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As we pick up our chat about the nature of the music industry beast with Ryan O'Neal of Sleeping at Last, I ask if things are tougher on the Christian side of it.
Again, as throughout the first part of our conversation, Ryan gave me a straightforward answer. "It can be more confusing," he said. "When people are representing their business and God it tends to be much worse when they do the wrong thing. It's definitely harder to understand when things go wrong." I mentioned that you'd have to always be on top of your motives, and Ryan knew where I was going. "It's an industry that often finds you second-guessing yourself, trying to figure out if what you're doing is the right thing. After you take time away from the industry you start to remember why you're writing music in the first place; it helps you get everything back in focus." Well, why DO you write music?" I ask. "There are many different reasons," Ryan answered. "For me personally writing music is like an audio journal. It helps me to communicate something meaningful to me in the best way possible, kind of like therapy," he laughs. I asked him if he found self-producing "Keep No Score" therapeutic. "This was our first completely self-produced album," he replied. "We're so particular about our music. We've never had anyone come in and try to change anything about our songs, and we've made a promise to ourselves and to each other not to let that happen. Self-producing helps us keep that promise and it makes it that much more personal. We're so stubborn," he confesses laughingly. "We don't take many suggestions." Before leaving I had one final question, about their most memorable musical moment of the past year. Ryan's answer came quickly. "It was definitely making the "Keep No Score" album. It was our best experience as a band. The whole process from start to finish was so much fun. This time around we had no pressures from a label, and none from within. Actually," he said, "we feel excited and encouraged, the happiest we've ever been." It's hard to argue with that kind of happiness. Pick up "Keep No Score" and find out what all the joy is about.
The copyright of the article More With Sleeping at Last in Christian Music is owned by Kevan Breitinger. Permission to republish More With Sleeping at Last in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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