RYAN BINGHAM
www.binghammusic.com
Ryan Bingham needed some peace and quiet. Free of the burdens that had saddled him during the writing and recording of his recent albums, he relocated to an old airstream trailer tucked away in the mountains of California, camping out for several weeks and embracing the solitude to dig down deep and craft his most powerful album yet, ‘Fear and Saturday Night.’
“It gave me the space and time to tap into myself,” Bingham says of the experience. “Up there, it was totally isolated. No phones, no noise, no lights. At night the only thing you’d hear is the bugs and the coyotes. It’s lonely when you get back up in there and there’s nobody around, but for me, I kind of grew up that way in the middle of nowhere. Since I’ve started touring, I’m surrounded by people all the time, so getting back to the roots of everything, that’s really where I seem to find stuff that’s meaningful when I’m writing songs.”
Bingham was actually in the back of a van in North Dakota when he wrote ‘The Weary Kind,’ a song that became the centerpiece of the 2010 film ‘Crazy Heart’ starring Jeff Bridges. It earned him an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a Grammy, and skyrocketed him into the spotlight. Amidst the incredible success, though, was tragic loss behind the scenes that few knew about.
“A lot of peopled didn’t realize when that Oscar stuff was going on and ‘Junky Star’ was released, I was dealing with the loss of my parents,” says Bingham, who released the follow-up album ‘Tomorrowland’ as a direct reaction to the emotional turmoil that surrounded him. “My mother drank herself to death, and my father shot himself. I was also going through a huge transition with the band—we were breaking up—and I felt so lost playing with different musicians for the first time in years.”
There were positive changes in his life during that time, too, including his marriage, which serves as a frequent well of inspiration on ‘Fear and Saturday Night,’ particularly on tracks like “Snow Falls In June” and “Top Shelf Drug,” a Stones-esque rocker that’s bound to become a live favorite.
Support from:
SONS OF BILL
www.sonsofbill.com
WEDNESDAY 21 OCTOBER
THEKLA BRISTOL
The Grove, Bristol BS1 4RB
Doors 7:00pm
Ages 14+
Advance tickets available from:
www.alt-tickets.co.uk
www.gigantic.com
Bristol Ticket Shop
0844 871 881
