need to take."

His footing has to be secure. He's headed out of the gate with the kind of record that radio hasn't embraced and even the artist has trouble neatly summing up.

"My record is different in that it's guitar-based," Harris begins to explain. "People are making the D'Angelo and Maxwell and Seal and Terence Trent D'Arby comparisons. And although all those artists are good artists, and make good music, none of that stuff is based in guitar. Which makes i it difficult. Because black folks in particular ain't really trying to hear no guitar.

"At times I don't think my record is really that R&B. I guess because I think R&B has, recently, . . . stopped being about songs and live instruments and substance. But, then again, I don't want to say it's a rock record. It's hard to say what it is."

Such is the result when you're a kid like Harris growing up in a town with no distinctive musical sound.

"There's no mecca for Atlanta, there's no central anything," says Harris, who was born in Evanston, Ill., but moved here when he was 6. "People are in their own pockets doing their own thing. Which is a good thing.

"For myself, when I was growing up, I was all about being in my bedroom and listening to my records. I wasn't really into the music mags, I had never seen Creative Loafing. And it seemed perfectly normal to me to listen to Prince, Gino Vannelli, Bad Brains and Steely Dan. That was just my experience."

Harris' experience, coupled with O'Brien's obvious gifts, makes him confident about whatever happens to him come Labor Day, when he officially hits the road and meets his public. "I've got what I've learned since we put out that Follow for Now record six years ago," Harris says. "I've got the benefit of Brendan's experience. The benefit of his ear. And more than anything, the benefit of the doors that have been opened for him.

"Now it's just a matter of getting out there and making sure we give this record its best shot. It's like being a door-to-door salesman. If you know you went to all the houses in the neighborhood then that's all you c can do. And a lot of that's out of my hands. As far as the music is concerned, I've done my thing."

WILLIAM BERRY / Staff


***Thanks to Furious Rose for submitting this interview.

DRH in Guitar Player, Sept. 97

Copyright Miller Freeman Inc. Sep 1997

THROUGH FOLLOWING

David Ryan-Harris, the 29-year-old former leader of Follow for Now, knows what he wants to be doing when he gets older. "I saw Pops Staples on television, and he was still singing Staples Singers songs from back in the old days," he says. "Those are the kind of songs I want to be performing when I'm 60. I don't feel the need to be as visceral as I was with Follow for Now." This helps explain the more nuanced soul-rock stylings of his self-titled debut album, mixed by Brendan O'Brien.

Whereas Follow for Now went for the groovadelic jugular vein, RyanHarris is now happier exploring the smoother side of the R&B spectrum, with a sound that echoes Seal, Prince, Joni Mitchell and Stevie Wonder. "If I Had a Dime," "Sleep" and "Change" unwind slowly, fleshed out by floating vocals and understated electric and acoustic woven into dreamy, funky textures that, he says, separate him from the "urban alternative" crowd. "None of the artists in the popular arena are approaching their material from a guitar point of view," he says. "Prince was the last artist from that style that people identified as being a guitarist."

After Follow for Now ended its five-year run in 1992, Ryan-Harris, a transplanted Georgian from Evanston, Illinois, backed up singer Dionne Farris for a year. He started work on his album last summer, continuing the exploration of acoustic guitar he'd begun in the final days of Follow for Now. He tuned his 1966 Gibson Country and Western four different ways for the album, including open D and the C, A, ES, C, F, high F heard on "Genie." "What I like about alternate tunings," David says, "is how you can broaden your palette by just hitting a tuning peg."

He ran his PRS McCarty solidbody through a Roland VG-8 guitar synth into a Fender Pro Junior, a Fender Vibroverb and Matchless DC-30s, using the combos' internal speakers or a '70s Marshall 4x12. A self-confessed "pedal whore," Ryan-Harris also hauled out an Electro-Harmonix Micro Synth and a Prescription Electronics Experience Pedal, as well as an E-Bow. "There are a million boxes you can plug into that make you sound like a beer commercial, but I like things that make you sound like you don't know how to play. They give you personality."


