Ryan Meyer – Highly Suspect ‘Back From A Break from The Public’
Highly Suspect are coming back!It’s been a hot minute since they last hit Australian shores and hot off the heels of their European tour and latest album release Midnight Demon Club, the Cape Cod crew are more popular than ever and it’s not hard to see why. The group's Australian and New Zealand shows selling out right left and centre plus a couple of venue upgrades since the announcement – it is set to be a tour to remember.With just days to go before the band’s epic tour commences, we had a chat with Ryan Meyer (resident drummer and backing vocals) about all things Highly Suspect!This is your first visit to Australia in a while. Is there anything in particular you are looking forward to seeing or doing while you are here?This is our first time visiting Australia in a very long time! I think the last time was 2016 or 2017. Either way, we are very excited to come over to your side of the planet! My favorite thing to do when travelling to different countries is trying traditional meals. You can learn a lot about a culture just from the food alone. Plus, I eat… all the time. Maybe it’s a drummer thing.You've had a bit of a break over the last few years. What has the band been up to during that time? What may have seemed like a break was actually just a break from the public. I think the excitement from the first two albums was a lot for us to handle, and then Covid happened. We were ready to step out of the limelight but we never really stopped working! We’ve been on tour all year long, and we even made a record over the summer in LA. One that we are very very excited about.What was the album about? Were there any particular themes that you were trying to get across or anything in particular that sort of inspired you? When we made Midnight Demon Club, we had no idea if touring would ever come back! We made the album in the middle of the pandemic. We took a chance, figuring the old way of life was dead, and instead of making songs for the stage we made songs for movies. Telling of those times huh? I personally had a couple of surgeries, as drummers do, so I couldn’t actually write on the drums. Instead, I learned how to program drums and had a lot of fun learning and exploring that whole new world.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiL95kPcSZQI loved the whole album, although my favourites were 'Need to Say', 'The Sound', 'Caught on Fire', 'Midnight Demon Club', 'Love Like This' and 'Natural Born Killer'. So pretty much the whole album! What was your favourite song on the album? First of all, thank you! I also really like those songs and they mean a lot. My favorite song of the album is ‘Evangeline’. The sound clip in the beginning of the song is our old friend Kyle who is drunk and playing guitar for Rich. I’m not sure how it happened but we decided to take the chords he was using and made a song. What we ended up with, I definitely didn’t expect it, but I love it so much. For me, the new album had all the feels. It had that familiar 'hit you where it's deep' punchy vibe to it that your previous albums had. The kind of music that seems to just really get you. I love it when bands release new music – you can see the growth or progression, but still enough of that familiar sound that you love so much. How do you feel about how the band has progressed and grown? What are your thoughts on that?Honestly, this band has been through a lot. Internal struggles, ups and downs and confusion forced us to try new things. It made us realize we can play any style of music we want and we had to make those albums to know that. After our experience with those two albums, we realized all we really wanted to do was make music that was true to us as a group of artists. So that's exactly what we did over the summer! From start to finish, we made an album in one room from writing to production. Even though it’s not complete or out yet, we’ll definitely be playing some very new music for Australia.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCW6QO0UkCsHave you ever had a track make it to TV/movie, or is there one you would love to hear one of your songs on?We actually had some pretty good luck getting our music into TV films and video games. Kevin James used ‘Natural Born Killer’ in his newest special! I would love to have a song in a Marvel movie and always dreamed of having songs in a 007 movie.For the fans out there – what is a fun fact or something about your band that your fans might not know but want to know? Well for those who don’t know we’ve grown as a band since the last time we saw you. There are five of us now and our new members Matt Kofos and Mark Schwartz add so much to the sound. It’s still the same, just bigger and better.
What's next for the band? Are you working on some more new music or more tours? We’re touring in Europe right now and trying to finish the production and mixing elements of a new album. Hopefully we’ll put it out sometime next year! We also plan to return to Australia and New Zealand sooner rather than later next year.If you dig the likes of Royal Blood, The Butterfly Effect, Nothing But Thieves, or Reignwolf – you’ll love Highly Suspect. You’ll find me front and centre at the Brisbane show @ The Brightside – there are still a few tickets left – DO IT – and this is why!Interview by Bec O’Reilly@bec.belles
HIGHLY SUSPECT – NEW ZEALAND + AUSTRALIAN TOUR
Tuesday, 14 November @ Powerstation, Auckland – SOLD OUT
Wednesday, 15 November @ Town Hall, Christchurch – NEW SHOW
Friday, 17 November @ The Loons, Christchurch – SOLD OUT
Saturday, 18 November @ The Loons, Christchurch – SOLD OUT
Sunday, 19 November @ The Shed, Wellington – SOLD OUT
Tuesday, 21 November @ Stay Gold, Melbourne – NEW SHOW
Thursday, 23 November @ Stay Gold, Melbourne – SOLD OUT
Friday, 24 November @ Crowbar, Sydney
Saturday, 25 November @ The Brightside Outdoors, Brisbane – VENUE UPGRADE
Tickets at destroyalllines.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KO86n8Ueoo
