Ra Impression. Lew and Adele finally return home. But Lew immediately leaves to work in the studio for two full days on a quote unquote project. He invites Ryan Jewell, percussionist extraordinaire, to participate.
This week on Ra Impression, Lew and Adele talk to Ryan. Enjoy. Welcome to Ra Impression with Lew Barlow and Adele Barlow. Today we have a very special guest, Ryan Jewell.
Say hi Ryan. Hi Ryan. Who are you Ryan? Why are you here?
I mean, I have no idea. Except for the secret part. What brings you to the planet earth? To planet earth?
I don't know. I just showed up. I had nothing to do with it. Just a bright light.
You were like a care bear sliding down a rainbow. Yeah, I didn't ask for this. I'm glad I'm here. But I just wasn't, I didn't plan it.
I don't know. Yeah. You know what it turns out? No one does.
Ryan has slid down a rainbow. I said no one plans to be here. I guess it's true no one does plan to be here. Sometimes some parents plan for you here.
Some don't. We're all here regardless. The reason Ryan is here in Greenfield, Massachusetts is because we worked on a project together over the last two days. Yeah.
Super cool secret project. Yeah. I finally got to play music with Ryan Jewell. Ryan Jewell.
Let's say his name again. Ryan Jewell. Ryan Jewell from Riley Walker's Band. He plays drums with Riley Walker, a very talented musician.
Open many, many shows. We've toured together quite a bit. Yeah. Actually over the last few years.
Yeah. I'm sorry. A very talented artist. I'm sorry.
But I'm sorry. Ryan is like a talent and subtlety and your ear you seem to listen not only in a musical sense. You also seem to listen to people. I noticed.
That's something I noticed. I noticed that too. Wow. I haven't noticed that.
What'd you say? I'm sorry. Are you talking? I'm just funny.
And he's a comedian. He is like a he's not you're not a father in the literal sense. No. But you do have really good dad jokes.
I'm a father of city jokes. Yeah. You're dad jokes are built in. You can say fucking any god damn fucking thing you want.
Can I also call you a multi-instrumentalist? Sure. I like that really. That's fun to say.
It's a hyphenated word. Those are cool. It's a multi-instrumentalist. I think it's hyphenated, isn't it?
It is now. It is now. Do you have a dictionary? It will be for Evernmoor.
We're so happy to have you here, Ryan. And welcome to your actually our very first in-house house guest. We've recorded in person with Ben Lee and Ioni Skye for their podcast. We were in there, there, there.
No. Ryan is now in my lair, which makes me a little nervous. But the good thing is I haven't been here for like three weeks. So I don't think my funk is in here right now.
No, it's not funky at all. Oh my god. Yeah. In studio, male funk.
You actually stink right now. I do stink. I just smelled you when you lifted your arm up. Yeah.
It's summer. It's like I, that's just a given for eight months out of the year. Well, here's a fun talk about Ryan Jule. He showers every day.
Aw. Thanks, Lucas. Guess who does not shower every day? Adele, do you want to take a guess?
Blue Barlow. That's right. I do not know it. I can smell the, the result of that choice right now on my little chair here.
Wow, he's staying. Well, yeah, Ryan, I noticed you shower every day. And I was thrilled. I'm not going to lie.
I was thrilled. And there was not like water all over the floor. No, it was almost as if he never even entered the bathroom. It was like completely clean.
Yeah, who leaves a lot of water on the floor? Blue Barlow. That's right. He literally, I mean, I don't know how this is.
I don't actually know how it's possible. But when, because I've really tried to identify how this happens. So when Lou leaves the shower, it's as if he almost like sweeps the water with him, you know, like waving his arms around like, get out of the shower. Water, let's just splash everywhere.
There's a door on the, you know, the right. Yeah. There is. There is.
Or a shower curtain, you know, that doesn't seem to, I don't know. It occurs after the shower. But he also will often get out and use the bathroom or rummage through the cabinet, like in mid-shower. And then I can see his feet pattern.
It's shower. I know. Who is this animal? I like going through cabinets, even my own.
