The name Derek is from the German ‘Theodoric’ meaning ‘people, ruler’ and the name ‘Ryan’ meaning ‘king’ or ‘water’
It would seem that these definitions are very meaningful in the case of Derek Ryan, the Irish musician who is the people’s choice as ‘ruler’ or ‘King’ of country music and he has just made the trip across the ‘water’ to, he hopes, establish his reign over Australia also!
It’s Derek’s first time in Australia and I’m speaking to him from Sydney, where he is enjoying the Sydney sunshine. Not for him the late night partying, it’s early nights instead, to keep in top shape for the 7 concerts of this tour around Australia.
Derek says he and his band have already created an impression of Australians as ‘friendly and very much like the Irish’. Derek says he has ‘so many friends in Australia’ that he feels as though he has visited before! Anyway, as the tour won’t allow him a great deal of time for sightseeing he hopes to return next year for a holiday.
Derek grew up in a musical family with his Dad an experienced singer and performer of 30 years, active in the social dancing scene in Ireland. His Dad’s music was a mixture of traditional and Irish country and Derek himself became experienced in that unique instrument the bodhran, or Irish drum.
When he grew a little older Derek decided on what he calls a little ‘diversion’ from the family music trend and became part of a pop band called’ D-Side’ that had a number one single in Japan.
It was inevitable that Derek would return to the traditional/country scene, but make no mistake, Derek is not fenced in by strict borders. He mentions the diversity in country music and how he is not afraid to go outside the square to take some risks with his particular brand of country music, and true to his word he has traversed the borders of country pop.
One of the unique things about Derek is that he is one of the first Irish country musicians that employs mostly his own original material, rather than record his own versions of well-known songs as many other artists do although he is not averse to recording his own unique versions of some of these great songs. Derek gets his inspiration for his original songs from the ordinary stories of fans at his meet and greets, from driving along and hearing a phrase on the radio, or from seeing something in a movie.
His creativity and ability with words has also been deeply ingrained in him from school days when he was particularly good at English and poetry. He humbly tells me song writing is a continuing learning process but as the country music scene in Ireland knows he is already quite an accomplished writer, admired and sought out by other recording artists, including Ireland’s best known musical export Daniel O’Donnell, who happened to be on a Caribbean cruise Derek was also performing on and approached him that he might record Derek’s song ‘God’s Plan’.
One of Derek’s songs that is ‘special to a lot of people’ and Derek says he leans to as his favourite of his original compositions for this reason is ‘Life is a river’.
Of his writing process Derek says he might leave a song to settle for a while after the initial writing and go back to it with a fresh perspective. He tends to know when a song is complete and might ask advice from a few people who he respects however it doesn’t mean, he tells me that he will necessarily take it!
Once he gets into the studio it’s the magic moment when he records and hears back his song for the first time that he relishes.
Like many creative artists Derek started his working life studying accounting. Unlike many other creative people I have interviewed who swear they would never return to that previous career, Derek says if he weren’t in music perhaps he would be an accountant. Like many musician’s he is aware of the special relationship between numbers and music. He tells me too, it’s a very useful background to have for the’ business’ part of show business!
You can see Derek at the Celtic Club, Melbourne 17th September, Bendigo Club 18th September, Cock’N Bull, Bondi, Sydney 19th September, Queensland Irish Club 20th September and Rockhampton Leagues Club 21st September.
Paula Xiberras
