Whilst academy award winning songwriter Ryan Bingham was in Australia for his first headline tour, we caught up with him to chat about the tour, Tomorrowland, his unreleased new album and writing songs for TV and Film.
I think it’s 4 there and not too far off show time, how do you normally prepare for a show, any pre-show rituals?
No not really, I guess playing music you’re waiting around a lot more than you are playing. We don’t really do anything special. Just kind of try and relax, warm up a little bit you know.
Well it’s great to have you back in Australia, am I correct in thinking this might be your first headline tour here? How did you enjoy your last visit?
Yeah it is, first headline tour. It was great. It’s a little nicer this time. We have a little bit more time here, and a few days off too, so we can really see a few things. The last time I was here, I was here for about a week and I think I played a show every night. I didn’t really have too many opportunities to; you know, get out and really see some stuff. We’ve been having a blast so far.
And I think you’ve just come from playing in New Zealand, how did the shows go?
Yeah, we only did one show, it was in Auckland there. The show was great, we had a good turn out and some really wonderful folks and fans came out. Yeah I had a good time.
As you say you’ve got a few more days off this time around, do you have anything planned, or anything you want to do whilst you’re here?
You know we’re just kind of taking it in the stride, we’re just kind of rolling with it and not really making too many plans. But we did have a nice day off yesterday in Sydney and went down to the beach and chilled out a bit. Today we’ve just been kind of kicking around a bit. But nothing particular so far.
Tomorrowland was released a couple of years ago now (in the US), but is about to get a release here in Australia, what was the inspiration for that one? Listening to it compared to some of the earlier albums, it seems maybe outwardly angrier.
(Laughs) Yeah I guess you could say that. I mean I don’t know I was just going through a lot of stuff before I made that record and was writing those songs. A lot of it is just about being inspired by the electric guitar as well though, my first two records I was kind of mainly playing the acoustic. I kind of got a really late start playing the electric guitar, so I was just experimenting with different amps and pedals and things like that. A lot of stuff that was more just an experiment, just kind of messing around with the electric guitar, writing those songs with some of those sounds already in my mind.
There was also a post on your site earlier in the year to say you were back in the studio. Just wondering if you’re able to reveal any more details about the new album?
Yeah this next one I kind of got back in to, leaning back towards more the acoustic stuff as well. I really wanted to try and kind of find a balance between the newer stuff and the older stuff. I’ve just been kind of working at that over the last couple of years. So I feel like it’s a little bit of a mix of older more acoustic stuff, and the newer stuff.
Ah nice. And is there a rough release date yet?
I’m not sure about here in Australia. But it’s finished up and I think we’re trying to get it out around January now in the US, is what we’re looking at I think.
And presumably some of these newer songs are going to be making their way into your set?
Yeah you know, I’m trying to mix it up and play some old songs and new stuff, and definitely play some brand new stuff as well. So yeah we’re definitely going to play some.
I was just wondering what your approach to songwriting is? It seems like a lot of your songs are very story driven or very character driven, are they from personal experience, or do you draw ideas from elsewhere?
For me it’s always been pretty personal. I’ve just been writing about things I’ve been through. I kind of find it hard to write about stuff that I haven’t been through you know. So I don’t know, I think singing those songs every night, night after night, and tour after tour, I feel like I’ve got to have been through what I’m singing about. So a lot of the stuff is just from personal experience and traveling around. It always seems like I’ve got to get out on the road for several months and then I can come home and have a handful of songs to write, just writing about those experiences.
Do you write on the road? Or is more of a case of write when you get home?
I more sort of write when I get home. I feel like you’re out there living and living those experiences. So whenever I get home, get by myself somewhere, so I can reflect on places you’ve been to, and people you’ve met along the way and all of that stuff. And you know just try and get outside the box a little bit, look from the outside in and start writing.
So when you’re saying that the writing is coming from a personal space, do find the process to be quite cathartic?
Yeah, I mean that was really the whole reason I got into it when I was younger in my late teens. And it really became my kind of release and a way for me to get stuff of my chest. It’s definitely still about that now, it’s still that same way for me.
And do you feel like your approach to songwriting has changed over your career?
(Laughs) I hope so. I think I’ve got better. I’ve been trying to work at it a little bit more. I think in the past I’ve always been a bit of a lazy songwriter (laughs) just you know taking, you know going back and taking the time and really looking at the stuff you’re writing and making sure it’s really what you want to say. And I think part of that was just from being young as well, and a little reckless. I definitely seem to pay more attention to the craft now than I did when I was younger.
