I think I've always just been drawn to the stage, connecting with an audience and seeing the joy that you can bring to them. I've always found myself in those opportunities again, you're like watching this and you're like, what is this?
It's creating an environment where people want to come back again. You just be yourself. Just follow our lead. Here we go. It's so much fun. Yeah, there were a few of those moments where you had to look around and be like, how the heck did I get? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get IN, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. My guest today is Ryan Ahlwardt. He's an Emmy-nominated host and acclaimed singer-songwriter, and a former member of the vocal group Straight No Chaser. He is currently the host of Indy Now on FOX59 and CBS4, where he connects with thousands of Hoosiers daily through his warmth and wit. Ryan has performed on some of the world's most prestigious stages alongside legendary artists, and continues to release music that resonates across generations.
We're gonna talk about how he ended up as the host of Indy Now and talk about his crazy journey through showbiz with the group Straight No Chaser. And just talk about he's been a, a, a resident of Fishers since 1992. I believe. Yeah. So we're gonna talk all things Indiana. Ryan, welcome to the show.
Thanks, Nate. It's good to be here. What an intro. Wow. Yeah. There we go. Come on. I love what you've done with the place too, by the way. Dude, this is the first step. Everyone please look at wherever you're, you're viewing the show. We have a backdrop now. We have all some of our favorite, uh, Indiana merch. We have our team picture over here where we went to a golf outing.
Cute. Yeah, dude, it's fun. I love it. We got, we got backlighting and stuff. It's all coming together. It's legit. Yeah. We have upped production value. We get 1% better each show. There you go. Yeah. and, and when it comes to production value, that's something you know a ton about because you have been performing on stages of all shapes and sizes.
For most of your life. Yeah. Where did your entrance into performance start? In the interior of a Volkswagen van? Oh, uh, in the middle of Germany when I was probably five. my dad was in the Navy. So growing up in the military was all I knew. And I clearly remember, I do remember this, uh, doing a funny voice reading one of my favorite books and making my family laugh.
And I remember being like, let's see if I can do that again. And that has led me all the way to where I am now. 44. I think I, you know, as long as I can remember, I've been on stages. I peed my pants in a bunny outfit in first grade in front of my entire school. And it's a miracle that I'm still. Performing and entertaining today.
Wait, what? Yeah. How did we, we have to like, because you were nervous or for a good laugh? Well, it was part nerves, but it was, we had the, the, the, the cast party before the show. my character's name was Benjamin Bunny and I was in a full bunny outfit, blue shorts to designate of course that I was a male bunny.
And, uh, I just got squirmy and had to go. And I remember like looking over at my teacher who was in the wings of the stage, I'm like, I have to go to the bathroom. She's like, your line's about to come up. And I was like, great. Said my line. Just totally pissed myself. Wait, was it, did it go line then P or p then line, it was line then p uh, and then it was just, uh, absolute shame.
and my sister stood up, God love her, uh, in front of the entire assembly and was like, mom Ryan just peed his pants. So, but I was back the next year. next year I was Winnie the Pooh and uh, and oh, now on, oh wait, not Winnie though. No, it was. with an H at the end. With an H. Okay, cool, cool, cool. Just be, just being safe there.
I never put those two and two together. It was P one year and then P next, and then p next year. Come on. We talk about a comeback story. Let's go. Yeah. So from the beginning, five years old Yeah. You knew that entertaining and making people smile was something that you wanted to do. Yeah, it was cool. Like it's fun to be able to trace that back to that moment.
and really across the, the years I've been able to do everything from, like you said, singing on stages like the Royal Albert Hall in England, or the Hollywood Bowl with Straight No Chaser or something, even locally, uh, like the IU Auditorium, you know, to voiceover work to now hosting Indy now to shows that I get to perform with my wife and our band, um, and everything in between, man.
so. You know, I, I think I really hit my stride in late high school. I went to Hamilton Southeastern. Go Royals, um, class of 99 baby. And, uh, my late choir director, J. Kevin Butler, was really influential in helping me uncover my gifts and really discover them and then use them in the shows and get more involved with community productions at Civic Theater.
So I was on stage in high school, uh, doing it more in the community, and that really helped. Me gain confidence of like, okay, I can do this. Yeah. And I think that, uh, people that are in show business mm-hmm. At any level, we we're, we're calling, you know, the music program in first grade, that that's show business.
Yeah. It is. And, and early on in life, some people, some, some children realize that's not, they don't wanna be on stage, they don't wanna do that. But you get into high school and you're in a little bit more serious of a show business. Yeah. What is that first role that you get, uh, where you figure out if you're like ensemble versus lead?
Or if you figure out, like it gives you the confidence to keep pursuing this interesting story. I was also, at the same time while I was getting into performing arts, I was also playing football. And so. Unbeknownst to me, I was going to play varsity as a junior. but that was also at the same time that I was really wanting to pursue more, uh, performing arts.
And so I made the really socially popular decision to quit football to get more into choir. Yeah. Said every guy looking for a girlfriend, ever. Right. Actually, it turned out okay. 'cause, uh, my, my wife and I, we sang at IU together. That's a whole other story, but saying no to that opportunity, continuing down the path, uh, which really wasn't my path.
My path was obviously performing arts, but having that conversation with my coaches and my parents and, you know, and, and then going more into performing really opened up a lot more opportunities. And so, um, it was a pretty cool moment. I mean, my first role in high school was, uh, prince Christopher in Rodgers and Hammerstein's.
Cinderella. Okay. Oh, so, uh, well, if I, if the movie serves me right, that's not a very big role. It, it's, it's the male lead. But you're right. It's not the big role in the show. I had gone from playing football to being in tights in front of. All my former, uh, high school football teammates, and it's like the light comes up and it was like one of those previews at school where like the whole class comes in to watch the show to sell tickets to the musical, right?
Yeah. And it's the first time I've ever sung in front of everyone, anyone. and so the lights come on and it's like, this is your moment. And it was kind like the, the bookend of like, are you gonna pee your pants on stage or like you did in first grade? Are you just gonna do what you gotta do? Yeah.
And sure enough, I, I sang and, and that was that. And so that then set into motion a lot of other, uh, steps in my journey. Wow. Yeah. It was nerve wracking though, like performing 4-year-old, I mean, especially teammates in high school. Yeah. Getting clowned on. Yeah. You know, like, uh, regardless of, I mean, you could have been good or terrible.
It's like high school kids are high school kids. Yeah. You know, like that whole thing is, and it's a hard time to. Figure out what you, what really fills up your cup Yeah. And what you're talented at. And it seems as though you made the right decision. Yeah. You know, all these years later of Yeah.
Still being able to perform on a daily basis. You know, getting up to put smiles on people's faces. I love it. Yeah. So your journey takes you from Hamilton Southeastern Yeah. Down to lovely Bloomington, Indiana. God's country baby. God's country. Where, uh, yeah. You, you attend IU Yeah. Singing and performing mm-hmm.
Becomes people's hobby. You know, like, oh, I sing in the church choir. Yeah. Or I perform, uh, I mean, maybe around a campfire with my friends. Sure. But like, it doesn't become, I mean, definitely not a multi-decade career. Yeah. For a lot of people, a lot of people maybe can be really talented, but they're like, okay, well, you know, it's time to put.
Our silly dreams aside and the singing thing or whatever, and let's go get a job in accounting or whatever. Sure. So how does your path take you to get to do this full time? Yeah. Winter break, senior year of high school. I had reached out. To the original founding members of Straight No Chaser, just for sheet music.
This was pre like, you know, a song chart is in a PDF. Like I needed some sheet music. 'cause I said, Hey, some of my friends and I inquire wanna sing at our upcoming dance. We don't have any of these songs. My sister was at IU and that's how I learned about Straight No Chaser. And for anyone that doesn't know what is Straight, no Chaser.
Yeah. So it's a world renowned vocal group that was founded in 96 in Bloomington, uh, out of a larger campus choir called the Singing Hoosiers. And then within two years of its existence just blew up on campus and nationally. and then how did it blow up? This is 96. This is pre YouTube? Yeah, pre, oh yeah, absolutely.
So, um, I, I guess at its most organic sense it was, you know, singing on the dorm floors or to any sorority women who would listen, you know, and uh yeah, Do you hear that football team. That's right. but those guys had established, I mean, they were the only group on campus. And then, um, nationally they competed.
They got all the way to the national competitions. And so I was hearing about this in, in high school choir. My sister was an undergrad and she was like, Hey, you're under performing. You should come on down to IU and consider auditioning for this group. So the group got back to me, they sent me some music and they said, Hey, if you're coming to IU, they said the same thing.
My sister did come down and audition. I went down with a handful of buddies from, from choir. Two of us ended up getting in my best friend, Mike Luginbill and I got in and he's actually still in the professional group to this day. Flash forward, we, we, we, uh, graduate from IU in 03 I got my degree in marketing from the business school.
I just sang for fun, like you mentioned, like yeah, I sang for fun. sang around the world on some cruise ships. And then in 2008 We got signed to Atlantic Records for a viral video that did blow up on YouTube from the group performing in its college days. So I wasn't even in the video. It was a video that was like, gosh, how many, what?
What's 2008 minus 1998 20 years, right? Yeah. 10 years. 10 years. Thank you. 10 years. Simple math. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We said marketing. We did not say accounting. Come on. The showbiz, not math. Yeah. and so. The, the video caught the attention of the wife, of the chairman of Atlantic Records. Okay. Wait, wait.
So I think the people know this isn't like a, a band. Yeah. Where, you know, whatever, maroon five or whatever, like Right. Where you keep the same five people or mm-hmm. How many people are in straight, like anyone? I mean, there's typically 10 is is what it was in college. So there was 10. And then like people would graduate.
Yeah. And they would go on and get their professional job Right. And new people would come in. Correct. And, and that's purposely what the original group wanted to do. They wanted to leave it on campus as a legacy group. And there is still, I mean, you could, they're, they're called now Another Round at IU. but you, oh, another, Another Round Straight No Chaser did end up, I mean, came off campus. Yeah. Because, uh, we got the record deal and at one point there were like two groups with the same name. It was like Indiana University, Straight No Chaser, and then like the professional group. And so we. Help them change their name. and basically, and they became Another Round.
