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Empire

by Michael S. Ryan

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about

Over the last year, Michael S. Ryan has released a new single on the first day of each month. The final song of this year long project is “Empire” - a beautifully tender and emotive love ballad featuring the incomparable string prowess of Blanche Israel (Jeremy Dutcher) on cello and Kinley Dowling (KINLEY, Hey Rosetta) on violin. It’s a heartfelt, falsetto laden “hit-you-in-the-feels” modern day folk version of Bryan Adams’ Everything I do (I Do It For You).

Beginning with just guitar and voice, the song builds as different instrumentation comes in to add depth and intensity. In the second verse Kinley’s voice joins Ryan singing “I’m not so brave but I am when it’s for you, I hope that’s enough”. The vocal duet continues as drums build towards an epic crescendo of intensity and vocals pushing the limits of their range.

Empire was written and recorded during the depths of Covid-19 and the isolation it brought on. “In April, as we all started to realize this wasn’t going away any time soon, I feel like a lot of people started to get scared,” says Ryan. “And then the shooting happened.” The song spawned from a time of uncertainty and fear as the province and country reeled from the biggest mass shooting in Canadian history. “I just wanted my wife to know she was safe no matter what, that she wasn’t alone in this.”

Ryan’s wife Kristen Herrington has been a key collaborator with this project. With every song, she creates a coinciding representational painting in her abstract acrylic style. With this being the last release of the project, Herrington upped the ante, working with a canvas almost double the size of any she has before.

“The final painting in this collaboration had to represent the culmination of the work we’ve completed together,” says Herrington. “Empire speaks to our ambitions and dreams as a couple. Creating something worthy of that vision was so important.”

With the completion of the 12 songs, a physical copy of the album will be released in the coming months.

lyrics

LYRICS

I would not go if you told me that ghosts were coming for us
I would wait here and I’d tell them to go or I’ll turn them to dust

I would not leave if you told me that demons were coming right now
I would stand here with my fists and my heart and I’d tell them, “Back down!”

CHORUS
Everything I do is for you, always was and always true
We’re building an Empire where we get to rule, no one to tell us what we get to do


I’m not so brave but I am when it’s for you, I hope that’s enough
When we get old we’ll look back at our scars and we’ll say “we were tough!”

credits

released November 1, 2020
Michael S. Ryan - Guitars, vocals, piano
Blanche Israel - Cello
Kinley Dowling - Vocals, Violin
Bruce Gillis Drums

Written, Engineered, Produced and Mixed by Michael S. Ryan
Mastered by J. LaPointe @ Archive Mastering
Artwork by Kristen Herrington Art

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Michael S. Ryan Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia

Sing-a-long midtempo folk exploring the essence of what it is to be human.

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