Page 36 - April 2016

songs To reMeMber
SonGwrITer ryAn BITer TALkS orIGInAL muSIC
STory By clair anna rose phoTo By gean shanks
nine years ago I heard a teenager on the brink of adulthood sing at a songwriting competition in sedona. It was a hot summer day, and the memory of Ryan Biter performing “Roses will Fall” still stands out. Perhaps it was the wonder of how someone so young could craft such an emotional song, and use words in such a way to evoke images in the listener’s mind so they would still be there a decade later — his song is the only one I remember from the day.
Originally from California, the songwriter moved to Flagstaff at the age of 11. “I don’t see anywhere else as home,” Mr. Biter says. “I think it’s just ripe for creativity. we have a great community here of songwriters.”
Though he didn’t grow up in a musical family, Mr. Biter was always a big fan of music, and grew up playing saxophone and clarinet in school bands, along with other instruments. “I picked up guitar somewhere along the way,” he tells me. “I learned a couple of cheesy songs, I think the first song I learned was a weezer tune. shortly after I began writing songs.”
He describes his first attempts as “simple, little songs.” The more he played and the more he listened to other songwriters, the better his songs started to sound. “early on I found myself listening to folk music — Paul simon and Bob Dylan (the meat and potatoes of songwriting). I remember hearing old Paul simon records and thought those were the greatest as a kid. He was one of those artists who inspired me — seeing the power of what a song can do for people. I branched out into other types of music. I grew up listening to a lot of country and folk. As I got a little older my influences broadened and I started listening to funk, soul and hip-hop.” His new influences began to show in the songs he was composing.
He describes his early songs as “poor appropriations of the people I liked,” telling me some songs sounded just like Matchbox 20 songs. now the songwriter is finding his own voice. “My influences are still heard in there, but it’s definitely becoming more of a defined voice. I think as songwriters that’s something we’re always working on.”
Around the time of the songwriting competition where we first met, Mr. Biter was getting his feet wet as a performer, and frequenting the weekly Monday night open mic at the Applesauce Teahouse in Flagstaff.
He began recording his music at home, and later with the aid of a musician whose music he admired. “I did a bit of recording with Chuck Cheeseman several years ago and we started out with some demo stuff. I was always playing live shows and people would ask if I had a CD,” he says.
Many things inspire Mr. Biter to write a song, and the songwriting process usually begins with the sound. “sometimes I have snippets of things come up — there’s a new song I wrote called “sinking ship,” and the chorus comes from a failed hip-hop tune I wrote; I pulled the chorus out of it.” From there, a song forms a little differently each time — sometimes he finds himself piecing together lyrics and music from half-written songs, and sometimes a phrase can inspire a song. “One of the songs “Heroine Is A woman” is one of the oldest songs on there (the new CD). It was one I wanted to include from a while back. I was having songwriting block at the time and I asked my friend for a title.” His friend suggested “Heroine Is A woman” and his writer’s block lifted — the song was written in minutes.
Mr. Biter plays guitar, ukulele and drums, and sometimes finds inspiration for a song by taking away his instruments. He also says the muse sometimes strikes unexpectedly. Once while on the highway a song came to him, and he had to keep singing it over and over while he tapped the beat out on the steering wheel until he could stop and write it down.
As a songwriter, he tries to vary the sound of his songs. “It’s easy to get stuck in a rut and write the same song over and over again, and I know I’ve been guilty of that,” he says. For every song on his album Under After Avenue, he tells me there was probably another familiar sounding song he “scrapped.”
when asked how songwriting influences other aspects of his life, Mr. biter tells me he feels his songwriting makes him a more balanced person. “It helps to process life,” he shares. “It moderates me because it allows me to take all the visceral experiences of life and put them in a constructive outlet. songs don’t have to be nuanced or tempered in their emotions. They are allowed to be emotionally imperfect and I think I give myself a lot more emotional freedom in songs than I do in life.”
Most recently the political arena has been influencing his creativity. “I am really interested in the election cycle currently taking place in our country and all the rhetoric both positive and negative accompanying it. There is a lot of fear, anger, and somehow there is still hope,” he says.
“I tap into a bit of this on the new album with songs like ‘Macro economics,’ ‘You better Pray Jesus Ain’t Coming Back’ and ‘Pretend we Can Dance.’ There is anger over economic inequality, religious intolerance and gun violence — but also joy for two female friends dancing at their wedding. I think it’s an inspiring time to be writing songs.”
One song not included on the CD concerns minimum wage issues, “Fifteen.” He starts humming and tapping out a beat as he tells me about it, “I just stomp and clap — I was driving home from working on the reservation one day and I had an hour drive, so I was just drumming on my steering wheel. There are times when you have a rhythm in mind or sometimes you have that riff.”
In november 2015, Mr. Biter completed a seven song CD titled Under After Avenue, recorded and produced by Dean Neasham. “Bailey Cunningham played all the piano and organ parts,” he says of the other musicians who made the album possible. “Dean neasham played bass, percussion and backup vocals. Jeff Lusby was on drums for ‘Heroin is a woman.’” Under After Avenue consists of songs representative to Mr. Biter’s current style of songwriting.
He tells me about the song, “The whiskey Ain’t As warm As You.” “That started with my wife and I joking about how in a lot of country music there’s whiskey,” Mr. Biter recalls. “she was saying it’s really bad when people drink these hard liquors and I said, ‘everything in country music has told me otherwise.’ And I said, ‘The whiskey ain’t as warm as you,’ and we thought,
‘Hey, that might actually make a great song title.’” This song also seemed to flow easily to him. As a regularly gigging musician, Mr. Biter tells me there are some nights when he feels very inspired, and others when he feels distant. sometimes an interaction with one person who is really listening to his songs can change the feeling of the night. “At any moment you may encounter someone whose life may be changed,” he says. “I was playing at this venue in williams and I had someone come up and say, ‘My mom passed away today, and that was her favorite song.’” It was from this instance he first considered how important songwriting could be. “I want people to feel a bit more human at least for a little while. I hope people experience some amount of transcendence — especially in the context of a live performance. I want them to forget about life for a bit and share in each other’s joy, pain and company. It’s kind of like
ministering to people in a sense. If you’re not on, you might miss a connection.”
even though he enjoys performing his own songs, he also likes to see others perform, and hopes to one day “make it” as a professional songwriter, and see his songs covered by other successful groups. “I love hearing where somebody else can take one of my songs. It would be nice to eventually transition to music being my full time profession and make it with a mix
or writing, recording, performing and touring.”
Mr. Biter’s album Under After Avenue can be found online at iTunes and Bandcamp, and at an
upcoming local performances. He will be performing April 29 from 7-9PM at The Sedona Posse Grounds Hub, 525 Posse Ground Road, in sedona with Adalia Tara. Information on upcoming performances can be found at Facebook.com/Ryan-Biter-Music-175473872189
| Clair Anna rose is an original music enthusiast. clair@thenoise.us
36 • APRIL 2016 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us