Even though I know everything that's said, I will just get an impulse while I'm in the shower to look in the medicine cabinet. You truly do. And I actually, it's we've been together for so long. And I still am amazed by we know what is in that cabinet.
You guys, we have like one main bathroom with like a little. Closely open cabinets. Literally every night when I get up around two in the morning to pee, go to that bathroom, the door's open to the cabinet. And I'm like, God, Jesus, why?
Again, again. I'll wake up in the middle of the night to urinate. And I will walk into the bathroom and open the cabinet. Oh, yeah.
What are you trying to do? It's running in there. It's all the same stuff, pretty much. There's a great opportunity for a great prank here.
We just put like a marbles in it. Yeah. Or like a scorpions or. You know what else?
Like scorpions are a little intense. When you said this is a great opportunity, Ryan, I immediately went to like an animal cam. You know how people put them like in their yard or something? Like, oh, I wonder what that bear does every night in our yard.
Well, I wonder what it should be one of those cameras like inside of the cabinet. So like every time he opens the cabinet, you see loose face in the night with his hands sort of like moving shit around. And be like, I mean, maybe it could be almost like a form of like exposure therapy where like you see yourself doing it and then you're like, Jesus. Yeah.
I had a really intense experience once I was watching a video of myself drinking water. And it was horrifying. Because I actually like almost throated like half the bottle. Like just stuck it down.
I'm like, wow. That is. I don't know. I just have something in me that I just want more of what I just want to be like.
Yeah. More of what's in the cabinet, more of what's in the glass, more of what's on the plate. Yeah. I'm backing down on this stuff.
Yeah, you are. You're trying to find like your less is more. 57. 57.
Happy birthday, Barlow. I'm like a whole new person. Here, I'm going to play Happy Birthday for you. OK, here we go.
In case I got edited out earlier, Ryan is a multi-instrumentalist. Oh, yeah, that's a lot of it. So Lewis Knocks Barlow turned 57 years old this week. And you're starting off your new year with such a bang.
I love it. I picked up Ryan on my birthday. Yeah. That's a gift.
Ryan was a gift. Ryan was my gift to myself. I was like, I want to make some music with Ryan. Yeah, one of the best.
Far as I know. Dude. Far as I know. It's an honor.
Oh my gosh. I love it so much. It's a big love fest. Well, do I get to the questions that we have for Ryan?
So OK. Ryan, Joel, I'm going to ask you five quick questions. Yeah. Hold on.
What? Are you going to do with the sound? Oh, you don't know. Oh, OK.
Do you like the theme for five quick questions? Oh, this is a new segment. We've clearly worked hard on it. It's called five quick questions.
Yeah. And we just had some. We really storyboarded it. And you know, we wrote a whole script.
Anyway, so. And we just had breakfasty, lunchy thing. And I was like, I don't want to know the questions. That's right.
I tried to almost toss them your way. Then you're like, back off. Ryan's in. I mean, Ryan.
Why did I say Brian? Oh, I'm so sorry. Who's Brian? Brian's my cousin.
I saw him the other day. See you were there. I mean, I wasn't dating. I wasn't dating.
I have a little folder full of people that I know. And sometimes I just reach into the folder and grab the first name that's in there. So I'm going to get the resembles. Yeah.
Yeah. I know. I understand it. I get it.
I get it. It's totally fine. And you know what, Ryan, he doesn't care. Right?
You don't care. Ryan's also from Ohio. So he's in the Ohio folder. Yeah.
Oh, we'll see. Then that makes perfect sense that you mutated Ryan and Brian because you're cousin Brian's also from Ohio. And so's Ryan. We're both mutants.
And you're both clearly mutants. So obviously. We're so happy that Ryan's been staying with us and just making exciting music with Lou and this week. And he's off today.
Yeah. And he's just in Pizzo, Ferrato as well down at his studio in East Hampton. And so OK, I'm going to ask you a question. OK.
And then I'm going to just decide when I feel like it's been enough time. I'm going to move my little dinger. I've got a little OK. It's like the Oscars.
Before I ask the question to is like the beginning. OK. Oh, is that loud enough? Ryan.