Yeah. That's kind of sick. It's pretty, it's a pretty cool name. Yeah. and those guys sound great, especially if they performed in the round. Correct. There you go. See? You get it Nate. I love. Yeah. Come on. So it was, it was really one of those things that, I mean, there were a handful of music students, you know, at at IU, an amazing music school world renowned, but the majority of us were guys like me who just wanted to sing for fun and sing for girls, sing for some free food, and it really was a really cool thing on campus.
Yeah. so what year did you graduate? from IU was oh three. So you graduate in oh three uhhuh. And what's your first job? You got this marketing degree? Yeah. Do you go off to be a marketer? No. I went off to sing in a, uh, quartet on board, a cruise ship with celebrity cruises, uh, with three of my buddies from SNC at IU.
So, but at the time you were like, okay, I sing for fun. Yeah. How does singing for fun get you on a cruise ship? In the middle of what? Ocean? Northern Pacific and then Caribbean, and then Baltic and Atlantic. So we covered a lot of them. Yeah. I mean, you're traveling the globe. Yeah. Singing as someone who said, I sing for Free Food and Girls, right?
Yeah. we had a friend who was a year older than us, Mike Landau, shout out to Mike. he went on and auditioned as he was graduating and got on a cruise ship. Then he approached the cruise line, the director of entertainment, and was like, Hey, I've got some buddies back at my alma mater at IU that, you know, they're looking for a job.
And he, and the guy was like, great. Put him, put together a group. And so Mike came to Bloomington and taught us like every fifties and sixties do up song he could. And uh, and we were his first group and now he's got an entire business where Cruise Lines will give him their, or give him their entire fleet and say, book all of our entertainment.
No way. Who He's not crushing Mike Landau. Yeah, it's called Landau Music. L-A-N-D-A-U Music. It's out in San Diego. And we were his first ever group. And, um, within like three months of graduating, we were. Singing for people all over the world. I did that for about a year and a half, and I think we went to like 70 plus principal.
How often were you home? there was this a pocket of time in between the two contracts that I did where I was home for a bit. Well, like you, you don't get to like, you don't get weekends? No. It's like a six month contract. You go out and you perform. You're just on the water for six months. Yeah. Holy smokes.
Yeah, it was amazing. It was, it was really a paid vacation. and what was great was I was doing it with three of my friends from IU, uh, and my wife, then my girlfriend, uh, she was an activity staff member, so I would be waking up at like 2:00 PM you know, uh, and she would have already led like four sushi demonstrations or bingo rounds or whatever.
Yes. But it was great. I was with my girlfriend and three, three best friends. I mean, that is pretty sweet. It was amazing. Like a little, uh, gap year post college. It, it was perfect, man. Like I would never, uh, give up those years for anything. My dad, it was funny. He and my mom came on for an anniversary cruise while we were entertaining and, and he said, man, when I graduated, uh, college, I went on a steel.
Ship in the Navy and here you are on like a floating city, you know, like two. Totally. Yeah. We were both on the water, but two totally different scenarios. Yeah. So that's, that's wild scene. It was amazing. You spend 18, roughly 18 months. Yeah. Meeting people from all over the world. Yeah. Singing and entertaining.
but this group is not Straight No Chaser. No, it was a, it was a subset. We had to, we had to come up with a name and it was around the time that, uh, IU was doing really, really well. And it was the year that we went to the finals where we lost to Maryland and our studio engineer shout out to Dave Weber, airtime Studios in Bloomington.
He was like, Hey, what do I, uh, what do I call this project guys? You know? 'cause we think, Hey, we're going on a ship. We need a CD to sell. And uh, the IU game was on and we were like, what about The Coverdales after Tom Coverdale? And, uh, we're like, it's kind of got like a 1950s kind of doop sound to it, like The Coverdales.
It's kind of cool. And it's an homage to IU. We're like, okay, great. We didn't have a better. you know, band dams we're like, all right, call it The Coverdales. And no one called us The Coverdales on the ship. It was always Coverdales or like, you know, it was just always getting butchered and we're like, whatever.
It means something to us. Yeah, yeah. You know? Exactly. Yeah. And were you selling CDs? Yeah. It was wild, man. Like, now that I, I mean, when you really think back, I could write a book about that chapter. It was so much fun. We met so many different people from all over the world. And like you said, it's like we're, we're getting paid to do what we love to do, um, as a group of friends see the world.
And, uh, you know, when you're 21, 22, it's like you, you aren't, there's no way you're gonna have your entire life mapped out. Yeah. And so go see the world, you know? Yeah. And go have fun. And, and like, even if you weren't making a million dollars mm-hmm. You were still. You know, all your travel, is it like covered?
Yeah. Room and board covered. Yeah. Yeah, it was great. You're singing, I mean, how uhhuh, did you ever like get, get a, did you get days off? we got a lot of days off. My wife still doesn't let me live that one down. She was like, I worked like 70 hours a week doing, you know, bingo and, and sushi demonstrations and you sang every four nights.
Like we, we sang about five hours a week. Total stop. Yeah, it was pretty great. So like, as, as like the main stage show would let out, we would be in like the coffee lounge, you know, and just snap and sing an acapella for like 30 minutes for people who wanted to have like a nightcap or whatever. But, um, that's a pretty sweet gig, dude.
We would, we would get our chop the mic, our schedule like sent to us underneath the door in our cabin every night and we'd open it up and we'd say. Oh, day off in Aruba, you know? Yeah. Or it'd be like, ah, we're doing three poolside sets tomorrow at two. Oh gosh. Yeah. But it was so much fun, man. It was.
That's so cool. Okay, so you get to the end of that. Yeah. 18 months uhhuh. And you decide, you know, maybe, maybe, uh, it's time I traded my sea legs and come back on dry land. Yeah. So two of us, uh, decided to move back to Bloomington and start a band called the Mitchell Street Band. And we played like the Bluebird and we played all over Indie Lafayette, a couple gigs in Chicago, mostly Bloomington again, you said?
I sing for fun. Yeah. But how do you end up, like why So I think I've always just been drawn to the stage. You know, I've, I've been drawn to connecting with an audience. I've always found joy in performing and the rush of being on stage and connecting with an audience and seeing the joy that you can bring to them.
I've always. I've always found myself in those opportunities. Yeah. and so yeah, I mean, I had a day job. I worked at the IU Auditorium. Shout out to Doug Booher, who still works there and still runs the auditorium, gave me an opportunity to open up for the Beach Boys over homecoming one year. and I was, you know, I'm like, what?
And he goes, you got 30 minutes of music you could play on stage at the IU Auditorium for the Beach Boys. I'm like, what are you talking about? They're one of my favorite groups of all time. I was like, yeah, whatever you need. I do not remember our show. It was me and, and, and I had a trio at the time. Drums and bass me on guitar and singing and it's all original stuff and I do not remember being on stage.
It's more like a snapshot than it is a video in my mind. It's just a blur. And then I get to sit in the audience and watch The Beach Boys without an intermission put on like two and a half hours worth of music. and it was one of the best concerts I've ever seen. No way. Yeah. It was like, I mean, again, shout out to Doug who gave me that job and gave me that opportunity.
That's crazy. Yeah. Like people just gave you Yeah. Like, not gave you 'cause you're earning it. 'cause you're, you know, very, very talented. Yeah. And you're continuing to pursue this dream. Yeah. So it's like, I, I, one, I love the gratitude, the Hoosier, you know, humility. Yeah. But on the other side, it's like, you know, how easy was it?
Would it have been to just be like, you know what, I'm gonna go work in marketing at right. X, y, z company. Well, I went into marketing because my sister who was a senior when I was a freshman at IU, I'm so glad that we got to share that one year together in, in college. She really, you know, uh, she had found a lot of enjoyment at the Kelly School down there at IU, and she said, you know what, you're, you're really into people.
a business degree is a solid degree to get, um, you don't really strike me as like an accounting or finance guy. Why don't you go into marketing? You know, I was like, okay. And I did enjoy it. Now my marketing degree in oh three compared to 2025 is now completely different based on how marketing has changed in that span.
But, um, I was really grateful for her, um, just, you know, sisterly wisdom, just to say, get, get like a solid, stable degree and have fun on the side. Yeah. You know? and so I, I actually did have some friends who were music students at IU and by the time they were getting out of that program, you know, four years later.
It had kind of sapped the joy of performing from them. which I never wanted to get into, I'd never wanted to lose that love for, for the stage in performing. Yeah. 'cause you kind of gotta like sing for your supper a little bit there when it comes to getting A's and B's, you know? Right. Yeah.
Versus doing it for the love of the game. Yeah. It was great. Wow. Okay. So at some point then you're working in Bloomington. Side note, I'm loving this right now. Yeah. This is so much fun. I mean, by the way, shout out to the Depaw Tigers. I have no qualms with you. And your coffee mugs are nice. There we go.
Come on now. Tigers. that's good because one, we, I, I gave that coffee mug to one of my buddies and Depaw caught a ricochet shop. Oh yeah. About, uh, Brownsburg facilities. Their athletic facilities are incredible. Yeah. And, uh, we posted the clip out and he said in the quote, he's like, yeah, Brownsburg has the best, one of the best high school facilities better than DePaul University.
And then like it got clipped. Wow. And everyone was like, why is he hating on DePaul? Like that bold yda. Yeah. I didn't mean to derail you. No, I, I love it. I was just saying, this is so much fun. Are so, this is why you're so good at what you do, by the way, like seeing you from afar. And I'm so glad we got to meet a couple of months ago and just get to know one, you know, his stories a little bit over coffee, but like, it has been so cool to see you blown up.
It, it really has been. Like, my friends are like, are, have you, you know, Nate Spangle? I was like, I don't know him, but I'm going on his podcast. They're like, what? Let's go. So it's, it's cool. Yeah. Yeah, dude, it's fun. And like, I don't know, I, uh. I love being curious and hearing about people and their story and, and all that jazz.