***Thanks to Furious Rose for submitting this interview

DRH in Billboard, June 97

Five Atlantan Acts To Follow

By Jeff Clark

DAVID RYAN HARRIS

For David Ryan Harris, the most important thing he's learned since his former band Follow For Now disintegrated four years ago is patience. "I guess right after we broke up, what I wanted to do was kinda parlay whatever name I'd made for myself with that band into a deal and keep moving immediately. Of course, that didn't happen."

Instead, after Chrysalis rejected the Atlanta funk-rock quintet's demos for their second album, there was talk of a Harris solo deal with Columbia Records, which never materialized. "But ultimately, I wasn't really ready, even if it had happened," Harris now says.

He spent much of '94 and '95 playing guitar with fellow Atlantan Dionne Farris, on her "Wild Seed-Wild Flower" album (on which he also co-wrote and co-produced several tracks) and subsequent tour. It was on several of those dates that Harris opened Farris' show with a solo set, getting comfortable with his new songs and the idea of being the sole focal point.

"At that point, [solo gigs] were really the most petrifying experiences you could imagine," Harris claims. "Now it's the easiest. It's really gratifying, because I know I'm in full control."

Now Harris is gearing up with a new band and preparing to tour in support of his long-awaited solo debut, due in July on Brendan O'Brien's 57 Records, through Columbia. With a more soulful, introspective bent than the rambunctious Follow For Now was known for (the band took its name from a line in a Public Enemy song), the "David Ryan Harris" album reflects the down-to-earth concerns of a 29-year-old father of three who has finally outgrown impatience. "I admire people who are slow and deliberate," Harris says. "So I'm just trying to chill out."


***Thanks to Furious Rose for submitting this interview.

DRH in ATL Journal-Constitution, 1994

CONCERT PREVIEW: David Ryan Harris

Breakup, breaking rules easy for Harris

By Sonia Murray STAFF WRITER

David Ryan Harris veered from the usual rap/R&B route to form the Atlanta rock band Follow for Now, even though the number of current, visible black rock acts was less than the fingers on his hand. ("There was Living Colour, Fishbone and uhhh . . .") He is happy being rid of his big-label record contract. And he's ecstatic about being part of a new band he doubts will be well-received.

Harris is a rarity in the music biz "and it's a good thing," he says in his hotel room in Los Angeles. "Because the music business, man, I don't know. What's being accepted by the masses, what's being played on the radio, what's coming out now. . . . Let's just say I'm happy not being part of the norm."

On this day, Harris and fellow Atlantan Dionne Farris are spending time on the other coast completing a track called "People" for the Japan-only release of Farris' touted debut, "Wild Seed-Wild Flower." And they're also reworking Nina Simone's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" for the soundtrack of the upcoming TV movie, "Promise Land."

Harris, an accomplished vocalist, guitarist and songwriter in his own right, worked alongside former Arrested Development vocalist Farris in creating the "Wild Seed" songs "Don't Ever Touch Me (Again)" and "Food for Thought." The 28-year-old had time to spare as his local band of eight years, Follow for Now, had just played its last gig.

"What happened with Follow for Now, hmmm," ponders Harris, referring to the breakup seven months ago. "I've heard different things. Even people that were there have different stories. But for me, we just got to be too restricted. We got into a rut of what a Follow for Now song should be. People came to expect us to do certain things. I didn't want people to expect. I felt like a novelty. And it got to the point where we played into that whole thing, so I quit. We quit."

Harris is back in his breaking-the-rules mode as a part of Farris' band. Her music doesn't easily fall into one category, which could spell problems in an industry hinging on labels. Blues, R&B, folk and rock could all claim it as its own. "If what's on radio now is any indication [of how we'll be received], than we are going to have a hard time," says Harris. "But we won't let that deter us. Dionne's going to do her thing. I'm going to do my solo thing. If I wanted to, I [could] turn out some Babyface [for radio]. It's not bad necessarily. But it's not what I'm about.

"Playing now is like when Follow for Now first started," he adds. "We're just getting in a room and playing music that tickles us."