Yeah. What is your favorite vegan snack on the road? Because you travel a lot. He's on tours, guys.
On the road, like a restaurant snack or like I would say OK, snack. I. What keeps you going? Yeah, I like to have some things around.
I eat frequently. So like I actually get this actually. Thank you for those specifics. I'm going to ding this any second.
I eat frequently. No, I like to keep some things around because I noticed, you know, like I get nervous if I don't know where I'm eating next or something. It's like a weird thing. So I like to have like something around like some trail mix, you know, some studio.
I was like, oh, I'm going to take this bag of trail mix. Just so I have like either Cliff bars or, you know, this product placement. Cliff bars. I know.
Breakfast of champions. They're not sponsoring us yet. They should. Yes.
Yeah, like just those kinds of things to have something around and then when you know, and then when I eat meals, I like to eat, you know, good meals. All right. Is it hard to find these things on the road? Not as I mean, like 20 years ago.
Yes. Now not really. That's nice. Actually, I will give a plug.
OK, stop. That's perfect. OK. Anyway, that's for the next time you're on.
Lou, do you want to ask the second question or can you read it on? OK. I close to the mic. I personally hate it when people ask me this question.
So it's my pleasure to ask you this to you. See how you handle it. Yeah. Maybe you'll teach me something in your response and you're measured thoughtful response.
You will not reflect any of the agitation that I feel when I'm asked this question. I'm excited for this question. What's your favorite city that you've been to on tour? Oh, man.
Favorite city? Uh, town, I suppose. Yeah, right. God, no stream.
It's weird because I mean, you know, like on tour, it's I often don't see a lot of the city. I'm often not even I don't know where I am, but it's like, it's like, OK, it's a lot of times it's like sound check and then the show and then so a lot of places. Yeah, I haven't seen as much, but I don't know. I always like, I mean, a lot of cool weird places in Europe that are cool.
Just a terrible answer. No, that's a terrible question. Yeah. Yeah.
Um, I don't know. Like, I mean, there are, for me, it's more like there's some like memorable moments of being like on a stage. Like, I remember I played at like some church in like, it was like, I was like a festival inside this, you know, like it was in, I think it was in, uh, uh, what's the place in Belgium? Antwerp.
It was an Antwerp and it was some like thousand year old church and you know, there's a concert in there. It was a crock festival. It was like, whatever. It's kind of weird.
And, um, that I remember being on stage and like looking around this place and I was like, whoa, this is a memorable moment. And then like other festivals, like glass of berries. It's like, there's some moments, but it's not really the city. It's just like, you're done.
I want to know like, before we move on, why is that a terrible question? Because I actually find it really interesting to hear what people like. This is what it is. When that question is asked, like this flood of things comes, how do I possibly like, parse through all of this information because there's so many amazing places that you've been and seen and, uh, yeah, like city and like, then you kind of feel weird about the city thing because you don't want to like, dis anybody and you want to be, you want to be like, New York's better than Chicago, but I'm just, I'm showing myself.
I feel like that's really interesting. I feel like you're having to work through a lot of, uh, insecurities through that question. I was like, wow, all of those things that you're thinking about, I don't really think about it. If someone was to ask me that, like, Oh, when you were on this tour, Adele, three weeks or what would have been your favorite like thing?
And it doesn't mean that like saying one thing is favorite cancels everything else out. All right. Okay. Oh, can you tell us who some of your favorite percussionists are?
Oh, wow. Um, yeah, I probably can. Is that the right thing to say? Percussionists, not like drummer?
Sure. Yeah. Okay. That's where is a parallel Graham, but not all parallel grams are squares.
So you're smart. Okay, answer the question. He adjusted and had like a 20 minute conversation about magic. What is it?
Oh, yeah. Magic the gathering. Yeah. I used to play that.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Dong that immediately.
Okay. Oh, favorite, favorite grasses. Bernard perdee Jim Keltner. Milford graves.
Uh, it's okay. So it varies. I have like are these from a genre. They're, uh, it's a lot of it's, okay.
I have, Okay. Okay. Yeah, okay. I'll try to keep it short before this bell.
