Ryan Snyder Talks Beginnings, New Music and What’s to Come

There’s many hotspots for music scenes. Tennessee has country, Oklahoma has Red Dirt, LA has rock… you can go on forever. One melting pot region of this great country (probably the entire planet as well) is the state of Ohio. You never know what you’re going to get in the Buckeye State, but one thing you’ll get for certain is solid music. Ryan Snyder, born in Chardon, is just one example.

Snyder is a killer guitarist and has some fun, energetic solo songs that will be blowing up in the coming years.

“I first started off on the piano around nine or ten. Then in sixth grade, I saw all the ‘cool’ kids playing guitar and I wanted to fit in- which I didn’t,” Snyder remembers. “But yeah, I started around twelve years old playing guitar and had my first show when I was fourteen at Sawyer Point with Blues In The Schools, which is part of the Cincy Blues Society.”

Snyder looks up to rock icons such as Slash, Aerosmith and Green Day.

“Records like Appetite for Destruction and American Idiot really inspired me to be like, ‘I want to write fuckin’ bangers like these guys’, so I started writing songs in 2011,” he says, “My process of writing songs is always different. I could think of a melody first, and then write music to it, but the majority of the time I’ll write the riff and then work around that. Lyrics come last.”

A big step that some new artists take is the move to Nashville. It’s a new place, new people and an all-around new culture. It can be hard, and Snyder’s experience was no different than most.

“It was very hard. I didn’t know anybody. But I forced myself to go out, network and shake hands. That’s important in this industry- really any industry to be honest. It’s a friendly town to a degree, but it can be very cut throat.”

Credit: Daniel Shippey

One night, Snyder needed a drummer to fill in for one of his sets on broadway, so he met Kevin Keith through a mutual friend. They clicked instantly and they both played for a while before bringing on singer Shannon Sperl.

“We all knew we had a good vibe, so after an early morning shift we went to lunch and decided to be a band. We threw a few names around, but our buddy, John Frisch, thought of the name ‘Too Hot For Leather’,” he remembers. “It was a joke at first because it was crazy hot outside and we were talking Van Halen, so he just blurred that out.”

Snyder ended up getting the solo project bug, where he really wanted to shine.

“I used to be a hired gun for a bit after The Borderline Something [Snyder’s old Northern Kentucky band] broke up. I thought to myself, ‘ if these guys can go off and have a solo career, why can’t I?’,” he recalls, “I feel like I have a very inspiring story to tell through my music and I want to share it with people. Plus, when you’re a solo artist, you’re the boss. I enjoy working for myself.”

Snyder has been going at it with his work for a while, releasing 2019’s Some Things Never Change, 2020’s Open Your Eyes, and most recently his EP, Lights On. The title track is just a fun, electric listen with some clever and hilarious lyrics.

Lights On is about the time when I was eighteen and I hooked up with a ‘MILF’. She was forty-two. The memory has always been in my head because it was such a beautiful experience. It sounds stupid when I say that, but you weren’t there,” he laughs. “I’ve always wanted to write a song and tell the story about it. I think of it as spreading the word for MILF awareness. Cougars just know what they want and they get right to the point.”

Ryan Snyder is quite the shredder and has some straight up fun music, so do yourself a favor and listen, follow and show your support!

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Cover Photo by Rustic Road Images.

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