When Ryan Ferguson, singer of the band No Knife, strutted up to the stage to accept a 1999 San Diego Music Award for Best Punk Album, he chided, “Well tonight we officially found out we're a punk band now.” Anyone who knows Ryan's accomplishments can understand the humor in this. Two years prior, No Knife won an award for Best Rock Album. Then in 2003, they won again, but this time it was for Best Alternative Album. Ryan has since then gone solo, but hasn't lost any of his momentum. He even won the San Diego Award for Best Pop Album in 2005.

His versatility makes one's head spin, but Ryan doesn't place much importance on classifying himself, and maybe we shouldn't try to either. Our interview with Ryan was just like his lyrics, honest and articulate. Ryan was very forthcoming and spoke openly about everything from his break with No Knife to his busty friend Candace on MySpace and his freaky cats. Enjoy!

You got your start as singer/songwriter in a band called No Knife. The No Knife Wikipedia page is vague and simply relates that No Knife's last show was in March of 2003. Has No Knife officially broken up or really just on hiatus? If the band did actually break up are you still friends with those guys? Can you tell us, now, how you chose the name of the band?

To be honest, I haven't seen our wikipedia page, but yes – the last show we played was with Cursive back in San Diego in March of 2003. We were just finishing up a US tour with them. To be perfectly honest, we all knew it was getting to a point where we needed to stop playing for awhile, but the four of us never sat down together and officially ended it. It was sort of an unspoken thing, aside from selling our van and closing our bank account. We're all still friends though. I think we all deserved (and needed) our own space after that tour, so we didn't see much of each other for a while. But today we all keep in really good touch and support each other's projects, careers and families. Everyone's doing really well.

You wrote most of the lyrics for No Knife with Mitch Wilson. Now that you've gone solo, you are not only writing all the lyrics on your own but also playing all the instruments. Do you miss working with Mitch?

The thing I miss most about not writing with Mitch anymore is not being able to hear his melodies on a routine basis. As a band, we would generally come up with the music first, so when it came time to add vocals it was always really exciting to hear how Mitch would sing the different vocal melodies. He was so good at that. He also came up with some unusual (in a good way) chords and chord patterns. I definitely learned a lot from Mitch. We worked well together because I think we balanced each other out by not letting the song(s) get too poppy or too dark. I guess it's pretty obvious now who the pop influence was.

When I was checking out your MySpace page I noticed both you and No Knife have someone named Candace listed as a top friend. Do you know her? Her profile icon is just a tight shot of some cleavage. Wanna talk about it?

Candace is a good friend of mine. She sang backing vocals on the Riot for Romance record, and actually played (keys and sang) live with No Knife towards the end. I'll have to talk to her about her profile pics. We can't let the youngins see that stuff.

You have won three San Diego Music Awards. The first was with No Knife in 1999 for "Best Punk Album" (Fire in the City of Automatons). The award, again with No Knife, was for "Best Alternative Album" in 2003 (Riot For Romance). And most recently your solo album Three, Four scored you another for "Best Pop Album" in 2005. So which is it, Ryan? Punk, alternative, pop, none of the above, all of the above? Or are you truly that versatile?

Funny you mention those music awards. You actually missed a few more as NK won both “Best Rock Album” and “Album of the Year” in 1997 (Hit Man Dreams.) Just one more genre to throw in the mix. I ended up accepting the “Best Punk Album” award for the band that year, and even made some lame joke about us winning that category like, “Well tonight we found out we're officially a punk band now.” I've never been good at classifying music genres, so I've always maintained that we were simply a ROCK band. And that's what I continue to say now. Somehow I don't think I have any chance to ever take home “Best Hip-Hop, Jazz or Latin Album.” But I guess you never know.

	Ryan Ferguson - Only Trying to Help (2007) To hear a song sample, click on your flag. 01. Remission 02. X's & O's 03. Kill My Confidence 04. Introduction 05. Future Reservation 06. Imposter, The 07. In The Sea 08. Better Off 09. Not On My Watch 10. Must Be Friday Night 11. And I Worry

The video game, Sims 2, features an interpretation of your song "Suddenly" off of Three, Four. Are you a fan of the game? What's it like to have a song that you created in a video game?

It's great to have a song in a video game, especially one like the Sims 2. I had such a blast re-working the song for the game. I had NO idea how many people that song would eventually reach. From what I've heard, it's kinda hard to find the song in the game. Still, a year or two later I'm getting emails and messages from people all over the world who've discovered my music solely through the Sims game. Seriously. I think it's great. Me personally, I've never been a fan of video games. Maybe I got too burned out watching my friends play all day long. I was always an outdoors kid. I would much rather skate or run around and play baseball or football than a video game. Plus I have ZERO gaming skills. I absolutely suck at every video game I ever tried to play. (I'll just keep writing songs for 'em.)