I never know when the bell is coming. I kind of have like two or three brains or four brains. I don't know. It's in different kinds of roles.
Like there are like creative improvisers, kind of drummers or just musicians in general. This isn't even just drummers, but just in general, because it's kind of creative side. And then I also appreciate interesting producers and engineers and session musicians and all the like the Motown thing, the Stax thing, the Nashville thing, the like Mussel Shoals thing. Do you think he knows what we've asked him?
I don't know. Well, I think what it is we work. It's what you say. It's impossible to ask a musician, right?
Because you're right. Your brain immediately. So Moford Graves is like a free jazz drummer, kind of, for lack of a better term. And then Bernard Purdy and Jim Keltner are like quote unquote, like session drummers.
So they like play with one's songs in the studio. And so for a lot of situations, like an Aretha Franklin record with Moford Graves on it wouldn't be necessary. I mean, it could actually be really interesting. But you know, Bernard Purdy is all about the context.
So like on an Aretha record, Bernard Purdy playing, you know, Rocksteady is like, I get so excited here. It just sounds incredible. And then but like Moford Graves on like an Albert Eilert or something, just like amazing, you know, so yeah, whatever. I love this.
So the percussionist of the world just all now like simultaneously orgasmed. Because they're like, I love this answer so much. Yeah. Obsessed.
All right. So what's your favorite outfit that makes you feel like your best version of yourself? Favorite outfit? Mm hmm.
This is interesting. OK, so I recently have started like shaving every day and like putting on shirts that make me feel more like focused or more like, oh, it's not a day off. I'm like going to do something. And it's weird like a subtle little thing.
Yeah. So I do notice like just like the ritual of like showering and shaving and then like putting on like your uniform. Yeah. So yeah.
So I've been like, I used to wear just like, you know, band t-shirts with holes in them and you know, it's kind of rock and roll, you know, and then. But I've noticed like I'm a little more like if I'm if I'm busy and I like, yeah, like kind of working on a bunch of stuff, I feel more like, oh, it's time to like focus. Yeah, focus a little more. There's like a case of wear a suit every day.
Oh, really? That's like that reason. And actually I have a good friend of mine, Ahmad Wassis. Like he also like he would just stay at home and be alone all day.
But he would suit. And it's well, yeah, he would really dress up and tuck in his shirt and stuff. And sit down at his typewriter. I mean, like that's interesting.
So this is something that you found like pretty recently, like six months or something. And it's like, yeah, everyone, we were on tour and I was like, yeah, I'm still wearing a band t-shirt and you're like, I don't really wear like shirts with stuff on it necessarily. And I made that show. I just turned 41 and I'm like, oh, I think it's right around.
Also, I got to give a shout out to Douglas McCombs from tour deus and Brooke back and much stuff and played with him. Yeah, yeah, his it's like really I'm sort of inspired. He wears a lot of like cool vintage chamboree. Oh, cool.
A little chamboree. Yeah, yeah. So that's kind of like, oh, yeah, denim. Oh, girl, boy.
I mean, the denim look, 100%. Yeah, do it. To bottom. You can never go wrong with chamboree top and denim bottom.
There we go. That's what I wear yesterday. Put that uniform on. I know I saw your chamboree shirt.
I was like, looking good, looking good. OK. That's pretty recent, though. If anyone knows, it's done for a while.
I really like a, you know, look pretty. Yeah, kind of dumpy most. I like this. Yesterday, I wore my first band shirt in a long time to bed.
Yeah. And I woke up, I felt really good, but I'm like, I cannot possibly wear a band shirt to the studio today. Yeah. I know it was an obscure band.
Yeah. An obscure Belgian band. Yeah. Whoa.
Yeah. But I love bands. I do too. I like to remember.
Well, again, you can like music and not have to wear it. It's OK. You know? I actually still have a couple of other.
But it has to be like really weird ones. Like, occasionally, like there's a, I have an elven Jones shirt. I have a stealth shirt. They were like a 70s session.
Yeah. Like 70s. You're like 70s. Session players.
That's awesome. Yeah. It's like, yeah, Richard T and whatever. All right.
