Ryan Adams Gets It Right Again

Seriously, how could anyone confuse this guy with Bryan Adams? Three damn solo albums in one year? A ridiculous—intentionally, we hope—rap intro to his website? Adams’ ninth post-Whiskeytown solo effort, Easy Tiger, is an even bigger culture shocker: It’s getting better reviews than breakout Heartbreaker. Our little Ryan isn’t all grown up… is he?

It’s always a fun guessing game to see what Ryan Adams will come up with next.

Adams: I just kind of do whatever I want, really. People are just not acclimated to all the different types of stuff that I do. Maybe eventually everybody will catch up to the fact that I make stylized albums; sometimes I make records that are a potpourri of different things, and sometimes I make black records and sometimes I make punk records.

The variety of what you do suggests someone who likes making music as much as you like putting it out or performing it.

Adams: Oh, yeah; I am pretty into the process. I love writing songs. I love playing music. I feel like a student of music, and a lot of my records are really just exercises and homework and trying to understand the thing that I love the most. The main thing for me is trying to keep the conversation between me and my muse open. That part of creating music for me is such a joy; I certainly enjoy it no matter what it is. I just want to be able to have a career where I’m feeding myself and I don’t feel reliant on anybody else. That’s what’s really important to me.

What’s the reward when you do it right?

Adams: I just think all music is fun. I think even in the most serious compositions there should be an element of fun. I don’t think anybody who’s chained themselves to their piano for an entire two years to write some kind of 30-minute composition in D minor… I might be wrong, but they must have gotten some kind of erotic thrill out of that kind of musical masochism.

Do you think that at this point you’ve shed the drugged- and boozed-out image you had in Whiskeytown?

Adams: I hope so. It’s a shame that it kind of lingers, but… I was drunk a lot of the time. I was 20 and in a band—I hope I was drunk! [Laughs] I’ve had to learn how to shut that stuff out. I’m sorta learning how to take care of myself and maybe compartmentalize my insanity and not take things so seriously all the time. I want to be able to take care of myself.

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