Transcript
Tom Heath
Good morning. It’s a beautiful sun in the Old Pueblo. You’re listening to KTDT Tucson. Thank you for spending a part of your brunch hour with us on your downtown Tucson a community sponsored rock and roll radio station.
Tom Heath
This week, we have Ryan Green and Cameron Hood, who together form Ryanhood, the duo who has created the music for our show and many others. Today is April 4th, it’s Easter. My name is Tom Heath and you’re listening to Life along the streetcar.
Tom Heath
Each and every Sunday, our focus is on social cultural and economic impacts in Tucson’s Urban core and we shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about. From A mountain to UArizona and all stops in between, you get the inside track right here on 98.1 FM streaming on Downtown Radio dot org also available on your iPhone or Android by using our Own Downtown Radio Tucson app.
Tom Heath
If you want to get us on the show, our email address is contact@Life along the streetcar.org. That same website you can get the all of our past episodes. You’ll find us on Facebook and the podcast is available on all kinds of places like Spotify, iTunes. iHeartRadio or just simply asking your smart speaker to play Life along the streetcar podcast.
Tom Heath
We’re going to start today’s show with a little bit of giving and receiving. In a couple of days, it’ll be Arizona gives day at is April 6. That’s Tuesday. It’s an annual fundraiser for nonprofits like Downtown Radio and now is the time for you to show your support. Our community radio station urgently need your donations to help keep us on the air. Our music will not be quarantined. Our shows will not be Quarantined. Downtown Radio has been broadcasting underground and local music since 2015. We have a fantastic lineup of shows every Sunday and I have a focus on Mental Health.
Tom Heath
We have 55 DJs and a staff that is completely volunteer driven and we rely on generous support of the listeners like yourselves, so please make a donation at AZgives.org/downtownradio or go to DowntownRadio.org and click on the Arizona Gives. Please keep a streaming globally and rocking locally.
Tom Heath
And speaking of rocking locally. Our feature today is what I’m kind of excited about. We’ve got the dou Ryanhood as our guests. If you’ve been listening to this show for any amount of time, you realize we start the day with music, it’s a song called Dillinger Days. It was written by Ryanhood and it was well, we’ll hear the story when they tell it, but it’s a it’s a song that is appropriate for our show. They’ve been gracious enough to to let us use it since we started in 2017 and we haven’t had them on the show yet. We’ve tried but our schedules just couldn’t quite work it out. Well, they have a new album coming up in just a couple of weeks. They’re going to be doing some shows safely and we wanted to find out about all that. So we sat down with Ryan Green and Cameron Hood of Ryanhood and chatted with them by phone just a few days ago.
Ryan Green
Sure. What this is this is the voice of Ryan David Greene here.
Cameron Hood
This is the voice of Cameron Hood right here. I tend to I tend to sing more and write more lyrics but I also write Melodies and I also play guitar.
Ryan Green
And yeah, it’s on the other half of the group Ryanhood. And yeah, I’m kind of maybe a little more the lead guitar guy in harmony guy, but there really we’re a two singer band and travel the country as a duo, have been doing it for almost 20 years now. Playing music together, we first met here in Tucson at University High School where we each had separate bands, separate rival rock bands that would compete annually in the Battle of the Bands and Cameron took a victory and then I took a victory and Cameron took another Victory. We graduated and we put the Rivalry aside shortly after graduation and admitted to one another, we actually really admired each other musically and and grew closer as Friends.
Ryan Green
Eventually, I went to college in Boston and and Cameron stayed at the University of Arizona, and we kind of had a band through the mail and then when when College ended I invited Cameron to move out there and join me in Boston where we became full-time street performers and made our living playing mostly at Quincy Market in Boston and from there went to touring colleges and from there, to everywhere else you could think of from from folk festivals to to living rooms to even to Australia.
Speaker 3
Australia, that was a we talked about that on the show. That was a your International debut. That was a
Ryan Green
pretty good one. Yeah. Yeah. So you guys
Tom Heath
You met in Tucson’s you abandon us for a brief period of time, but then you came back fairly fairly quickly. Didn’t you after after Boston?
