Matthew Ryan 'From A Late Night High-Rise' album

NASHVILLE, TENN. –Matthew Ryan delivers his first solo set in three years titled From A Late Night High-Rise, on Brooklyn-based indie 00:02:59.

Mindfully, Ryan shuns the traditional record company model for an intimate release befitting of such a personal album. “The decision was easy.” Ryan explains, “With a major label push there is no romanticism. I don’t mean to sound cynical, but it’s like trying to play golf in a mine field.”

Its digital release date will be December 5th, but Ryan will hand-deliver traditional hard copies of High-Rise to fans across the country while on tour, including the dates in November. And it doesn’t get more personal than that.

In the three years since Regret Over The Wires, Ryan has penned two albums of songs, with the most notable to date being “For Blues Skies.” Originally intended for inclusion on High-Rise, the song found a home on the self-titled 2005 release from Strays Don’t Sleep, Ryan’s collaborative side-project.

Written while his brother was awaiting trial, “For Blues Skies” has developed a cult following online and found a broader audience thanks to the support from CW show “One Tree Hill.” A simple internet search documents the emotional connection fans have made to the song - some calling it “unforgettable” and others inferring meaning to their own lives.

For Ryan, From A Late Night High-Rise is an extension of "For Blue Skies" since all the songs were inspired by the same events. From the aptly titled opener "Follow The Leader" and throughout the 12 songs, Ryan engages the listener's ears, heart and mind with his carefully chosen and purposely delivered words.

Matthew Ryan will begin his tour in support of From A Late Night High-Rise with friends Thad Cockrell, David Mead and Michele Malone for “Gang of Songwriters In The Round” performances during November. Visit Matthew Ryan's website for further tour updates.

Biography
"We walked down the block through the dead trees, You were smiling, And I was smiling too...." - The Complete Family

From the first wave of symphonic keyboards to the last utterance of good advice from some accidental RF, From A Late Night High-Rise is a masterful rumination on mortality and morality. It's an epic to behold.

Matthew Ryan has wandered around the edges for years now. You get the feeling he doesn't care much for anything that resembles a hollow victory. He's clearly chosen the hard way. From major to small to indie labels to DIY and back again; he's continued to follow some stubborn compass that keeps him quietly searching for his version of perfect weather in a song. Looking more and more like a young John F. Kennedy, he may have found it.

From A Late Night High-Rise is a movie without film, it's a novel without a book. It's absolutely beautiful, precise and unflinching. It's music that glows like a city from high up in an airplane- first appearing alien, then blooming completely human. Shaken by the sentencing of his brother to 30 years in prison and the death of a dear friend, Ryan took to recording and writing songs on his Korg D16 Porta Studio to cope with his grief. “Follow The Leader,” “Gone for Good,” “Love Is The Silencer,” “Victory Waltz” and “The Complete Family” were all recorded at home. Those recordings were the seeds that would become From A Late Night High-Rise.

Eventually, Ryan took what he had to Neilson Hubbard's studio. At the time, Ryan and Hubbard were compatriots in a side-project called Strays Don't Sleep. It was there that Ryan and Hubbard sculpted and fine-tuned the sonic emotionalism that implores From A Late Night High-Rise into such a cohesive thread. Other members of Strays Don't Sleep came in from to time to contribute as well - Brian Bequette offered some of his signature distorted beauty on guitar, while Steve Latanation and Billy Mercer (Strays Don't Sleep's rhythm section) brought their rock and rumble to tracks that begged for something a bit more desperate (most notably: “Misundercould” and “Love Is The Silencer”). Ryan recruited Kate York to be the heroine to speak; she had contributed beautifully to the Ryan penned and sung Strays Don't Sleep underground hit “For Blue Skies.” Since these songs were of the same cloth, Ryan wanted York to play the female lead again. And York's voice delivers here with an ease and resonance that is masterful.

In many ways From A Late Night High-Rise is a song cycle, or dare I say, a concept record. But like all great stories it blurs around the edges and deals in an intimate universality that allows for interpretation. The "I" and the "You" in these songs become anyone, maybe even everyone. It goes from bravely autobiographical (particularly in the spoken word cinema of “The Complete Family”), to beautifully impressionistic (“Everybody Always Leaves”) without ever interrupting its flow. Even a cover of Grant McClennan and Steven Kilby's sublime “Providence” eases by like a sibling to Ryan's compositions. All the more amazing is how the music forms an arc along with the story. From lush, precise arrangements to DIY utilitarianism, nothing interrupts the story.

It's impossible to distill such a cohesive rumination on mortality and morality for you. Give From A Late Night High-Rise a focused listen. Let it wash over you, follow the story like you would a great movie's plot, and be surprised by the hard-won beauty and optimism that the ending offers.

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Matthew Ryan - From A Late Night High-Rise