You are one of many talented artists including Tim Kasher (Cursive/ The Good Life), Jim Ward (Sparta/At The Drive-in), Stephen Brodsky (Cave In), Derek Fudesco (Pretty Girls Make Graves), Yosino Hisashi (Eastern Youth), Robert Nanna (Hey Mercedes/ Braid), Masafumi Isobe (Husking Bee), Pedro Carmona and Lars Heintz (Sister Sonny), Dan Hargest (Pollen) and Arabella Harrison (The And Ors/Jejune) in the record company Five One, Inc.'s compilation My Favorite Songwriters. Sounds like a fun project. Did you get to hang out or jam with any of the other artists?

I was super excited to be a part of this compilation. I had written some solo stuff for a few other comps in the past and then Kenji (Five One) heard some of my stuff and told me about this songwriters project he was working on. I offered him “On Elvira Street,” a song I wrote for my grandmother. (I was on tour in Japan when I found out she had passed away. Since I missed her funeral, I figured this would be a fitting ode to her.) The fact that Kenji used my song as the opener on the record totally blew me away, considering the company I was in. I know Tim Kasher pretty well, having toured w/ Cursive in the past. He actually got on stage and sang a few songs with us when Mitch was unable to go a full set one time. And Araby sang back up on nearly half of my new solo record, as well as some vocal work on “Hit Man Dreams” a long time ago, so I know her pretty well too. No Knife did a few shows with At the Drive-In and Braid in the past, so I knew Jim Ward and Bob Nanna fairly well. Actually Bob and I played baseball together a few times with the “Sweep the Leg Johnny” guys in Chicago. All in all, this was just one of those great opportunities that fortunately fell right into my lap.

The songwriting composition process varies from musician to musician and even album to album. Talk us through your personal process of writing a song.

Well first off, I'm not the fastest songwriter in the world. Some people I know can pump out 20-30 GOOD songs a year. I'm just not that talented. My songs tend to progress and take shape over time before I consider them to be complete. Sometimes I'll come up with an idea and try to build around it, but if nothing is working I have no problem shelving that idea for a few months and letting it sit and ferment in my head until something clicks. I do my best to document all my ideas, whether they turn into songs or not. I either record directly into Pro Tools or my little handheld digital recorder, or chart the chords so I don't forget the material. (I have a bad memory.) 99% of the time I come up with the music and melodies first, then plug in the lyrics. I think it would be harder the other way around, but I know a lot of people who do that and it works great for them. I'm just a huge fan of melody in general. There's nothing better than establishing a basic sequence of chords, adding a riff or two to that base, flying in different melodies throughout, both vocally or with instruments, and having it ALL come together in the end. It's like you've just solved a puzzle, and created one for somebody else to try and solve.

When I Googled the name "Ryan Ferguson," I found another "Ryan Ferguson" who is in quite a predicament. He's in jail but there's a movement to free him. You've even gotten involved and written "free the other Ryan Ferguson" on your MySpace page. Can you explain what it is that happened to this young man and why you think he's innocent?

I probably would never have even heard of this story had MY name not been Ryan Ferguson. Like you, I first got wind of this kid's nightmare when I googled my own name a while back. Then I saw his story air on an episode of 48 Hours (CBS) shortly after. In all seriousness, this is a very fucked up case. Trust me, I'm the least political guy there is and rarely get involved in movements of any kind, but this case needs more national attention. I urge you to check out freeryanferguson.com for yourself. Basically this kid and his friend have been convicted of a murder where there is ZERO DNA or physical evidence connecting them to the scene. And Ryan's friend “Chuck” went to the cops and confessed only AFTER he had a dream that the two of them killed this guy. This whole case is based on this dude's DREAM! I'm not going to get into it, but it's an incredibly strange and shaky case. There are clearly facts that the cops, DA and the dumb-ass jury simply ignored. (Maybe I'll have to write a song about it).

You have used various different record companies for each of your albums. For example, Three, Four has Jr. Varsity Records, and Only Trying to Help uses Better Looking Records, you have also worked with Five One, Inc. Is there a big difference? Do you intend to stay with one over another and why?