Ryan Green
You know in the grand scale of things. Yes. It didn’t fit felt. It was a few years. And so now when we look at, you know, when you’re looking at a 20 year career, it was we’ve really been in Tucson for most of it. But those would you say it was probably two or three years out in Boston Cameron?
Cameron Hood
I think so. I think I was out there for about two years. Yeah, we started coming back even after like one year of being in Boston. We came back and did like a Christmas at Club Congress kind of thing and dipped our toes back in and was like, does anyone remember who we are here, you know, because we’d only played A handful of times in Tucson before we moved but we started coming back and playing Congress and felt like wow, we actually have something here and then move back probably about a year or a year and a half later. And that was really just because we were touring so much of the time Boston is High Cost of Living and so we loved Tucson we had family in Tucson. It was cheaper to live in Tucson and we were kind of just touring so much that we felt like we could live anywhere and So we sort of relocated the Ryanhood home base to Tucson probably around 2006. But then really we’re just solidly on the road for for at least the next three years up through like 2009. And then from 2009 to 2011, we took our first real real kind of break as a band and then started going back out touring again in around 2013 when we put out the album “Start Somewhere” and that’s the album that has the song Dillinger Days on it.
Tom Heath
Well, we’ll talk about Dellinger Days in a moment because that’s for the if you’ve ever listened to this show, you’ve heard that song every time for the last four years, but I’d like to talk a little bit about that. But Tucson, they certainly have you have a huge following here. I have to admit I the first time I saw you was in 2015 at the Tucson Folk Festival and I you were saying you were sandwiched in between Tom Chapin And Ray Hubbard, two names that I knew. and I was like Orion Hood. Okay. I’ll Stick Around for these guys. I was the only one there that was was not there for you mean the crowd was incredibly excited to have you there and I think in fact, I I was off to the side. I think if I remember correctly like when Ray Hubbard was due to come out he’s like no you guys just keep playing for a bit because these guys love you
Cameron Hood
yeah, I think we I think we finished our set and there was kind of a cheer and we’re like no we you know, we can’t do an encore during a Folk Fest like all respect to Ray who’s playing after us and he just kind of waved us on it was like you deserve an encore at this moment boys. You just go ahead and do that. So that was it was an honor to get that from the crowd and also an honor to get that opportunity from a legend like him. And so that’s a great moment. And then we eventually did of course vacate the stage and he came and brought the house down.
Tom Heath
He did pretty well if I remember correctly. Yep, but that was my first exposure and I was at that point I started like who are these guys because you’re I mean your lyrics are phenomenal. You’re obviously your your skills are just tremendous but I remember when you were talking about the song and I will probably miss it mix it up a little bit but I’m strong and I’m stop Liz I’m weak and in love and I remember hearing yeah that phrase and I’m like, oh my gosh that is a huge amount of information and just a few words. It’s just just impressive.
Cameron Hood
That’s awesome. That’s not something that I known for which is like, I’m not known for packing a lot into a small space. I know for writing a lot of lyrics but it’s a really great compliment and appreciate that.
Speaker 3
I appreciate you and and so we started this show we’re looking for some theme music in I had heard Dillinger Days and it’s an instrumental. It’s like this is really it’s the title is right the you know, the band is from Tucson everything made sense. But this was this was a project that you were doing with was at the School of Dance or it was with the University?
Cameron Hood
Sure. So it was actually Artifact Dance Project which grew out of the school of dance, but to be honest it that song actually had its Origins before the show. It was something that Ryan had written and and someone else named for us. I believe that that was John Donaldson wasn’t it Ryan we named that.