And, and it's fun, you know? And you, I dunno, you get your reps in and then you, this is my stage, you know? Yeah. This is my, that's great. Granted, now the stage is a little prettier in here. We got a bunch of cool stuff that's, you've got some backlighting. Got some? Yeah, we're working audio proofing. Nice. Get, get a little proof.
1% better every episode. Right? Go. That's where we're, this stuff's actually gonna be mounted up in here once I find out where to buy command strips at. Around here. Look at you. We're gonna be ready to rock. Let's dive back in here. Yeah, go ahead. you're living in Bloomington? You're working at the auditorium.
Yeah. You get a chance to open up for the Beach Boys. That's pretty awesome. But at some point mm-hmm. Straight, no chaser. Is it still going on as an IU on campus? Yeah. Thing. Yeah. And we were definitely those older guys who had graduated and now they're on campus again. And like the younger guys were like, what are you doing here?
And we're like, like, bro, you need to graduate. Like you need to, you need to grow up. You need, I was there for about 15 months. and I said, you know what? At that point my, my then girlfriend, now wife had moved from her home in Cleveland to set up camp in Indy to be closer to me. Things were definitely moving in the direction of our like, alright, we're gonna get married.
And so, um, I moved back home to Fishers and um, within probably two years of that, maybe a year and a half from that, um, we had started volunteering with the, with the outreach ministry for high school kids called Young Life in Fishers. Fell in love with that ministry from a volunteer perspective. and then like three months after we got married, I was teaching guitar and voice lessons at a local music studio in Fishers.
And I got the phone call from one of the founding members of Straight No Chaser, a long time friend of mine who said, Hey man, so we're getting signed to Atlantic Records. And I'm like, what? He's like, yeah. You know, the videos that I've been sending you, like how they've been growing on that website, YouTube, and again, it was like YouTube wasn't a thing back then.
Like it wasn't what it is now. And I'm like, yeah, but what's going on? He's like, well, one of these videos blew up and got like millions of views and the Chairman of Atlantic Records wants to sign us. And I'm like, well, what's everybody doing? Aren't we like all over the country? And he's like, yeah, we gotta figure that out.
But we've got, uh, two spots that we're trying to fill. Two of the guys in that original video couldn't do the opportunity. And so I immediately said, I was like, well, have you talked to Mike, my friend that I made the group with however many years prior? He was like, yeah, and he's in. I was like, well then if Mike's in, I'm in.
And it was kind of like getting picked last in dodgeball. It was like the last spot. But it was great. I was like, I don't care what getting picked last, it's fine. I'm in. Yeah. So my wife, how about those two guys that said they couldn't do it? What the world? Yeah. Kind of an interesting story. That's a whole other story, but it's, uh, my wife came home from work that day and I was like, so I think I got signed to a record deal or something with Straight No Chaser, and she knew all those guys.
she was in the women's, uh, acapella group called Ladies First. And uh, and she was like, oh, that's awesome. What does that mean? I'm like, I have no idea. I, I, I just know that I gotta be on like a conference call here in the next week or so to figure some things out. And then within about three months we were signing contracts in New York City and that started Two Atlantic Records.
Yeah. Like, okay. Give us a, give us a perspective of like what that looks like. You go from Sure. You know, you're working with Young Life and you're working a music studio. Like you're, you're kind of not that those are, those are very, very fulfilling jobs, but Right. Probably not the most lucrative jobs.
One, one was, uh, I was volunteering just 'cause I loved it. And then the other one I was, you know, paying bills, trying to figure out, okay, what am I doing as a career now? Yeah. And then you go and you're staring down a, a record deal from Atlantic Records three months into my marriage. Was it like, did they want to hear you guys perform before they, like, committed anything?
they, yeah, they wanted to hear the group perform live. 'cause they had seen the success of the, the viral video. and then the song that went viral was a Christmas song. It was called The 12 Days of Christmas. And it's this mishmash of probably like 9, 10, 11 Christmas songs all mashed on top of each other and.
Oddly enough, throwing in Africa by Toto. There was a popular song that the group performed at IU. the irony is that that original group, in that concert, they were trying to put Toto to bed. They were trying to put Africa to bed and be like, this is the last time we're gonna sing it. We're done singing it.
You know, like we're tired of singing it. And then now, still to this day, the group has to sing that song. Hey, I have to sing that one. Yeah. Which is a great song to sing. Personally. It's, I mean, not as good as Rosanna, but yeah. Yeah. Africa's still great. It's a good song. Okay. And so you go there and you're, you're signing contracts, the record deal.
Yeah. And like, that means like, it's your career now. It's, it's the thing. Yeah. Well, all of us, we're still trying to figure out, like, how do we hold down our jobs back home? Like, how much longer are we in that? Like, what is, what does this entail, you know? So for about a year we were calling in favors, uh, trying to figure out what was, what was happening.
We recorded our first album. That summer we're singing songs about snow and Christmas in the dead of August down in Bloomington. So did, did you have to record the 12 days of Christmas on it? the live version was included. That was kind of like the anchor song on the album. Okay. Let's wait. And then every other song is all around it.
Let's dive into this. I kind of, I kind of want, I kind Oh, you pulling it up? Oh yeah buddy. We, there's a studio version and a live version. Do we want the live version? Whichever one. The live version has 26 million views. Go ahead. Is this the one? Yeah. This is what got you a record deal. Yes, though I'm not even in that video.
I got to, to ride the wave. Yeah. Golden Rings four. Calling Brave Friend, turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a Battery of Night. Day of Chris, miss My Tribe. Eighties made him seven seconds. Made him six. Made him fucking better not show you. Better not cry. You better not. In the, on the ninth, on the eighth, on the seventh.
It's kind of this medley of like, what is happening? Yeah. There's a lot going on here. There's a lot going on, right? Yeah. And these guys. Yeah, these are the dudes. That's the original founding group. And how many got signed? Like how many were you allowed to take in the group? So Atlantic signed 10, but two of them couldn't do it.
So my best friend and I filled in. So you get to be the extras? Yeah. We got called off the bench. Wow. I really want to hear the Africa part. Yeah, it's a little bit later. and they, they tweaked the lyrics to, to Africa to fit Christmas and all 12 drummers drum upon the,
that's Dame, you founded the group
again. You're like watching this and you're like, what is this?Alright. I, uh, you get it. I get it. Yeah. Okay. That was not exactly what I was expecting. Yeah, yeah. But so it was to the tune of Africa. Yeah. But it was the 12 days of Christmas. Correct. Incredible. And for some reason it worked. That's, that's YouTube. That's the internet. That's the internet and, yeah.
Yeah. So you end up mm-hmm. But what does it mean when you sign a record deal? So basically you're committing to a certain amount of songs that you're gonna deliver to the label, that they're gonna then figure out what they're gonna do with. So they gave us, I mean, it was not a huge risk for them to take us on.
I mean, uh, the advance they gave us is nowhere near probably what they pay other, other, you know, acts. And so, and it's like 10 guys you think, but you, but you are now a professional musician. Right. But yes, technically, but we're not living off that money. We're tr we're just trying to figure out like, okay, we've got a label, or we got a, we got a record to make and we need to go promote that.
So the rocket didn't really leave the launchpad for about a year and a half as we were like. Recording and promoting and we did our handful of gigs and then like Christmas ends and we're like, now what? We had been number one on Amazon and iTunes, like all this stuff. We got to be on the Today Show like we were singing for Like you.
Yeah. Yes. You were on the Today Show. Yeah. That's sick actually. Fun fact, Kathie Lee Gifford, who hosted it at the time, she named the nickname of the group's followers on Air. She was like, what do you call like your fans? And we're like, we don't have a name yet. She's like, you should call 'em chasers. And we're like, that's great.
And now still there's a worldwide chaser community, uh, who've been around since 2000. Shout out Kathy Lee. Yeah. Long time listener to get in and shout out to all the chasers because man, uh, they, they're some of the most supportive people Yeah. That we, that we got to meet. So you're going around, you're doing all this stuff?
Yeah. Like when does it become, Hey, I can live off of this? The full-time gig? Yeah. Probably like 2009 was a huge year for the group. We did three albums, a PBS special, a 75 City tour. it's 75 cities. Yeah. In the fall in a year. Yeah. And that, that was still a growing phase for us. We were like, okay, here we go.
Hold on. 2010 was probably, I would say the first year that we were like, whew. Okay. We, we all are making good money now. Like, uh, this is working. Is the 10, are they those 10 still together? if you were to see the group on stage now, I believe. Four, maybe three are founding members. Okay. Well at that point though, in 2010, yeah.
Yeah. You had the same 10 that signed the first deal. Yeah. Okay. So they all, everyone's sticking together. Yeah. It's grind except like, but at the end, are you friends with everyone? Yeah, I still am to this day. Yeah. So like you're getting to travel the country and grind. It's almost like that startup, but your startup is music, you know?
It's like that's, that's exactly what it's, you know, like you're in the trenches mm-hmm. Grinding, making this thing happen. Yeah. When we went from one bus to two, it was huge, man. We're like, you had 10 guys on one bus. Yeah. And our crew, it was a lot. It was a lot. We tight quarter and, but we would play any venue.
I mean, we literally, I think our first gig that we ever did from a promotional standpoint was the best buy in Bloomington. Like at the bypass, like for like 15 people singing like a couple songs to like just promote our album. It's like, you can buy our CD and Best Buy and then flash forward, you know, we're selling out venues all across country.
Where was, where was like the. On that journey. Yeah. Where it started to be a rocket ship Yeah, like where were a few of those moments where you had to look around and be like. How the heck did I get here? There was a really powerful moment for me on stage at the O2 Arena in London. Now, it wasn't our show we were opening for Barry Manilow, bro.
Barry sells tickets. Barry's got a fan base. I couldn't believe that even to this day. Barry was at that point managed by our manager. So we were kinda like a, a sister act, brotherly act to, to Barry. He had, he lent us like his master recording to, uh, for one of our albums that we then built an arrangement around his voice with him and all that.
