Personalized | Ricky Ryan

This Christmas I took three (and a half) of the most loving people in my life to see Cirque Du Soleil’s Quidam.  It was a breathtaking evening of acrobatics, dance, music and absolute artistic and choreographic genius; far and away the coolest present I wrapped this season.

The looks on my parent’s face each time an unbelievable act of courage and concentration was performed was priceless.  Adriana was absolutely exhausted before the show, but the energy of the actors and visual stimulation cleansed her fatigue within the first act.  Even the little boy in Adri’s belly was awakened by the thunderous sound of Quidam.

Imagination is invaluable in my eyes.  For me, experiencing a gift that can only be produced by people of dedication, precision and unfathomable talent is an endowment of pure love.  Passion is the most beautiful ingredient of anyone’s life. It’s awe-inspiring to witness and equally moving to listen to.  It’s what I felt at Cirque and it’s what I feel each and every time we’re privileged enough to share an exclusive from our brother, Ricky Ryan.

My heart swells when I listen to this mix.  Immediately I’m propelled into a dreamland with Ricky’s custom-made intro. Misery is the furthest emotion I feel as the tension builds, and for the second time this holiday, Vincenzo’s epic Gruuv touches my soul. The proceeding oasis, enclosed within Glass Walls, can only be compiled by someone who’s felt the warmth of a proper underground dance floor.  The composition concludes as Promised, with love and appreciation.

With Personalized we hope to provide insight into bringthebeats’ most respected and admired artists.  We want to reach deeper into their persona, not only musically, but personally, as the title infers.

We’ve always understood what this music is to Ricky.  It’s far and away the truest representation of who he is. But his brilliance resides in the fact that not everyone can comprehend exactly what that is. He’s someone we’ll always love to learn more about and through this interview we hope to instill a similar affection inside you…

How was 2011 Ricky? What were the high points, low points and how was it different from other years both personally and professionally?

2011 was probably my fav year lately. I’ve been getting more organized and thanx to this I can finally find the balance between DJing and producing. I joined forces with great people I can rely on whom help me weekly to achieve my work routine. I feel way healthier thanx to meditation and exercise. I have also experimented with healing plants and alternative medicine such as acupuncture. It’s been really pleasant and has helped me to release stress and anxiety.

The lower point was to mistakenly delete my back ups with 10 years of work, which includes all the music I compiled, re edited and released since day 1. But I am still here, excited like a child working with new toys and fresh music to play out, mix and share.

You’ve spent a lot of time in Europe, but I believe you’re still based out of Buenos Aires. How do you juggle that incredible distance?

I love my routine. While it’s very wide now in random activities, when I travel abroad for gigs on weekends in South America, I like to come back home on Mondays so I can proceed with my duties normally. I fly to Europe yearly for the summer season and luckily I am also based in Barcelona where I’ve got a beautiful family. This way I can manage to tour around Europe and always come back “home”. I’m in India at the moment, where I’ve got some dear friends so we are basically setting up a new home in Asia too.

One thing we’ve found remarkable while getting to know you over the years is how close you are to your family and how interesting your lives are. Talk about your family Ricky…

I’m blessed with a big wonderful family based in Argentina and Barcelona. We are all very united. It’s hard to put in words how much I admire them all. My father has been a humble hard worker who inspired me to fully focus in my duties. My mother is an angel with whom I’m strongly connected to in some cosmic way. My brother and sisters are adorable shiny creatures. Naty is a mother of two little sweethearts and is now organizing her own events, Wally is running his own business and Tina has her own fashion brand. My family has always been very supportive to me and my career.

Explain how you’ve embraced your spirituality, most specifically astrology.

Since I was very young I remember myself being a dreamer, attracted to mysticism and art. I still have memories of the first time I saw the ocean. My chest opened from side to side and felt LOVE. I always considered the magic of nature, landscapes, animals, music and all artistic expressions too incredible to take for granted. So I felt I should dig deeper and find out more about this spiritual force instead of living the rat race. I’d rather believe in the stars up in the sky, than in terrenal rock stars. My astrologer is one of my best friends, my master, and one of the wisest men I’ve met… and we are the same age!

We found each other during the height of progressive house in the early 2000′s. Since then I truly believe the genre has evolved and is as fresh sounding today as it’s ever been. Yet, its DJs remain very underground, and talent DJing / producing techno, electro, dub step and trance have seemingly broke through to the mainstream. As someone who’s in the scene 24/7, do you agree?

I don’t believe in progressive as a musical genre. Back then I fell in love with the progressive vibe which included all kind of genres… could be house, techno, dark, bright, mysterious, hypnotic, cinematic, deep, uplifting, driving, funky, spooky, or moody. Everything was mixed 2gether in one DJ set… mind-blowing stuff based in best trax selection and mixing skills… constant surprise, unpredictable changes with the smoothest flow… classy and soulful but fun and entertaining… the fine balance and a spiritual experience. Is there any fresher and more challenging? This was the reason why I stopped playing in bands and decided to become a DJ.

But things have changed drastically thru the years and our EDM culture has been invaded by radio hits and pop stars. I believe in one style where all genres are combined 2gether as one never-ending story. I believe in all genres that share one essence.  This is not a trend, it’s a lifestyle .

If we could grant you three wishes for 2012 one for your personal life, another for electronic music and a third for all worldwide; what would these wishes be?

For my personal life I wish to remain healthy, hopeful and positive.

For the electronic music scene I wish artists to unite and share the blessings.

For the world I wish spiritual leaders to take over in every environment.

For all things Ricky Ryan visit www.rickyryan.com.