Ryan Green
You know, I was going to say I know that it was yeah John Donaldson may have named it you I think you’re right. I know the song he kind of sponsored the song and on an album and and and I think you may be right about that. Yeah, and initially I kind of set out and maybe them in his request was I hate right? See if you got you know, I love a Happy Jam which is instrumental off of The World Awaits. And I think he was was kind of cheerleading us attempting to write a sequel to that or another song in that vein and Dillinger Days is what I ended up writing and which is which is left. It’s another instrumental. It’s not quite a sequel to The Happy Jam but its own nice instrumental.
Ryan Green
Thankfully, you know, I guess fittingly I have we have just written that sequel finally all this time later on our forthcoming album Under The Leaves. There’s a song called Happy Returns, which is very much a follow-up to that original instrumental, but the beautiful thing is that little Sidetrack, you know, what we attempted to be a sequel and turn into its own thing. Dillinger Days did end up leading us down interesting road, which was a Riley the creation of a sort of modern story ballet.
Cameron Hood
You know what I think it what I think it was is that this guy who is cheerleading us to write that song. I want to say we were crowdfunding and he was a real big supporter and maybe one of the sort of perks that we were offering for like real big supporters. Looks like you could name a song on our album. I’m not sure if that’s what it is, but I kind of think that is in he just so Loved Tucson. He so loved to downtown Tucson. He so loves Club Congress. He’s so love Dillinger Days that that’s the name that he that he applied to to the song.
Cameron Hood
And so it just kind of had this cool like little bit Swanky little bit bluesy feel to it. And that was the name that he chose and then it just was really by chance a couple years later. Well, I don’t know if it was by chance. I have no real idea. But artifact dance project with Ashley Bowman. She approached us and said you have this song Dillinger Days and I want to make a dance show about John Dillinger and you guys are the bands to do it and we were like wow, that’s so flattering, but I don’t think that we’re really the band to do it outside of really that one song. We don’t have that. So we don’t really have a lot of like, you know, mid 1930s gangster in us and she’s like, she’s like that that’s that’s not how I want to make this show. I want to show who this person was. Who he loved what is friendships who are like what drove him, you know, it’s going to be the premise of it will be the gangster stuff in the bank robberies and the fire at Hotel Congress and all that. But I want to show who he is on the inside and you are at the exact right band to do it. I’m sure of it and we were just like overcome with flattery and we’re like, okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. We’ll do it and ended up being this incredible experience. I think for me especially I really dove into it and got into the world of storytelling and how do you with no dialogue only dance and lyrics how do you tell this person’s actual, you know life story and so became this really riveting challenge for me and I was so proud of the results.
Tom Heath
We’re excited that they went through that and got that that music done. So we have a launch for our show every week. We’ll be back to the second half of that interview in just a few minutes. I want to remind you that you’re listening to Life along the streetcar on downtown radio. 98.1 FM. Available for streaming on Downtown Radio.
Tom Heath
All right, we’re going to finish up our interview here with Ryan Green and Cameron Hood of Ryan hood and talk about their upcoming album, which is going to release here in just a couple of weeks.
Ryan Green
Right? Yeah that the album is called Under The Leaves and the the under the leaves under the stars are what we’re calling the the release concerts here in Tucson because we’re doing a few concerts at nighttime me so it will be us performing under the leaves, Under the Stars which is a fun sort of play on words there. And Yeah, the album is is out on April 16th, and we’ll be doing a show shows on the evening of April 16th and 17th at the MSA Annex here in Tucson, and they’ll be they’ve been planned for a while. They’re there. They’re distant if people have reserved there are two or four top tables and their ten feet apart and it’s pretty intimate shows and should be a really beautiful night. We’re gonna have a string quartet for those shows as well to kind of capture the mood of the album.
Tom Heath
And was this recent music recorded during the pandemic or these things in the works prior to that?
