Ryan Yingst - All Dressed Up for the End of the World
- David Milkis
- Mar 23
- 4 min read
Ryan has been keeping busy. If you follow him on social media, you'll see that he's usually performing live these days. It’s a job like any other, but one that’s uniquely his own. After a recent move that pulled him away from the studio, he's returned with fresh material that’s just the beginning of what’s to come.
David - Some time has passed since your last release (2023, Chaos). Clearly you’ve been up to a lot these days.
Ryan - Yeah, it's been longer than I would have liked haha. But honestly I've been working. Life as a working musician and solo artist is busy. Booking gigs, finding bandmates, writing and performing enough to make a living requires a lot of time. I also relocated to Philly since my last release 'Chaos', and have been loving it. I missed the northeast. The people and energy is much different than the south and fits me a bit more I think.
D - The first of many it seems, ADUFTEOTW is the start of a new run of projects. Where are you going with your music? What can we expect next from you?
R - I'm leaning a bit harder into feeling over thinking. The songs in this run mean a lot to me, but were written faster. I didn't obsess over a chord change or arrangement the way I did in past tunes. I let my feelings guide it. My next release (April 11) is called 'U-Haul' and it was tracked live with incredibly talented players Gusten Rudolph and Erin Busch live in the studio. The vocals bleed into the guitar mics, there's no tuning, the cello solo is live and I love it. I think honesty and authenticity matter to me more in recording practices than I let myself believe, but even for 'All Dressed Up for the End of the World', while I played all the instruments in the tune, I tracked each as a whole pass through the song. I think that practice makes it feel a bit more cohesive.
D - That’s incredible and really exciting to hear. Lining up with a lot of what FreeThe represents, a holistic musicianship is important to maintain in appreciating one’s own output, let alone what everyone else has to share. With that, it seems like an environment curated for new ideas is something in the atmosphere for us all to consider. Finding ways to approach in new and traditional ways, this song feels fresh and familiar all at once. Tell us, what’s new about this track? What’s familiar?
R - New aspects would be my combination of synths and found sounds at the beginning. I've always had a love of hardware synthesizers and found sound electronic music. I explored it a bit on 'Meditations On Empty Streets’ (2021) and much further in other projects not under my own name, but I've always struggled to combine them with my folk side. I'm happy with how this piece bridged the gap and I think it reinforces the theme well. I also experimented with layering acoustic guitar on this tune. Using mid side recording gave me a lot of options on expanding the size of the acoustic guitar to make it a real focal point. Familiarity in this tune, for me, comes from the lyrics. It functions as a simple love song if you ignore the backdrop I try to paint. I love writing with lyrics that feel a certain type of way before I even know what they're about. I think the shape of the words can be as important as the meaning, and that's something I really explored on this tune.
D - Like word painting, but alongside an ambience within the sonic structure of the song. It’s really awesome to hear that you’re always finding new ways to explore your own music. On the subject of experimenting, the cover art is really cool! You designed the cover this time. What brought the idea to you?
R - I did! I usually get some of the talented artists I know to create the art for me, but I had a vision on this one that I wanted to explore. I wanted the collage feel, but most collage art I've seen doesn't create a cohesive scene, so I wanted to see if I could collect enough magazines to make a specific vision come together. I just thought it really helped tie the chaotic nature of the piece together. Beauty in the mess.
Sometimes, a single vision is all it takes to convey the essence of a message, though the depth of its meaning can't always be fully communicated. That said, Ryan has a lot of collaborative work on the horizon, along with more live performances.
Catch him live in Philadelphia on March 28th, April 1st, and 11th. On April 5th, he'll be performing at Alt-Zalea Fest in North Carolina, and you can also see him in Massachusetts on April 20th.