Recently you’ve been writing a little bit for movies and TV as well, do you approach those songs differently. You wrote the theme song for The Bridge and a song for the movie Joe, where they written specifically for those works, or did you have existing songs that fitted the mood the film makers were looking for?
No I wrote those specifically for those. A lot of the times the writers of the shows will give you an outline of what the show is going to be about. It’s not always easy though. Those stories, growing up and spending a bunch of time down by the border, the Texas and Mexican border, I can kind of draw some from my own experiences down there, the same with the movie Joe.
You definitely approach them different in that you already have these characters to work with and drawn upon. You have to put yourself into their shoes, and try and see who they are and where they come from and what they’ve been through that’s made them the way they are. Then I’ll take some personal experiences along with that as well. That’s probably the only difference.
I’m not sure how much you still enjoy talking about it, but just to touch on the movie Crazy Heart, I just wanted to ask what it was like working with T Bone Burnett? he seems like he’d be an interesting character to work with.
Yeah it was great. I mean you know, T Bone and Stephen Bruton as well, and Jeff Bridges. That whole gang of guys was an amazing group to be around. Not just to work with them, but just to sit around and listen to their stories and you can really learn a lot from those guys if you just sit around and listen.
Just wanted to touch on another your working on, or just finished rather, your wife’s movie A Country Called Home. Just wondering if you could maybe elaborate a little more about that project and your involvement?
Yeah, it’s my wife’s first feature film. She went to film school in London and came out to California, and we met about the same time out there. This is something she’s been working on, and developing, over the past three or four years. She wrote it, and is going to direct it and I’ve been writing a few songs for it. So it’s kind of a small-town texas independent film. But yeah we’re really excited about it.
Did you approach the songs in a similar way to the song you wrote for Joe?
Yeah I mean a little bit, I wrote those songs after reading the script a bunch of times. And sometimes it’s not just about a person or anything particular, but trying to find a song that people when they watch the film, identify with the film and identify with the song as well and see the two together.
And I think I read somewhere that you were looking at scoring the film as well, is that something you could maybe see yourself doing more of in the future?
Yeah, I haven’t actually done any scoring before, so this is going to be my first time to do that. I’m really excited about that. Anything new and inspiring, anything that can expand my knowledge of music, I’m always trying to soak stuff up. You know practice and get better. So I’m looking forward to it.
I was just looking at your US tour dates, you seem to have a pretty intense run on the lead up to Christmas. Like I’m not all that great with American geography but it seems like they’re not leaving you a lot of time to get from place to place.
(Laughs) No they’re not. I’m going to be pretty busy through to the end of the year. So yeah it looks like I’m going to be gone for quite a while.
Do you enjoy the time out on the road? obviously with the way the industry is now it’s a necessary part of the business
The road can be a bit of a love hate relationship sometimes. It’s definitely exciting travelling around and having these experiences. Just the fact that there are people who want to hear the music is enough for me. I feel really lucky that I get to play music for a living and I’m just happy that people want to hear the songs. So I’m happy to get out there and play them for them. But definitely after a while the road wears you out and you start missing home, and family and stuff like that too I obviously miss them. I can be a bit lonely sometimes out there.
Finally one thing I did want to quickly talk about the Mavis Staples tribute as well, that sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun, do you know what you’re going to be playing yet? Do they give you a song to play?
Yeah I’m not sure what they want me to play yet, I know Don Was is putting that together. They usually choose the songs for everybody. I haven’t heard which one they’d like me to take a try at. But I’m really looking forward to it. It’s going to be a great time.
Did you listen to or were you familiar with the Staples Singers when you were growing up?
I didn’t really. I didn’t get turned onto the Staple Singers until a little bit later on. I mean maybe my late teens or something when I first started hearing it. But I didn’t get turned onto it until a bit later on.
I guess one question that does kind of lead on from that, was music was that you were listening to, that got you into music, that got you wanting to pick up the guitar?
You know what some of the stuff I grew up with out there in New Mexico and Texas, it wasn’t like there was an abundance of great radio stations that played good old music. So other than the old pop radio, you just had to go look for stuff. I remember when I was young the first real stuff I’d listen to was through my uncle, he had a bunch of old records, he had stuff like the Stones, Dylan and you know Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and all of that stuff from the 60s and 70s. So that was really the first stuff I got into. And then I got turned on when I was in Texas to guys like Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark and Terry Allen and Joe Ely and those were some big influences when I started actually writing songs and playing.
Awesome. I’m going to leave it. Thanks for taking the time out to chat with me. Enjoy the rest of the tour.
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