Ryan Green
These are songs they predate we went into we wanted to 2020 already planning Cameron mentioned around 2011. We sort of took a sabbatical as a band. And as you were coming up towards 2020. We basically were like we had made plans to do the same thing to come off the road for six months for the first half of the year. So we had plan been planning to not tour the first step of 2020 and then the pandemic hit and Wouldn’t you know, it would turn out to be I guess good planning on our part to not be on the road because we just you know, that’s just extended Beyond 20/20 now but so we had music written from our prior years of touring and we began to Tinker with that during the time off and so of the 10 songs on the album eight of them were written prior and two of them were written fully during the pandemic to kind of as we as other album. Took shape when we saw what it was going to be in sound like we each listen getting an insight into the type of people Cameron and I are me being sort of more of the may be more passionate about the musical side of things and him being a little more passionate about the lyrical side of things in the messaging as we looked at the collection of songs.
Ryan Green
I decided I wanted to write an instrumental to that try to complete that sequel to a pajama happy returns and really This kind of fiery guitar piece to the album. So I felt like it needed some more guitar fireworks on it and Cameron as he took a look at the message of the album decided he wanted to write a song that kind of tied all the themes of the album together. It was kind of a thesis statement of the Albany wrote a song called ruins. And so those are the bookends to the album process for us.
Speaker 3
So this one this is going to launch on the 16th. You’re going to be in Tucson. I think unfortunately, those might be sold out already from what I’ve been told they are. Yes, you’re going to be in for the Folk Festival as well right doing like a drive in concert?
Cameron Hood
We are yeah. Yeah. Yeah, this will be our first time. We’re doing it first time rocking the mall man. I’m pretty excited to be rocking the Park Place Mall. Yeah. We’re there. They’re doing a outdoor Drive In At the mall and I think we’re going Sunday April 11th. I think we’re on about 4:30, which I am just so interested to see what that’s like how that goes. You know just that it’s at the mall right back by the movie theater that like that. I’ve been going to you know for so many years and before that. It was a much smaller movie theater on the back of a much smaller mall, and I’ve been going there since I was a kid, so to be playing on the stage back their systems. It’s strangely interesting to me.
Ryan Green
You know, I’m drawn to I think they’re allowing 200 cars or something. And when you figure that the distance that may be involved that 200 car. I’m excited for how loud we’re going to be on that stage. Like we’re going to be we’re going to have some serious Firepower behind our acoustic guitars to to blast somebody 200 Cars away. So I’m excited for right they always say that like The bigger the stage the larger your movements need to be because like the larger the crowd the further back people are the more pronounced your actual physical movements on the stage. So we’re going to be going like Old Bono and full Pete Townsend, you know, like over exaggerating everything that we do to be like feel like massive rock stars on that.
Tom Heath
that’s going to be so April 10th 11th is the Folk Festival you guys are going to be on Sunday 4:30 at Park Mall will make sure we link to all of that stuff from our Facebook page and you know will will mention of course the stuff at the Mercado but that’s sold out. Although I do think you’ve and you are you touring again because I saw there are some dates coming up like in Colorado and…
Ryan Green
yeah a couple things well, you know, not so much touring but a couple of one-offs here and there so there’s a there’s a festival That was supposed to happen last May that was canceled and it’s looking like it’s going to be safe to hold it as an out, you know, big outdoor Festival in Colorado Springs, and so we are going to go play that called Meadow. And then we’ve got another one that there’s a number of things from last year that that festivals that are hoping to happen this year with the same lineups as last year that didn’t happen. So another one we have on our calendar is that in the fall? I think it’s called Black Bear music festival up in up in New England. And that’s that’s in October. So quite a ways off and obviously, you know things things change. Nobody can can crystal ball the future totally clearly. But we’re hopeful that both of those will be able to happen.
Tom Heath
Outstanding and therefore if some reason someone can’t get to see you live when the album releases how do they get a copy of that?
Ryan Green
Ryanhood.com is the easiest way. So so, you know, it’s Ryan Hood like Robin Hood, but Ryan had one word. And yeah, it’s on there. You can get it on CD. You can get it on vinyl and one thing that’s really great about this one as we made a book. Large book full of photos and essays and stories by the songs. That’s kind of a companion piece. So that’s if you’re a streamer and prefer to just stream your music on Spotify or apple music. That’s a really good companion to that and you can kind of lounge and read about the album and kind of get absorbed in it while you’re listening to it.