Anyway, so it's the first time we've actually met him. It's the, I think it's the second or third show that we've opened for him, but it's the first time that we've actually spent time with him. And at soundcheck, he taught me a lesson that I still think about to this day where he had, uh, one of his team go out to like the farthest out row in the stadium.
There's like 25,000 people in this stadium. Right. You know, and it's soundcheck, so it's empty and he's like, go like far away and tell me does this look on stage? Does this look like we're friends? Does this look like we know each other? And that was such an interesting thing to think about that this guy's had the career he is had, he doesn't have to be on tour, and he's still thinking about what does this look like and feel like to the person in the farthest back row, does this look familiar?
Does it invite them in? And that really stuck with me to this day of, of the concept of playing to the back row. That's, again, goes back to my joy of connecting with an audience, thinking through what is this performance? What's in it for that person? Not what's in it for me as the performer, but, or what's in it to the pit tickets down front.
That's, you know, they're paying, right? Yeah. It's like, hey, the person who saved up their salary for Yep. However many weeks to come and get in, get a shot at this. Correct. Are you still performing for them too? Yeah. And so that was a really powerful moment, but I remember being on stage and seeing just this sea of people and being literally in awe of it.
of just the, what I like what you said, Nate, like, I'm here right now, like I'm in London in front of 25,000 people singing. and entertaining them. And it was like this kind of, this really, it, it really was like a spiritual moment for me. Like a still small voice kind of prompted me to think like, there's a stage even bigger than this prepared for you.
And it was this powerful moment of like, huh, okay, I'm gonna file that one away and try to process that. And it turns out, I think looking back that that is now the phase that I'm in. So it's kinda like I got that premonition, so to speak, back in 2012, let's say. And now 13 years later. I think it's really coming to fruition with what I'm doing with Indy now.
'cause I'm in, I mean, I'm in people's phones and TVs all across the state of Indiana. I mean, we have people watching nationally, you know, streaming the show. And so it's just wild. I, I never could have believed when I was 17 really hitting my stride in high school that I'd be doing what I am today. When you gave up.
Playing football. Yeah. And then you have to go out and sing in front of your buddies while you're wearing tights. There you go. And now you look back full circle and it's like, yeah. Yeah. From, you know, getting the opportunity to sing for, for food and Yeah. Sororities in college and that worked out too great.
Yeah. And then a cruise ship. And I think there's like this powerful message of, of Yeah. Never being bigger than the opportunity in front of you and just continuing to work. That's a good word. And you, and you never know what doors are gonna end up getting open for you. Yeah. And I mean, how many different at the time, so this would've been what, three or four years after you graduated?
How long was it? It was three years. Graduated in oh three. Cruise ship was, oh, like through oh four. back in Bloomington for a hot minute in five, signed in. Oh eight. Oh eight. So five years. Yeah. Five years post-grad. If you would've been a jerk or you would've been lazy or you're not dedicated.
Yeah. Like there's only one spot left in the, on the bus. Right. It's like you easily could have. Ah, you know what? Nah, not Ryan. Anybody else know Ryan like Right. 'cause I'm sure there were lots of other alumni. Sure. Yeah. And that's a good point too, that I've heard from other professionals in not just tv, but, um, you know, voiceover world or, or music, songwriting.
It's like your talent is only 20% of the equation. The other 80% is that people wanna work with you again. Yeah. You know, it's that they want to come back in the podcast room and be like, Nate's great. Yeah, absolutely. Whatever he needs. You know what I mean? Or let's get that guy, what's his number? Oh yeah.
Give him a call. Yeah. And so it's that, it's that relational, um, skill that it's not just being on stage performing and entertaining it's, uh, relationships. Especially today. In 2025. Yeah. Like you think of, uh, I, the, the best example. It's like I just watched, uh, happy Gilmore ii. Great movie.
Great movie. Not as good as the first, not, no, it's a very good movie. Not close. It's a very good movie. It's good until, I think the end to an extent. Last third's a little slow. Yeah. The last one they start. I'm gonna backtrack. It's a good movie. It's a good movie. It's a good movie. When they start playing golf, I'm kind of like.
It's a little bit, but what I loved about it Yeah. Is it's all basically Sandler. Like people that he's just become friends with. Yeah. And it's just like people that he wants to work. Yeah. Like, you know, he is so, uh, set. Right. He doesn't have to work. No. He doesn't have to go make any movie. He spent a long time making whatever movie that they asked him to make.
Now it's like, oh, I can make the movie that I want to Cool. I want John Daly to be in it. Yeah. Cool. I want this guy to be in it. Cool. My wife's gonna be in it. My daughter's gonna be in it. Yeah. All my best friends are gonna be in it. Yeah. And I think that's really, really cool. and it just shows like, you know, uh, Travis Kelley, if Travis Kelley was a pain to work with, they wouldn't call him.
Right. Like he wouldn't get the spot in there. Exactly. And I think to my parents' credit, really even to my grandparents' credit, just really fostered within me from a very early age. Not only a love for music, specifically my, my late grandfather, but also just like really good solid family values. Yeah. which, you know, thinking back it's like.
You can even go back to their family, you know, that poured into them, that then poured into my mom and dad, and then into me. And so what did your grandfather pour into you when it came to music? man, he had me listening to everything from Beethoven to Elvis. I mean, he, and they had music on constantly in their home.
this was down in St. Petersburg, Florida. And my grandparents' living room is like, in my mind I wanna write music that makes me remember that feeling, but also. Makes the audience feel that love, that warmth, that positivity, that goodness. And he just had music on all the time from his era. But he also would introduce me to a lot of different things.
He would make me literal mix tapes. Like he was big into like making CDs and cassettes, and he would mail 'em to me as a kid when I was like eight. He, uh, when I was like, I think first or second grade, uh, I wanted to impersonate Elvis at a family reunion. I totally forgot about this. Wow. I, I, I didn't intend to talk about this today, but like that was another link in the chain of where I am now.
Yeah. Is that rush of like, oh man, this is cool. You know, performing as Elvis with a tennis racket. My sleeves rolled up, my hair greased back and I'm lip syncing to heartbreak hotel, jailhouse rock and hound dog. Yeah. 'cause my papa was like, you could do this. You got a warm crowd. Yeah. And, uh, but yeah, he had me listening to a lot of swing in big band music.
That was his era. How, how much do you think. I think there's a lot of, uh, parents that listen to this. Yeah. And how much did that early belief mm-hmm. And I think it's one thing to tell your child that you believe in them, but to like, encourage you and to help you. Yes. You know, create this persona to go up there and hey, like, this is how you could go on stage mm-hmm.
In front of a, the family and, and woo them over. it's, it's pivotal without, I mean, without their encouragement and support I wouldn't be here. hands down, is there a moment of performing, uh, that your papa was there and Yeah. Oh, and you look back. It was so many times. Yeah. He and my, my nana would come to concerts as we were able to, like, it was so fun.
'cause anytime in the touring days when we would come through Tampa or St. Pete down in Florida, he knew that I had blocks of time where it was like I could just stay backstage and do laundry and hang out and call home. But he would come pick me up and he would take me back to their house and just like, let me relax on the dock.
And just kind of chill, you know? And there'd be music then. Yeah. And so Papa would pick, Papa was the best man. Like, that's so awesome. just a classy, classy guy. west Point grad, served in the Air Force, man. So you have two veterans? I've got, uh, four, actually both, four. Both grandfathers. My, my dad was Navy and his dad was Navy back to World War II in Korea.
Yeah. And then my mom's dad, uh, was class of 1950 at West Point. Went in the Air Force and then his son, my uncle, uh, when he retired fairly recently, he was a three star general in the Air Force. No way. Like on both sides of the family, man. Like military patriotism runs deep. Yeah. service to others, you know, runs deep.
Faith runs deep. That's incredible. Yeah. A lot of really solid, solid guys in my family. And I think that always puts it in. I, for me, it always puts in perspective. It's like you're, you know, to three generations now it's, we're in a podcast studio hanging out, right? Yeah. Like, how lucky, how fortunate are we?
Right? Like, shout out to the real heroes out there standing on the shoulders of giants in my family. Shout out to all the, and the ladies too, because mom, nana, like my aunt, my late aunt Jody, like all of them, just solid women. Heck yeah. Just solid man. The interesting piece about this is, mm-hmm here we are in 2025.
He, Ryan does not. Tour with straight, no Chase. No. I anymore. No, I do not. No. So these fun times the rocket ship Yeah. For you came to an end. Yes. I was in the group for five years. It was the first five years of the professional contract deal with Atlantic. I had been sensing, uh, a stirring kind of in my spirit to be like, I feel like my days are numbered here.
but I don't know what else I'm gonna be doing. Yeah. Because my, my career arc doesn't make a lot of sense on paper, you know? And so instead of, um, if I could go back and tell my past self like, Hey, it's okay to talk these things out with the guys in the group. Like, you don't have to keep everything inside as you're trying to search for the exit.
Just talk with the guys about it. Like everybody's. Got a shelf life at some point in the group. Yeah. And so, um, it took me about a year to find out that next step. And I think I'm the only person on planet Earth who's probably gone from like professional, acapella, singer to, uh, professional like youth ministry guy.
And so, uh, the organization that I had volunteered with, with my wife back when we were engaged and married, uh, was now growing to the point where they really needed a point person in fishers at my alma mater. I already knew the organization and it was like, it was perfect with like all the core values that I, you know, have.
And it was just like, okay, I think this is it. Let's go. And then it was another similar thing where it was like that yes, led to a lot of amazing opportunities to really create a positive, uh, impact in my local community. And still to this day, I'm, I'm in touch with a lot of those. You know when, when I met 'em they were teenagers and now they're young adults.
I know. I have to pull. It's wild. I'm wanna try to pull an all time Indiana thing. Please go. Because it's always like seeing if you know someone, let's do it. Because when I think of musical performance Yeah. The young life kind of crowd. And Fishers, Indiana. Okay. My brain goes to Ian iig. Yeah. Do you know Ian?
