Somebody Cool.
Ryan Baker
professional musician. actor. student of life
I’m proud to present to you my brother Ryan, a very talented cat
in so many ways, and a fantastic musician, as well. Unlike so many of
us, Ryan is truly living a full musical life, playing drums and piano
on the highest of levels, both on tour and in the studio. He is a teacher
as well, and has mentored many aspiring young players along the way. He
is very proud of his newest project, Brimstone Flowers, a band of gifted
souls who are about to release a brand new CD and preparing for a European
tour. The band was voted the Best Band in Phoenix by the readers of the
Phoenix New Times for 2006. I have heard some tracks and they are killer.
Twenty Questions: RYAN BAKER
1. What do you like most about what you do?
Performance. The anticipation, the preparation, the focus is all on a single moment. That moment arrives and the ego vanishes. There is no who, no place, nothing that separates you from me. The rush is like nothing else. Perhaps the performance is captured to be experienced in the future, or perhaps it is truly momentary. But for that moment WE lose ourselves.
2. What do you wish you could change about yourself?
My compulsive uncontrollable urge to fill time.
3. Do you think others perceive you the way you perceive yourself?
I don't believe this to be possible. But I try to consider how others perceive me. It helps me to evolve.
4. If you could only have access to a total of 5 items, whether they be books, albums, movies, or paintings--- which 5 would you choose, and why?
a motorcycle - gotta see things
books - for introspection and inspiration
a camera - to capture things i see
a kitchen - to enjoy life's great pleasure - food.
acoustic guitar - the second greatest musical composition tool
5. What, as opposed to who, has influenced you most?
Travel. The ultimate stimulation.
6. Do you do your best work when you’re happy or not so happy? In other words, do you think there’s any validity to the old saw about an artist having to suffer in order to successfully create?
I believe we are creative beings by nature. Whether
we are happy or sad we create. Whether we are conscious of it or not,
we create. I'm not sure there is validity to the old saw about an
artist having to suffer in order to successfully create. I think being
sad accesses different places within us. I think people are receptive
to this because it echoes something within themselves. Those places are
powerful emotions. People in turn can and will be more profoundly affected
by this. So a connection is made.
7. When you are not working, what do you do for fun?
idling. Just being.
8. When you are working, describe a typical work day (or night)?
Get up and do something physically and mentally
challenging like go to the gym, or rollerblade. Helps wake my ass up (no
one want to play with a sluggish drummer). Then cook breakfast for the
band, then rehearse/write music. Mid afternoon go make money aka. teach
music. Cook a nice dinner.
Then work on misc stuff; mixing down rehearsal or catch up on e-mails,
other band business etc. Then about 2 a.m. i'll smoke my medicine and
chill.
9. If you weren't an artist what would you most certainly NOT have become?
If i wasn't an artist, i'd still not be working for some asshole!
10. Where do you see yourself two years from now?
Touring, recording, writing. Maybe photography as a hobby.
11. If you were cloned, what would you want to write on the blank slate of your new self? Or put another way, if you had been your own parent, what would you have taught or exposed yourself to during the course of your upbringing that you were not?
Take a fucking stand!
12. If you had the power to put together the greatest band of all time, who would the members of that band be?
Josh Freese - drums
Sting - bass
Mark Manley - bass 2
Seal - singer
Jimi Hendrix - guitar
Ryan - shaker / ambient rattling things
13. Limited to these two choices, would you rather be the fastest runner in the world, or be able to run the longest distance?
Longest. Why? see more of the world, probably has a more constant rhythm.
14. What’s the best song you’ve heard so far, and why?
Rachmaninoff piano concerto 3.
Sweet, adolescent, complex, wise, slow, swift, dense, romantic, psychotic,
dark.
15. What’s the worst pain in the world?
Hopelessness.
16. What’s the best smell in the world?
Campfire!
17. What’s the saddest song of all time?
Moonlight Sonata - Beethoven then runner up is
The Great Gig in the Sky -
Pink Floyd
18. What’s the greatest thing that’s happened to you so far?
Surviving appendicitis.
19. What’s your LEAST favorite swear word?
the N word
20. What should I have asked you?
What's your greatest fear.
