Interviews » PunkTV.ca interviews Ryan Sinn
By: Dixon Christie of PunkTV.ca ♣ April 7, 2006
First of all, let’s talk about how you all came together?
I think that Tom and David Kennedy knew each other for a while and I don’t know who they started talking about it with, but I met David in my old band, Boxcar Racer, and he told me that him and Tom had been working on new projects, and I met up with them, had lunch, and it pretty much went onward from there… Then Atom called Tom when he heard that we had something going on… But the first time that I actually met Atom Willard was at our bands first photos shoot. We had seen each other a few times, but it was there when we finally got to shake hands and really get to know each other.
So, is this a part time band like Boxcar Racer or is it your full time effort?
It’s a full time thing.
And how does that feel for you, having this new supergroup and giving it your all?
Ya, wow, I like the sound of calling us a “supergroup”. Coming out of my situation, working so hard with the Distillers, basically touring not stop for four years and putting my all into it, and then just come to a stop, the time in between, I was working in a warehouse, and that was kind of the opposite of what I had been doing. So for me to come back and to be playing in a band very much bigger than the one I left, I feel very fortunate, dude. Very fortunate.
Tell us about the name and how did you come up with it and what does it means to you?
You know, I am probably the worst one to try and explain it, but I will try… We were playing the name game and trying to come up with some good ones… A friend of ours and one of our managers, I think that he hit a patch of ice, and nearly died, and afterwards he said that the angels were watching over him over the airwaves, so that’s kinda how it came about. From a friend’s near death experience basically.
So it is a statement of hope really…
Ya, that’s one of my favorite things about the band… It is all very hope filled. Like the name of the album, “We don’t need to whisper”… Like when we were setting up in the studio, and we were setting up the mics… and someone was whispering, and Tom was like over the mic, “We don’t need to whisper”… Sp everything has sorta been happening for a reason for us… And we have things like that, a lot of themes and references and I can’t talk about much of them, but they also carry on to the next album…
More expressions of hope?
Ya, for sure but not always just of hope, instead of using something because it sounds cool, but that everything in this band has a real meaning. It’s more about life imitating art, because everything that we experience as a band or individually seems to go directly into our music…
Tell us about the new album, “We Don’t Need to Whisper”, how is it most unlike your other projects?
Ya, good one… It’s very far from any type of music or band that I have been in before… I definitely fell into the rhythm when I got the idea from Tom… When you imagine me doing my type of music, it’s not the kind of music that would come to mind…
It’s quite a step from the Distillers style…
Yes. It’s definitely more well thought out type of music, like we really sat in a room and planned it all out, some songs, the guitar parts were rewritten 30 times, my bass lines were all redone 7 times or something… The longest that I had ever spent in a studio prior to this was 4 weeks and we were in the studio for almost a year on this album…
But there’s a reason that a label would spend a year on Delonge and well, you guys…
The label was kinda not really involved on a daily basis, they gave us quite a bit of freedom, but more towards the end, they are like, “Okay we are finishing up, we have to talk about artwork, and promo”… and we wanted to make the album that Tom wanted to make, and that we wanted to make, so we are happy to have gotten to make the album that we wanted, because labels will always try to make the album they want if you let them.
So, I guess the whole experience has been great for you so far…
Ya, it’s turned my life around.
Tom said that he traveled all over the world and had to sell 20 million albums in order to make an album like this. Do you all feel that your unique and colorful past sorta lead you up to this moment?
Well definitely things happen for a reason, just like my involvement in the band, a mutual friend of David and mine, our tattoo artist, well David was at this artists, and the artist was like, “Hey, Ryan isn’t in the Distillers anymore, you should call him up!” So ya, if it wasn’t for all of the experiences that we have all had, we would not be in this position. Although I would like to be able to say that it took me 20 million albums to get to this experience, and not 110,000… (both laugh)
Can we talk really quickly about the work ethic… I love that band, and Brody as well… Did you party a lot on the road?
Ya, we definitely had a hard working ethic… When I was in the Distillers, I definitely had a problem with alcohol… and when I was with them, my financial matters just went into the toilet, I never knew what was going on, or what was coming up next… so I partied a lot on the road, we all did… Now I have been doing much better, and the boys in the band are such positive influences… for the past year I worked my day job all day and then would be in studio at night… Every aspect of the band we deal with 5 days a week, it’s totally pro… We haven’t toured yet but so far the only partying was a glass of wine during practice… Hahaha…
I got to ask you this… 20 million album really could mean at least pocketing a couple million dollars for Tom, and the Offspring sold tons of albums, does that cause derision that you have a lot less money than the rest of the band members or does it provide you with inspiration for you to be worthy of this band?
I was in the Distillers for 4 years and 2 years ago I just bought my very first house, and it is really quite small… I am very happy for Tom though because he really worked so hard… I am definitely not jealous like, “Why doesn’t he give me some money?” Or anything like that, I just am happy to be doing this and I guess inspired to be a part of it all, ya. I will give you an example, after the Distillers, things were bad so I took this job at a shop, like, for a week, and it really sucked. Then Tom gave me a job at his warehouse, he was too cool, he said like, “Hey do you need work? I need someone to work at my company.” And he paid me quite well, and really helped out a lot. Really made me believe in him, and the band from the very start.
So you are quite positive about the future of this band…
It definitely gives me great hope, especially after all the buzz growing, and doing press, it gives me hope, maybe make a few bucks, buy some land…
In the movie on your website, the narrator says, “If you could escape your past, would you be ready for your future.” What does that line mean to all of you?
To me, its kinda means that if you let go of the negativity, or the stuff that you haven been stuck in. There is that old saying, “Whatever you did in high school is what you will be doing for the rest of your life.” (I was writing reviews, playing music and interviewing bands, ed.) It’s about looking past that, you are stuck in traffic to drive to the beach, you get to the beach, that hour in traffic no longer matters. You have the ability to just start over and move on, to walk away from it and make today the greatest day of your life.
What would surprise people most to learn about the band, or you?
I was reading something the other day. I go up on our message board, just to keep our finger on the pulse of what people are thinking about us. Well, the strangest thing is that people seem to get the impression that we are all millionaires… and I get this picture thinking of some kid at 13 seeing us in a magazine and thinking that I am sitting in some mansion, but I am like, “Man, you can come and stay at my house and see for yourself where I live, because it is really small!” When kids see someone in a magazine, kids always think you are rich, but if I was, would you see me in the same pair of jeans and t-shirt in 6 magazines in a week?
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