Artist Interview: Ryan Lindsey of Broncho
Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
Photo by Bryon Helm
Broncho’s Ryan Lindsey can’t believe it’s been seven years since the band’s last album. Natural Pleasure, released this past April, masterfully expands beyond the confines of dream pop to keep listeners on their toes. Two to three years of COVID collapsed into a blip, Lindsey became a father, and soon enough, over half a decade had passed. In the long-awaited followup to Bad Behavior, the Oklahoma four-piece continues to reinvent the wheel with unpredictable soundscapes and immersive textures.
Contextualize the scene in Norman and Tulsa. How do you explain what is so special about this pocket of the country to someone who’s never been there?
I grew up in a college town. Anytime I go to a college town, I immediately feel at home in a lot of ways because there is a cross section of people from all over the world whether it be students, professors, or whatever.
So there is something different that happens in those cities. For whatever reason I’ve spent most of my life in those places. I think those bring a good mix of minds together that seems to produce at least an interesting hang.
I live in Tulsa now. I’ve always felt like I was gonna live in Tulsa ’cause my parents grew up here and I’ve got family here. It’s like a big college town. There’s a college here, but there’s also a big city… It’s always felt like home to me here. Since I do travel for music, it’s nice to go back to less traffic, you know?
I don’t know if this is necessarily a question that one person can answer, but how do you build a scene that outlasts college student turnover?
It’s weird because when I go back to Norman, it’s different than it was when I was there, but even while I was there, it changed a few times. There was one scene on its way out as I was on my way in. I attached myself to a lot of those people that were in the previous scene and they helped bridge the gap because they were around, wanted to see shows, and still be involved.
It’s nice that we’re talking about it. You’re like my therapist for the different scenes, because I’m able to think about it. I haven’t thought about it much.
There were some people that bridged the gap between the scene before me, to me. Then maybe I was that for a few people younger than me. Now I’ve been gone from Norman long enough, I don’t even know who’s here. Tulsa has a steadier scene because people aren’t moving outta here as much as they were.
The college challenge is a lot of quicker turnover. Of these people that have been around in the scene here for a while, it’s nice to know those people still see them play.
Who are your favorite local bands?
Sports are definitely one of my faves all time. They’re good buddies. Wild Dorado too, and they’re touring a ton now.
Congrats on the new album! Besides becoming a parent, what did you glean from living in the real world that influenced your album?
My grandma would always answer this question when people would ask me what I’m doing. She could tell that I didn’t know how to answer it, and she would say, “he’s collecting.” Ever since she stuck up for me and explained what I’m going through when I didn’t know how, I can relax in the in-between moments when I’m not putting out a record or playing shows
I can relax and remember the collection is a huge part of whatever is to come next and to not worry about exactly what I’m doing. Just relax in life and collect. I think there was a lot of that going on.
There was COVID and that was a real easy way to burn a few years and collect. When I think, when I hear it’s been seven years, that always catches me off guard because those years turned into one year or something. It blew by in a weird way, now that I look back on it. Does that make any sense?
For sure. You can’t progress as an artist unless you step away and see how everyone else lives.
I’m pretty entrenched in several different halves of society. Having family around, and friends that do all kinds of different things. It helps me in those moments of seeing what other people are up to, being curious and asking questions like, “what are you doing?”
I can learn a lot from simple stuff like that, things that have nothing to do with what I do . I think there’s a lot of philosophy to be learned in different avenues of life because ultimately we’re all looking for similar things.
Early on in COVID, a friend of mine gave me their password for Masterclass. There was a Masterclass craze for a second. A bunch of videos came out and I really connected with so many things that had nothing to do with music.
The astronaut there was great. He was very creative in the way he solved problems. I kind of view touring a little bit like you’re in the International Space Station, you gotta figure it out. There’s been training, but you also have to figure out on the fly how to solve your immediate problems. I really connected with that. There’s also an architect, Frank Gehry. His was great. I really connected with his process and the way he thinks about creatively solving problems.
Something stood out to me about Natural Pleasure is how soft and hazy it is compared to Bad Behavior, which is a little punchier. What do you think inspired the shift?
I think it was just probably time. It goes for every record. Whatever songs are in my mind, I’m trying to get them out, and record them. The goal is usually, “how do I make sense of this specific idea?” When I’m trying to solve that problem it’s really only about, “how does this song feel best to me right now?”
During that process, that can change from the beginning of its recording to the end. Maybe through there, I find a version to hone in on. It’s about giving each song their best version to me at that moment.
You wrote, “You Got Me” before you even found out you were having kids, and the lyrics focus so much on parenthood. What was going through your mind then, and how do you think that song has taken on a life of its own post-release, post-parenthood?
Maybe I knew somewhere inside of me something was feeding me. It’s hard to say where any of these ideas come from because I like for them to just happen. So being open to the universe and just playing, I try not to really force an idea. I like to let whatever appear. That’s the way that one happened.
