Conversations with Ryan Browne

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Browne.

Hi Ryan, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve been banging on stuff for as long as I can remember. One day in second grade my mom surprised me with a pair of drumsticks, which turned into me getting a drum set for Christmas. It’s a crazy bold move to get a seven years old a drum set, but shoutout to my parents for knowing I had the “thing” and for putting up with all my constant noise. Sports never really stuck for me, and my heart was always with drums anyway so I opted for band class, which I continued in from 4th grade through my senior year of high school. I found dubstep and drum & bass around sophomore year, and that had me absolutely sent – I didn’t understand what I was listening to, but I fell in love with it immediately, and coming from a rock/metal background, the energy resonated really strongly.

After high school, I got accepted to Berklee College of Music, where I finished early and graduated Cum Laude with BA in “Professional Music” with an emphasis on Drum Set & Afro-Caribbean hand percussion performance and an undeclared minor in Music Production. During that time, I was DJing and throwing parties, with occasional fly dates, which were always exciting. In 2016 I accepted an instructor position at Icon Collective College of Music, where I still work today. It’s incredibly rewarding to teach there and is constantly inspiring.

I started making lots of drum videos to dubstep songs in college and continued to hit them hard back in LA (big love to my brother Devon Steelman of Steelman Studios) while also producing remixes and original tunes myself. As the ecosystem of EDM/ Hybrid bass music started expanding more I was able to get a bit of traction, which led to me playing drums for Grabbitz. I’ll always be grateful for that chapter with him, as he was the first higher-profile artist I had worked with. From there, things started moving quickly – I landed a remix for Gryffin, did my first bus tour on drums with ORGY, got support for my bass music from legends like Excision, 12th Planet, Kayzo, and most recently launched a new project called SPLNTR with an official remix for Ice Nine Kills.

I’ve also transitioned from just drumming into doing Music Director work – the two projects I currently work most closely with are Cray and Vineland. Building shows in Ableton and running tracks while playing drums has been challenging but extremely fulfilling, as it is a combination of the two things I love doing most – drums and production. 2023 has really felt like a breakthrough year for me, between playing the Kia Forum and San Jose Civic with Cray, seeing Vineland make waves in the Country/ Alternative space and other releases with a revolving door of other artists and sessions. I’m grateful for this life.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
All in all it’s been pretty smooth with tangible growth every year, minus the pandemic. That set me back a bit and, though it was a weird time for everyone, I felt like I had really lost my traction. I stopped making bass music for myself and tried to start a band which has two drops on Audius before it ended up going south. At the time that was a huge bummer because I really loved the music we made. I don’t see it like that anymore though, it was more of a transitional period into doing more drums and MD work, so I’m grateful for it in spite of how uncomfortable that time was.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m just a fella who smacks drums and makes loud noises.

Being a versatile musician is a core value of mine and something I’m proud of. I specialize in drums and production across most genres and don’t really care what type of music I’m working on. It could be anything from Alt/ Rock/ Metal to rap/ hip-hop beats to EDM to Country – as long as I’m making noise, I’m happy.

I think that’s what separates me a bit – recognizing that inspiration can be drawn from and redirected to any genre. For me, versatility is an asset because I want to have so many irons in the fire, whereas some other musicians/artists may be better at focusing on their specific sound, genre or vision. I find the amount of different genres and modern crossovers to explore fun and exciting, which is why I choose to not limit myself to just one thing. It’s a bit of a Gucci-swiss-army-knife approach. It doesn’t work for everyone, but it works for me.

What’s next?
I’m already living and building so much of the life that I want, so as long as I keep on this path I’ll be happy. I’d like to be doing more consistent bus and festival touring, so that’s a tangible goal to work towards. Stadium/ arena shows are a bit of a given, but I do really want to be on circuits in rooms of that size regularly. I’m confident in the projects that I’m involved in, so it’s really just a patience, content, and consistency game at this point.

I also want to teach and remain a student perpetually. I never want to stop learning and developing my own intimacy with my craft. Teaching is an easy way to maintain that growth. Plus, it’s both rewarding and inspiring.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/ryanbrownemusic
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-browne-66668019b/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ryanbrownemusic
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5fDuFLdcZPGIlV039XD5re?si=13ae74c557ce4655