***Thanks to Furious Rose for submitting this interview.

DRH in ATL Journal-Constitution, 1992

Foiled in their fight for acceptance, African-American rock-'n'-rollers
play on

by Russ DeVault STAFF WRITER; STAFF

excerpt from a larger article:

David Ryan-Harris of the Atlanta rock band Follow For Now, which plays The Cotton Club this weekend, agrees. It has "been a long, uphill climb" for the band, which began getting college radio and album-rock station airplay this week for its song "Evil Wheel." "It's a problem, but I don't know who to blame," Mr. Harris says.

...Michael Hughes, program director at WKLS-FM (96rock) in Atlanta, contends that record labels and acts are trying to give black stations "the obligation to play black rock to support their own. We play Living Colour, Follow For Now and other black acts, but I can see why V-103 wouldn't."...

...Living Colour, Follow For Now, Momma Stud, Eye & I, the Family Stand and others have recording deals, but the cycle is a vicious one...

...Follow For Now. Formed in 1988, the Atlanta quintet ranges from metal to rap. Its self-titled debut album includes the anti-drug message of "Temptation" and a swipe at the Ku Klux Klan in "White Hood."


***Thanks to Furious Rose for submitting this interview.

DRH in The Anniston Star (AL), 1991

Follow For Now makes mark

by Mike Stedham

Follow For Now, a five-member band that blends rock, rap, funk,

gospel and swing into its music, will return to Jacksonville on Monday and

Tuesday nights for two shows at Brothers' Bar.

The Atlanta-based group, which is touring in support of its

self-titled debut album, will also make an appearance Tuesday

afternoon at Slip Disc in the Anniston Plaza.


Formed in April 1988, the band quickly made its mark on the

Southern club scene and signed a publishing deal soon after. They

entered Atlanta's Triclops Studio in January of this year and

released ''Follow For Now'' on Chrysalis Records four months later.

Vocalist-guitarist David Ryan-Harris says the band was happy with

the results.


''In making this record, as in our live shows, we want to sound

like a band, to be very organic with no sampling, and to have a

feel more than an actual sound,'' he says.


Most of the songs on the record are original compositions by the

band, reflecting the diversity of their musical backgrounds and

tastes. The only cover is a hard-driving version of Public Enemy's

''She Watch Channel Zero.''


''A lot of people are waiting for something to bridge the gap

between rock and rap,'' Ryan-Harris says. ''That, plus all the

retro-seventies buzzes that are going around make the times ripe

for Follow For Now.''


Many of the band's songs deal with contemporary social issues, and

their attitude is in keeping with the current rap scene. But the

band does include some love songs, and the overall blend of the

sound has a strong dose of straight rock 'n' roll.


''We grew up among a lot of various musical influences and we use

them all,'' Ryan-Harris says. ''It's really diverse because

everything we listen to influences us. This album is almost like

the 'Cliff's Notes' of music.''


***Thanks to Furious Rose for submitting this interview.

DRH in Austin-American Statesman, 1991

Sounding like leaders
Follow For Now bridges musical styles to stand out among black rock bands

by Don McLeese

The band's name is Follow For Now, but don't expect it to play follow the leader. Though the Atlanta band's attempt to reclaim rock as a black musical birthright inevitably invites comparison with the likes of Living Colour, its forthcoming debut album shows the ambition and audacity that marks the most determinedly original music. Within its funk grooves and rock dynamics, Follow For Now plays with the urgency of a trailblazer.

Austin can hear a sneak preview Friday, when the band opens for Ian Moore at Liberty Lunch in the midst of making its first trip to Los Angeles. The gig represents a triumphant return for Follow For Now, which created a significant stir when it played South by Southwest in 1990. A few months later, the band signed with Chrysalis, which will release the Follow For Now debut on Sept. 10.

Though the range of the band's music reflects influences such as Sly Stone, Jimi Hendrix and George Clinton, it additionally incorporates more contemporary elements from hardcore metal to rap (the band's name comes from a Public Enemy number). Rather than an assortment of influences and attitudes, however, Follow For Now impresses most through the strength of its songcraft, which fuses these disparate musical elements into a coherent whole.

