Ryan Montbleau Finds Patience On Friday

SB: Does the band play all of the songs from Patience on Friday live?

RM: I’d say we’ve probably played everything at some point, but there are definitely some songs that we haven’t played much. We’re planning on playing more of those tunes this month during our release tour.

SB: Why did you decide to split How Many Times into four different parts?

RM: We originally recorded it all as one. It’s really just an a cappella tune. We hired this guy Karl Berger, who did the strings on Jeff Buckley’s Grace. He wrote the string arrangements, conducted the strings, and did everything for three of the songs on the discs. One of the tunes was How Many Times. How Many Times is just me singing with some strings on it. I did have a vision for this album of it starting with that song and ending with Shine On, which it does.

I wanted to start the album with it, but the piece as a whole is a bit dark to start the album with. I had this crazy idea when we going in for mixing that it would work better if I split it up into four parts. The first two verses and chorus are the first track. Then the bridge is part three, and the last verse, last chorus and outro is part four. It works really well to setup the themes of the album. It was a really good way to tie everything together, and it worked even better by having it be interludes. We’re still gonna make the whole song available for download.

SB: With so many songs on the album dealing with dark issues, did you purposely try to add any lighthearted songs to break it up?

RM: I don’t think the album’s completely dark. There are some darker themes dealing with some serious subjects, as far as it’s dedicated to our friend who passed away [the album is dedicated to memory of the band’s good friend and backup drummer Denis Babin]. There are some themes of loss on the album in terms of losing a loved one or a broken relationship.

We didn’t want to make a completely dark album, and I really don’t think we did. There are some heavy topics, but there are also songs about growing up and moving on. That’s why I called it Patience on Friday, because patience is something you kinda have to learn. It’s a line from Love and Love Lost: “lost like patience on Friday.” Most people lose their patience on Friday, and they go out and get hammered. A lot of songs are about learning how to move on and learning patience. That being said it’s still Friday, so we’re still having some fun. There are still songs like Eggs that are light hearted.

SB: You entered the studio and started tracking with a producer that didn’t quite work out. Did you get a second producer, or did you produce the record yourselves?

RM: We produced it all on our own with Chris Bittner. Chris was the engineer [at Applewood Studios] and he’s amazing and he knows us pretty well. He didn’t officially produce it, but he just helped us in a respectful way. He has great ears, and just kinda knows what we want.

SB: Once you made the decision to forego the producer and just work with Chris, how long did it take you to record and mix the album?

RM: We didn’t really lose any time with the producer issues. We were still tracking. We started recording during a week and a half in March, and then maybe another 10 days in June, and then got back in July and the end of August, so it was all mixed and done by the end of August. I’m not sure how many days total we spent in there, but it was over the course of about six months when we weren’t on the road.

Photo by Holliday

SB: How has the band’s sound changed since One Fine Color?

RM: We’ve got a ton of gigs under our belts, and we are more comfortable with each other. A lot of the songs on the first album are songs I had written, and had been playing solo for a while before I brought them to the band. There weren’t many that I wrote with the band in mind. I would say more of this album was written with the band in mind. I feel we are all so much more comfortable with each other.

SB: Are there special guests on the album?

RM: Oh man, more than I even realized! I was listing all of the musicians who helped us for the liner notes, and I was blown away by the number of people who helped us. There are over 20 musicians who played on the album with us.

SB: Can you name a few?

RM: Karl Berger, the guy who did the strings, was a major guest that we hired to arrange the strings, and he conducted a full string quartet that came up from New York City.

We had Buddy Cage from New Riders play with us on pedal steel for a track. We got Bob Reynolds on sax for a song, he played with Jonah Smith for a while and he’s on tour with John Mayer. It ended up being a bunch of sit-ins. Our friend Mike Feingold, who played with Queen Latifiah, The Roots and Jay-Z adds some guitar as well.

SB: You just finished a tour with Martin Sexton, a guy you list as one of your biggest inspirations, how did that go?

RM: Oh my god, It was better than I ever could have imagined. I still can’t even believe how it all worked out. By the end he was doing this thing, where we encored by coming out with them all around one microphone and played Folsom Prison Blues. It was so much fun. They had me stay on their tour bus the last couple of nights, and they were all really so cool to us. I think we’re gonna be doing some more stuff in the future.

It was really a trip, because we all look up to the guy. We would sit on the side of the stage and watch him every night, and we’d get blown away every night.

SB: Congratulations on the Red Sox winning the AL East. what do you think of the Red Sox chances goin’ into the playoffs?

RM: I think there great. They have the pitching to do it. Honestly, I think their chances are really good.

Thanks to Ryan for checking in from Fargo. The Ryan Montbleau Band will be spending the rest of the year on the road, so be sure to check them out when they come to your town. Patience on Friday is available today through the band’s website.

• Patience on Friday MP3s: Maybe Today and This
• Previously on HT: Ryan Montbleau Band: Ready For The Big Time and HT Baseball Preview: Ryan Montbleau’s Red Sox