I just finished a new track, "I hope I'm wrong"...inspired by listening to nineties Depeche Mode and Camouflage. This song uses a mix of 8 bit drums and drumset, with layers of dub echo and beatmixing to create the chaotic mood I wanted to try and conjure. It will be up for free downloads this week, hope you enjoy it! Ryan Henke

Thanks to all of your support in getting me to the event finals in NY, and for the show of support throughout the contest. Soundclickers rock! Thanks to LG for the great opportunity to share my music with so many people! They were great hosts, and the event was a great success!

I have always felt a strong passion for music, then 8 years ago started feeling the need to try and create my own music. I have no formal music training, and started out by buying a cheap guitar and learning to play it on my own. Even when I could barely play a few chords on guitar I started trying to write my own songs, I would compose musical ideas in my head but had a hard time translating my ideas through my limited musical skills. Around 2001 I was amazed by the solo project released by John Frusciante, who is well known for his fame as guitar player for Red Hot Chili Peppers. His release "To Record Only Water for Ten Days" was a great inspiration to me, I was most impressed that he had created the album entirely by himself...guitar, synth, percussion and vocals. This album served as my inspiration to complete an album start to finish by myself. I began reading about the process of recording music and the first recording device I used was a 4-track tape recorder, but through continued trial and error and study I slowly acquired the means to record onto my computer. With each new song I write and record I learn a few more tricks, and the sound quality has improved as my home studio has expanded. One of the biggest upgrades to my home studio was the purchase of Ableton Live, which has helped to make the process of recording a song much quicker and of much higher quality than previous efforts. I am attempting to use Ableton Live to perform my "one man band" dream on stage. All of my songs are created entirely by myself, no other hands have touched or contributed to my music in any way. I push record before each guitar take, and I audition the takes myself and then mix and produce my songs using Ableton. I use electronic drums, synths, acoustic and electric guitars and a variety of effects to expand the musical possibilities of my songs. I hope you enjoy my music, and encourage anybody out there to try and make music that is a true reflection of one person's inner self. They say happiness is a journey not a destination, that has truly been the case as I near the completion of my fully self produced cd "Infinit", to be released 8/8/08.

Just think of the lifestyle of a pro beach volleyball player. Your office is the beach...you travel all over the world...and you work in board shorts or a bikini, with thousands of admiring fans cheering you on. Sound like a dream job? It does to me, let me tell you about one guy living this very dream. I remember conversations with a former roomie of mine over 10 years ago. He was a smart, very likable guy that I expected would find success in whatever he ended up doing in life....but I never expected it would be in his dream to be a pro beach volleyball player. Jake was athletic, but at over 20 years old had never played volleyball other then on occasion with friends. When we talked about dreams I remember him saying that he couldn't think of any greater dream job than playing pro beach volleyball. I even remember him liking to read magazines about beach volleyball but I probably dismissed Jake's chances of reaching his dream about as quickly as I had dismissed my own dream of learning to play guitar and write songs. I heard people start talking about him as a good sand volleyball player in Utah several years after I had lost touch with Jake. Several guys I met and played sand volleyball with in my hometown St George sometime around 2001 or so told me they had seen Jake participate in the small Utah events, and that he had earned the respect of his peers and was known to be the best sand player in Utah by that time. However, when I read about him in the newspaper taking 3rd place in a pro beach volleyball event I was still very much surprised. This would have been some time in 2003, and since that time I have watched him on national television on many occasions playing at the top competitive level there is. He has been league MVP, top money earner, and has been recognized here in the US and internationally as one of the top players in the world. You will be hearing his name this coming summer as he is poised to represent the United States in the Olympic Games in China. I'm writing about this because Jake has been a great inspiration to me. To have known him when pretty much nobody but Jake himself believed he was capable of achieving a dream that seemed so improbable for a guy that grew up living in Utah, far away from the beaches and the best opportunities to nurture his dream, and then seeing him defy the odds and probably a lot of doubt from people around him and achieve his dream....what can you say? Jake's a stud, I had the chance to see him briefly at an AVP event a couple years ago, and we have kept in touch a bit through email....but other than that he mostly just inspires me by his continued success in his unlikely rise to success in his ultimate "dream job". I know his wife believed in him, and helped him in achieving his dream....but it takes a lot of inner fortitude to rise to the level of success Jake has through such an unlikely path. Visit for more information on pro beach volleyball in the US. and for information on international pro beach volleyball. What is more inspiring than a guy living the dream? This song is my ode to "living the dream". Inspired by some of my fondest memories with friends.

I think that most of the popular music created is created thinking of the potential market, and that money being the motivating factor to create music just makes it sound more generic. Why is it that some groups have made popular song after popular song that all sounds the same? Is that what the music consumer likes, or is it just being shoved down our throats? I think that the ease of distribution will change the market drastically, and will make the musician "honest" once again. The little guy with the home studio will find a way to outshine the over-polished major label artist. While I'm pointing the finger, I'll add that I hope the music industry changes...I'm sick of music videos that laugh in the face of the very fans that support the artist...come on, MTV cribs? "Artists" validating their success by showing off 2 Bentley's in the garage and a mansion in the hills? This is just another of the fake "reality tv" lies that I don't buy. I hope that Soul-less music is the first casualty of the new power the music fan has asserted.