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A Musical Life: Ryan McGinnis

Courtesy Ryan McGinnis

Ryan McGinnis is a North Carolinian transplanted to Wichita, where he leads The McGinnis Project. The band will release its album, Big Night Sky, later this year.

“I had taken a long hiatus from music and you can really do that. Music pulls you back.

We’re not gentle singer-songwriters. Don’t come expecting gentle background music to sip wine by. Right before we play we’re always talking to each other. We turn up the PA and say, ‘This is a rock show!’ Even though we’re not a rock band, we bring the energy and the intensity you would expect.

Songwriting is such an abstract thing for me. I think a lot of my stuff comes from real-world experience. I might take something that happened in real life and then take artistic license with it and abstract a little bit. I think relationships and I think real life and stuff like that is really what connects with people. It might just take a concept or a thought or a moment and just be like, ‘Wow, this is cool! How can I weave this into a song?’”

Jedd Beaudoin is host/producer of the nationally syndicated program Strange Currency. He created and host the podcast Into Music, which examines musical mentorship and creative approaches to the composition, recording and performance of songs. As a music journalist, his work has appeared in PopMatters, Vox, No Depression and Keyboard Magazine.