Ryan Bingham is an Oscar- and Grammy-winning Americana musician. With an energetic new album, Tomorrowland, Bingham has shows lined up across the country, including one stop at The Lincoln Theater in Raleigh tonight. Summer Arts and Diversions Editor Samantha Sabin talked to Bingham about the recording process and the inspiration behind Tomorrowland.
Diversions: Tomorrowland is your first album produced through your own record label, Axster Bingham Records. In what ways did the recording process differ because of this switch?
Ryan Bingham: It was definitely a lot more laid-back. You didn’t have a pressure from the label, you didn’t have the time constraint. We just set up in a friend’s old house. It was just me and some friends, and we really just had the time and we were relaxed. And we just had a lot of fun recording the record.
Dive: Where would you say your inspiration for Tomorrowland came from?
RB: It came from a lot of different things. Each kind of album is a different chapter in your life. As you grow older, you move on. And the more places you travel to and the people you meet along the way, and all of the different things you experience along the adventures of life — you have to take all of that stuff into consideration. It’s just kind of the next part of my life.
Dive: How would you say this record differs from your others?
RB: This one seems to be a lot louder than the others. There’s a lot of electric guitars and things like that. It’s a lot more electric and a lot more power. I really just wanted these songs to be fun to play live. It’s just very electric guitar driven.
Dive: Which song on Tomorrowland was your favorite to write? Why?
RB: I think the song “Heart of Rhythm” that I really like. It was one of the first ones and it kind of set the stage for the whole record. I wrote pretty much all of the songs for the electric guitar and there’s a lot of stuff like The Clash or David Bowie and a lot of punk rock stuff. And I kind of felt like it had the attitude I wanted to convey on the record.
Dive: Your last album, Junky Star, seems to be more mellow and quieter than Tomorrowland. In the two years between the two albums’ releases, how did you change as an artist?
RB: I think this record has a lot to do with the last one. The last one was really stripped down and slow and a lot of the songs are really sad. And a lot of them were just really hard to play. And with this record, I wanted to have a bunch of songs that I could have some fun with, and I wanted the tempos to be more upbeat. So this record definitely had to do a lot with the last one. I kind of wanted to change the spirit of (my music).
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