Hello Everyone! · Elevate Your Craft

Hello Everyone!

Hello - I’m Ryan Bird, and I go by the moniker Squid Leader for most of my music. I make psychedelic inspired music of all styles. So for myself I say the “genre” I play is Slime because there came a time for me in 2020 where I realized I didn’t want to pigeon hole myself into one genre and I wanted the freedom to mix genres or play any genre. I was also hearing new sounds from my inner ear, and from around the world. That made me think Slime could very well be a “genre” or music culture of the 2020’s and beyond. I created my label Sound of Slime (soundofslime.com) to put out my music, and to further explore this idea of music and slime. Slime became a big part of my brand as I reinvigorated Squid Leader’s identity and created a stronger identity for Sound of Slime. Along with my son who was about 4 at the time - we started an electronic punk band called River of Slime. In the last 5 years I’ve put out over 50 songs, over 100 videos, and several albums, along with merch, a blog, and social media presence. I have several artists we are planning on releasing their music on physical media. In the last year we have explored Crypto and Web3 Blockchain technology and how that can play out for musicians. We have had success in the past with sync licensing and are currently beginning a fresh pursuit of that opportunity. Our goal is to figure out Web3 and Sync Licensing in a way that we can help other artists travel these avenues with ease and success. More than that we want to create a supportive community linked through Slime.

I recently moved to Fort Collins, Colorado from Colorado Springs where I had been for 8 years. I happened to move a 2 minute walk from The Blasting Room which is a legendary punk rock recording studio. I plan to master a drum n bass song there this summer. We have a really cool spot here in Fort Collins called The Music District. (https://www.themusicdistrict.org/) - This town is awesome! It’s really big on local arts and music and has one of the largest local indie music festivals in the states. There are some great venues here if you’re a touring artist I recommend looking to play a show in Fort Collins. The Music District has boarding for touring musicians! If you’re a musician that does talks or group lessons, The Music District might be interested in booking you. I feel blessed to live here, and it was just rated the most peaceful town in the US. Before living in Colorado I lived in Seattle, Washington for 17 years. In 1999 I moved from Sacramento, California to Seattle after being born and raised in CA since 1977.

I moved to Seattle specifically because I had a dream of being a musician there. In CA I came of age on hip-hop and punk rock, but in the mid-90’s I started going to Raves and getting into dub, house, funk, drum and bass, and anything electronic. I am a drummer and my goal was to play live electronic dance music. In California I had played in punk rock bands drumming from ‘91 to about ‘97. I walked away from my punk band Lab Rats to get away from the alcohol and toxicity, and pursue playing dance music. For me dance music was a mix of ska, dub, reggae, funk, hip-hop, and electronic music. My best friend and I formed a band called Bemushroomed, but sadly my friend chose to end his life in 1997 - my world was never the same. I experienced shock, trauma, and depression, but I managed to form a funk band with some friends called Slight Headchange and I took the role of being the singer and songwriter. At the same time I started jamming drum and bass with some bassist friends - one who went on to play in the metal band Giant Squid. I started wanting electronic drums so bad! Well after New Year’s 1999 my friends helped me shift gears and I moved to Seattle.

After a couple months in Seattle I went out to see some live music. It was a live drum and bass show at a bar on Queen Anne. The room was practically empty except for a couple guys hanging out in the middle of the dancefloor watching the drummer and stand up bassist. I figured these guys knew what was up so I said hi. Literally the very first person I met when I moved to Seattle was KJ Sawka! I also met his friend and bandmate from his project 94th Street - one of his earliest bands where he introduced his drum n bass beats. Ironically we both lived in our own spots on 94th Street in Seattle for a few years at the same time. We found out we were both drummers and exchanged info as we proceeded to chat about drum n bass. I remember KJ watching the drummer and saying, “c’mon man give me some 1/16th notes! I want to hear some 1/16th notes” we both laughed. When the night ended there were free cassette tape demo singles someone put on the tables of a drum n bass style song - that was how far back this was.

So I have had the fortune of bearing witness to Sawka playing all over Seattle, house parties, I remember him coming over to a party at my house and jumping on my drums and jamming with cats that were there. There was magic all throughout the air in Seattle though the 2000’s - people were turned on to electronic music and the jam band scene and the electronic scene were crossing over. It would be too much to sum up all the history in this introduction, but I’m sure you can just imagine that it was an awesome scene to be experiencing and be a part of. We all came up on Ableton together at the same time, and we were motivated to challenge ourselves through the Laptop Battle Championships that were started in Seattle and happened later around the world. These were formative years, and many milestones were achieved. In 2006 I created Squid Leader after I had been doing a live techno duo with my friend m.0 called Tekgnosis. I won the Laptop Battle in 2006, and m.0 won the previous year. My friend m.0 was huge in helping me believe in myself - he never talked down on me or had much anything critical to say about my music - if anything he just always was there to help us learn and sound better. He was the first artist I put out on my label, but later that year he passed away. I wish he could see Live 12 - he would’ve loved it!

I’ve been through ups and downs, but I’ve continued to persevere knowing in my heart that it’s the right thing to do. At this point in my life things are lining up for me to make big things happen, but I have to line up myself on the inside. I subscribe wholeheartedly to KJ’s philosophy about music and the business of being a musician. Which is why I am happy to be in this group of like minded individuals. One of my greatest obstacles has been someone, a musician, but they don’t want to work, they think work sucks, and they are everything that you don’t want to do - unless you plan on failing. I gave that person too much of my time and energy, and they ended up with free rent in my head that has cost me an immense liability. I’ve had to evict them and reprogram myself with positive affirmations. I’m just at the beginning stages of healing this. I am really really excited for a future where I’m not swayed by outside influences that I just try to ignore hoping it will fizzle away - I’m setting a boundary line - permanent! I am setting goals! I’m setting myself and everyone else I can bring on this journey up for success! This group is part of that! Sending you all Positive Slime!

-Bird

*random bits: I’m related to Myron Floren, an Accordion Virtuoso who was featured for decades on The Lawrence Welk Show. One of my brothers is the famous pop visual artist Brandon Bird (brandonbird.com) My grandparents(from Colorado) on one side played Piano, Accordion, and sang together and my grandfather on the other side played Jazz drums.I started Elementary school band with my sister’s hand me down Trombone.

**I actually wrote a huge intro that got lost because my HDMI cable fried and it didn't get saved - so this is my second attempt! lol!

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