Review Fix Exclusive: Ryan Bourne Talks Wasted World And More

Review Fix chats with singer/songwriter Ryan Bourne, who discusses his origin in music and new single, Wasted World.

Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?

Ryan Bourne: As a kid I was thrown in piano lessons, learned some fundamentals there and developed my ear. My mom and dad were singers (actually met in a singing group) so definitely some influence there… switched to trombone in middle school, started taking guitar lessons at about age 15, started stringing chords together almost immediately, was writing poetry constantly at that time, and soon began stringing phrases into lyrics, so kind of a natural course into songwriting there.


Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Bourne: I always get the music first, these days a lot of it comes in dreams. I sing it into my phone, work it out later on guitar or piano, and usually add words last, based often on the phonetics the melody suggests, though sometimes the dream melody has words, or I have a song title or a concept I want to play with. 


Review Fix: What inspires you?

Bourne: This is always changing but currently mind blown by experimental synth pioneers Pauline Oliveros and Éliane Radigue, and a new film by Lisa Rovner SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS (been a longtime fan of Susan Cianni and Laurie Speigel) about the formative role these and a few other incredible women have had on the evolution of electronic music… Also been loving LA based musician John Carrol Kirby, his latest record and his soundtrack to the gorgeous new animated film Crytpozoo by Dash Shaw, which is massive inspo, haunting, original, stunning to look at. 

Review Fix: How has CO-Vid affected your art? 

Bourne: It basically shut down the live component of what I do, and (esp. early on), much of the relational aspect of creating, the exchange with an audience and with bandmates, so it became a much more solitary process than it had been for a while . I’ve always loved home recording but the pandemic forced me to really lean into it this past year or so, which was kind of a blessing in disguise, being able to hone that process a little, and I’m excited to be finishing up my debut record for Hair Control, my lo-fi synthpop project, and demoing for the next Ryan Bourne record. 

Review Fix: What does music mean to you? 

Bourne: It’s an inevitability, a compulsion, and infinitely interesting, the constant exploration and endless learning curve within it. It’s healing and relational. It’s electrical, I like that it’s a visceral form of communication, electrical communication, often non-verbal, or supraverbal.

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you? 

Bourne: Well my bio reads “lush, psych-laden songcraft… idiosyncratic takes on garage pop, glammed out rock cruisers, baroque pop, and dark psych-folk”, which I think is pretty apt? Art pop, with experimental/avant garde influences and  a late 60s/ early 70s (and occasionally early 80s ) bent ? I’ve been told it sounds “not of this time” , and I like that putting on the record could feel transportive in this way, that it could act as a portal to another temporal dimension.

Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work?

Bourne: My live shows have tended to be a bit more stripped down, a bit more raw in a way, there are a lot subtle layers to the recordings that wouldn’t cross over to the more visceral live show, though I do want to convey the new material with at least a 5 piece band. 

Review Fix: What inspired your latest single? 

Bourne: The melody for Wasted World came from a dream, with lyrics playing on the theme of being hopelessly love-sick. “I got this sickness” – all the ecstatic, chaotic, nauseating overwhelm and illusion in being “in love”. I think I was listening to the Clean a lot when the melody came along…

Review Fix: What are your goals for the rest of 2021? 

Bourne: I’ll be rolling out another single or two off my new forthcoming full-length record, Plant City, and gearing up hopefully for a spring release and tour. 

Review Fix: What’s next? 

Bourne: Watch out for another video single from Plant City in 6-8 weeks!

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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