Interview: RYAN (CUB)

The first release on La Cura de la Semana finds the label showcasing the first installment of it’s ‘La Cura de la Semana’ series. Based in Cuba and founded by RYAN, the label looks to showcase progressive house, deep house and melodic techno, eventually branching off into downtempo in the future as well. For the label’s first release, label boss RYAN has assembled some of Cuba’s finest progressive music talents for a four track VA EP. We had a chance to catch up with RYAN for an exclusive interview just prior to the release. Enjoy!

Hi Ryan, thanks for joining us. What is your current mood and what was the last piece of music you listened to?

Hi Mitch, a big greeting to you and the Release Promo team, thank you very much for the invitation, it is a great honor. My current mood is very happy and the last piece I heard was Magdalena - Outlines.

What are your plans for the coming week?

Next week I will make a trip to the east of the country where the beaches are beautiful and full of inspiration, I will take the energy that the Sun provides and why not, a cold beer.

Talk to us about growing up and living in Cuba, how has it affected your musical taste and the music you make?

I was born in 1985, which is why I began to have reasonable use of music since 1990 where I listened to House, Trance and Eurodance that came to us from the radio and the occasional tape, those of my generation have gone through several transformations such as radio, tapes, cds, pc and the current digital era and we adapt well and with regard to musical taste it does not affect me having been born in Cuba because there was always quality music at home, especially danceable music such as Disco, Funk and Reggae. If it is true that electronic music is not the strongest especially for the music industry that has not yet arrived but it is a solid underground movement of more than 30 years including electro-acoustic music that is well recognized, we are more than 200 djs and producers throughout the island and struggling every day to grow and study even more and to contribute our grain of sand in the history of electronic music worldwide.

What are your favourite venues to play or attend an event at in Cuba and why?

Each place where I have played is a new experience for me so it is a challenge and I like all of them, in particular in front of the sea and sunset are what I love and I would not get bored of repeating, another unforgettable experience was playing inside A cave in "Palenque de los Cimarrones" was incredible because of the mystique and darkness of the place. As for attending, well, I like all kinds of parties and clubbing-type events that are long and the music impeccable.

Who are some of your early musical influences?

I remember one of the first tracks I heard was Pump up the jam by Technotronic but my influences are from Trance: Artists like Robert Miles, Paul Van Dyk, Way Out West, Dance 2 Trance, Age of Love and when Progressive reaches my Hearing from John Digweed, Dave Seaman, Pole Folder, Hernan Cattaneo to name a few became the soundtrack of my life I can cite Sasha and John Digweed's Northern Exposure as one of the most amazing things I have ever heard. but I consider myself a music lover and anthropologist when I listen to a large number of musicians that it would take a long time to mention them all.

How have you been dealing with COVID-19? How has it affected your daily life, music production and overall inspiration to write new music?

It is no secret to anyone that COVID-19 is an unfortunate disgrace for humanity, but we must do our part, personally I have a 6-year-old daughter for whom I have to take care of myself and her in addition to my family and yes I have been very disciplined with regard to care and preventive measures, regarding the creation and production of music, well I have had time to create new music, publish it on record labels and the most relevant thing is the achievement of my own label under the effects of the Pandemic which means that work continued because art cannot be confined. Life becomes much slower under the effects of confinement and there is not much to draw inspiration from but it is a good time to reinvent yourself, create new music, do exercises at home, study and if you ask me, the reality is that I have not stopped working.

What is the current situation with the pandemic in Cuba? Are there any clubs or small events happening yet?

The situation of the Pandemic is already quite controlled in Havana, which is where I live there are very few infections, in other provinces it still hits but not in quantities, the school year has already resumed and little by little advancing to a new normality. There are still no official events where you can go dancing, but if the private sector and its mostly open-air bars have begun to reopen with a limited percentage of people and sometimes sitting down, the truth is that you still don't breathe that party air and I It seems that it took a long time, in terms of chamber concerts and the great theaters began to give their functions.

