Kat Harlton
Lead Photo: Henry Dowling
Adult contemporary-pop singer-songwriter Steven Ryan released his extended album Life, Love & Everything After on March 8th via Canary Minor Music / Indie Pool and all streaming services.
Produced by Steven Ryan, Life, Love & Everything After was released last September, including an incredible collection of 15 diverse tracks. The extended edition of the album will feature 5 additional songs that explore themes of life, love, loss and mental health.
Steven continues to make strides to emotionally connect with as many individuals as possible through his music, as displayed in new tracks “Why Do I Do This,” “I Could See It In Your Eyes,” “Save Myself,” and “The End”. Also included on the extended album is the recently released, current radio single “With You”. .
Hailing from Paris, ON, Steven captivates listeners with his honest lyrical style and emotionally charged vocal performances. His journey began with the release of his 2014 debut album Take My Hand, produced by JUNO Award-winning Dan Brodbeck (Dolores O’riordan, Landon Pigg).
Since then, Steven has been steadily making a name for himself with a growing social presence and listenership reaching far beyond the borders of his home country. He has achieved viral success on YouTube with over 1.5 million views and accumulated over 6.7 million streams to date.
In 2023, he embarked on a coast-to-coast Canadian Tour, which included several successfully sold-out shows, allowing him to showcase his latest music and entertain audiences all over the country. He has shared stages with Canadian icons such as The Trews, Marianas Trench, and David Usher and been invited to participate in multiple industry songwriting camps across Canada. Steven has also been commissioned to write songs for renowned businesses such as Flipp, Desjardins and Dr. Tom Deans, and worked on multiple tracks for artists including Craig Cardiff, John Muirhead, Katherine Fischer and Chandler Berardi.
I had the opportunity to chat with Steven about his musical journey, his new extended album and what’s next.
Kat: Can you share with us a bit about yourself and your music journey so far?
Steven: Definitely! I’m a singer-songwriter from Paris, Ontario Canada. I’ve gone from my first commercial release in 2014 and playing over 100 bar shows every year to my 3rd full length studio album and a coast-coast Canadian tour. After the release of my album in 2014 due to some circumstances which were out of my control at the time I found myself not releasing music full time again until 2020. It felt like an insurmountable thing to do starting all over again from what seemed like back at the beginning. But it gave me an opportunity at releasing music I felt was true to myself without pressure. And here I am a few years later releasing the best music I’ve ever made and releasing it to an amazing and supportive fan base.
Kat: Can you talk about the inspiration behind your extended album Life, Love & Everything After?
Steven: The inspiration behind the extended album much like the initial release is the universal concepts of Life, Love and Loss represented by “Everything After” in the title. These are some of the most complicated at some times and simple at other times concepts that every person experiences. Every song on the album fits into one of those three categories and I felt not only like the concepts were so rich and deserved to be explored with additional songs. I am also just of the mindset that music is meant to be heard not stored on a computer never to see the light of day.
Kat: What do you hope fans take away from the album?
Steven: The main thing I hope listeners take away from the album is the sense that they’re not alone in whatever they’re going through. This album includes a lot of personal struggles and triumphs and I just hope when people listen to the songs if they’re experiencing similar things that they connect with the music and it can be there for them.
Kat: What do you find is the most challenging part of your creative process?
Steven: The most challenging part of the creative process for me is allowing myself to be true to myself. Sometimes as writers we put so much of ourselves into songs that it becomes scary to know those words will be out in the world for everyone to hear. It can be tempting to dull things down or leave important parts out in fear of what people will think when they listen to the music. But I think one of the biggest contributions a singer-songwriter can give to the world is when they let all of those scary parts out and leave them in the songs.
Kat: What has been a career highlight for you so far?
Steven: As much as I’ve had some crazy cool things happen from playing shows with iconic bands to having artists sing songs I wrote that I couldn’t imagine in my wildest dreams. My answer has changed a lot in the last few years. During the time where playing live wasn’t an option I started growing online and the thousands of messages and comments I’ve received about my music helping people and or connecting with people is the best thing I could ask for and made me realize I’m in the right place and I’ve always been in the right place.
Kat: What have you learned along the way? What would you would like to share with other aspiring artists and creators?
Steven: Don’t be too precious with releasing music. Definitely still be intentional and don’t release things you think are outright bad. But in my opinion music is meant to connect with and help people and music can’t help or connect with people sitting on your hard drive. I spent years working with different people and crafting what was going to be a big release that never came to fruition. And the best thing I ever did was just start getting music back out there.
Kat: What else can fans expect from you for the balance of 2024?
Steven: They can for sure expect to see the tour dates start hitting the calendar. I’m working hard on bringing the music and live performance digitally to the places I’m not able to physically go at the moment. And lastly even with the new album recently coming out you can never count out the possibility of more music if it feels right.
Connect With Steven
Instagram: @StevenRyanMusic
Facebook: /StevenRyanMusic
Twitter: @StevenRyanMusic