Ryan Pryor is a Fuller student and a musician, with some of his work recently featured on NoiseTrade. Here’s a brief conversation I had with Ryan about his work, and finding his way to Fuller.
CORY: Talk to us about where you came from. A little bit of your background, and how you wound up at Fuller.
RYAN: I made it to Fuller by way of Baylor University, where I studied Religion and World Affairs. As a religion major, I became familiar with Fuller through reading some of the Fuller greats like Stassen, Goldingay, and Green. Growing up in the Waco, Texas area, my involvement in church began in the youth ministry at Columbus Avenue.
I was incredibly fortunate to have great mentors and leaders at Columbus that sparked my desire to serve in youth ministry and study religion. I certainly credit their early guidance for inspiring me to pursue my path from Baylor to Fuller. Between my time at Baylor and attending Fuller, I served as the junior ministry intern at Hope Chapel Maui and as the youth and outreach minister at Crestview Baptist in Austin, Texas.
CORY: Has music always been a part of your life? At what point did you decide this was something you wanted to pursue (if that’s even how you think about it)?
RYAN: Music actually didn’t enter the equation until 2009 during my junior year at Baylor when I decided on a whim to take a beginner’s guitar class. I had always enjoyed music and would curate seasonal mixes with a friend at Baylor, but I never imagined playing music myself. So music was on my radar to a degree, but it was a mysterious world that I wasn’t a part of.
I didn’t really have any expectations when I signed up for the guitar class. I bought a crummy $75 guitar and began fumbling through the chords in our assigned songs. I actually learned a good deal of basics from that class, and I’m not sure I would have learned to play without it. From there, I let YouTube be my guide as I watched endless amounts of covers and tutorials.
It was inspiring for me to see people from all over the world and of all skill levels learning how to play the music they loved. In my final year at Baylor, I began toying with different styles and ideas, but I hadn’t considered creating songs or pursuing music until I stumbled upon writing my first song. It’s just a short fun song called “Lovely Day,” but writing it was thrilling. Writing that song made realize that the creative process and songwriting was open to beginners.
I graduated from Baylor in 2010 and moved to Maui that summer to join the great staff at Hope Chapel. I wrote several songs while I was living there and decided to put a few of them down on an EP with the help of Steven Arthur, who was the worship ministry intern at the time. We spent a fun week recording various instruments and vocals with friends in a makeshift recording room at the church. The Lovely Days EP was a rookie attempt at recording, but it was a phenomenal experience. The process forced me to not only record songs, but to simply release them and see if they connected with anyone.
CORY: I like that way of thinking about what you make. Throw it out there and see if it sticks to something/someone. Do you find yourself aiming in any particular direction in terms of content?
RYAN: I never really aim for a direction in content and I very rarely write down lyrics until a song is complete. Usually somewhere about halfway through writing a song I discover that a story or emotion has emerged, and I will try to follow that. I’ve found songwriting in this way allows for the music and lyrics to converge in a way that might not be possible if I started with agenda.
CORY: Where can others find your music?
RYAN: The easiest way is to visit NoiseTrade or Bandcamp. All of my music on those sites is free as I’m currently working on music for a new project.
CORY: Are you open to others contacting you about music, writing, recording, etc? How should they get a hold of you?
RYAN: Yeah, of course. The easiest places to find me are at ryanpryor.net or on Twitter at @ryanpryormusic.
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