Ryan Colton Music

Being on the tale end of the Gen X demographic, I came of age during one of the greatest decades of music: the 1990s. My first introduction to "Grunge" was hearing the roaring guitars and crushing bass and drums that rattled through the common wall that separated my bedroom from my older sisters'. She was hip to what was cool with the new "alternative" music that would end up shaping my musical tastes and sensibilities into who I am today as a musician.  I grew up in a small town where at first, the local radio stations paid little attention to the new type of rock n' roll that was sweeping through the countries' teenage population. But I did have MTV, and MTV knew what was up. I typically would stay up late on the weekends to watch episodes of "120 Minutes" or "Headbanger's Ball" so that I could stay abreast of all the latest and greatest that "Alternative" music had to offer. But as time went on, one of my favorite sho

I'm happy to report that my first single officially available for streaming, "Gaslight" was released on September 22nd. This song came together in a bit of a whirlwind. My good friend and partner in crime in my cover band The Upside , Rick Mudd asked me if he could lay down some drum tracks at my home recording studio, Distilled Sounds . I had been listening to a lot of early 90's punk like Social D, Face to Face, and Bad Religion. I've always like the speed and aggression those bands had to their songs and even though the arrangements are fairly simple, they are catchy and have meaning to them. My sister has been battling brain cancer going on two years now and it's really taken a toll on her mentally and physically in the past few months. This created the perfect storm for a songwriting session and I quickly put together some scratch tracks so that Rick could record drums for me when he was here to work on his material. The arrangement came together really q

 I've been wanting to do this for a long time... The past couple of years have been kind of rough musically - I've seen the collapse of one of my most successful projects, The Here and Now come to an end and also had to deal with the loss of one of the members of that band, George Broyer, who passed away in early September 2021.  On the upside (literally), I did start a new project with some guys I've known for awhile called, well "The Upside". What makes this so different from anything else I've ever done, is in addition to playing guitar, I am co-lead singer of this group. I've never had to be a front man before, but honestly, I've been loving it. It's taken me out of my comfort zone and I've really been forced to learn how to use my voice for something more than just background vocals. Trying to figure out my vocal range and what songs suit my voice best has been challenging but very rewarding at the same time.  And since this band isn't