Ahead of his upcoming Australian tour, we spoke with William Ryan Key, formerly of Yellowcard, about his latest musical venture as a solo artist.
Where did this journey as a solo artist start for you?
William: I had been really putting off what I wanted to do musically, post Yellowcard. When I knew the band was splitting up, my first instinct was that I was going to get into producing and song writing and stuff. I live Nashville, Tennessee, so there’s a big community of song writing here.
I thought I was going to try and work with younger bands and be making records for them. And I really did want to do that, but it just didn’t really catch on for me in that first year. So, I started to think, “Well, don’t freak out but what are you going to do with the rest of your life?”
I got an offer to open for New Found Glory for a whole US tour and that was really motivating for me to be like, “Okay dude, get your shit together and figure out what you’re doing musically.” Because on that tour, I didn’t want to just go out and play Yellowcard songs every night. I know people want to hear those songs for sure, but I didn’t want to just go out and do the New-Found tour based on this kind of nostalgia factor.
I thought, “I’ll just put together a little EP, four or five songs, and we can sell it at the merch table, have some songs to play and I’ll just see how people feel about it and engage interest.” The reaction has been crazy.
How did the ’13’ EP come together?
As far as making the EP itself, I’ve always worked really well under pressure. If I’m up against a deadline where, “You have to have this record done by this date or it’s not going to come out on time,” that’s when I finish records. I don’t write a lot throughout — if I’m not in a recording process, I’m not sitting around writing songs all the time.
Everybody does it differently. I’ve met a lot of other artists and songwriters throughout my career and I feel like a lot of people do it that way. A lot of artists are not sitting around with their guitars, just writing songs all day, every day.
When you make a record, you want the songs and the ideas to be cohesive for that point or moment in time, where you are in your life as a writer. And if I was writing a song two years prior to making an album, I may not be connected to those songs and ideas as much anymore. So, I like to do it all in one batch.
I hit up a close friend of mine, Arun Bali. He plays guitar in Saves The Day, as well as a producer and mixer here in Nashville that I’ve worked with for several years now. I called him, and I was like, “Hey, dude. Do you want to come and do this thing with me and produce this EP with me?” And of course, he was really excited about it.
But I brought him in because he has this kind of cool method or style of motivation as far as helping you not second guess yourself and just move forward; “Yes, that idea is good, or you wouldn’t have written it. Let’s go, keep moving.”That helped me keep just pushing forward with the ideas and feeling good about them.
Has the positive reaction to your new solo work affected how you’re planning for the future?
There’s certain aspects of the lyrics on ’13’ that’s are little bit dark — very real — but dark. I was really digging in on those lyrics and I really wanted to be an open book as far as where I am now in my life, what has recently transpired and not hide anything. Not that I was ever hiding anything; there’s a lot of Yellowcard lyrics that went pretty deep but, for me personally I think these are on another level.
I think that the lyrics carry songs completely. It’s you and a guitar, so you’re not going to have a big guitar solo or a big banging drumkit that’s also keeping your head banging. You’re just listening to what I’m saying. And so, that was heavy on me to be like, “Well, every one of these words is more important than it’s ever been.”
I’m already in the process of recording five more songs for a second EP. I feel like I should change lanes as far as finding a different emotion and direction, but still keeping that kind of nakedness and truthfulness that I’ve found in those lyrics on ’13’, not necessarily keeping them coming from that place of regret and sadness that I think a lot of the songs on ’13’ came from.
So, I’m going to try — it’s fun. That’s what’s fun about it, challenging yourself to be like, “Okay, well I need to do something different with these songs.”
I really do want to create my own identity and my own fanbase. While that will be – and I hope it is with lots of fans that are Yellowcard fans – but for me, it’s yet to be determined, yet to be seen if this is real yet.
William Ryan Key
2018 Australian tour
FRONTIER MEMBERS PRE-SALE
via frontiertouring.com/williamrya
Begins: Tuesday 31 July (2pm AEST)
GENERAL PUBLIC ON SALE
Begins: Thursday 2 August (10am local time)
Monday 24 September | Brisbane, 18+
oztix.com.au
Wednesday 26 September| Sydney, 18+
moshtix.com.au
Friday 28 September | Melbourne, VIC 18+
northcotesocialclub.com