It happened so fast the only thing I could think of logically in the moment was we have cats, and I love them like they were my children. I thought the song had to be about my cats, then I quickly found out that it maybe was about a kid that was on its way. Now I think it can be about anything that shares a mother with me. It’s about my kids, it’s about my cats., It’s about, future kids? I don’t know. None of it’s planned, it just happens.
Are there any other songs on Natural Pleasure that took on a new meaning after they were released?
Yeah, and I find new meaning in old songs, too. I can’t think of anything specific at this moment, but there’s been times on tour where we’re playing some of these old songs and I’ll think about the lyrics and how they change in my mind. It hits me sometimes where I’m like, “oh, I could completely say this is about this thing now in my life.”
Other songs on the record were around the same time. They come from the same spirit, the same emotion. I was in my garage during COVID and having all the time in the world. We had been touring so much leading up to that point. I was so ready to stay home. I was really able to relax in the fact that I know I don’t have to go anywhere and actually, I can’t go anywhere. It kept me in that zone mentally.
What was your favorite, instrument, texture, or effect you used on the album?
I love chorus pedals on my guitars and it was no different with this record. This is definitely the first record we had acoustic. There might have been some other random songs where we would play acoustic over something just to give it a thicker layer, but nothing I can think of specifically.
This was really the first record where it was like, I’m playing acoustic on this song. That’s new for sure. But I love the chorus on my guitar and I like reverb and a little slap delay. That’s where I live. Those things are on the whole time. I have one pedal I’ll turn on and off, and that makes things go insane or not insane. That’s my two vibes live.
You’ve already started touring for Natural Pleasure. Was there anything you experimented with on tour that you wish made it onto the album?
Not necessarily. I’m in a better place now. Previously when I got to tour after a record, I would try to emulate the record as much as possible, and that was always really hard. And now that I’ve given that up and relaxed into just playing the songs, I think I’m actually getting closer to emulating the record.
Maybe the spirit of that song comes through a little quicker than me trying to think hard about, “how do we pull this off the record?” And more, “just play the song.” It usually takes me a while on a new record to play the songs, but then the older songs feel better because we’ve played ’em a million times.
It definitely helped get the new record to a good place quicker, with being able to relax into the simplest version of it. Maybe I’ll know more after a few rounds of touring, but currently I’m focusing on doing the simple stuff.
“Original Guilt” predated the album and it’s all about inheriting this sense of guilt based on the part of the country you were born in. What about this album made this song a good fit for it?
I just felt like previous records where it had been in the mix, for whatever reason, it just didn’t end up. It’s almost like we already had another version of that song somewhere. They already felt like everything else.
On this record, that song was already there. We didn’t have to do much to it. I think we just ran it through the same gear that we were running everything else through to give it a similar filter. I think we finally caught up with that song. To me, that song feels really good on this record. This record needs that song on it more than the other records needed it.
Who are your mentors?
For guitar, I would have to say, this is a previous band I was in, called Starlight Mints. Allan Vest was the lead singer and guitar player. He taught me how to play electric in the way that I am now because I had to play guitar and I wasn’t an electric guitar player at that point. I kind of taught myself through watching my brothers play ’cause they had guitars, but I ended up playing bass in their band ’cause they needed a bass player. I started really playing bass and then we had a piano, so I would play that. An acoustic guitar was always around, but electric guitar is such a different animal. It took me a while to figure out what that is. Allan really helped me through playing with him and touring for so long. He’s a great mentor for me on guitar.
Another guy in that band, Andy Nunez, the drummer. I worked for him at a club in Norman for a long time called Opolis. He’s my mentor when it comes to putting the whole thing together. He would make art for whatever shows they were doing. I remember the first time I saw Spoon was at that little club in Norman. He was always doing show posters then I started working there, running sound and whatever job needed. I would be a Swiss Army knife and he taught me the ropes. I really credit him with a lot of that. All my uncles play guitar too. My uncle Kelly has played in a reggae band since I was a baby, and I’ve been seeing him play forever. He’s just a great guitarist and was a big influence on where I am now.
Last question I have is, what kind of music do you want to raise your kids on?
All music. I really was raised on kind of everything. If it’s a hit, it’s a hit. If it’s classical and it’s a hit, I will listen to it. A hit to me is whatever makes me feel good. We play a lot of music for them and they get into all kinds of stuff. “We Will Rock You” by Queen was our oldest son’s favorite song for a long time. He wanted to hear it constantly. And “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the Muppets version. I don’t know if you’ve ever watched the Muppets version. It’s so good. That was his first favorite song.
Our youngest dances to everything. If it feels good, he dances. Any song I think of that I really get into, I’ll play for them at different moments. They tend to react positively, but sometimes he is just like, “no, ‘We Will Rock You.'” So then I’m like, “alright, let’s go back to Queen.”
Natural Pleasure is out now.
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Giliann Karon
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