"We didn't have 10 songs that would have made a single-style album," explained 23-year-old David Ryan Harris, the band's singer, lead guitarist and primary songwriter. "I think it flows very well, but we didn't make a conscious effort to stay in one general area . . .

"Before the band started, I had never been in a band that played out in the music scene before," he continued. "I was just sort of holed up in my room, listening to a really wide range of stuff. When I put the band together, it was like a child really knows no difference between black and white. I like all these different types of music, so what's the big deal?"

Like most of the emerging black rock acts - from Living Colour to Fishbone to Austin's Chris Thomas - Follow For Now finds itself playing music that is steeped in black consciousness and influences for audiences that are overwhelmingly white.

"I think a lot of it has to do with urban contemporary radio (the latest euphemism for what was once known as `R&B' or simply `black' radio), where they make it seem if you're black and play guitar, you're freaky," said Harris. "Radio is just so pigeonholed, and I think that black radio is the worse for that. If it's not drum-machine, new-jack-swing stuff, then it doesn't get played.

"I think that bands like us, Living Colour and Fishbone can kind of turn things in the proper direction, little by little, chip by chip, but we're by no means on a mission to do that. I think the youth can listen to what we do and hear strains of things that are in hip-hop songs. Like hip-hop songs will take things from James Brown or Sly Stone or Parliament-Funkadelic, and it's really popular. Now here's a contemporary band doing those things, but playing their instruments for real."

This week's calendar additionally marks the return of a couple of other bands that made career breakthroughs with South by Southwest showcases. The Cannibal Club could promote its offerings as a class reuniuon of SXSW '89, with Milwaukee's Spanic Boys playing tonight followed by Arkansas' Gunbunnies Friday.

South by Southwest was the start of an extended Cinderella story for the father-and-son team of Tom and Ian Spanic. Midwest bar-circuit regulars since forming a band in the mid-'80s as Those Spanic Boys, the Spanics arrived at SXSW as comparative unknowns, but left as the featured act in MTV's conference coverage and with an offer from Rounder Records in their pockets.

From there, things have continued to snowball for the Spanics. Their Rounder album caught the ear of Saturday Night Live, which booked the Spanics as a last-minute replacement when Sinead O'Connor cancelled her appearance. Making their first trip to New York, they found themselves pursued by both Rolling Stone and Entertainment Tonight, both of whom did features on the band.

While the novelty of a father-and-son band creates an obvious hook, the bedrock traditionalism and yearning harmonies of the Spanics show a staying power beyond novelty fare. They remain one of the world's great bar bands, and the Cannibal's a great bar in which to hear them.

As for the Gunbunnies, their fairy-tale coach turned into a pumpkin when Virgin Records dropped the band after a single album which received little promotion and even less airplay. When the band returned to SXSW this year, it was back in the ranks of the unsigned hopefuls, though the Gunbunnies' quirky brand of Southern soulfulness merits another shot.

Apparently, the days when a band is allowed to develop its music and its audience over the course of a few albums are long gone, at least at Virgin. Syd Straw, appearing at the Cactus tonight and Friday, was also a victim of the label's quick hook, when her terrific solo debut failed to find the audience it deserved.

For those whose love of music extends to more than an overnight return, it's almost criminal when a label that professes enough faith in its artists to sign them doesn't show enough faith to sustain them. An industry that once prided itself on developing careers has become way too focused on the instant sensation, the popular hit as disposable commodity, a quick-fix strategy that threatens severe musical damage over the long haul.


***Thanks to Furious Rose for submitting this interview.

DRH in The State (Columbia, SC), 1991

SOUND OF FOLLOW FOR NOW - MAY BE MORE USER FRIENDLY

by MICHAEL MILLER


Here it comes, that inevitable question, the one that slithers into almost every interview Follow For Now's David Ryan-Harris does.

"What about all those comparisons between your band and Living Colour? How do you feel about that?," queries the intrepid journalist.

