FUTURE PLANS!

I have some recording to do, but I’m also waiting for a load of laundry to finish.  Since I’m assuming that no one wants to hear a dryer in the background of a new track, I figure this is the perfect excuse to do a little bit of blogging!

Tour Wrapup
Xoe and I spent about a month on the road.  It was awesome.  I got a chance to meet a bunch of friends that I’d only known through email correspondence (again, where some people use the term ‘fans’, I use ‘friends’.  I swear, I’m going to write a blog post explaining my philosophy behind that, but suffice it to say that my ego has a really really hard time ever saying ‘fans’ in reference to people who listen to my music), we played some amazing shows at some really cool venues.  We played a couple of dud shows at some ‘eh’ venues.  We drove a LOT.  We slept very little.  We ate a lot of junk food, and we generally just had a blast.  I’m already making plans to do another tour in the not-too-distant future, this one with Lady Laura (whom you may know from my constant pimping of her videos, and from the fact that she sings in my band) and focused on the East Coast of the US.  A tour with Laura would pretty much be amazing—she knows my songs because, well, she sings in my band.  I know her songs because I’m producing her album.  Our tour would be less of “Act 1 plays.  Then Act 2 plays.  Goodnight everybody!” and more of a happy lovefest of collaboration as we sing and play on each other’s songs—maybe even sharing sets, segueing between our songs, taking turns, and generally just making everything awesome for both ourselves and the audience.  So look for more info on that as plans get finalized!

Welcome Home Show
Xoe and I played at Martyrs for a welcome home “Hey!  We’re back” show, and it went really really well.  It was a weeknight, and I was amazed at how many people came out.  Thank you so much to everyone in the audience, to Xoe and Nick Lynch for being awesome stage-sharing compatriots, and to Chicago in general for being my favorite place in the world.

Performance Hiatus
I’m taking a bit of a break from performing live.  I’m finishing up a new EP which should be done recording in the next week or two and released in time for Christmas.  Also, I’m producing a couple of other albums for a few other super-talented musicians.  Those things are going to occupy my time for a little while.  PLUS, for those of you who have seen the band perform—we’ve added a few songs here and there to the set list, but I really want to revamp and un-stale-ify our set.  So we’re going to be learning a bunch of new songs, some originals, some covers.  Laura is going to be featured heavily on lead on some of the songs (which is SO AWESOME AND I CAN’T WAIT OMG!!!), and we’ll probably release the new tunes as singles as they get recorded.  So look for a big “Hey guys!  I’m back!  And better than ever!” show sometime in… um… I dunno.  January?  February?  If I play anything before then, it’ll probably be super low-key and acoustic.  Longstoryshort: we have big plans for the band, and I’m super-psyched, and for those of you who aren’t around Chicago, I’ll make sure that video and audio gets posted so that you can get in on the action.

Side project!
I’m not ready to talk a ton about this one yet, but as a brief teaser: a lot of people have asked what happened to Liana, who sang with me on some of my earliest videos.  We haven’t done anything together musically in a few years.  BUT, we were talking recently, and came up with a pretty awesome plan.  This is something that won’t be released under the header of “Matt Ryd”.  Some of the songs will be written by Liana (who writes totally kick-ass songs, by the way), some will be written by me.  All of them will be awesome.  So for those of you who have been itching for Liana’s voice to rock your ears again, you’re in for a real treat.  And I’m not gonna lie, I’m super excited about this project.  It’ll be a bit of a departure from my normal stuff, but still similar enough that if you like what I do, you’ll definitely like this.

The End
Okay.  That was long.  But I had a lot to say.  As always, you guys and gals rock and I love you all and thank you so much for your support.  Hugs!