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So... do you remember the guy from Mudvayne?
- Thread starter Blakarian
- Start date
He never stopped being awesome at it, but he's been out there more since 2015.
I thought it was a common occurrence for TB members to post selfies of themselves with Ryan.
I thought it was a common occurrence for TB members to post selfies of themselves with Ryan.
I'm a big fan. We're actually playing a gig with his new band Soften the Glare this month. But yeah a fan for a lot of reasons, was and still am a big mudvayne fan but actually have a lot of similarities. I also started on Trumpet before switching to bass, I lived in Illinois for years before moving to North Carolina. My band has recorded three albums at The basement studios where they recorded their album with Jamie king. Didn't record our most recent album there but we likely go back to record our next album there as Jamie does a great job making albums that sound raw and real and not overly produced. If you're in North Carolina or north eastern SC here's the information for that show. Fayetteville is an hour drive south of Raliegh, NC, about an hour and a half from Wilmington and Jacksonville, and about two hours from Myrtle beach, SC
I've always thought he was a massively talented player with a great tone, and I'm glad to see him doing something new. Mudvayne used to be great, but after TEOATTC, the quality of their output nose dived and I was really turned off by their descent into being a generic rock band rather than prog-masters.
I like all their albums; LD 50 is my favorite probably followed by the new game, but I really liked certain songs off other albums. Like (Per)version of the truth is one of my favorite songs to this day.
I think mudvayne unfortunately just got caught up in that transition period in the music industry where they never made what most of us thought they were making financially. I listened to one interview he did where he was asked why his new band didn't choose to go with a label, because with a lineup like that I'm sure they easily could. He talked about how mudvaynes label kept like 90% of the money from their album sales. And I think that's a big misconception about a lot of modern day famous musicians. Last I heard he's basically working a manual labor job when he's not in the road, installing metal roofs on houses if I remember right. I wish he was much more successful, he deserves it. And It makes me wonder if their finaincial situation contributed to Mudvayne breaking up
Because I'm not a fan of Hell Yeah at all but it's very possible that Chad Is actually making a better living in that band. I respect and like that Ryan's more like us than you may realize. He's just a regular guy who loves to play music and I think that's why Soften the Glare is interesting. They aren't trying to be mainstream at all.
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Welcome back.
My band was direct support for Soften the Glare this past Friday. I had the opportunity to talk a bit with Ryan Martinie of Soften the Glare and formerly of Mudvayne in depth about his interest, his gear, and career.
shot of us hanging out back stage
Ryan is very interested in not only music but is also a big fan of art. I asked him if he was into Alex Greys work. Alex is probably most popular with musicians as being the artist behind more recent art for the band Tool including album covers and live imagery. He said of course, he also talked about how much he’s grown to admire Picassos work in particular.
As for career, Ryan is very much into the music and musicians he’s playing with in Soften the Glare. He appeared really excited to talk about it and excited to play on stage. For those hoping for a Mudvayne reunion I think he’s much more interested in moving forward. The musicianship level of Soften the Glare is way beyond that of mudvayne in my opinion; from Mitchs tight playing and jaw dropping drum solo to Bons tasteful and interesting while never getting tacky guitar playing. Their music is very much like Picasso paintings reimagined as music. Every style you can think of thrown together in an interesting unconventional way. Jazz, rock, funk, you name it. There’s even a track that has a carnival music type of vibe at times. Yet the entire time they keep the somewhat primal/raw vibe of a 3 piece.
So as for the gear. Ryan brought two Warwick basses to the show. His old modified production thumb nt5 and his custom Shop thump fretless. As we talked he out of the blue handed me his modified thumb nt5 to check out, it’s an older thumb with a shaved wenge neck which he talked about some, the electronics have all been replaced. He said years of sweat destroyed the original electronics the volume knob a different color than the rest likely to help him see it because it was the only knob he messed with while playing but possible because it was just what was laying around. The setup on the bass is something I think is probably a big part of how he gets his sound. There wasn’t very much relief in the neck but the action was pretty sweet. High enough to have the “Bounce” as he put it, but not so high to where it was cumbersome to play.
Amp wise he had two Warwick lwa 1000 amps (one black and one with the original finish) each powering a Warwick wca 4x10 cab, and a DI sitting behind the amps on top of the cabs which sent his signal to foh.
Amazing band and they were all super cool.
Left the show with an autographed copy of their debut album and a drum stick
shot of us hanging out back stage
Ryan is very interested in not only music but is also a big fan of art. I asked him if he was into Alex Greys work. Alex is probably most popular with musicians as being the artist behind more recent art for the band Tool including album covers and live imagery. He said of course, he also talked about how much he’s grown to admire Picassos work in particular.
As for career, Ryan is very much into the music and musicians he’s playing with in Soften the Glare. He appeared really excited to talk about it and excited to play on stage. For those hoping for a Mudvayne reunion I think he’s much more interested in moving forward. The musicianship level of Soften the Glare is way beyond that of mudvayne in my opinion; from Mitchs tight playing and jaw dropping drum solo to Bons tasteful and interesting while never getting tacky guitar playing. Their music is very much like Picasso paintings reimagined as music. Every style you can think of thrown together in an interesting unconventional way. Jazz, rock, funk, you name it. There’s even a track that has a carnival music type of vibe at times. Yet the entire time they keep the somewhat primal/raw vibe of a 3 piece.
So as for the gear. Ryan brought two Warwick basses to the show. His old modified production thumb nt5 and his custom Shop thump fretless. As we talked he out of the blue handed me his modified thumb nt5 to check out, it’s an older thumb with a shaved wenge neck which he talked about some, the electronics have all been replaced. He said years of sweat destroyed the original electronics the volume knob a different color than the rest likely to help him see it because it was the only knob he messed with while playing but possible because it was just what was laying around. The setup on the bass is something I think is probably a big part of how he gets his sound. There wasn’t very much relief in the neck but the action was pretty sweet. High enough to have the “Bounce” as he put it, but not so high to where it was cumbersome to play.
Amp wise he had two Warwick lwa 1000 amps (one black and one with the original finish) each powering a Warwick wca 4x10 cab, and a DI sitting behind the amps on top of the cabs which sent his signal to foh.
Amazing band and they were all super cool.
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I find the guitar playing very Fripp-influenced. I love every aspect of this album. Ryan’s playing has evolved so far ahead of anything I could have imagined. Superb!!!
**makes me GAS for a Thumb again...
What a wonderful experience. Ryan really seems to have hit a good thing with STG and I hope they go far. He's always come across as a great guy with a lot of love for artistic pursuits, so it's fantastic to see him doing well.
