Project Description
Interview with
RYAN MOONEY
Interviewer – Vicky Hebbs
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Ryan Mooney, a professional drummer and owner of Ryan Mooney’s Music School, performs at live gigs around Sydney, and also provides drum lessons for budding musicians of all ages and abilities, mastering the art of multiple music gigs to make a full-time living in the music industry. Ryan has been able to manipulate an industry many others have not, and succeeded in maintaining cash flow to support himself year-round, regardless of whether or not he’s on the road, and fluctuations in the frequency of gigs. Mobile small business tools such as invoicing app Invoice2go, allow Ryan to manage both performing and teaching.
He is also part of eclectic Sydney based five-piece Levingstone who make indie soul music; rich with imagery, and bathed in lush harmony and groove. Influenced by jazz, future soul, RnB and progressive genres, and citing artists such as Snarky Puppy, Radiohead and Hiatus Kaiyote, the band’s sound is informed by many inspirations, but has a distinct flavour of its own.
“a velvety and delectable collection of progressive soul, an irresistible treat for lovers of songs slightly more cerebral then the status quo.” — THE MUSIC
“an otherworldly sonic tapestry that combines a vocal complexity akin to Hiatus Kaiyote with an ambiance reminiscent of a lazy Saturday afternoon” — HAPPY
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How long have you been interested in making music? When did you decide to make it your career path?
I have been interested since beginning music lessons at the age of 4, and ever since then music has been the only thing I’ve wanted to do. I decided to make it my career path at the end of high school. I’d been playing drums for our school musical, and I credit this experience with making me want to pursue music as a career.
What kind of music did you grow up listening to? Which artists inspired you and which do you still look to for inspiration?
I grew up listening to a lot of the rock classics like The Beatles and The Who; their songwriting and musicality really captivated me from a young age, and even now I still consider The Beatles to be both one of my favourite bands and biggest musical influences. I take influence in my own music from a variety of artists from all different genres and styles, but initial artists that come to mind are Ben Folds (for his incredible songwriting and the way he can evoke emotion into his music), Benny Sings (a Dutch soul/pop artist, great catchy sound), and VOID (Australian instrumental fusion group).
You often find yourself performing with different people; how do you find adapting to different music tastes?
Playing with different people on a regular basis is a challenge, but one that I really enjoy. You don’t get the comfort of knowing how each person plays their instrument prior to the gig (sometimes I won’t even know their names until we’re setting up for the gig), but it certainly keeps things fresh, and it’s always an awesome feeling to play with great players for the first time. Adapting to different musical tastes is something that I’ve been forced to do for most of my musical life. I think it mainly comes from listening to and immersing yourself in music from the styles required for a particular gig (for instance, if you’re hired to play for a country artist then spend a fair amount of time listening to and learning music from their style of country music). Adapting to different styles is just part of being a session musician.
How would you describe the sound of your band, Levingstone, to someone who’s never heard of it before?
The sound of Levingstone is a hard one to describe because all of us come from very different musical backgrounds, but I would say that we fall mostly under the soul bracket but with a fusion of jazz, rock and pop elements within.
Are you currently working on any new music? Can you give us an insight into what we might be able to expect?
Levingstone is looking at putting out a double-single later this year, with a few shows around Sydney and Melbourne. Separately, I’m also recording and performing shows with a jazz fusion artist called Zorsy over the next couple of months.
What inspires you to write original music?
When writing original music there’s a feeling of creating something new and something that you can be proud of, which is hard to find elsewhere. Also, being able to take music on the road with people that I enjoy playing and writing with, and who are great friends, has provided me with some of the best experiences of my life.
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As well as performing, you also run your own business as a music teacher. What do you enjoy most about teaching?
My favourite things about teaching are seeing a passion for drums and music arise in new players, and having the opportunity to witness and be a part of another person’s musical journey. The most important thing when playing an instrument is to enjoy playing that instrument, otherwise there’s no point in learning it, and seeing this enjoyment develop is one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching.
Particularly when you’re on the road for gigs, how do you manage to balance both running your business and performing?
When I’m on the road I live off my phone because it has everything that I need. It gives me access to enquiries, my calendar, the tracks I need to learn and lets me keep my business running while I’m away. For example, I have been using mobile invoicing app Invoice2go for years and I would be lost without it. I can’t imagine doing all of this at a time when it was all on hard paper!
If you could record with any artist, alive or dead, who would it be? And why?
This is a hard one as there are so many great artists who I would kill to play with (I mean, The Beatles is an obvious one, but I wouldn’t want to kick Ringo off the skins), but if I was to go with someone a bit more modern I’d probably say John Mayer, just because his music covers such a range of styles and I love listening to it all, plus he always has an absolutely incredible band.
What are your plans for 2019? Will there be more new releases? Live shows?
My plans for 2019 include the Levingstone release later in the year and live shows with that group, plus performing with other artists throughout the year (both national and international artists around Australia), as well as continuing my session and covers work and my private teaching.
Do you have longer-term career goals or aspirations as an artist or as a teacher?
As an artist I would like to move into playing with more artists over doing covers work, and playing a world tour of some sort has always been a dream. In terms of teaching I would just like to keep striving for my students to become the best players that they possibly can.
Finally, this is a paragraph dedicated to some quick discovery. Really corny, but for the fans, can you tell me your favourite album, artist, movie, place, drink, meal and person (living or dead) and some brief reasons why? Answer some or all please.
With all of these it’s too hard to pick just one, but I’ll give one of the first that comes to mind:
Favourite album – Game Winner – Joey Dosik (a soul record featuring love songs written with sporting analogies; essential listening)
Favourite artist – Ben Folds
Movie – There Will Be Blood (visually it’s such an incredible movie with amazing performances, and it features my favourite movie soundtrack of all time)
Place – Gokyo Ri in Nepal, which is on one of the alternate routes for trekking to Mount Everest Base Camp (offers the most incredible views over the Everest region – google some photos). That or Udaipur in India.
Drink – Coffee
Meal – Popcorn
Person – Karl Pilkington (I don’t know how someone can be so profound and so stupid at the same time).
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Check out RYAN MOONEY below
Website | Facebook
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