Everyone meet Ryan Gazzola, the U2 Marketing major and (non-tortured) artist who’s sliding into the Montreal music scene – and into your <3s - one performance at a time.
Ryan got a head start in the world of music, taking classical piano lessons at the tender age of five, but by 12 years old he knew classic rock was more his vibe. “I was getting tired of playing music that I wouldn’t listen to. You have to understand that at this point in my life I was playing a lot of hockey and the locker room would always be blaring classic rock, so that was the music I was interested in. This ultimately led to me picking up the guitar at 13 years old, but at that time it was more of a hobby than anything.”
Like every great story of one’s love for music, John Mayer played a part in Ryan’s pursuit of taking his then-hobby more seriously. “My mother had told me that I should check out this guy named John Mayer. I kind of brushed it off, but one night I was on YouTube and in the ‘More Videos’ section a video called ‘Gravity (Where the Light Is – Live in LA) – John Mayer’ came up and I watched it out of curiosity more than anything. From that moment on, I knew I wanted to write, play, and perform music for the rest of my life. I was going through a difficult point in my life and I was looking – though I may not have known I was looking – for something to speak to me.”
Pretty intense stuff, eh? For those of you wondering what exactly is Ryan’s musical style, he has eloquently described it as “guitar-driven pop-rock with influences of blues, soul, and folk”. More specifically? “In my music I try to bridge the old and the new. Like what would happen if the playful vocal melodies of Ed Sheeran and the intense, but passionate guitar playing of Jimi Hendrix collided. That being said, I kind of take the Bruno Mars ‘Unorthodox Jukebox’ approach to music in that I refuse to be confined to one genre and I try to write whatever I like rather than what music people think I would write. ” Basically if Ed Sheeran’s voice married Jimi Hendrix’s passion and they listened to a lot of John Mayer, you would get Ryan.
Oftentimes students struggle with wanting to pursue their passions but needing to make sure their degree is of value so they can like, you know, eat. Ryan’s Marketing major has proved valuable, both academically and now professionally. “Marketing certainly has changed the way I think and see myself as a musician. It has taught me to think of myself as ‘Ryan Gazzola Inc.’. Whether I like it or not, myself and every other musicians included, have a brand to build and maintain. Your brand can be a positive thing or a negative thing and the person who is more aware of that, I think, has a better chance of surviving the music business. So with whatever I do now, I’m always thinking of ‘how this would affect my brand’ or ‘does this align with the brand message that I want to convey’.”
And brand himself he has. Ryan recently released his EP “Silently Screaming” on iTunes, and he walked me through the kind of commitment the process requires of musicians. “I had originally decided to record the EP because in order to book bigger shows, I needed more than just a YouTube video recorded in my living room. So I set out to record four original songs at Seratone Studios here in Montreal. That was a difficult time managing everything around me because I had to take a lot of time off school in February 2015, in order to make sure everything was perfect. There’s a lot that goes into making a CD, it’s not just writing and recording the music. It’s coordinating studio time with various musicians, hiring a photographer, a graphic designer, securing digital distribution, registering your songs in order to protect them against copyright infringement, hiring someone to duplicate and create hundreds of physical CDs, and registering with SOCAN. And that’s just in the creation of the EP! Marketing it is a completely different story. So doing that all by myself for the first time with no one to hold my hand was incredibly stressful. But, what made it all worth it was the release day. I had never expected the EP, “Silently Screaming” to actually perform well online. I thought that it would be the perfect thing to sell at shows and build a fan base from that. I never expected it to chart, let alone in the Top 30 of the Canadian Singer-Songwriter Charts on iTunes, and I can only be incredibly grateful and humbled by those who have supported me.” Wow. Hard work, raw talent and dedication does a musician make. Ryan is a living proof that not just anyone with a guitar and a camera can make it big; you have to be fully committed to the lengthy and competitive process.
Ryan’s focus isn’t just on large-scale growth; he also performs within the McGill and Montreal communities, reaching out to those who are interested in collaborating for various performances and events. “In the past few months alone, I’ve played for LiNK, McGill Students for World Vision, F-Word Montreal, the SSMU Musician’s Collective, Jam for Justice, the Market Cooperative, Medlife McGill and more.” The doors continue to open for Ryan. “I live by the policy of playing wherever, whenever because you never know what things can lead to. Playing an open mic in NDG led to me playing Friday afternoons at the NDG Food Depot, which led to me playing at a CBC Radio event and Radio Centre-Ville. ”
As cool as all these experiences have been, the most rewarding part is the feedback from his listeners. “Honestly, this may sound cheesy or cliché as hell, but what sticks out the most to me are the moments after a show or someone messaging me on Facebook telling me that somehow my songwriting has spoken to them. That to me makes this whole crazy journey worth it. It’s that therapy of numbers, you know? Knowing that you’re not the only person in the world who feels scared, broken, alone, or happy and in love. Just recently someone stopped me on the street here in Montreal, saying that they saw me perform at the Calgary Stampede and had been listening to my music ever since. All my life I’ve been the quiet kid in the back of the classroom so to be able to express myself through music is truly the most rewarding thing I’ve ever known. It’s the little things that build up to a pretty cool picture, sometimes you just have to step back to actually see it.”
Nice guy, right? I can attest to the fact that he has a great voice too, and you should check him out at any of the following locations for some great tunes. “You can find me at my website at www.RyanGazzola.com, my Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/RyanGazzolaMusic and any other social media platform. You can also listen to my music on iTunes, Spotify, and most music streaming platforms. My sophomore EP is coming out sometime this summer so be on the lookout for that!”
Wanna see this guy IRL? “I am also playing a show on March 10th, partnering with Jam for Justice at Le Cagibi. Tickets are $10 and it’s bound to be a fun night.”
Photos obtained from Interviewee