I love Ian. Yeah. So I used to teach guitar lessons to Ian for a while and he used to, and he's played several times, uh, on, uh, on Indy Now. Yeah. Yes. Ian's great. 'cause he comes in and does the, the overall GDP, the chart of Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Shout out to Gregorian is the name Gregorian Acoustic deal.
Ian. They're great. Ian is a great brand. I knew Small world. I was like, man. Yeah. This sounds a lot like, 'cause you know, you kinda like file Yeah. How you like file Yeah. For individuals. Oh, for sure. Oh yeah. I think of Ian as tennis and Fishers. And I think of it as, yeah, music, and that's such a small word.
I ran into Ian and his wife at like five 30 in the morning at the airport one time, and his wife was wearing a Gregorian t-shirt. He's like, I promise that my, I don't make my wife wear my merch when we're flying. I was like, right on, man. Okay, whatever. Oh, sure. Shout out to Ian though. Go check out their music.
They're, they're great. They played, yeah, check the, the episode they came on and they did a whole like little acoustic set on here. It was great. Yeah, so this was, that was pre all the merch. Very nice. What you've done here, I might need to get a signed album. That could be fun. You could, you could. I love it.
Okay, so, so time starts to take Yeah. And, and you realize that you need to go take on this new challenge. So, and so my last show was December 23rd, 2012 with SNC, uh, and then January 2nd, 2013, I'm in new staff training in Florida for Young Life. That was, that then began a five and a half year journey for me leading the ministry chapter in Fishers.
It's a global outreach ministry. It's been around since 1941 and my wife and I are still really big proponents of it, uh, in our community. And at one point, I mean, this was amazing, uh, because all the pieces were in place, uh, that, that healthy ministry needs to happen. And so it was at one point the fastest growing chapter in the entire country.
And I was back in the hallways at HSE, you know, and here I am again. I'm just kind of literally wearing a different t-shirt, you know, in a different role. And it took me about a year and a half, almost two years to really feel like. My head wasn't spinning from the transition where it was like off stage and now it's like, Hey, this is your stage in a way here.
but it got me home. it allowed us to, to start a family. we knew we wanted a family, but we didn't wanna raise kids apart, you know, where it was like, Hey, I'll see you in four months when I'm off the road, or whatever it is. and so that was an amazing, um, beautiful challenging, uh, journey for me in that chapter of my life.
Did you have like an identity issue? I mean, you're coming not issue, I guess that's the third word. Yeah. But like you're coming off of, you know, kind of being a, some level of celebrity. You know, and you're, you know, getting to open for Barry Manilow on paper. Yeah. Like stardom, you know, like you're filling up arenas and you're opening for crazy shows.
And then you leave that mm-hmm. And you're back in the halls of your alma mater. Yeah. And not like doing very, uh, spiritually like impactful work Sure. And shaping young lives. Yeah. But it's definitely a different kind of glamor. it was never an identity issue for me. I think it was a, a big transition change for me where.
You know, the last album that I recorded with the group wasn't released until I was out of the group. So then seeing them go on tour and promote that album, that was my last album that I was a part of, was kinda like, but wait, ah, I, so it's kinda like, Nope, this is what you're here for now. Like, that is passed.
Like we can celebrate that. And I am so glad to this day that I was able to leave the group on great terms. I still love those guy. I'm like, you know, anytime they're coming to Indy, I'm at the shows and it's more for me just hanging out with them because now I only see 'em a couple days a year, as opposed to being on a bus with them, you know, for, for a year.
but for me it was, I had enough work to do, man. It was like getting shot out of a cannon. I had enough work where it really kept me, um, focused, uh, in a very, very good way where I didn't have time to look back. and then it's like, and then our daughter Olivia shows up and it's like, whew, okay, new responsibility.
So for me it wasn't necessarily a crisis of identity. I think it was just a whirlwind of, um. Okay. What am I supposed to be doing now? I did really appreciate that there was an entrepreneurial spirit to my role. I had an office that I could go to, but I was supposed to be out. I was out with donors.
I was out with teachers and, and young people and partners in our community that believed in the ministry and supporting it. And so really, I got to be a champion of it, and I got to be the, the lead spokesperson, essentially. Yeah. and I did that for five and a half years and, um, profoundly changed my life in an amazing way.
And like I said, I'm, I'm still a big supporter of, of that ministry. Yeah. And so then this would've caught you up to 20 17, 20 18? yeah. I, uh, 2013 through June of 2018 was my Young Life chapter. Yeah. And then when that was coming to an end, yeah. was this another moment of reflection and figuring out what's next for you?
No, it was really, you know, I had been doing a couple other things on the side that I honestly stumbled into. one of which was, uh, I got to host, co-host a radio show with my friend Darren Earlywine. Shout out to Darren, uh, WZPL in town nine, nine and a half. Gave him an opportunity to have a show called Radio Theology.
They're like, you're a pastor. he, he had a ministry called Pub Theology at the time where he would go into bars and kind of have an event and like have more of like a uplifting message than like a full blown sermon and, uh, meet people where they are. And one of the people who was a big champion of that was Dave Smiley.
And uh, and he's like, let's get you a show, man. And so Darren called me and he was like, I need a wingman. I was like. Okay, well, what do you need? He's like, someone to like write jingles and be funny and kind of just go along with me when I, when I need someone to go along with me. I'm like, okay, cool. So I did that for about a year and a half on the side, so I was behind a microphone, you know?
Yeah. Just again, fell kind of into it. at the same time I was doing, you know, why I wonder if it was like, you know, who'd be really fun to do this? Like, who'd be fun to work with on this? Ryan would be really fun to work with on this. Yeah. Like, you know, like it goes back to be someone who people like to work with, right?
Yeah. Be, be the person that's be top of mind. Yeah. to get the phone call. I also fell into voiceover work. I got to voice a, uh, an animated mascot, uh, for a company. It's a small business company called Thryv, T-H-R-Y-V. And they were creating a little mascot, uh, with the team that made all the M&Ms, the animated m and m commercials.
They hired that company to create a little orange little character, and they needed a voice. a friend of mine from college who I was singing on the cruise ship with. He was on their marketing team. That's, that's, that's, that's who I voiced guy. Yeah. That little guy you voiced, you voiced this dude. Yeah.
His name's Thriver. Thriver, the little orange box. Yeah. They're based out of, uh, outta Dallas. And, uh, he at the time was like, Hey man, you know, I'm in charge of reading all or like getting all these entries from professional voice actors, but I really think that you could do this voice really well. And I'm like, well, I've never really done that.
Nope. Trace it all the way back to being five years old. What am I doing? I'm creating a voice, making people laugh. Yeah. And drawing people in. And so I, I think I beat like 80 or 90 professional voice actors and uh, it was like my last week on Young Life staff. And the money that I got from that gig floated me for the rest of the year to basically be like, this transition's gonna be okay.
And so, um, there I am recording a national ad campaign, having never done it before. And it was kind of like, well. Time to learn. And so, um, I, and I still do, I do a lot of voices for, um, I do some character stuff. I do a lot of commercial stuff regionally. I do some nationally as well. Where, where could we hear your voice?
Oh my gosh. In like today in 2025? Yeah. all the ZooBoo stuff, uh, for the Indianapolis Zoo. I'm on Royal Caribbean's website, uh, thrive. I do a lot of internal corporate stuff. Lake City Bank commercials, um, shut out. Lake City Bank. gosh, I've done stuff for the state museum. My son has done a, an ad for the state museum.
And so Wait, what? Yeah, he was the voice of a kid who was excited to see Santa at their like, you know, train exhibit or something last year. That's sick. so that's, that's something that I really get to enjoy doing too. Like So that floats you through Yeah. To the end of the year. Yeah. Makes that transition a little smoother.
Where does this next opportunity pop up? Yeah, so I, I doubled down on, on me, um, with my wife's encouragement. you know, I had always been doing gigs. I'd always done a gig here, gig there, you know, um, with my guitar in my hand and be, I just found myself, I'm either on a stage behind a microphone.
Or holding a guitar. Like one of those things is happening usually almost every week in my life now. And so, um, I decided to go full tilt, self-employed creative entrepreneur. I, uh, started a Patreon community where I was drawing a lot of Straight No Chaser fans to be like, Hey, you remember me from SNC, now I'm doing my own music.
If you wanna come support it, here's a way you can do that. And still to this day, I've got community members who go all the way back from like, I think I started in like 2017, and then voiceover work, private gigs, uh, MCing and hosting. I had the radio show. And so there was enough diversification in the portfolio of work that when COVID hit and everything dried up, I think I lost like 40 gigs.
Like that 40 gigs that were on the books dried up immediately because no one was doing live events anymore. And so I knew that I had to pivot and I had a, I, I will never forget this. I, I had a gig scheduled that night when everything shut down. Indiana was like, Hey, everybody, stay home. And I was like, well, I, I'm just gonna try to go live on Facebook and see what happens.
I was gonna do a gig anyway that night. Might as well just, you know, take some time and do that. And then sure enough, it was around that season where everyone's just in the same boat, just like living off their phone, playing cards, hanging out as a family again, and I'm their entertainment. And so I started getting booked for these virtual gigs, you know, like virtual sing-alongs for people all over the country.
shout out to one of, uh, our, a good partner here locally. OneAmerica still hires me to this day to like go perform for their teams. And it started while everybody was on lockdown in the pandemic. No way. And I got that through a friend. Again, the, the power of relationships, the power of getting the call.
delivering a great product, but also being someone that they wanna work with again. Wow. So, yeah, and, and really, man, like I, I'm so glad that I started to diversify before the pandemic hit. Yeah. Because the radio show went away. 40 live gigs went away. I mean, everything. But it gave me more time to be as a family.
It gave me more time to create. So I've noticed that in my life, there are seasons of performing and then there's seasons of planting and seasons of quietly creating Yeah. Over here doing the, doing the quiet work that not many people see, and then going out and doing it. Well, at some point you planted some seeds that grow into.