You can hear Ryan-Harris sigh into the phone, having been forced to deal once again with the "Black Rock Coalition thing."

"The whole visual thing has very little to do with the actual music," he says. "But I guess it's just indicative of the times, what people look at and what they perceive, that whole deal.

"I think some of those comparisons are ill-founded. Living Colour has been an inspiration, but they weren't necessarily an influence. We were together before we even knew there was a Living Colour."

Having that out of the way, Ryan-Harris gets down to business and talks about the real influences that have given Follow For Now, an Atlanta-based quintet, its powerful rock 'n' roll presence.

"Steely Dan, Coltrane, Miles Davis, Hendrix, Zeppelin, Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Parliament/Funkadelic, Frank Zappa," he rolls them off like a funk, pop and rock who's who.

"Our sound is really sort of pure. Nothing was really thought out or planned. Everybody in the band has lots and lots of influences and they just sort of naturally came together in a composite."

It's a wild and wonderful composite, too, drawing one moment on heavy- metal crunch, then surprising everyone a second later with some serious, George Clinton-style funk. Follow For Now wears its influences well, but it's also forged an identity that's richer and more accessible than Living Colour, Fishbone, Urban Dance Squad or any other band that's been plugged into the funk/rock pigeonhole.

"I believe that's true," Ryan-Harris says. "We have a little more of an organic sort of sound. The sound is a little more round, to put it in geometrical terms. It's, like, more user-friendly."

Ryan-Harris was born in Evanston, Illinois, but moved to Atlanta with his family when he was seven. He met a kid named Enrique in second grade, but they went their separate ways in high school.

The two young men were reunited a few years later when they happened to participate in the same local talent show. They formed a band and eventually guitarist Chris Tinsley, bassist Jamie Turner and keyboardist Billy Fields came on board. The unit gelled as Follow For Now in April 1988.

After becoming one of the hottest acts on the Deep South club scene, Follow For Now raised music industry eyebrows with high-powered sets at showcases like Nashville Extravaganza and South By Southwest. Chrysalis Records signed the band in January 1991, and four months later Follow For Now's debut was being mixed by noted engineer Thom Panunzio.

Ryan-Harris says he hopes that someday his group and others like it will transcend labels like "black rock 'n' roll band" and be judged solely on their music. When that happens, Follow For Now will move to the head of the modern rock class.


***Thanks to Furious Rose for submitting this interview

DRH in The State (Columbia, SC), 1991

SOUND OF FOLLOW FOR NOW - MAY BE MORE USER FRIENDLY

by MICHAEL MILLER


Here it comes, that inevitable question, the one that slithers into almost every interview Follow For Now's David Ryan-Harris does.

"What about all those comparisons between your band and Living Colour? How do you feel about that?," queries the intrepid journalist.

You can hear Ryan-Harris sigh into the phone, having been forced to deal once again with the "Black Rock Coalition thing."

"The whole visual thing has very little to do with the actual music," he says. "But I guess it's just indicative of the times, what people look at and what they perceive, that whole deal.

"I think some of those comparisons are ill-founded. Living Colour has been an inspiration, but they weren't necessarily an influence. We were together before we even knew there was a Living Colour."

Having that out of the way, Ryan-Harris gets down to business and talks about the real influences that have given Follow For Now, an Atlanta-based quintet, its powerful rock 'n' roll presence.

"Steely Dan, Coltrane, Miles Davis, Hendrix, Zeppelin, Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Parliament/Funkadelic, Frank Zappa," he rolls them off like a funk, pop and rock who's who.

"Our sound is really sort of pure. Nothing was really thought out or planned. Everybody in the band has lots and lots of influences and they just sort of naturally came together in a composite."

It's a wild and wonderful composite, too, drawing one moment on heavy- metal crunch, then surprising everyone a second later with some serious, George Clinton-style funk. Follow For Now wears its influences well, but it's also forged an identity that's richer and more accessible than Living Colour, Fishbone, Urban Dance Squad or any other band that's been plugged into the funk/rock pigeonhole.

