Meet Ryan dello | Music Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ryan dello and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ryan, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking

As someone who left a stable career in engineering to pursue music, I’m someone who is pretty open to taking risks. I believe it’s always been a part of who I am.

As a kid, I would always be looking for things to climb on—trees, the tops of playgrounds, fences, etc. It was pretty instinctual, the way I would consistently put myself at risk of injury, for what would seem like not much reward. Most of the time, it was just for the challenge and fun of it. Danger can be exciting, as it heightens your senses. It’s the reason we like thrillers and horror movies.

It’s important to approach risk with logical thinking. The greater the risk, the more thought that should be put into it. Although I’d climb up those trees, it wasn’t without first assessing my skill, checking the spacing and sturdiness of the branches, and thinking about how I was going to get down. The same thinking applies to the risks I’ve taken in my adulthood.

Quitting my engineering job to pursue music was definitely a risk, but when you break it down, it made a lot of sense too. I was full of creative potential, in a fortunate position financially, as I had saved up enough money to cover my living expenses for a little over a year, was free from any debts, and was single with no kids. When would I get an opportunity like this to fully pursue a passion, especially in my youth?

I don’t want to promote the idea of quitting your job. You could be introducing unnecessary chaos and stress into your life when there are plenty of other safer, smarter alternative ways of achieving your goals. I think this decision was unique to my situation and somewhat reflective of my childlike self. Doing something for the challenge, and the fun of it.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

I’m currently a full time music artist and it’s amazing. Right now I spend all my time writing, producing, and recording my own music of varying genres, mainly indie music. It’s endless fun, and something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but my story may not be what you expect.

Growing up, I was always musical. First singing in church, then learning to play guitar after being inspired by the video game, Guitar Hero. In my teens, I recorded videos of myself singing covers of songs and would put them up on YouTube. I went to a small religious school that happened to have a good music program. I was in every music class they had to offer. Choir, vocal jazz, band, jazz band, and percussion ensemble. During that time, I also started learning how to produce and record music on my computer by watching youtube tutorials.

After high school, I pursued a pilot’s license, so I could be a humanitarian aid pilot. I was inspired by bush pilots that I met on a trip to Kenya, through the humanitarian aid organization my dad worked for. While pursuing my pilot’s license, I also worked full time at a lumber distributor, driving forklifts, picking orders, and doing customer service. After getting my private pilot’s license, I changed career paths and pursued an associate’s degree in mechanical engineering, where I then worked for four years in a variety of industries, including tech, construction, manufacturing, and medical device.

Throughout all this time, I was always coming up with new song ideas that I would sing into the voice notes of my phone, but I never ended up making them into full songs. I was in a relationship, had a fairly busy social life, and played a lot of video games. I never really found the time. But one day I finally decided to make a song that I would complete and release. I had never actually written a full song before, and was still quite an amateur at production and mixing. I produced and recorded all of it in my apartment, with entry level equipment. Through the process of making that song, I really fell in love with making music. In the summer of 2022, I released my first single, Tangerine, at age 24.

I was proud of the song, but I honestly didn’t think it was that great and did very little to promote it. My friends and family liked it, and that was good enough for me. But it was the act of making that first song really ignited something within me to take music more seriously. Music is a craft that you can spend your whole life mastering, and I wanted to be good at it. I thought I had what it took to make great music. I just needed more time and practice.

Over the years of working in engineering, I was in a fortunate position to be able to set aside some money that I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do with. As time went on, the idea of pursuing music as a career continued to pop into my mind as I was in the process of making another song and having a lot of fun with it. I joked around with my friends and at one point said, “what if I just quit my job and made music for a year?”. I thought it would be met with skepticism, but everyone I talked to was supportive of the idea. As I thought about it more, and talked to more friends, as well as my family, everyone was quite sincere in thinking that I had what it took to succeed. So I came up with a plan, and ended up quitting my job to pursue music full time for about one year.

That was about 7 months ago, and I still have about another 7 months left until I’m either a full time music artist, back to work, or something in between. The first 7 months were interesting to say the least. It was way harder than I expected. I thought the ideas would just flow, and I would be releasing songs every few weeks, making TikTok videos every day, and start gaining traction online. But in reality, I wasn’t able to make anything. I was procrastinating, going on trips with my friends, and even changed my mind about what I wanted to do. At one point, I came up with an idea to start a youtube channel where I would go to different places and talk to people on the street. I ended up travelling to LA and New York to do that, and also attended a couple “Ryan meetups” in those cities (it’s exactly what you think). After returning home, I lost enthusiasm for the project and decided to make the switch back into music again.

All of this has been an adventure to say the least. I’ve had many moments of inspiration, self doubt, and self discovery. I’ve since revised my plan, and I guess we’ll see how the next 7 months go 🙂

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

I’m from Calgary, a city in western Canada, most known for its cold but sunny weather, close proximity to mountains, NHL hockey team, and annual festival—”The Calgary Stampede”.

I have an interesting relationship with Calgary. My parents immigrated here from France, just before I was born. I don’t have any extended family here, as they’re spread out throughout Europe and the US. My parents and sister recently moved to another province, so now I’m the only one in my family that’s still in this city. But Calgary is home to me, and I have a lot of close friends here.

It would be the most fun to come in July, during the Calgary Stampede. It’s when everyone in the city dresses up in western clothing and parties for a week straight. There’s free pancakes, a rodeo, carnival, concerts (big names of all genres), and fireworks every night. I don’t relate to cowboy culture very much, but you’ll still see me wearing a cowboy hat. Still looking for some boots though.

Apart from the Stampede, Calgary has some other cool spots. If someone were to visit, we would definitely go to Inglewood to walk by the river, see some art, get a sandwich at Spolumbo’s, and maybe catch some live music. Another one of my favourite spots is Crossroads market. It’s a farmers/flea market where I like to go treasure hunting and eat some tasty treats.

There’s also some beautiful nature close by. We could drive to the mountains, go on a little hike, and maybe do some cliff jumping into some cold lakes!

But my all-time favourite place is my apartment. I was lucky to find a nice spot, 23 stories up, with a view of downtown and the rocky mountains. It’s where I currently make all my music, have friends over, play video games, and watch sunsets. Rent is getting expensive though, so I don’t know if I’ll have this view for long, but I appreciate it for now.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?

My parents gave me an incredible childhood where I was free to pursue my interests whether it was basketball, making youtube videos, gymnastics, skateboarding, guitar, or video games. I always felt like I could be who I wanted to be. Now as an adult, I still feel that way, and know I’ll always have their support. My older sister was also influential in my childhood, as she was always musically talented and she would share her music taste with me, exposing me to artists such as John Mayer and the 1975.

I wouldn’t be anything without my friends. They are super supportive, but also not afraid to give their honest opinions. They’ve saved me from releasing some pretty bad versions of my songs. Whether I become successful in music or not, I know they’ll always be there for me.

My highschool music teacher also deserves a lot of credit for making music exciting and challenging. I was really pushed to improve my skills, whether it was vocally, on guitar, or even percussion.

I have two more very important shout outs. The first is to other music artists. You inspire me to no end. I think it’s amazing that we’re living in a time where there is so much incredible music being made every day. The second is to people that make youtube tutorials, especially for very niche things. You’re doing noble work.

Website: https://linktr.ee/ryandello

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ry.dello/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ryandello

Image Credits
Dean Baler, Tanner, Me