A spot on Indy Now. Yeah. How did we end up there? That was such a wild story. So it's 2021, we're starting to come outta the pandemic. I had been asked by another, uh, new station in town to kind of help some of their on-air people with the skills that I had gathered over the years of performing. Hey, we've got some younger talent we could use your help with.
Like, uh, their voiceover work or getting them more confidence on camera. And I'm like, I've literally never taught anyone how to do what I do, but okay, here we go. Yeah, absolutely. Let's, let's do it. Yeah. I could a hundred percent do that. Yeah. As I'm now, uh, I'm now an onscreen consultant. It's basically what it was.
Absolutely. And, uh, I, I would occasionally co-host on that station's lifestyle show and perform and co-host, well, one of my friends shout out to Brandy Price, an Janine Garner. 2, 2, 2 women in my life, uh, who had, I had already known. They saw me co-hosting and they knew. Just through the grapevine. Hey, FOX59 is creating a lifestyle show and they are interviewing for hosts right now.
you need to submit your name five minutes ago. I'm like, I don't even have a resume. I've got like a bio that my graphic designer made. I'm like, sure, I could send that, but like, what, what? And so long story short, I got the gig. it took about a month and a half to kind of go through the process. what is the process of interviewing or auditioning for Yeah.
A lifestyle television host look like? I think I had two or three, just kind of very organic interviews with people at the station, just kind of getting to know you kind of thing. And them hearing some of my story, me asking questions about what they wanted to do at the show. I got the call as my sister was coming down the aisle, uh, right like 10 minutes before my sister was coming down the aisle at her wedding and I was supposed to perform at her wedding.
My phone rings and, and I thought that I didn't get the gig because I had done a screen test and hadn't heard anything. Um. Sure enough, they were deliberating and I, I picked it up and I was like, I got 10 minutes before my sister comes down the aisle, what's going on? And, uh, it was our news director, cj, and he was like, you got the gig, when can you start?
And I'm like, lemme get through this wedding and I'll call you back immediately. And uh, I think within maybe a month I was in the building, signed contract, started part-time, then went full-time. and that was four years ago. Holy. We just started our fifth year. I, I had met my co-host Jillian, uh, at our screen test and it was like lightning in a bottle, man.
And for her it was a reunion 'cause she had been an anchor and a reporter at the station. So. Hugging and high fiving everybody. And I'm just kinda like tagging along at the screen test like, Hey, I'm Ryan, you know? Yes, yes. Like straight, no chasing, hey. Yeah. And so sure enough, we got the gig and it's, um, it really has been, it's been such a blessing.
One of my favorite teammates ever, if not the favorite, uh, to work with Jillian is just a delight. And she is loved by the community and she's out on her maternity leave now. they just had their, uh, she and her husband Christian just had their little baby boy miles. Shout out to Miles, shout out to Miles.
Little, little baby boy Miles. but yeah, it's, it's been such a fun journey, man. A lot of work behind the scenes. Yeah. Lot of work. A lot of, uh, pretty sharp learning curve. But like once they told me like, we just want you to be, you. Just bring everything you have, just be yourself. Just love the community.
Be warm again. Make people wanna turn the TV on again and go, oh yeah, I like this. Yeah. It's really what we're just trying to do. It's happy. Yeah. talk to us about what goes into hosting a lifestyle television show. You know, you turn it on and you never know what you're gonna see. Right. It's, it is always something unique and different.
Yeah. I, I know this is airing in the future, but today we had on the show, um, the Planters NUTmobile in our backyard. shout out to planters and, uh, we're giving a lot of shout outs today. Yeah, yeah. Just unofficial sponsors. Yeah. No Planters. No free advertisement. No free advertisement. You're gonna get my invoice Planters.
No good nuts. These salted nuts. Yeah. Come on now. So the Planters mobile comes to town and they come on the show. Yeah. And then we also had like a local jazz group. We had a couple, uh, sponsored segments come on. We had an interview with like Lou Gramm, the lead singer of Foreigner, you know, to promote his show.
So like there's a ton of variety for us as the hosts. Also, recently I was diagnosed with ADHD, which totally makes sense now that looking back on my life recently, it just recently got like an adult diagnosis of it, like. Medication and everything. I'm like, oh, now this makes total sense. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
You think that that probably checks out. Checks out, right? Hey, that's fair. Hey. You know, and, uh, I'm not a doctor or anything, but No, no. It, it was, it was eyeopening, but it now makes so much sense. But for us, it's perfect for, for two people with, with, uh, DHD likely. 'cause it's like, there's so much variety in the show.
It's positive, it's fun, it's, uh, it's fluff. You know, like we're dealing with like, it's not the homicides and the stuff. It's, it's like, Hey, here's the, the great new event that you need to go to this weekend. Here's the best new restaurant in town that we just got right here. Yeah. Here's something that's gonna make you smile.
Yeah, exactly. Or send to a friend and be like, we should go to this. And so I think people really resonate, um, with Jillian and my friendship and chemistry. and that's what I often hear from them. From, yeah, from audience members, which is a big change for me. Having lived my entire life in on a stage where I can see my audience now.
It's like me, Jill. A guest or two and like four or five crew, that's it in, in the studio. And they're not allowed to laugh. No, I, no, they're encouraged to laugh 'cause it's like if I'm making the crew laugh, it's connecting. That's kind of my litmus test of like, man, if, if Luca over there on prompter is laughing it, that was a good bit.
Yeah. And so I look at the camera and I see one person, I see the busy mom who's folding socks in her living room while her kids are at school. And she's got two hours, uh, before she has to go pick someone up. And I'm just trying to tell her, Hey, here's what's going on that you need to know about. So we're keeping it surface level.
We're keeping it warm, safe. So there is, there's actually something I've learned, Nate, there's a lot of hospitality in the role. It's not just doing what you do. And I love being on this side of it, by the way. I, I wanna be on this side of it more. There's a lot of keeping things moving. There's the, there's the research, there's the admin, there's the booking, there's all that.
But I think at the heart of it, it's. It's creating an environment where people want to come back again. It's creating an environment for people to walk in and they might see all the lights in the prompter and, uh, someone's micing them up and be like, well, what's, what's happening? And then you got someone going five four, and you're like, uh, so our role is to make people feel at ease.
our role is to go, I got the heavy lifting. You just be yourself. Just follow our lead. Here we go. And it's so much fun. There is an art and a science to it, uh, that, that we've learned over time. But having Jillian as my co-host, I'm learning from her every day. And I think if she were here now, she'd probably say the same.
And we have so much mutual, mutual respect for one another. She used to be the Encore Mc for the Pacers for a ton of seasons. She was an anchor and reporter at FOX59. She was at several other stations prior to that. So she's got like the journalistic on camera background. But she was also a dancer in high school.
You know, like, so like she's got kind of that performer Yeah. Energy that I think we realize that in each other. So it's very sibling dynamic, hectic. and it's so fun, like our producer Abby, uh, helped us realize that in the morning when we kind of are caffeinated in like ADHD land, she's like, this is your warmup.
Why am I gonna infringe on this? This is like what you guys do, making each other laugh in the morning we're tossing a ball back and forth symbolically with one another. You know, just kind of like we're working out the bits to establish the energy that then we go on set and bring that to tens of thousands of people in, uh, in Indiana.
That's awesome. Cooking segment or a new dog? The Humane Society comes on like, right, and it's like. At surface level. Yep. Everyone's like, oh, this is a pretty straightforward, pretty easy job. Yeah. What about hosting a reality not reality? What about hosting lifestyle television show Yeah. Is harder than it might seem when you have a very nervous guest.
Yeah. I, I absorb that energy. I feel my calves in my feet flex. That's my, that's my tell for myself of like, Ooh, I'm feeling their, their pain right now. So what can I do to help eliminate? 'cause a lot of times I feel like people think they put so much pressure on it. Yeah. Let's say you're highlighting a small business that's doing good or a nonprofit and they're, oh my gosh, everyone in the world is gonna see this.
Yep. And, and it's like, Hey, we're just hanging out. We're having fun. I always tell people, Hey, be the expert. Stay on the surface. You know, like we've only got about four minutes, so I know you could go a mile deep, but all we're trying to do is get that person eating breakfast to go, what's going on up there on tv?
You know, um, and so yeah, I, I do think that there is a mentality that, uh, can be a little, uh, misleading, especially to a younger generation that because they are digital natives and grow up with screens in their hands that has access to strangers all over the world, that you can just do it. And it's like, well, no.
I mean, I had all the experience I had and I still needed about a year of reps to really feel like, okay. I feel confident in this role. Oh, yeah. You know, like, and I, I do think we live in a world where the ability to create mm-hmm. For people is, has never been easier. Oh yeah. But never been more competitive also.
Right. I feel like there's so many people that want to be influencers or want to be, I can be a, a lifestyle television and like, they try it for three weeks and they're like, dang, no one watches this. Yeah. Like, it's hard. Wow. It is. Yeah. And, and we were told early, don't you worry about the revenue, the ratings, just worry about being yourself.
Bring the best version of yourself. To the set every single day. Let the sales department deal with the revenue. Let the ratings people deal with the ratings like you two, connect. Be authentically yourself. Be engaged. Like I've learned so much about just active listening. I mean, and, and again, it's like every segment is different.
And I think that's good for my personality and for Jillian's personality too. Yeah. Where every day is different. but I, but I do like opportunities to be able to pause during the day, come do something like this, go to, you know, someone on, uh, in, in Hancock County and go hang out at their place of business and get to learn Yeah.
What they do, and then highlight that is really, really cool. And it's like, well, I love Indiana. I've been here since 92. I love connecting with an audience. I love meeting new people. It all makes sense and everything is kind of pointing to this. Now that being said. I do know from just my history, it's like, well, everything seems to have a shelf life, uh, whether it's a position or a role or, or some organization that you're in.
So I know, and I've talked with plenty of people at work about this, it's like, well, I'm just, I'm doing this until I know, kind of in my spirit that it's like it's not time to do it anymore. And what is on the other side of that, I have so much less anxiety about now at 44 than I did at 34 and 24. Yeah.
