Ryan McCormack

Born in Canton Ticino, Lugano, Switzerland in January of 1982; I was a little Peace Corps baby before I moved to the United States in the winter of 1983. Growing up in the sleazeball days of Ronald Reagan and electronic experimentation, I had to find my own gateway to escape the nausea. Both my dad and older brother played music constantly; so I found myself sneaking into dad's closet listening to his country/soul records. By high school I found a liking to the piano and my first song, Cassandra Michel, was written about my high school sweetheart in the year 2000. Everything soon followed thereafter. I was living in the desert town of El Paso from 2000-2003, when I formed the eclectic/jazz trio the Coefficients. Rivaling the all too familiar emo/rock sounds of the El Paso music scene, we had an avante-garde sound that shocked the listeners and fans around the southwest. Unfortunately, our days of live performance caught up to us. Drummer Tito Silva & bassist Marcos Lujan moved to Phoenix, AZ.In 2003 I moved to San Francisco. I had some success there but felt as if I was a little window stuck inside a big city. The so called "liberals" that lived there pissed me off. They talked a lot of talk when in fact, all they were was a bunch of rich snobs who snuffed at you if you were wearing the wrong clothes. To get away from this urban vomit, I started going to the local roller derby where I found solace in watching girls smack the shit out of each other in the roller ring. It is here where I wrote the song "Roller Derby". Fascinated by my music, my brother recommended I move to Austin TX, the live music capitol of the world.In Austin, I met a friend named Neil Flanz. Neil Flanz played pedal steel with Gram Parsons and The Fallen Angels during Gram's last tour before Gram Parsons overdosed from heroin in 1973. Along with Emmy Lou Harris and many other great artists, Neil has contributed his musical genius by way of the pedal steel since the 1960's. It is with great gratitude folks, that I present you my music: Roller Derby & Isolated & Cassandra Michel. "After Hours" was originally recorded by the Velvet Underground.Enjoy it folks... and check out new songs coming soon!