Ryland Moranz is exploring old school film making for the second single from his second CD XO 1945. The entire CD has a vintage sound, featuring a lot of banjo and band mate Leeroy Stagger’s band bac
king Moranz on 12 tracks reflecting on the past.
“ It features the Rebeltone band. It’s like a Leeroy Stagger album if Leeroy took a break,” Moranz said, noting it was one of the last CDs recorded in Stagger’s Rebeltone Studios, before he moved to Victoria. It features bassist Tyson Maiko, drummer Kyle Harmon keyboardist Michael Ayotte and Calgary fiddle player Calvin Vollroth. George Fowler also adds some cello to the songs.
“ And Leeroy is singing back ground vocals in it,” Moranz said.
A lot of the music was inspired by discovering an old banjo from the 1890s in the music store in San Rafael , California, tuned to an unusual tuning.
“ It was in Open C, which was pretty common . So a lot of the songs are in open C, but there’s also songs with the band and songs on my own,” Moranz said, noting the new single “ Where Are My Blue Eyes,” is among the songs recorded in open C. That is the follow-up the the debut single “ If I Had Wings,” which was released in October.
He tapped in the the many talents of Evan Uschenko for the new video, which he shot on 16 mm film.
“He’s really talented and is interested in that style of film making like me,” Moranz said, noting Uschenko also filmed the video for the first single “ If I had Wings.” which features Moranz flying at the Lethbridge Airport.
“He filmed that too. I’ve had my pilot’s licence since I graduated from high school, so we rented a plane from the Lethbridge Airport. He was standing right next to the runway and I was afraid I’d hit him,” Moranz said.
The new video was a lot less dangerous, but a lot more time consuming as Moranz hand painted every frame.
“I’ve always been interested in old analog formats like film It’s very much old school. There’s no digital enhancement,” he said.
There was no deliberate theme to the CD.
“But a friend pointed out that the songs all look at the past. So it turned out being a postcard to a time which I never experienced, but still affects everyone today. And it feels like you were there,” Moranz said.
Some of the songs are three or four years old, dating back to Moranz’s first solo album.
“I actually wrote my ‘Run Rabbit Run’ before he wrote his ‘Run Rabbit Run.’ It is on the first Horizon Sessions Cd that Mike Spencer from the Geomatic Attic and Lucky Star guitars released. It paired local musicians with University of Lethbridge audio arts students in the University studio,” he said.
He gives gives kudos to the team working behind him for this CD including publicists Jen Fritz and Kate Waddie from his record label Tonic Records. Todd Menzies from the band Wilhorse has taken over management duties.
They do so much work for me that I never thought of doing when I was releasing CDs on my own,” he said. In addition to playing on Leeroy Stagger’s CDs, he has released a CD with his Mother and sister, his first solo CD and three with his punk band the Sophomore Jakes.
There has already been a lot of great advance press for the CD which isn’t officially released until Jan. 15, 2021. CKUA regularly plays his music.
“ There’s a great college station in every city who play me and I just got some nice press from an Italian publication,” he enthused.
Moranz misses playing live but is ready to wait until things are safe.
“ I finished the CD before everything happened, but Covid delayed supporting it. But my number one priority is safety,” he said.
“I love playing live, but I want everyone to be safe,” he said.
You can pre-order the Cd though his website www.rylandmoanz.com until Dec. 24. And it will be released officially on streaming platforms on Jan. 15.