You know what I mean? Now, that being said too, I wanna stay. In this role as long as I possibly can. as long as the station's like good with me and I'm good with that. It's like, Hey, cool, this works. But it's so much fun, man. Like it's a ton of work behind the scenes. Yeah. But it is so much fun to be able to do or go.
What are some of your, what are some of your favorite segments? Yeah. My, my favorite parts of every show that we do are the beginning and the end. the beginning is the host chat where it's unscripted. And sometimes Jillian and I are literally walking on set, be like, what do you wanna talk about in host chat?
Or like, she'll say something when she comes in and kind of gets settled at work and it makes everyone around us laugh. And I go host chat and it's kind of a signal for us to go, okay, remember that. And we don't script it out. but I'll tee her up, I'll go, Hey, you had something really funny happened to you this past weekend.
What, what were you telling me? And then she'll go into the story and it's, it's just, we're just playing. And then at the end, we always have a game. Either it's a, a name that tune game called Lyrical Lightning, or it's like a general trivia, uh, themed, uh, game called the Indy Now pop Quiz. And it's, we don't know the questions beforehand by design.
We haven't heard the songs. And it's just something fun where it's like, it allows us to be spontaneous and kind of improvy and it doesn't feel like the train's on the tracks, but those wheels are loose. Yeah, those are very fun. And it's so much fun because it's free and, um, we will hear from people when we meet them.
I'm always curious, what's your favorite part of the show? And it's usually three things. Oh man, I love you Two together. Cool. Check. So do we. I love, I love all the food you guys tell me about and the restaurants I need to go check out. Cool. So do we. And then usually it's like, man, what's that one game you guys play, man?
You always have so much fun with it. And I'm like, oh, Lyrical Lightning. Cool. Yes. And so rarely are they, are they saying something about like a very niche, granular part of the show? It's usually the two of us. Food and events I would throw in there too, and then games and fun and it's like, that's what lifestyle TV is.
I think people though, have a misconception like, oh yeah, anyone can do that. It's like, well, enjoy trying. You know, 'cause you, it's like if we were to handle, I had a realization. It's like if someone was to ask us, give us your playbook, it's like, there is no playbook for what we do. We are the playbook.
Like, you can't replicate this. You can try. But this is something very unique in what we have here in this duo and what our, our, our team behind the scenes has created over the past four years. Yeah. and it works. I mean, you see it like, people literally will have a mom and pop or, or a sponsor on the show and they're getting phone calls or emails before they even leave the building for sales, you know, of like, oh my gosh, I was on and I've already sold like 16 things of apple butter.
You know, it's like, it works. And so for us, that brings us a lot of delight too, to know that local TV works. And I mean, especially in a time where the local media landscape is just interesting. Yeah. And you know, I, I would say like influencers can kind of like play in this realm too of like, you know, like the lifestyle influencers, lifestyle television, and it's like.
How do you incorporate more social media? As well as your, you know, making sure you have a fire show and a great relationship with your CO and the whole nine yards. Yeah. It's a lot that goes into it. There is, people think it's just all just trying this food and petting this dog. Yeah. We do a lot of that.
And sometimes the dogs do things that you're just like, I had no idea. I they make it better. Is that right? I didn't see that coming for us. That you mentioned competition earlier. yes, there is more competition, but I turned a corner recently just in my life where I'm like, I'm not really trying to compete with anyone else.
I'm really not like I know that I'm competing for your attention, which is the most valuable currency 'cause time. And attention, we're never gonna get back. Right. Amen. And so for me to be invited into your living room, or your phone, or your breakfast experience or whatever, every day, that's an honor. Like it's a privilege, it's a right.
That I, or not a right. But it's a, it's a privilege that I, we take Yeah. You don't take for granted. And so it's like create the best product you can connect with the people in a way that is remarkable. That makes them wanna keep coming back. We put out three episodes a week. Three. I mean, we're already, we're at over an hour today.
You know, like we are taking up over three hours of people's time every single week in their earbuds. That's valuable. Whether or not, like, like if you are, if, if you are the, uh, your target demo is like a mom folding socks that are in between Yeah. Kids going to pick 'em up. It's like there's someone working in Excel spreadsheets right now listening to this show.
Yes. Like, oh man, these guys, they're fun and like, we appreciate you. Yeah. We do let it be known. We appreciate you, you, you rock, uh, make sure you're using your pivot tables on your exp Excel spreadsheet, right. Apple, apple S often. Yeah. Apples. Yeah. There we go. Okay. One more interesting piece before we get to kind of some of the fun segments here at the end.
Yeah. Not only do you host a lifestyle television show mm-hmm. You also have a standing show performance. Yeah. Up at Feinstein's. Yeah. At Hotel Carmichael. At, yeah. In Carmel. Yeah. My wife and I have been doing it, uh, for about two-ish years now. we have two show concepts. One is called Indie Nights, and that is a full band variety show that we host, and then we'll bring in special guests.
Like for instance, we've had, uh, friends of ours just over the years. Some we just met over the past year, some we've known since IU. And we'll have everything from magic to singer-songwriters, to piano players, to everything in between. Have you ever had someone name high school mascots as a, oh my gosh.
Segment in your variety show, Nate. I haven't. I haven't have your people call my people. Yeah. Come on now. That'd be really, it's always scary. It's amazing because what if someone gives a hard one? But I know I say I still retain 80% of 'em. Yeah. Which is incredible to me that, that you can do that. What a weird party trick.
Right. It's awesome though. Yeah. Right. And I love, honestly, it's the niche differentiator, but it's quirk and it's sincerely you. Well, I, I've done done it. That's what people resonate with. I've done it since college. Like I That's so cool. Because I'm not so good with names. Like I just, like, names are just kind of in one ear, out the other.
Yeah. But I'll always ask like, where are you from? And they'll say, oh, I'm from, I'm from Fishers. And I'm like, oh, are you h just, or Fishers and you're Tigers or Royals. And like, and then they're like, oh. And they, then the next time I see them, I go like, let's go Royals. Like, oh, that dude knows me. It's great.
Yes. It's an anchor point. Yeah. It's for them to go, huh? He, he's even remotely invested in me because I do think we, we will wake up and we'll look at through the world, through our lens and it's like. If you can help people in their lens, like you're the guide, not the hero. That's a big game changer when you can be the guide and not the hero.
'cause so many people are like, oh, like they want to be helped. They like it when influencers and I, and I know that I have influence. I wouldn't say that I am an influencer in the digital sense. Like, hey, you know, like, follow me on whatever you can at Ryansongs, you should do that. But, but, um, I'm not trying to feed my family through creating reels about, you know.
The best sushi. I'm just not, no offense to anyone who is, that's just not my thing. But when people can go, I like him or I like her because they're giving me something valuable, like that could be entertainment. That could be a recommendation. Yeah. That could be an hour and 15 minute conversation about, I don't know, the journey from Straight No Chaser.
Yes. To lifestyle television. Yes. To a show at Feinstein's. Correct. Feinstein's named after Michael Feinstein. uh, kind of a crooner, you know, uh, piano player guy. He actually founded the Great American Songbook Foundation up in Carmel. they preserve, it's the, it's the second.
Biggest behind the Library of Congress, I believe the second biggest collection of American sheet music and manuscripts, and it's in Carmel. they have a museum. They're building a brand new entity. Where is this at? Up in, up in Carmel. it's, it's like Rangeline and what is that Maine give or take?
It's up by the palladium. Gotcha. but yeah, Michael Feinstein founded that. And, uh, to, to sing there, we have two show concepts, indie nights, fun variety show, full band, lot of energy, lot of keeping you on your feet. Like what am I, what am I seeing here? It's kind of Sonny and Cher 2.0 between me and Lauren, uh, my wife.
And then we have, uh, a concept called Human Jukebox where we show up and we don't know what we're gonna sing. the audience dictates the set list, and so you have a little QR code that links to a spreadsheet where all of the songs that we can perform are on. There's like 600 of them. If we don't know the song, we'll just look up the chords.
We got an iPad and it's like, Hey, you're about to see a rehearsal and a performance at the same time. we'll have fun jokes. Lauren is the funniest person I know. She has a theater degree from IU. She did, uh, ComedySportz for a long time. Just that was the thing that like connected us in college was just like, I remember being at the first party that I, that I saw her, I'm like.
She's hilarious. Who's she? And then she's a amazing singer. Like she got all the leads in her old high school out, out in Cleveland. I got mine at HSE. And so like, there was a lot of the same story in our, and then it's like, boop. And then you're now together. Yeah. A lot of like male female leads there.
Come on. Well, listen man, it's, it's like if you've seen the movie Pitch Perfect, it's essentially we have a love-hate relationship with that 'cause it's so painfully accurate to the, under the, like the underbelly of, of acapella. But um, that's basically the plot of our relationship. Like, you know, we, uh, we've been together since, gosh, early two thousands, you know, whenever I think of pitch Perfect.
Yeah. I can only think about Adam Devine Yeah and his like, story of the audition, uh, where he's like. Pitch perfect. Like, he's like, everyone started, I like, I'm waiting in the waiting room. I'm here for the baseball movie. Because he didn't, he was like a late addition to it. And he's like, he didn't know.
He's like, why are the people singing? Like, that's weird. You would sing's for the baseball movie. That's, I never knew that. I never knew that story. That's hilarious. So he gets out there and like, did you perform it? Did you prepare a piece? And he's like, he's like, he's like, I was ready to field some ground balls.
And he's just like, so funny. Great. Yeah, he is funny. Just like the way he is. I love it. It's amazing. 'cause when can we see your shows? Yeah, so we have a monthly show, um, moving forward. You can just go to ryansongs.com to find the dates. and we alternate, um, we're actually gonna do this is because our most important audience dictated it.
Our kids were like, mom, dad, you guys are so busy. We've got an 11-year-old and an 8-year-old and we're listening to them most. we love our other audiences who come to the shows, but they're the most important one. And they're like, man, we really wanna just have some family time. And we realize like, we're going fast between like what I'm doing in the morning.
