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On The Edge: The Album, The Brotherhood, and The Madness of Making It

On The Edge, Ryan Calder Band

Being in a band isn’t just about music.

For me, it was always about people. The kind of people who don’t just make you a better musician, but who inspire you to be a better husband, father, and human being. That was the heartbeat of The Ryan Calder Band.

By the time we got to On The Edge, we had already logged countless hours together — on stages, in studios, and most memorably, in late-night conversations about life, family, and the curious choice of devoting your “free time” to making music when you had, you know… responsibilities. Continue reading On The Edge: The Album, The Brotherhood, and The Madness of Making It

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The Birth of The Ryan Calder Band: How a Festival Lineup and a Stubborn Dream Created RCB

About a year after Better Days hit the local shelves (and my parents’ CD player on repeat), the phone rang.

On the other end was Pedro Carlo — a kind of local music Yoda, minus the lightsaber but with the same knack for cryptic wisdom. Pedro had the final say in the lineup for Splashy Fen, South Africa’s legendary music festival tucked away in the Drakensberg mountains. Every singer-songwriter within a 500km radius dreamed of playing there. Continue reading The Birth of The Ryan Calder Band: How a Festival Lineup and a Stubborn Dream Created RCB

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Better Days: The Road to That First Album

Long before the world of online streaming, Patreon perks, and podcast mics, there were long nights, my Larrivée acoustic, and a 1975 Audi 80 that smelled like pizza. That was the beginning. That was Pietermaritzburg — a small town in South Africa where the music dream first took root. Continue reading Better Days: The Road to That First Album