"I believe that's true," Ryan-Harris says. "We have a little more of an organic sort of sound. The sound is a little more round, to put it in geometrical terms. It's, like, more user-friendly."

Ryan-Harris was born in Evanston, Illinois, but moved to Atlanta with his family when he was seven. He met a kid named Enrique in second grade, but they went their separate ways in high school.

The two young men were reunited a few years later when they happened to participate in the same local talent show. They formed a band and eventually guitarist Chris Tinsley, bassist Jamie Turner and keyboardist Billy Fields came on board. The unit gelled as Follow For Now in April 1988.

After becoming one of the hottest acts on the Deep South club scene, Follow For Now raised music industry eyebrows with high-powered sets at showcases like Nashville Extravaganza and South By Southwest. Chrysalis Records signed the band in January 1991, and four months later Follow For Now's debut was being mixed by noted engineer Thom Panunzio.

Ryan-Harris says he hopes that someday his group and others like it will transcend labels like "black rock 'n' roll band" and be judged solely on their music. When that happens, Follow For Now will move to the head of the modern rock class.


***Thanks to Furious Rose for submitting this interview.

DRH in The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.), 1991

Radio doesn't know how to follow

by ROD DREHER


Follow For Now is a red-hot band of young black musicians whose self-titled debut album (Chrysalis) is one of the hardest rocking, most listenable releases to cross my desk in weeks. So why are they ignored by black radio?

"It's conditioned," says guitarist David Ryan Harris. "People like Hendrix were considered freaks because they played guitar."

Black radio programmers, enamored of hip-hopsters and soul balladeers, don't know what to do with a guy raised on traditional blues and classical jazz (which Harris heard at home), Parliament Funkadelic, pre-drum machine Cameo and lots of rap (heard in his neighborhood) and Led Zeppelin and the Sex Pistols (heard at his predominately white Atlanta high school).

"Hip-hop I really like, but I feel they miss something because they don't have a real band," Harris says. "I feel like we're an R&B band. You don't go see R&B bands at the club level. I'm young. I'm 23. I want to rock when I go out. I don't want to listen to a crooner." Follow For Now will rock Murphy's on Nov. 4 in an opening set for Drivin' N' Cryin'. They will return on Dec. 6 to open for 24-7 Spyz at the Varsity Theater.

Follow For Now includes Harris on guitar and vocals, Chris Tinsley on guitar and vocals, Billy Fields on keyboards and vocals, Jamie Turner on bass and Enrique on drums.

The band formed in 1988, wowing audiences on the Southern club scene and drawing praise in Rolling Stone from Living Colour's Vernon Reid. The band belongs to the Black Rock Coalition, a professional organization of African-American rock and rollers.

Follow For Now throws down a gauntlet to musicians who depend on sampling and other studio tricks to produce their sound. In "Milkbone," the band angrily declares "The present stuff bores me but what can I do/If it bores you too, we can come through for you this/Is a real band and we can cure you/... 1991 just might mean an end to the b------t real players on the scene again."

Says Harris: "A lot of younger people don't know what it is to hear a real band. It's sad. It's not sample, it's not tape loops. The band on the poster is the band that plays on the stage."

Though the band's audiences are mostly white, there have been more black faces in the crowd lately. In their songs, Follow For Now addresses problems faced by black Americans, including rising racism, drug abuse and welfare dependency.

"You can't build a nation on food stamps," says the concluding line of "Evil Wheel," a song blasting complacent attitudes.

"The song says don't bitch if you don't vote. Don't bitch about changing things if you don't want to help," Harris says. "We all know there are lots of problems at this point. What you have to do is do something about it."

With their Baton Rouge gig days away, Harris said playing in David Duke country has been on the band's mind. Though he thinks the former Klansman's success is frightening, Harris remains optimistic about the progress of race relations in this country.

"The civil rights movement was only 25 years ago. A lot of these laws were passed in the Sixties and Seventies. Passing laws is one thing; changing attitudes is another," he said. "I think it's coming along."


***Thanks to Furious Rose for submitting this interview.