Ryan Ross Hernandez will finally release the follow up to his multiplatinum Dark Secret Love with a concept album titled Let a Man Be Lost on November 22nd. Second single (first single for everyone outside of the United States and Canada), "The Halfhearted Lover" will arrive on October 22nd for airplay and October 26th on all major digital outlets worldwide. "Each song is inspired by someone or some event," Hernandez told fans in a press release. "In the past year in a half, two years, I've experienced a lot of things that I've been dying to write about. My last two years have been pretty eventful. Everything was intense, there was in between. It was intense joy or intense pain or intense curveballs, and I had tons of events, and people to write about. A lot of things I wanted to say in the moment that I didn't. A lot of things people wanted to tell me in the moment but didn't."

According to Hernandez, Let a Man Be Lost was written, composed, and produced entirely by himself — "I'm a perfectionist, which means that if I wanted to make the perfect record I needed to control everything and make it sound perfect to me," he said — and will once again be backed by the same band that contributed and toured on his previous two albums. Preorders for Let a Man Be Lost will begin at a special Let a Man Be Lost 1.0 site on October 25th.

Hernandez has spent the past two years writing tracks for his follow-up to Dark Secret Love, which has sold nearly six million copies, was nominated for Best Album at the Birdies, and had a Best Single recipient come off it, thanks to the hit number one single, A Never-Ending Trip to Heartbreak. "Ever since I put out Dark Secret Love, I've been writing for this record and conceptualizing it," Hernandez said. "I like to take a lot of time between records to work on the next one. I did the same thing for Dark Secret Love. I took two years to three years in between, and for me, I write everything that I live. You have to give yourself a lot of time to live a lot."

Hernandez recently shot a video for "The Halfhearted Lover" in Nashville, Tennessee, and told fans, "It's my 'I wish I was born in the seventies ode, living in Laurel Canyon in LA', this is the song I would have written, if I had grown up listening to Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac. It's about the complexity of where a lot of people are in their life right now. Where they're trying to figure out how much room they have to give another person. This song is sorta the self-study of not being sure and being of split-mind. Right now I'm twenty-five, and I wanna run! I'm running! It's one of the most honest songs, lyrical songs on the record. It describes my feelings on love, pretty much to the point. It's not putting how I feel into a certain language of a song. It's pretty much how I feel." Hernandez as always stayed mum on saying which past relationship inspired him to write the song.

Edited by user 28 October 2010 13:00:11(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Greg Walls (Studio 60): This is one of the most highly anticipated albums in a very long time, a massive 22 tracks, you certainly give the fans what they want, so honoured to have you signed to Studio60.

Ryan Ross Hernandez: "Well thank you, for all the kind words. I've learned a lot since I got into the business about five years ago. More or so, with my music and my professional career than in my personal life, but with this record I just wanted to write from the heart because I wanted to keep it closer to the latter. But I wanted to do so without dropping names or saying too much, which I believe I was able to accomplish. And don't worry if you do, this is probably my most women friendly album to date, or even more so since my fan base was already at least 77% percent women. But again thank you, hopefully you get a chance to listen to the record, I'm as satisfied and as proud of it as I've ever been with any record. I think it's gonna surprise some people."

(OOC: Thanks, I was actually surprised at how quickly I was able to write this up.)

Doing the 60 Minutes interview would be different, I'd like to see that more than anything else up here.

(OOC: I might do it if I get some brilliant idea for it before then. Would also need to write a good format for it, which would be different since I've never done anything like it. Honestly, my favorite, which I started writing recently, is the Saturday Night Live one, which aside from the performances, I'm writing three or four sketches that include RRH.)

Possessing a slight country tone, it's a perfect blend of Hernandez's past work into an excellent pop song, and the female harmony vocals behind him, make Ryan sound like some kind of powerhouse without ever trying to force his falsetto vocals. Hernandez churns out a rustic, Tom Petty two-note motif surrounded by a pleasant pop jangle to create one of the most single-ready songs on the record veering stylistically between glossy modern blues and, well, glossy modern pop; here his intent is to channel the sunny, clear (and resurgently fashionable) radio-friendly sounds of Fleetwood Mac or Tom Petty. Lyrically, Ryan is engrossed with his interpersonal struggles. Even he doesn't know where he's headed. On the lead single, the twenty-five-year-old confesses his halfhearted intents when it comes to love, and his inability of fully devoting his time to another person. Hernandez is still as quizzical and pensive as ever, but he has never been more immersed in the spotlight whilst doing so. Ryan proves on, The Halfhearted Lover, that he can still wield a guitar like a fifth limb, fashion catchy hooks or howl a quivering, feel-good falsetto just as good, or even better than he could two years ago. The single sounds just as terrific when Hernandez drops the seriousness, pondering and sending up his reputation as a rake; portraying the dude who kisses with one eye open, scanning for his next conquest. Lyrical brooding aside, the music stirs everything from subtle country twangs to bluesy licks and simple pop melodies to accompany a chorus that is sure to be stuck in your head after first listen. The Halfhearted Lover, solidifies Hernandez as an artist who can appeal to sixteen year old teenagers with high school love drama, just as much as housewives in their forties who's husbands don't spend enough time with them, and every woman demography between them.

(OOC: Just remembered that I forgot to post a description for the first single; where here it is! I'll be posting the first RP for that 3-week countdown thing that I mentioned earlier, later tonight.)

November 2, 2010

"What We're Fighting For," is available now on iTunes.

The touchstones are Sting, along with latter-day Eric Clapton and the '70s blue-eyed soul of the Doobie Brothers and Boz Scaggs. ''What We're Fighting For'' is an exquisite ballad powered by a murmuring six-note guitar figure. Having a vaguely jazz-spiced sound that's reminiscent of Sting's early solo work, with its elaborately constructed sound. "What We're Fighting For," is a gut-wrenchingly poignant song that give voice to a generation of kids raised on Disney teen stars, MTV reality shows and CNN soundbites who've found themselves all grown up and fighting a war of "beliefs." Grappling with a edgy topic -- social and political views. Proving wrong whoever might have doubted Hernandez's writing ability out of lyrical themes concerning love, romance, heartbreak, and himself. But even with the song's sly echoes Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye evoke a previous era's war and protests. Hernandez's vocals croon a cool social observation, without ever taking them out of his comfort zone — with its delicate opening guitar figure and the chanted harmonies of its bridge — recall Sting.



Ryan Ross Hernandez shares personal insights into his new album and songs.

Take a first peek here as Ryan describes the inspiration and making of What We're Fighting For.

"What We're Fighting For, is the first political song I've ever written, but not a political song. I see a political song as something like, People Get Ready by Curtis Mayfield, and What We're Fighting For is not that. Not even close to that style. It's not a call to arms, it's more of a overall impartial view of what beliefs mean to people and the troubles it causes in the world. Everyone in the world has a right to believe in whatever they want to believe in. And songs like the one I mentioned before, and others from Marvin Gaye and such are great songs don't get me wrong, but I don't have those powerful vocals to interpret a song like that. This is the only song on the record where the music came about before the lyrics, and had this very, I wouldn't say bluesy guitar lick but a soulful melody that changed tempo's a lot. It's one of the songs that I honestly didn't want to have the vocals follow the direct melody of the song, in a steady pace following the melody. This song is certainly one of those that is very guitar driven. Which I wanted to include at least a couple of songs that had that dynamic to it. People like to talk about my muse, and which people inspire me to write certain songs, but this one is just inspired from the world and how certain things are viewed in the media. I don't think anyone can actually get the feel of what things are happening in the world from a television screen if they aren't actually there so."