Ryan Axford
My name is Ryan Axford, I've been playing guitar for a while now, and recording has been my passion since I can remember. These are songs which I have recorded on my own, I play all the instruments, sing, and harmonize. Feel free to email me at RyanAxford@gmail.com with any questions.
Tell me about your history? How did you get where you are now?
Ryan began his music career playing drums at a very young age. Throughout High School he played in a group called Axis Aurora, who for five years had marvelous opportunities to experience live shows and recording studios. They won a few competitions that sent them to record in Thunder Studios in Groton, Ma, and Blue Jay Studios in Carlisle, Ma. Bands such as Aerosmith, Boston, Billy Joel, Alice Cooper, and Yo Yo Ma to name a few, have recorded there as well.
As the band played around Ryan took time to progress in his other instrumental interests. As well as drums, he now plays guitar, bass, piano, and sings. The band eventually broke up after a strong run in early 2008, and Ryan focused heavily on his solo career.
In late 2008 Ryan formed the group Goodnight Moon with Kendall Di Tommaso, Elisabeth Hodge, and Theresa Cleary. Joining later to play Viola, Mike Cuello helped to lead the group to have a truly unique sound of classical/pop/alternative/acoustic rock.
Before the turn of the New Year Ryan began writing his most recent album, “Heaven, Hell, and That Which Lies Between.” Ryan had always wanted to write a concept album but in the past had failed, and so this was one more attempt. The story follows a man in his journey to save an Angel from Hell while discovering exactly who he is as well. Ryan Is still currently writing the songs for this album 6 months later, but has recently released an early streaming copy of the album here at Reverbnation.com/RyanAxford.
Ryan writes, records, and plays every song and instrument on the album, but in order to keep the illusion of characters realistic he has worked with many vocalists and musicians in order to obtain a broader sound for the album. For this recent album he has recorded Mike Blewitt on lead guitar for two tracks, Fulton Barry on guitar for a song, Brenna Cobleigh, Annie Druello, Erica Caron, Ashley Tello, Steve Aliperta, and Kevin Bates on vocals.
The album is due out later this year and will be available through Ryan. He will be sending it out to labels that may be interested in hearing it.
Enjoy, and thank you for listening!
Have you performed live in front of an audience? Any special memories?
I play mostly around Lowell and have a group called Goodnight Moon. We have a flute, viola/violin, and a contrabass player and typically play at the Egg Roll Cafe (www.eggrollcafe.com)
Your musical influences
My best influences are composed of my friends and family. I don't really learn covers unless I'm looking to write something out of my typical realm of song writing. However I listen mainly to alternative rock such as Breaking Benjamin and Coheed and Cambria, but my recent focus has been more on bands such as Tourist, O.A.R., Splender, Justin Nozuka, and others.
What equipment do you use?
I play a Dean Exotica FM live, but record with an Ibanez AEF37. for Electrics I have a 72' Fender Telecaster Thinline, and an 06' Schecter C-1 Classic. I pretty much only play those, however I also have a Les Paul and a Stratocaster 7-string. I own as well a Lucera Classical guitar and a P-bass.
For drums I play a 00' Yamaha Stage Custom with Remo heads, Zildjian AA hi-hats and Sabian Vault and Sabian HHX cymbals (two crash, one ride, one splash, one china, and a tamborine.)