Five One, Inc. was just a one-off compilation I was a part of a few years ago. When it came time to release the Three, Four EP my manager and I decided to put it out ourselves on his label, Jr. Varsity. Then I waited to sign a deal until only a few months ago with Better Looking. I already had a relationship with them as BLR released the last NK record, Riot for Romance!, back in 2002. They'll be putting out my next one too.

What tours do we have to look forward to seeing you play in the near future?

That's what we're busy working on right now. Stay tuned. I'm trying to get over to Europe in early '08.

Your online bio states that two of your biggest musical influences growing up were "The Boss" and The Beatles. Who else?

Oh, I have so many damn influences. Growing up as a kid I was big on Bruce Springsteen, Simon & Garfunkel and oldies music, mainly Buddy Holly. Then in middle school I got really into The Beatles, U2, REM, Tears for Fears, Echo & The Bunnymen and of course, Poison. Then in high school I got into bands like The Cure, Jellyfish, Teenage Fanclub, Catherine Wheel, Red House Painters and Buffalo Tom before being seduced by Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. Towards the end of high school I think all I listened to was Sebadoh, Jawbox, Superchunk and Rocket from the Crypt. I was really into both the San Diego and Chapel Hill music scenes. Especially bands like aMiniature, Drive Like Jehu and Heavy Vegetable from SD, and Archers of Loaf and Polvo from NC. I know I'm leaving out about 10-15 other bands, but you get the idea.

If you could see any artist or band, alive or dead, play a live show for you right now, who would it be?

I know it's probably such a typical, boring, unoriginal answer, but I don't care. It would be absolutely fascinating to see both Elvis Presley and The Beatles play a live show. Just to see what it was all about back then. The idea of seeing either of those musical icons in a live setting would be a trip. We're so used to hearing all their songs and seeing the old live footage of their concerts, seeing them live would be something you would never forget. At least I wouldn't.

Do you have any pets? Tell us about them.

My wife and I have two cats. One is addicted to spinach and Baked Lays. The other hangs out under our bed inside the box spring, or in the closet ALL day long. They're both freaks.

What's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you on stage? The coolest?

Well I don't know if I was truly embarrassed, or if I was just really pissed off. But when I was 20, No Knife went on tour with Social Distortion and at one of the first shows of the tour, some fuckin' asshole thought it would be funny to sling some beer bottle at me. Problem was… it was relatively full. So this thing slams the body of my guitar and explodes all over me. I'm now dripping with beer and playing with half the amount of strings I started with, but still finished the song. Seriously, what kind of a moron throws glass bottles at guitar players? What a dick!

Maybe the coolest thing that ever happened to me while onstage was when I first spotted my wife. We were playing a big show at The Whiskey in LA, and right in the middle of a song I glanced out into the crowd and made eye contact with this really beautiful girl. Being the shy guy I am, I immediately got super nervous and turned around and faced our drummer. Then it happened again, more eye contact, more nervousness, more turning around and trying to collect myself. We eventually talked after the show, and nine years later we're still together. (Cute, huh?)

Everyone in the music industry has a different take on selling digital music online. Bands like Tool and Radiohead don't currently offer their catalog in the iTunes Music Store. Trent Rezner from Nine Inch Nails couldn't care less and offers his songs free online and encourages people to share his music. And artists like Alanis Morissette and 3 Doors Down have recorded exclusive albums that are only sold on iTunes. As a both a musician and songwriter, how do you feel about digital music?

To me it's simply a matter of keeping up with the times. Bands like Radiohead and Tool are fortunate enough to be as big as they are, and in turn can choose not to make their catalogues available online for downloading. But with as much competition as there is out there nowadays, exposure is crucial. So it only makes sense to have your music available where the majority of people spend most of their time… on a computer.

iPod or Zune? Which model?

Since I'm not familiar with Zune, I'll go with my iPod. It's an old one, as in it doesn't play video. But that's cool. I have a TV and a DVD player, and prefer to view images on larger screens anyway.

Finish this sentence: I want all my fans to...

… quit smoking. That shit will kill you.

This item is available for purchase from Amazon.com In addition to producing, Ferguson plays nearly every instrument on his most recent recording, Only Trying to Help, including drums on "In the Sea," one of the more compelling tracks. Now known as a fiery guitarist, originally Ferguson was a drummer. “I really got into Rocket from the Crypt,” says Ferguson, explaining the switch which soon saw him helming No Knife through four albums. For more information, check out: http://www.fergusong.com/ Rating: Requirements: Functional ears and a love for music Manufacturer: Ryan Ferguson

Everyone's Crazy - Ryan Ferguson Interview (Nov 2007)
http://www.everyonescrazy.com/2007/11/ryan-ferguson-interview.html