Speaker 3
Fantastic. Well Ryan Green, Cameron Hood together. They make Ryan Hood what haven’t we talked about? What are some things that we should have discussed that we didn’t bring up?
Cameron Hood
We should have just discussed how much you are supporting Tucson and Tucson Music Man. Like it’s just I’m always seeing you post in you know to support some local startup or startup Tucson or you know, what some band is doing or what the Folk Fest is doing. I just am so grateful to have you and and others like you who are who are supporting you’re making it possible for us to continue doing this like The word out and by supporting and by buying and like those things mean so much to us and I just want to take a minute to say that on this program man.
Tom Heath
Well, I appreciate that. I think there’s a lot of people out there that respect those that are doing and those of us that maybe aren’t doing we can certainly cheerlead and promote and that’s that’s why this show exists is to make sure we highlight those those hidden gems that everyone really should should know about and I appreciate the kind words, but what about Ryan Hood anything that would that that we missed?
Cameron Hood
I think I would just say take a chance on this album. We’ve done something really special on this album under the leaves the way we wrote. It was just a little bit different than we’ve written in the past the way we produced it was a little bit different than we have in the past and it’s just it just goes to a lot of really cool places both lyrically and And musically there is a string section for a lot of it and it just helps you feel so much. So the themes of the album are about creating space to process through a lot of what we’re feeling a lot of what we’ve been through whether that’s in our own personal relationships or whether that’s a cross culture, you know, there’s just been a lot that we’re processing.
Cameron Hood
It’s the album is lyrically talking about trying to create space to to feel those things and to move threw them in a healthy way, but the music is just it it’s just moving it what Ryan has done in producing this and arranging strings with a string player in Nashville has just given us this opportunity to feel catharsis to feel like we’re moving through something to feel the emotions behind what the lyrics are talking about. And we really captured something this time that I don’t know if we really captured before which is that lyrically it’s talking about Same thing that we’re feeling musically and they just keep sort of enhancing and underscoring each other. And so I would say give this record a real shot and like Ryan said if you’re someone who listens online who listens on Apple music or Spotify the companion book, that’s a great way to support the band. It’s also a great way to go fully into the world of this album, and we really have created a world with this record. So if you can’t tell I’m super jazzed about it. I’m excited about it. I’m proud of it. I’m really excited for people to start hearing this and kind of enter this world with us.
Tom Heath
Well, I’m looking forward to the album. I am looking forward to the companion book want to thank Ryan green camera hood for joining us in a way of a busy schedules are getting ready for their concerts here in Tucson starting next Sunday. My name is Tom Heath. You’re listening to Life along the streetcar in downtown radio 98.1 FM and available for streaming on Downtown Radio.org
Tom Heath
That’s going to do it here episode number 145 is in the books for those of you that were expecting us to have Monique Elaine from The downtown Clifton and the citizen hotel that will be airing next Sunday. We had Ryan hood on today. They’ve got some upcoming concerts. We want to get that information out to you, but I definitely tune in next Sunday for Monique Elaine and some of the cool stuff happening in the boutique hotel world and there’s gonna be some wine involved with that show. So definitely want to tune in for that.
Tom Heath
And if you ever have a topic for us to cover hit us up on Facebook or email us at contact it Life along the Ricard dot-org and please check out our past episodes on the website or hit find our podcast out there and share that we really appreciate that. If you have a social media account you want us to share what you’re doing. Just just tag us on Facebook. That seems to be where we spend most of our time and I will certainly get that back to you.
Tom Heath
Coming up next is the third episode of our very own Ted Ski interviewing writers and others from the labor movement with his new show called Words and Work. So Take a listen to that and just a few minutes here, but we’re going to leave you today with music. Of course from Ryan Hood. They talked about this song Happy Returns. Its off their new album under the leaves launching this week. Have a great week into next Sunday for more Life along the streetcar.
