Ryan Traster has a new album coming out, Lifers, it’s thoughtful and country. It’s a perfect listen for a wistful afternoon or a good road trip. You can see him play Oct 3 at the Turf Club as part of the Midway Arts & Music Fest and/or Oct 18th at The Shoe in Rochester.
Please tell me about yourself and your music.
Hey Ann,
I’m a songwriter from St. Paul, MN. I left the Twin Cities in 2008 and spent time living in Joshua Tree, Portland, and New York. I’ve recently returned to the Twin Cities and am so very happy to be back. I’ve toured all over the dang place and have played in somewhere around 48 states and 18 countries. Geography has been my muse over the years. I spend a lot of time walking and observing, crafting tales in my mind in these places that I live and visit, and eventually it comes out as songs.
Your upcoming album, Lifers, is a return to Americana. What spurred the return and are there things you learned from trips to lo-fi and pop worlds that inform your sound now?
I think Americana is the most comfortable space for me to operate in. My songwriting tends to touch a lot on rural life and small town moments, which seem to make more sense in that context. My sonic experimentations over the last several years were mostly driven by poor vocal health I was dealing with and a need to add more frills to the recording, to get a sound that I liked. Lifers felt like a return in the sense that I could just pick up an acoustic with my band, hit record, and get the sound I wanted. No frills.
I love the Moonshine Smile, in part because I know what it means and I don’t. But it conjures an image. What was the inspiration for the song?
The first three tracks on Lifers were all written in the same weekend. I was living in Joshua Tree at the time and had been for a number of years. There’s a small town sort of life that intrigued me there and it was important for me to write songs that felt like they told a part of that story. “Moonshine” is a fun one about lust/love gone awry. A wild man outmatched by an even wilder woman.
Lifers is such a thoughtful song. I like the idea that it’s never too late to blow it all up or burn it or down. It’s darkly inspiring. Does each song feel like that new opportunity to you?
This is a great question. Yes, it really does. There is a sort of optimism that goes into the completion of every song. The idea of something nebulous being distilled into a tangible thing, cast out in a space it can provide meaning or joy to others, and the exhilaration of “okay, what’s next”. I spend a lot of time building the sandbox nowadays, cultivating the environment I want to create in, and once that’s done, I get to work. Every part of that process feels like a reinvention to me, or at least like it holds the potential to be. I hold that feeling dear. It changed my life for the first time when I was 15 and it still does regularly.
Please tell us where folks can hear you play the new music live.
Me and the band will be at the Turf Club this Saturday on 10/3 for the Midway arts and music fest. I’m packing in some more shows before the end of the year as well; Rochester, Duluth, and Trempealeau, WI.