What is something you do now (regularly) that you did not before COVID-19?

Doing exercises at home, here we are a group of friends who had a gym and due to the pandemic I brought all the devices to my apartment so you can imagine how my mother's scandal was hahaha but all for health hahaha, I have also started to read that Before, I did not do it, above all, books regarding sound and studies on music production, before the pandemic I took piano lessons and because of life in constant movement I did not read and it is already a habit of 8 months that I do not think to leave and if it is for me improvement much better.

Once nightlife eventually resumes globally what kind of effect do you think this period in our history will have on the clubbing experience?

When that undoubtedly happens, this stage will have a great collateral effect because if it has been 8 months since there have been events, parties, festivals and clubs, it was a call to conscience to maintain hygiene and take care of health, there will be many people eager to party but also concerned about their well-being, in addition to the industry, it will be year zero since there will be limitations that will affect business and the way of holding events will have to be renewed from now on. But it must exist, we already verified that without music we cannot exist and all creators in one way or another demonstrate it but also without live music it cannot be possible since it is a human condition even for living beings to meet and socialize.

The launch of your new La Cura de la Semana label is this week. Tell us how that came to be and what your vision or inspirations are for the label.

I am freaking out in color for this new challenge that arises in this confinement stage, looking for colleagues to master a track for me, I came to my great friend AFFKT who offered me a good offer for it and making Pobla Studio an important mixing company and mastering if I did it, I got the idea to go further and contact Proton Soundsystem, which is the distributor I work with, I sent him the music and the Label was approved 2 months after the world lockdown exactly in May, it was a great light that came to illuminate the way for me and the inspiration comes from the fact that it is my Radioshow that has been out on FM weekly for 10 years and precisely this year is its tenth anniversary and it is amazing to see how I evolved into a record label one of its concepts is to make a Fine curation in music that heals the soul and music is the healing power for the soul of living beings. The vision is to turn the label into a world benchmark of the Progressive genre and derivatives is the first of its kind in Cuba but not the only one since there are several record labels in the country the ambition is great culturally speaking there are unlimited perspectives and we only have to continue working on the weekly radio shows, the launches and when possible the label showcases we are a great team of artists collaborating with each other including djs, producers, visual artists, sound engineers from various parts of the world Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Spain we want to do a great cultural exchange reaffirming that music is the universal language, getting new music from emerging and established artists is the intention to find the perfect balance between the past, present and future of the Progressive subgenre, where we will also have a Downtempo section making a great turning point with the music to listen to a great evening in front of the sunset.

The first release on La Cura de la Semana is a 4 track Various Artists EP. Tell us about the release and why you chose the four artists you did to represent the first release.

The intention of bringing out several artists in the first release is to show the great part of musicians who make the most melodic and progressive subgenres in Cuba, of course leaving for later others who venture into them, we are 4 Cuban artists who are also publishing music constantly for some time and as a strategy since it is a new label, it chose those who are making a name for themselves and have not stopped working and thus show the world that Cuba is present in the history of world electronic music. A great debut and has an interesting variety because they are different concepts intertwined emphasizing the balance that I was commenting on and hopefully it will be to the liking of the public. Mecha Invernizzi in Artwork, Mr Myl in logo design, Dhany G, Different Age, Seycel and myself representing Progressive Cubano, a great honor to show our art.

You have contributed a track to the collection. It’s already been played by Hernan Cattaneo on his Resident Podcast. Tell us about the track and walk us through the production process on it?

