During his last tour, Ryan announced he is heading back into the studio to work on a full length record and that he has a record deal (of some sort)
An unreleased WRK song has appeared on Ryan Mendez’s mixing website “A Desert, an Ocean Floor” https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5dabd1b6ae7efb0296d04dea/t/5dad316d7fa9ab448cacf7ea/1571631500640/A+Desert,+An+Ocean+Floor+(1).mp3/original/A+Desert,+An+Ocean+Floor+(1).mp3
Ryan said on a recent podcast that he is not going to continue to fully purse making records and touring under WRK name. He's focusing on scoring and composing in the studio, but he "wouldn't rule out firing up the rig and making an EP". Sounds like this is mostly over. That's a shame.
I wonder why he strayed from the "Will and the Whiskymen" thing. I liked the few songs he put out under that.
Sounds like he doesn't even have a plan to do anything - the clip is around the 17:00 mark if you're interested in watching it. His exact words are "Right now I don't have any plans to carry on with that" and "It was a good run for a couple of years".
I was thinking the same, but the last thing he said when I saw him on the last tour was that he'd be back around next year with new songs and even mentioned a possible record label. I'm not sure what happened.
I think the low key acoustic singer/songwriter stuff just didn't appeal to most fans. If this project was closer to Big If (which spawned a bunch of Yellowcard songs) I think it could have been bigger but ultimately Ryan wrote what he wanted to.
I think Ryan just... doesn’t make good music on his own. also like lol how could it have been bigger if it was closer to big if when big if itself did bad as well? Even tho it came out right on the tails of yellowcard when people were still interested in them?
Like it’s not a coincidence that yellowcard never had any trouble at all filling venues in Florida and Ryan couldn’t even sell enough tickets to the smallest bar venue in order to make it plausible and had to cancel
Big If never even released anything except demos or got signed so not really fair to assume how they could have done if they pushed it harder. I think the music he wrote for this project just didn't appeal to most people and who is supposed to even know about this solo project it got such little promotion. I own both EPs but don't listen to them much even as a fan of his.
Big If was just demos, they never even released an album or anything so not really a fair comparison. Also don't get the "Ryan sucks at making music" logic or that he isn't the reason people liked Yellowcard. He's a huge reason people like them.
The percentage of Yellowcard fans who also enjoy ambient acoustic music is probably small, i’ll give you that. I agree. I’m bummed that we won’t get to see him continue though, I liked mostly everything he wrote/released so I was hoping to see him expand on it further.
Agree with this too. I mean it just sounds like he isn’t into it anymore. Some people end things abruptly (like Sean and Mendez who were able to cut the cord and end the touring life). Other people need a slower ending (like Ryan who had two more solo tours). But it just sounds like he’s ready to be done with that life. So at this juncture I think we’ve probably seen the end of him touring, which is a shame but understandable.
maybe you would understand it if you used the full quote? Which was “Ryan doesn’t make good music on his own ” like y’all are really disillusioned to think that Ryan was the powerhouse behind yellowcard and that’s fine but it’s laughable because it’s so far from the truth Case in point: his solo career which has been a massive flop and y’all can say it’s the music all you want but I would bet literal limbs that he could make whatever vibe music he wanted and as long as it was solo it would still flop. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and lmao “he’s just ready to be done with this life!” Not even close. He clearly desperately wants to be in NFG, he clearly enjoys touring with them, he clearly desired for his solo career to take off but instead he had to cancel the tour from lack of ticket sales.