{"id":8494,"date":"2013-01-02T13:49:54","date_gmt":"2013-01-02T20:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=8494"},"modified":"2013-01-02T13:50:36","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T20:50:36","slug":"ryan-bingham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2013\/01\/ryan-bingham\/","title":{"rendered":"RYAN BINGHAM"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

RYAN BINGHAM<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The roots rocker plugs in and discovers a new talent\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Three years ago Ryan Bingham rocketed into the limelight with \u201cThe Weary Kind,\u201d the Grammy-winning theme song he co-wrote and performed for the acclaimed film, Crazy Heart<\/em>.\u00a0 The L.A.-based singer-songwriter cherished the success, but the experience didn\u2019t change him much. \u201cEverything happened so fast,\u201d he says. \u201cI just tried to hang on for the ride while it lasted. It introduced me to a lot of great musicians and actors and opened a lot of doors. But I don\u2019t think it changed my life significantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bingham is accustomed to hanging on for the ride. Raised in rural Texas, he spent his teen years traveling the rodeo circuit before throwing himself into music full time. His 2007 debut album, Mescalito<\/em>, established him as one of roots music\u2019s most promising troubadours. \u201cI went at music with the same energy I did rodeos,\u201d he says. \u201cThe lifestyle is pretty much the same. You\u2019re on the road all the time, sleeping in the back of your truck. I was used to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two follow-up albums adhered to that rustic vibe, but for his latest, Tomorrowland<\/em>, Bingham decided to plug in and rock out. Setting up a makeshift studio in a friend\u2019s vacant house in Malibu, he began fiddling with effects gear and toying with ideas on electric guitar. A stormy rocker titled \u201cHeart of Rhythm\u201d set the tone. \u201cI had been listening to Jimi Hendrix, the Clash and other punk stuff,\u201d he says. \u201cI was sort of letting the 16-year-old kid in me come out, having fun with the guitar and really learning how to play. I had played some electric on the road, but this was the first time I had tried playing solos and leads.\u201d<\/p>\n

After making demos, Bingham brought in a small core of backing players, as well as co-producer Justin Stanley\u2014and a trove of vintage instruments. \u201cWe had a \u201955 Telecaster, an old baritone acoustic and a vintage Les Paul,\u201d Bingham says. \u201cThere were also vintage AC-30 and AC-15 amps and a bunch of old pedals, including an original Uni-Vibe and a Colorsound. We would spend hours trying various pedals, seeing what sounds we could come up with. It was great fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bingham also enjoyed handling nearly all the guitar parts. \u201cI went in thinking I would play basic rhythm tracks,\u201d he says. \u201cI didn\u2019t think I was capable of playing some of the things I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new music has offered Bingham a change of pace. \u201cMost of the songs on the last record were sad and beat,\u201d he says. \u201cSome were tough to get through. It\u2019s always more fun when you can break out the electric guitars and crank it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Russell Hall<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RYAN BINGHAM The roots rocker plugs in and discovers a new talent\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Three years ago Ryan Bingham rocketed into the limelight with \u201cThe Weary Kind,\u201d the Grammy-winning theme song he co-wrote and performed for the acclaimed film, Crazy Heart.\u00a0 The L.A.-based singer-songwriter cherished the success, but the experience didn\u2019t change him much. \u201cEverything […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[5717,5720,5718,5475,5715,10156,5719,5716],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8494"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8494"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8498,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8494\/revisions\/8498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}