I want to know. I think I'm going to ask my fourth question. Well, this might be, is that one, two, three, four, five? Sure.
Five. Anyway, my last question is, what are you looking forward to? What's next for Ryan? Oh, wow.
I'm, I guess I'm looking forward to listening to these rough mixes from yesterday. Mm-hmm. From the specialist. Something I might most immediately, yeah.
And looking forward to, you know, going home and seeing, having dinner with my wife tonight. Aww. Aww. Love that.
And then are you going to be seeing your work wife anytime soon? Are you going to be hitting the road with Riley Walker or going out with anyone? Not with, uh, what do you have? What's on your horizon?
I don't know. He does. He does. He does.
I would say. Okay, so tell us, tell us what's, what's next then for Ryan. I kind of don't remember. I have to look at my calendar.
It's kind of really, that's kind of funny. But yeah, like recordings and, uh, yeah, some live stuff. And enjoy giving lessons to people. I enjoy, very much giving lessons to people.
Are the younger people? Are they? No, it's, I've had, yeah, it's kind of all over the place. I've had, um, I'm a very passionate and curious person.
So I've like sought out a lot of like, uh, I've learned, you know, I like, uh, I'll be curious and be like, oh, how do you do that thing? And I'll see people out and take lessons or just hang out and learn. I just, yeah. Like I learned stuff yesterday.
I like, I just love, you know, so, um, I like both sides of that process. So you like being a student and a teacher? Yes, exactly. All of a student, all of a teacher.
And it's, I feel like I'm just like, the stuff I get and then people can ask me that and sometimes I have answers and stuff like that. Or can point them in. Yeah. Yeah.
I love doing that. 100%. I love that too, Ryan. I think in our, I'm going to steal from Ben Lee in our show notes.
Ryan plays on at least 20 albums a year, right? Yeah. You do, you do sort of like session work for people remotely. Totally.
And that's why like the favorite drummer thing is a little tricky because I'm like, well, I have like, yeah, like that's a lot of my favorite stuff is like, I love the, um, like rolling out my sleeves and like going on the studio and like, all right, we've got two hours to get, you know, it's like, you know, and then there's also this totally creative side. I was, did like another podcast interview kind of thing like a few weeks ago and I was thinking about this like arts and crafts things. I don't want to repeat it too much. But there's like the art side is like figuring out like how the, like having ideas and then the craft side is like, okay, but now we've got to like make it and it's like, oh, like how do we, you know, like if you don't want to plug a mic in and it's like, oh, like this podcast wouldn't happen if there was at least like, okay, this cable goes into that and then we hit record.
You know, it's like, there's at least, yeah. And so, um, yeah, so I practice every day so that like the craft side I don't have to think about. And then in the moment of the creative side, then like I sort of trust that the stuff I'm, you know, have learned. Yeah.
Can, there's like the tools that like I have a tool box to like, you know, like yesterday, well, I don't think we're gonna talk about it. But like, yeah, there's sometimes where it's like, oh, this is the, this is what needs to happen. And I was like, okay, pull this tool from the tool box to make this thing happen. And yeah.
You know the tool box, that's what's really impressive to me. It's like, you actually know so much of the technical side of it, which I think is really impressive, the fact that you can, you do have a, you know, intensely creative side, but then you also, you know that that's a bolt of it, which is what I aspire to, which I haven't, I'm not there, but I'm going in that direction. Well, it's a process process and I have to, but I, you know, I really, uh, I really, uh, Or you can do it to varying degrees of success and you do it really well. Yeah.
On that note, yeah, you want to sing us out. Oh, you guys want to jam us out? Let's do it. Jam out on the birthday presents I got Lou.
Yeah. We're gonna have a little improv jam here. Yeah. So we have a couple of these.
Oh, no, no, no, you play this. Oh, okay. And then when you think it, when you think it's done, you kick the bell. Oh, okay.
All right, you guys rock the bells. How do I do this? That was an new conversation, oh, no, yeah, featuring Ryan too. Adele and Lübar Lührlär.
Thank you for listening to Ruhr impression.