Hernan Cattaneo plays it on the 3rd anniversary of Electronic Groove in Spanish magazine and I will be eternally grateful, he is a great artist and I admire his work a lot, I give him an anecdote because Hernan contributes with this support to the launch of the first Progressive label in Cuba, when I sent him the track and he downloaded it to him, he told me that he would play it in a mix in the month of July and I told him that he was about to launch the label and I asked him if this track was released on my label or on another, which he replied, take it out yours, means that he is a direct part of the launch of the label making history once again but this time in the republic of Cuba and for me it is an honor that a Master of electronic music plays my music as they know those actions are the that give you the impulse to take off and not know when to land, such is the case of this same interview with Release Promo, a reference of electronic music worldwide. The inspiration of the track has been playing me Super Mario in one of his sagas where there is a mysticism used in the track, I am one of those who stops to analyze the names and I wonder why and for what I do music that is why the inspiration comes from several sides from a simple level in a game, the sea breeze, favorable situations or not, it seems incredible to me how you can make an idea that you have in your physical mind with music production, besides that I breathe music is in my dna as there are times that you have no inspiration for anything and you sit down and do a beat but the high or clap were out of tune but you liked how it sounds and there came the muse.

Was there anything that inspired you to write the track? And where does your inspiration come from generally?

The inspiration of the track has been playing me Super Mario in one of his sagas where there is a mysticism used in the track, I am one of those who stops to analyze the names and I wonder why and for what I do music that is why the inspiration comes from several sides from a simple level in a game, the sea breeze, favorable situations or not, it seems incredible to me how you can make an idea that you have in your physical mind with music production, besides that I breathe music is in my dna as there are times that you have no inspiration for anything and you sit down and do a beat but the high or clap were out of tune but you liked how it sounds and there came the muse.

What’s your set-up like? Do you favor physical gear over digital? And what studio tools feature most in your tracks?

My configuration is physical over digital and on many occasions digital only and the software machines themselves stand out a lot.

What are your plans for the label going forward? Anything you can tell us about?

As I said above, there are many future plans for the label and one of the ideas is to sign great artists and find that balance, I would love for many artists from our region and from other latitudes of the planet to sign, to make it a world reference. A first for you, in the very near future we will receive excellent music from our sister country Colombia,

What advice would have for an artist hoping to sign their music to La Cura de la Semana?

First of all, that you study the label well and understand its concept and curatorship, but that you don't limit yourself to sending music because that is what all labels are based on and nourish in discovering new and unknown music to launch into the world. Ableton Live and Reason this couple of DAWs are tremendous and do a beastly damage, every day I learn something new and I am amazed with a simple button.

What’s a piece of gear or software that always gets used when you’re writing a track?

Ableton Live and Reason this couple of DAWs are tremendous and do a beastly damage, every day I learn something new and I am amazed with a simple button.

Is there a movie you would have loved to have produced the soundtrack for? And if so why?

My favorite movie is the trilogy of The Matrix and I would have loved to have produced its soundtrack or the best the track in which Morpheus speaks for the last time to Zion, a hopeful scene full of tribal dancing and love in the last rave of humanity , the track was produced by FLUKE and it's called Zion, Fluke why didn't you call me to co-produce it? Hahaha.

What have been some of your favourite tracks over the quarantine period?

I have heard everything from Rage Against The Machine to Kamilo Sanclemente but I share with you the songs that I have repeated over and over again: Alex O Rion - With You (Original Mix), Alex ORion - L¨Arbre Des Contes (Original Mix),  Sasheen - Colors (Original Mix) and Navar - Le Paradigme (Hernan Cattaneo & SoundExile Remix)

Apart from music, what makes you happiest?

I love exercising, playing football, going to the beach.

What is your favourite food?

My favorite food is pasta, although the only thing I don't eat is beets, hehehe

Iphone or Android?

I tell you that the two of them hahaha before I had an iPhone but they broke me and now I'm on Android I'm a traitor hahaha.

What does the remainder of 2020 and early 2021 hold for you? Anything you can share with us?

Life became very complex in this period and we know that it is the most precious thing we have and you can go in an instant, take good care of your health and hope to return to our lives, jobs and daily life, I hope in 2021 to start traveling and make my music known throughout the planet and the universe if possible.

Thank you very much for the interview, Mitch and the Release Promo team, I am very, very happy and I don't fit in the room with so much happiness. I want to take advantage of it and congratulate you for the great work you do. Love you.

The first release on La Cura de la Semana is out now: https://bit.ly/3mjIkyr