Ryan Adams Returns After A Three Year Hiatus
Three years between records is about what you'd expect from most musicians. But for an artist as prolific as Ryan Adams -- releasing 13 records since 2000, and three in 2005 alone -- three years has been an uncharacteristically long wait for new songs. During Adams' hiatus, the former Whiskeytown frontman struggled with Ménière's disease -- a crippling inner ear disorder -- moved to a new studio in Los Angeles, and created an album with producer, Glyn Johns, only to scrap the entire project. Now, however, the singer-songwriter has finally returned with his just-released 14th album.
This current, self-titled album is a reflection on Adams' struggles with Ménière's disease and sobriety, and, musically it pulls from influences like The Velvet Underground and The Smiths. Adams wrote this batch of songs through improvisational sessions at Pax-Am, the studio for his own label, Pax-Am Records. The studio only uses analog recording processes, not touching a computer until it's downloaded on iTunes. As any space you'd imagine Adams in, he boasts that his studio is filled with typewriters, pinball machines, and action figures to inspire organic songwriting and production. It's a decidedly retro approach that fully captures the spirit of Adams' trademark lived-in country rock songs.
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Set List:
- "Gimme Something Good"
- "Stay With Me"
- "Rats In The Wall"
- "Why Did They Leave You Alone"
Interview Highlights:
Ryan Adams, on PAX-AM, his entirely analog studio where he recorded his self-titled record:
It’s not in a conventional studio — it’s in a house. It’s very Motown. Our control room is in a living room. The vocal iso booth, which is right next door, would have been the dining room…. We left the last room that sort of faces out to Sunset Boulevard — we just turned it into a room that I thought studios always need, but I’ve rarely seen. Which is a room full of records, stationary, manual typewriters, a really good turntable, and some peace and quiet. With guitars on the wall. And what’s crazy is, that room has really been used more than anything else.
On learning how to cope with Ménière's disease, an inner ear disorder:
I overcome it. I do my best. It becomes almost an athletic thing for me to say, “Wow. This is supposed to take my day out today. It definitely probably going to. But I’m going to see what I can do." It sounds weird, but for me, it was this weird blessing. [There’s] all this soul growth in it. It’s not a blessing that I have that. But I feel enlightened to go, “I don’t have the option to walk around like some sort of an entitled brat. I actually have to take care of myself right now.” And taking care of myself has taught me how to take better care of other people.
On 1984, his recently-released 7" EP of 10 punk songs, now available digitally:
All we do is make music. We just go to PAX-AM and make music, so there’s hundreds of songs. Because I have my own label now, and at some point I worked hard enough at it where I can go and say, “I’m going to release a seven-inch every month. It’s going to have three songs on it. I’m going to sell it to fans. It doesn’t have to be a big deal. They can exist.”
Watch a promo video for the new album from Ryan Adams with cameos from Bob Mould, Jeff Garlin, Garry Shandling, Don Was and a dead parakeet. And see his resume-like written promotional material for the album.
