YOUR AD HERE »

Music interview: Serena Ryder answers 7 questions

Charlie Own
Vail, CO Colorado
Indie rocker plays Beaver Creek Monday night
ALL |

Serena Ryder speaks with the flippant, self-assured tones of somebody who knows what she’s doing. And she does. At 25, the indie-folk rocker is in the midst of touring Canada and America, making appearances at the first-ever Mile High Music Festival last weekend in Denver and tonight in Beaver Creek.

The Vail Daily caught up with Ryder before the American leg of her tour kicked off.

Serena Ryder: It’s perpetual. It’s pretty perpetual. It’s kind of more of like a lifestyle than a tour, I think. You know, because unless I’m recording a record ” which I’m finished (with the record) and I’m in love with it, and I’m so excited about it ” unless I’m recording or writing, I’m usually on my way to play a show. So it’s great, I love this lifestyle, I’m actually pretty blessed to be doing this. It’s pretty awesome.



SR: All of the songs that I wrote were written because I experienced something that moved me enough to feel like I had to express it in a song, but, at the same times in the songs I would definitely say that they’re definitely (open) to interpretation. My view and everything in the song istrue, but it’s true in the way that I was able to articulate it how I see it.

SR: I don’t embrace that at all. I think that’s a bunch of B.S. Because people are constantly trying to be so original and so “the only one,” and that’s actually kind of what makes them sound like crap, you know, trying to just be something that no one else has heard before ” the new something. So you know what? Everything exists, everything has always existed, and there’s never going to be anything that hasn’t already existed. Even the Beatles have said, “There’s nothing you can sing that can’t be sung, nothing you can do that can’t be done.” There’s just different ways of doing things. To me it’s really just about me embracing my influences and honoring where I’ve come from and who I’ve learned from, be it consciously or unconsciously. Like when someone compares me to another musician, I think that’s great.

Support Local Journalism



SR: Well, I never had any choice. I honestly have an amazing premise in music and in my blood and in my heart growing up and you know in my genes as well. Sometimes it depends on what your genes are like but genetic history plays a big part. That’s totally ingrained in what I do. A lot of my family members are musicians, so it was always there for me ever since I was a little kid.

SR: No. I feel very blessed by it, for sure, but I also realize that basically if you believe something, it’s in your reality and it’s pretty much true.

SR: There’s no science, and there’s no way of me describing how a song comes about because it’s different every time. It comes to you and you grab it, and you say thanks, and you give it back to the ether.

SR: Expect nothing, receive everything. I have no idea. I’m really proud of it. I think it’s got a lot of energy in it and a lot of truth to it . It’s a very honest, unbridled record, and it seems like a pretty non-biased kind of record to me.

High Life Writer Charlie Owen can be reached at 970-748-2939 or cowen@vaildaily.com.


Support Local Journalism