Ryan Kohn
What a beautiful discovery. Ryan Kohn has just released the first single of his upcoming album. It’s called “Headed to Nowhere” and it has one of the most beautiful choruses.
I’ve missed hearing songs like these and I forgot how great they were. I love heartfelt guitar tracks and that’s what this song is about. Ryan Kohn painted a beautiful song with emotional melodies and a solid songwriting.
“For most of my life, I have been seeking to better understand myself and my place in the world through songwriting, and I don’t think that search for originality will ever end,” he says.
With more music on the way, Ryan Kohn continues to create his musical signature while delivering honest songs.
“Headed Nowhere” is now available worldwide :)
Introduce yourself - what's your story?
My name is Ryan Kohn, I am currently based out of Nashville TN, originally from a suburb of Cleveland Ohio called Chagrin Falls. My dad has a beautiful Steinway grand piano in the house that I grew up in, and I spent much of my childhood listening to him play everything from Genesis to Elton John to West Side Story. He is a gifted composer and lyricist, and I ended up picking up the guitar because I had started to write and I was looking for an instrument other than piano to start digging into. As far back as I can remember, music was the direction that I knew I needed to go in. It really captured me at an early age and I have spent most of my life falling in love with and drawing inspiration from many different artists and later incorporating that inspiration into my own style, which I am still developing. I played in a band with my two best friends throughout middle and high school, and every time I wrote a new song I would show it to those two guys. Looking back, I was always seeking people's approval through my songwriting. I always felt that showing people my songs provided a unique way for me to connect with and better understand both myself and the people around me, and I just kept getting deeper into that process. As the years went on, I kept writing and developed a heavily acoustic guitar based style, eventually moving down to Nashville in 2018 to study Music Business at Belmont University.
How would you define Ryan Kohn, the artist?
I am someone who has fallen in love with translating life's experiences into songs. At the end of the day, the song is always the most important thing to me. I never dedicated much energy to my artistic image or the role that I wanted to play as an artist, I was just interested in writing the best songs that I could with my acoustic guitar in hand. If I can write something that evokes emotion and moves people in a way that sticks with them, I feel that I have done my job. I believe that my life will consist of translating my personal experiences into pieces of music that reflect where my head was at during a given time, and I just hope to bring a new perspective to the table while doing so.
"Headed Nowhere" is your new single - what's the inspiration behind this song?
"Headed Nowhere" actually went through multiple versions before I landed on the final draft. I started the song my junior year of high school, and I think that it initially served as a want to escape. I knew that there was a lot more to see than my hometown, and I wanted to experience as much as I could out of life. I didn't end up finishing the song until the summer after my freshman year of college, and by then the inspiration behind it shifted from wanting to escape to having a fear of falling into a monotonous day to day life. The song really embodies the human desire to free ourselves and try something new, all the while touching on the fear of straying away from the comfort and safety of day to day life.
When did you start working on this song? Who helped you create it?
I started working on this song my Junior year of High School and it went through multiple versions until landing on the final draft the summer after my freshman year of college. I was the sole writer of the song, but I worked with my incredibly talented friends (Jackson Anderson, Lucas Rennie, Mike Lavecchia, Patrick Prophet, and Garrett Arwood, just to name a few) to really help the track come to life through instrumentation and production.
What did you feel when writing this song?
I think that this song was an early attempt to capture the emotion of wanting to experience more out of life, but not knowing entirely what that would entail. It symbolizes a youthful sense of ignorance paired with a desire to learn and grow as a person. I have never felt that my knowledge on life has exceeded that of the next person over, and this song expressed my want to expand my perspective of the world at the time.
What's your favorite thing about this song?
My favorite thing about this song is the way that it captures the feeling of wanting more out of your situation. Whether it is a high schooler or an adult working a 9 to 5, the desire to break free is something that I feel is universal. I feel that this song encapsulates that feeling, and also shows the reflection that I made on my own situation at the time of writing it.
What made you want to release "Headed Nowhere" as a single?
With Covid forcing everyone's worlds to shrink into the comfort of their homes, I felt that "Headed Nowhere" would be a good way to introduce my own perspective on breaking free. We have all grown accustomed to the anxiety of the pandemic, and as the dust begins to clear I think that the spirit of this song will ring true as a newfound perspective of freedom and openness arises in all of us.
What can you tell us about your upcoming album?
This record consists of 8 songs that I wrote by myself, recorded almost entirely in the basement of our house in Nashville. We are just a couple of college kids trying to make the best music that we can, and we have assembled a very talented group of people to add colors to my songs that I never could have conceived when I had first written them. I consider myself extremely lucky to have met such talented people that have played a huge role in the making of this album, and it serves as an early attempt to combine all of our inspirations and voices together into a voice that will hopefully proceed us.
What are your thoughts on today's music industry? If you could change one thing, what would it be?
The music industry has changed so much, and is still changing every day. With the amount of talent that has emerged, people have come up with a multitude of different creative avenues in order to make themselves heard. TikTok is currently serving as the number one way for artists to get discovered, and with this comes pros and cons in my mind. On one side, more people's dreams are coming to fruition than ever before and artists and songwriters have been able to break through when they previously wouldn't have been able to. On the other hand, this among other things has caused the focus to shift from the song to the artist themselves and how marketable they would be. After all, the labels need to make money. Considering that the song has and always will be the most important thing to me, this reality has been tough to grapple with. I've never been the type to endorse myself to all ends and market myself as an artist, let alone rely on TikTok to express myself. I've just always loved writing and singing my songs. With this being said, I would just hope that the nature of the song itself prevails above all else. At the end of the day, the artist is nothing without great material, and incredible songs will continue to speak to people as they always have.
As an artist, how's it like to live in a city like Nashville?
Back home, I felt like nothing could stop me from having a successful career in music. I never could have prepared myself for the amount of talent and ambition that a city like Nashville holds. The sheer amount of competition and saturation within the music industry has been enough to discourage me at points, but there is no city that I would rather be in than Nashville. Being around people that are more talented than you forces you to grow, and this is certainly the change that I have undergone since being here. There are so many people in this city that want to see others succeed, and that is the environment that I want to be in.
What biggest life lessons have you learned so far?
When I first started writing songs, I would write to impress people and get a positive reaction. As I started to grow as a person and figure out more of who I wanted to be, I found that the most important thing was to write songs for myself. At the end of the day, if I was performing songs that people loved but weren't entirely authentic to me, I wouldn't have been fulfilled by them. This has transitioned over into my personal life and growing more accepting of who I am. Living with the constant need to fulfill others almost always leads to disappointment, so I figure that living in a way that is fulfilling to yourself is a healthy way to go about life.
In your opinion, what would make the world a better place?
The world would be a better place if everyone took a step back and appreciated whatever situation they were in. I feel that we can get so swept up in our own agendas that we go into cruise control and miss some of the beautiful moments that fleet away before we know it. I believe that the ability to stop and appreciate one another and the roles that we all play in each other’s lives will allow us all to live more intentionally, meaningfully, and appreciatively.
What message do you want to deliver to the world?
I just want to be able to allow people to connect with themselves and with other people through my songs. No matter what story I am telling, if my music can evoke thought and emotion in a fresh way, I will get my purpose from that. I don't see myself as anything special, just someone who fell in love with reflecting my own perspective into songs. If those reflections can change people's lives for the better, I can't imagine a more meaningful role for myself.
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