Sara: For the record state your name and what you do in This Providence.
Ryan: My name is Ryan and I play drums.

Sara: What would you change about the current music scene?
Ryan: Oh man, I’d probably if I could I would change how many band sound the same. Someone has a formula that works and then you got a thousand other bands trying to copy it. They’re not trying to be original or something different and new. Once they see something successful they try to copy that pattern.

Sara: So you have a new CD coming out soon what should fans expect from that?
Ryan: I would say actually to go into without having expectations. It’s not a lot like the last record although there are one or two songs that are similar but it’s really all over the map. There is some stuff that sounds kinda like The Beatles to The Faint to Gatsby’s American Dream to Saves The Day so it’s all over the map. So kinda go into with an open mind and not have these preconceived ideas of what you want it to sound like.

Sara: So is that how it’s going to be different from your other records?
Ryan: Yeah, this sounds really cliché because almost all bands say this when they get to a second or third record but our sound has really matured. It’s been like two years since we’ve come out with a CD so we’ve done a lot of growing up. We wanted to make an album that appealed to more people instead of just teenagers. Where pretty soon our parents will be able to listened to it and won’t be like ‘Oh it’s too loud turn it down’ and be like ‘Oh this is a good I like it’

Sara: So how is it difficult to do that? When you are writing an album for your current fans so they’ll still like it but you want to attract new people.
Ryan: We kept that in our minds when we writing it. We got about half way through and where like ‘Ohhhh these songs we’ve written so far aren’t anything like our old CD how our we going to keep our old fans and make new ones’ that’s where we went back to writing a couple songs that were really similar. We actually have a song that’s like a continuous of the last track of our old CD “Our Flag Is White.” It’s like the second movement, it’s like the same concept of the song but from a different point of view. So we kind of have a little bit of ties for both CDs for the older fans.

Sara: What’s the most interesting part about the new CD?
Ryan: I probably would say the most interesting part is would probably be two factors. We have a song that really sounds a lot like The Beatles and so I think for a lot of people at first it’s going to really catch them off guard but at the same time I think it’s going to grow on them. And then at the same time there are also some real dancey songs like electronica type things. I mean it’s a really different but pretty good.

Sara: Do you try to do different things with each release?
Ryan: Well this being, this is our first release with this line up and so I mean we just try to be ourselves and make music that we feel comfortable and satisfied with. Dan writes all the lyrics a lot about he is going through with people, his spiritual life, and all this different stuff.

Sara: What are you plans after the release?
Ryan: Touring, we are just going to tour our butts off for as long as we can and press this album.

Sara: Being on a label with band that are getting fairly popular right now do you think people are going to assume things about This Providence?
Ryan: Yeah, we’ve already started to get some of that. Some more with our dancey songs people are like ‘Oh that sounds just like Panic! At The Disco’ where it’s like to us we don’t think it sounds like them at all but just because we are on the same label as them and it has kinda a dancey feel to it people automatically associated it with them. Which I mean in a sense we are okay with, if they like Panic! At The Disco and they think we sound like that then they are going to listen to but at the same time we don’t want to be as ‘oh this is another Panic! At The Disco band. We’re not.

Sara: A lot of your songs are fairly spiritual what are some of the hardest things about being a band that writes songs about God?
Ryan: That’s actually a really good question because we have a song on our new CD called “…But What Will They Say” and that’s a song about that. It’s kinda like us saying you know we wrote these songs that kinda have these intense in your face lyrics that are going to be kinda confrontational and so it’s really like how are people going to receive that, how are people going to react to that. Are they going to like it, are they going to not like it. You can’t please everyone. There is always going to be that little bit of gossip chit chat or whatever we feel comfortable about it because we feel it’s important to share what we have to say those people. How they want to take it, how they take it hopefully they will listen to it and take it in to consideration and it hopefully will better themselves from listening to it.

Sara: n that are there people that will write you off just because your music is spiritual?
Ryan: Yeah, we’ve gotten some of that too. We had, on our last CD we say “Jesus” once and a mom of a fan listened to it and said well they say Jesus and automatically starts label things pulling things, it’s going to happen you can’t avoid it because we’re not going to try and avoid everything that someone says to us.

Sara: What’s the most compelling thing about music?
Ryan: The most compelling thing?
Sara:Yeah
Ryan: I would say the most compelling thing for me is when I go to a show and I can sit there and I can listen to the music and I know the lyrics, for me Paramore I listen closely a lot I know what the meanings of their songs are about and on top of that they put on a great show so when you have all those factors coming together, when it can hit you and you can feel it on the inside and it makes you happy inside and brings a smile to your face when you listen to it I think that’s the best part.

Sara: When did you decide to play music for the rest of your life?
Ryan: Oh man, I’ve been playing, my whole family is really musical my mom plays piano, my dad plays the bass, my sister plays the piano I’ve been taking lessons since I was like four and I’ve always been in or around music, probably my Sophomore or Junior year of high school was when I decided I wanted to go to school for music so I started doing that after I graduated high school but once I got the opportunity to be in this band why pay money and go to classes when so I can spend the rest of my life doing music when I can do it right now. I mean it’s so awesome going around the country doing something that I love to do and not spend as much money doing it.

Sara: What advice do you have for the other bands right now?
Ryan: On the tour or?
Sara: Just in general.
Ryan: Keep doing what you want to do just be yourselves don’t try and like I said earlier copy other bands. You can draw influence, we take tons of influence from some other bands that we look up to. Don’t try to follow the same formula as other bands just be yourself I think more people will like you that way. Take Panic! At The Disco there’s not another band out there that’s doing what they are doing and look at how successful they are. If you just follow your heart and do what you do best.

Sara: So you meet a magic genie on the street and you are granted thee wishes what are your three wishes?
Ryan: Oh man, that we sell a lot of album, that we just be able to keep focus on the real mean of what we are doing this for instead of being famous and getting lots of money and stuff like that and I don’t know find my soul mate.

Sara: Do you have a really good joke that you’ve heard in your lifetime?
Ryan: I heard this one the other it was a peanut was walking down the road and he was assaulted.
Sara: That’s my voicemail!
Ryan: Is it?
Sara: Yeah it’s like the best joke ever.
Ryan: Yeah I know it was so funny my dad’s best friend told it to me and I laughed even though it was really corny.
Sara: Yeah that’s so my voicemail I love that joke.
Ryan: That’s awesome.

Sara: Do you have anything to say to the World Wide Web?
Ryan: Buy our album September 12th.