I am releasing an EP!

[Ryan Rickenbach]

Songfighters!

This website inspired me to write my very first song "So Kind Stacey" at the tender age of 15. After many, many embarrassing entries (and even one victory!) the song-fighting gradually succumbed to the booze-induced haze of higher education, and I wasn't around here so much. I did keep writing however, and five years after I graduated college (Go Terps) I've found myself pursuing music professionally. I'm in New York and very poor but I have just released a single from my first EP. You can hear it here: https://ryanrickenbach.bandcamp.com/track/no-good-thief I'm in the middle of promoting it now and I've never done any of this so it's a big-fucking-pain-in-the-ass-learning-experience that has got me really reflecting on a bunch of stuff, like how dirty I feel when I pay facebook to promote my stuff and how the hell I ended up where I did.

Which leads me to this:

Songfight really, truly, altered the trajectory of my life. The constructive criticism and support I received at such a formative time in my life was a beautiful thing. I am so damn thankful to JB and Spud and everyone who created this awesome community (including my friend Drew Tetz who I went to school with and told me about songfight to begin with) and continue to run it so some virginal angsty teen somewhere finds a reason to use his guitar for something else besides 3 Doors Down tabs and accidentally discovers an avenue of artistic expression that would soon become the focus of his life - among the many, many other ways songfight has benefited those who are lucky enough to know about it.

So the EP isn't out until April 1, but I wanted to share it with you guys:

http://www.rickenbachmusic.com/songfight/

If you want to pre-order (meaning download the tracks once they're released) just use the code "songfight" and you can buy it for $1. I really wanted to do it for free, but bandcamp doesn't allow that for some reason.

ALSO if you live in New York I'm having a big release show on 3/31 at sidewalk in the East Village. here's the poster, featuring one cheeky son of a bitch:



rock on! much love,

Ryan

[ken]

Congrats Ryan! I'm sure some of the New York folks will check your show out. They are regulars at the Sidewalk.

[Niveous]

Congrats Ryan! I'm sure some of the New York folks will check your show out. They are regulars at the Sidewalk.

I'm there every Monday for the Open Mic. Roymond appears there as well. You should stop by on a Monday and perform to help drum up some new listeners.

I'll definitely try and swing by the show on the 31st. You + Bipolar Bradley should be a great night of music.

[Ryan Rickenbach]

I'll be at the open mic on the 28th!

[jb]

EP sounds tight, man. Congrats!

JB

[fluffy]

Wow, that single sounds pretty great. Did you hire session musicians and a producer and stuff, or did you do it all yourself?

[Ryan Rickenbach]

my friend cass dillon has a studio and is a budding producer (http://www.cassdillonproductions.com - check out kim vogels' song "call of the wild" for a good example of his abilities).

i hired a drummer, bassist and keyboardist and we banged the whole EP out in 6 days. after mixing and mastering (i also hired someone for that) it came out to $3,000 for the whole thing (1k for the mixing and mastering). it was a great experience to get something DONE instead of mucking around for months on end. but for the next project I would love to have a little more time in the studio and work on a more distinguished sound. however being on a time and money crunch really pushes you to go with your gut and keep moving forward (IE songfight hehe).

thanks for the purchase man!