Ryan Hill Artist Bio

1) Ryan Hill is a music producer and events coordinator in Cape Town, South Africa. After the release of his first EP on Nick Graters Teknotribe records, he has gone on to release on Awen Records, Bully Beatz and esteemed Ukrainian label Dear Deer, with his Awen release making it into the Beatport Melodic Techno hype 100 chart, and his Bully Beatz release making it into the Minimal Techno Hype 100. His work has been remixed by K.A.L.L.I.L and he has received support from the likes of Gaga , Mateo! for his track “Nebula”. In his short span on the scene, he’s played at festivals such as Into The Wild, Equinox , Plett Rage, Afrika Burn, and Twilight Festival in Johannesburg where he headlined after Julian Jeweil. He has also appeared at most of Cape Towns premier clubs, such as Modular, Wonderland, Tau and a former residency at Reset (Era) . Although his sound could be broadly categorized as Techno, he has always been influenced by an array of genres, from Deep House to Nu-Disco and everything in between. This has allowed his carefully curated sets and productions to be diverse and full of variety, while at the same time maintaining the same overall energy and sound. This unique blend can be described as spacey, melodic, progressive and consistently high in energy, with occasional bursts of darker, minimal grooves.

2) Ryan Hill was born and raised in outside of the rural community of Spring Hill, Kansas, 30 minutes from Kansas City. When not playing baseball, or basketball, Ryan learned to play piano and spent hours singing to the radio, trying to make his voice match what he heard on the other end. College gave Ryan the opportunity to further explore his love for music. Through a scholarship to Ottawa University, where he played baseball, as well as sang in the University Choir, Ryan expanded his vocal skill and range, training in opera. Through friendly motivation, Ryan began teaching himself guitar, with the goal to sing and play at parties. It was there, in Ottawa that he truly began to love performing, even if it was only for family and friends. A year spent in Antwerp, Belgium to play professional baseball allowed Ryan the type of alone time to begin to truly look deep inside and learn to listen to the voice inside his head and heart. In downtime between games, he began to learn to write and express himself through music and lyrics. Finally he’d found an outlet to say the things that always seem to escape in the heat of the moment. The experience allowed Hill to develop the confidence that he could write something meaningful, if to no one but himself. This confidence led to his next move, to Los Angeles and down the road he now treads. Trying times, hard work and heartache sometimes cloud and muddy this path, but the journey is a reward in and of itself. As he learns more about himself, the man inside, and where this next road will lead, Hill turns to the works of John Lennon, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Elvis, Stevie Wonder, Hall and Oates Damien Rice, Ray Lamontagne and Bob Seger and for direction. The Last few years have seen Hill go from solo performer, alone on stage with a guitar and piano, to the front man to a newly formed quartet. His sound has expanded to fully express his pop/rock and blues roots. His stage presence has grown, and it’s no coincidence that his faithful following has as well. Sharing the stage with Ryan are Mike McGarity (drums) Aidean (bass) and Chris Vazquez (lead guitar). Ryan plays both acoustic guitar and piano but his best instrument is his voice, a voice that Jamey Bresden from The Deli Magazine (www.thedelimagazine.com/la) has called “…a voice so unexpectedly strong, for a moment I thought he had channeled Freddie Mercury.” Be sure to catch Ryan performing throughout Los Angeles, and be sure to check out his debut release “Believe” on iTunes or Amazon.com Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.