Daily Gazette, The (Schenectady, NY)

July 15, 2010

Oryan's melodic structure sets band apart from other groups

Author: BRIAN McELHINEY



When songwriter Ryan Megan and drummer Ryan Schoonmaker first started playing together a few years ago, they had had it with the local music scene in New Paltz.

"I think this goes for most college town music scenes -- you usually get one or the other, either lame, just the crappiest of hippy jam band stuff . . . or like hardcore," Megan said during a recent conference call with Schoonmaker and bassist Paul Moran, who together make up three-fourths of New Paltz rockers Oryan.

"We're all big fans of song structure and songs -- we all come from very different musical backgrounds, but we all like songs. It seemed like nobody was really paying attention to what a song should be."

Something Different

Megan and Schoonmaker started out jamming on some of Megan's songs that he brought with him from his native Iowa, and soon realized they had something quite different from other bands on the local music scene.

"We started playing music that we enjoy playing and listening to, and once we'd gotten a good response, it became readily apparent that we stick out like a sore thumb, in a mostly good way, in pretty much any scenario," Megan said.

"Even though to us it seems very basic and normal, it comes off different than anything else, at least locally."

Since that time, Oryan (pronounced "O-Ryan," after Schoonmaker and Megan) has played throughout the New Paltz area and in New York City, and last year released a five-song EP, titled, appropriately enough, "The EP." Now, the band is setting its sights on the Capital Region, with a show booked at The Dublin Underground on Friday night, along with local rockers and friends of Oryan, Erin Harkes Band.

Previously, the band, also featuring lead guitarist Adam Gosney, had performed at least once at Tess' Lark Tavern before the building was closed due to fire damage.

"We're trying to push hard in the area," Megan said. "We should be a pretty regular presence this summer; we have friends up in that area, and besides New Paltz, it's the next natural place to set as a secondary home for shows. We have a built-in crowd there."

With a live show featuring costumes, characters, props, gadgets and other effects, the band is confident that audiences coming to their shows will be entertained.

"Even if you hate the music, you'll be entertained by the show," he said. "We try to play to the audience. It's not for us. We try to make sure everyone's having a good time."

The now 33-year-old Megan first moved to New Paltz in his mid-20s to work for a post-production house for a TV cooking network. He met Schoonmaker there, and the two still work there together along with Moran.

"We both bonded over Pink Floyd; we're both huge Pink Floyd fans," Megan said.

At this point, the folksier, rootsier material found on "The EP" has for the most part been replaced by new songs that feature a harder, more fully integrated full band sound. The band still performs different versions of EP songs "The Ride" and "Millbrook Needs a Taco Bell," which the band calls its "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

"When I was first playing I did the solo thing in Iowa," Megan said. "I came to the table with hundreds of songs, and Schoon kind of sifted through some of the demos and picked out a couple that he would like to work on, and that's what's on the EP. After we were done with the EP, I started to write songs for the band, having Schoon in my head so to speak, and it sounded very different -- a lot more raucous, rambunctious, less brooding."

The band's influences range from Megan's favorite songwriter, Roger Miller, to Tool (Schoonmaker's favorite), to '90s alternative bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam (Moran). All of these influences come together to create a sound rooted in songwriting traditions, but with elements of metal, classic rock and country, among others, thrown into the mix.

Other Directions

"I really think the varying tastes help push each other in new directions we wouldn't think to go before," Schoonmaker said. "This is who we are, but we write a song that sounds like this, a song after three or four crazy different influences are put in it. The differing opinions on music push us to new boundaries we wouldn't go to."

Megan's lyrics are often of the storytelling variety. One new song, "Varicose Alley," focuses on a man from the Beat era who travels back in time to the Middle Ages, gets sentenced to death, and requests the court to bury his remains where his favorite whorehouse will be built in the future. The band is hoping to have a full-length album recorded by next year.

"I have a very active, if not overactive imagination," Megan said. "I'm very much a little kid still, so it doesn't take much."