Lauren works, uh, part-time at our church, mercy Road and Carmel like, we're busy. And those kids aren't getting any younger and neither are we. And so we're actually scaling back in 26. we, we wanna do fewer shows for more people. And so, um, I've got an album release concert coming up next October in 2026.
I'm gonna sing at the The Tarkington to promote my new album, um, which is gonna be fun. And then leaving room for more family time and more, you know, mc opportunities, which are a lot lighter lift than putting on a full band show. You know? and so, yeah, all the dates are up@ryansongs.com. Heck yeah.
I love it. Okay, we've come to the end of the show where we get to play some fun games. This is my favorite part, rapid fire, talk through all things in Indiana. I, I, I would call myself a, um, not an aficionado of, of the podcast, but, but a fan. And so to be on the receiving end of this lightning round of questions.
Let's go. I'm, I'm excited. Here we go. Okay. This first question is brought to you by our friends at J.C. Hart. They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out at homeisjchart.com. My question for you, Ryan. Yeah. Why do you call Indiana home?
I live on the same street that I grew up on, and I am a nostalgic person at my core, and I'm now raising my kids, uh, literally on the same street that I was raised on for several years. And I could be probably in Nashville, Chicago, um, doing what I do with music or maybe lifestyle tv. But, uh, there's no other place I want to give my kids.
The childhood full of roots that I never had. I was often transplanted like, Hey, two to three years here. Two to three years there, two to three years there. My kids have lived in one home their entire life. Shout out Fishers. Fishers man. Like 4, 6, 0 3 8 and three, seven and five. Five and four. Oh. But like, let's go, let's go.
I, I love fishers, man. All right. That, that's a great answer. Yeah. Okay. First song you ever performed live? I, I lied to enter into this contest at a county fair. I can't remember which county fair it was, but I was not a resident in this county. I was probably in like 10th grade. Someone, alert the presses.
It was like a talent show in like the horse barn or whatever. And, and my friends were like, you should do it. And I was like, but I'm, I don't live in this county. And they're like, just make something up on the, on the signup sheet. And I'm like, I can do that. it was Fire and Rain by James Taylor. I'm, I'm a hu He's my, the hardest.
Yeah. And you, did you win? I did. You stole the I know the Boone County Talent Show. I know I still feel bad about that to this day. You know, it all worked out. IU Campus spot that you miss the most. Oh man. What a great question. okay. It's, it's the, it's called the Old Crescent. So it's, um, Franklin Hall Kirkwood, Owen Hall.
The, the, you got the gazebo, you got the student building, the union. The sample gates like that area late October. Inject that into my veins. Yeah, just 10 ccs of that. Oh my gosh, man. Just like, it's, that to me is home. Home is an interesting concept, right? Like, I didn't grow up in Indiana, uh, until 92, like coming in here in like sixth grade.
So like the whole Bobby Knight, gene Keady thing, like I, I was just, that's all foreign to me. But you give me a place that feels like my grandparents' living room in my soul, I'm good. Like I'm good. And that is one of those places to me. Yeah. You know, like late October Bloomington old part of campus. Give it to me.
I love that funniest Indy Now guest moment so far. funniest. Okay. first thing that came into my head was we had an owl, uh, I don't remember the owl's name, but the owl took multiple, multiple bathroom breaks on the set. During the show just lifted the tail feathers and we're just trying to have this conversation.
We're like, what's going on? What did, what did the owl eat prior to coming? Like, come on, you didn't purge the owl system. That was the first one that came to mind. I'm sure that there's been plenty more. we have a, a friend of the show named Chef Kylie Scales, she always brings her little daughter Penelope on and uh, she was doing a segment.
you can see it on our social media about like, using nuts in your breads that you're baking. She was like, you always wanna toast your nuts. And Jill and I just look at each other and, and I, Kylie was doing it on purpose, uh, but we just start losing it. And Jill leans in, she goes like, straight face.
She's like, you, you toast your nuts. Right? Like, you know, and I'm just like, I revert to eighth grade. Yes. I'm just dying. And they both just lean into it. It's, and you're just like on television, 10 thousands of people. Yeah. I love it. Toast your nuts. Toast your nuts. We have Planters. Yeah. Honey roasted.
Hey. Ah, no free advertisement. I'm not giving 'em, are there a local Indiana nut company? We'd love to talk to you. Jack and Jill Nut shop in Nashville, Indiana and Brown County. Jack and Jill, shout out to you. Yep. They went up the hill mm-hmm. To deliver Hoosiers. Good nuts. They did. here we go. Mm.
What's the song that stuck in your head right now? Man, I Need by Olivia Dean. my, my wife is really into her, so I hear her singing it a lot. She's great. British artist coming up. Great song. Heck yeah. Dream Indiana. Venue to headline. I have it on my bucket list to go, uh, the Palladium and IU Auditorium.
Heck yeah. Gotta re, gotta redo a repeat there. From opening for the Beach Boys to headlining. Yeah. It's gonna be a great story when I get to share it on stage. Amen. Holiday song you'll never get tired of. Ah, wow. That's good. Oh, holy Night. Oh, it's great. Makes me cry every time I sing it. Hidden talent outside of music, parallel parking, making popcorn, killing bugs like in the home.
You are really good at those excellent parallel parking. Like I, I love parallel parking. I'm better backing in and going to the right. What? Psycho, uh, making popcorn. My wife requests it all the time. And I am the resident bug killer in our home. And I'm really, I'm really good at the flies, especially. Oh, flies dad.
now we're talking Yeah. Bucket list artists to collaborate with. man, if he was still alive. Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. Paul McCartney. James Taylor. Those are like the giant Mount Rushmore guys. John Mayer. Yeah. Carole King. All them. I love it. Yeah. This, this I, man, I could do the lightning round for a day.
Oh, isn't it so fun? It's fun, dude. Isn't I love it. It is so much fun. Yeah. But we've come to the end, the end. These are the final three questions. I love 'em. Here we go. That we ask every single guest who comes on the show. I prepared for this, by the way. Good. Yeah, I'm ready. I'm glad you did. I'm ready. I mean, at this point, when someone comes on the show, this is like, I mean, any guest out there listening to this episode, if they come on the show and I say the classic questions and they're like, oh, I didn't expect that.
I'm like, well, then you definitely know what's on the show. Right? You didn't read the Yeah. Or the like the preview sheet. Yeah. I mean, we give out, yeah, we give you some research. We don't like leave you hanging here. I wanna check my notes so I get this right because I got, yeah, absolutely. Okay. Go. So, mm-hmm.
You've been a lot of places. Yeah. You didn't come to Indiana until 92. 92. You traveled the world seen on cruise ships. I did. And you traveled the country and the world singing for straight, no chaser. Yeah. As you were out there on your escapades, what is something that the world needs to know about Indiana?
We create really good leaders. We create really good leaders and it is a space where you can create, so there's two, two kind of different things. You're welcome for Abraham Lincoln. Yeah. He's my number one president, the Boyhood home. Come on. We didn't talk a lot about the presidential podcast, but it was a journey that, uh, my friends Blaine Russ and I did, where we read Blaine and I read a biography on every American president, uh, Washington through Obama and discussed their lives, legacies and little known facts and had a cocktail that that president enjoyed while we were doing it.
And it was an, we read 21,000 pages over the pandemic and recorded three seasons of the podcast. I love, I was just thinking about that. It was incredible. It was so much fun. So I'll, I'll send it to you. The Preside Sequential podcast. yeah, but learned a lot about Benjamin Harrison. We got to go do his, uh, episode down at Benjamin Harrison home.
but yeah, we create great leaders. when I was thinking through this question, Lincoln's my number one, the world wouldn't have Abraham Lincoln without Indiana. There's just the basic answer. but we also innovate and create, uh, and we have, uh, an environment for. Entrepreneurs, specifically creative entrepreneurs.
Yeah. who changed the world? Madam CJ Walker. Good grief. You like doing your hair. You got her to thank Amen. just one of many first self-made female millionaire. Yeah. That's pretty incredible. Yeah, right here. She's amazing. Indiana Ave baby. so yeah, there's, there's kind a long answer to your short question.
I love it. Okay. What is a piece, uh, of the state that more people need to know about? What is a hidden gem in Indiana instead of geography? I went. My favorite breakfast spot on Earth. Yeah. Is that okay? Yeah. Okay. It's, it's not hidden necessarily. Oh, well then why would it be your hidden gem? It's hidden if you don't know.
If you've never been. Okay. So I'll give you, maybe you're listening in, in, in Valparaiso. Yeah. And you've never been to Fishers. Okay. you gotta have breakfast at The Roost at 116th and Allisonville walking in feels like it is 1999. It's my senior year of high school, and it's a Friday morning. It, it's like literally walking back in time.
It is a time portal and the get the skillet, uh, see if you can get it with tater tots instead of hash browns. I always add some spinach, mushroom and onion, and couple basted eggs. Little bit of side of fruit, black coffee to. The Roost in fishers I love it. That's a great one. Fishers, shout out to the Sahm family.
They, they're fantastic. Shout out. Yep. And final question. For you. Yep. This is where we get new guests for the podcast and learn about other people across our state that are doing incredible things. Yep. Who's a Hoosier? We need to keep on our radar. Someone who's doing big things. I got three.
Oh boy. my, one of my best friends in the world, Brian Kelly, uh, he is, in my opinion, the best singer I know. No offense to all the other singers out there. Brian has, uh, this is not the ex Notre Dame football coach that's now LSU. No. You ever Brian Kelly. He, he's also an IU grad. I've known Brian for 25 years.
Fort Wayne kid, uh, sang at IU in Straight No Chaser with me. He founded a group called the Soul Lounge Band, Soul Lounge Band. they do a ton of tribute concerts around town. He's incredible. He could sing the phone book and I would listen to it all day. So there's Brian Kelly, uh, the second one, uh, Justin Vining.
he's, he's like the T.C. Steele of our generation. If you don't know T.C. Steele, look, look up. an amazing painter. Prolific, connected, humble, hungry. He's a beast with a paintbrush. Yes. He was one of our early episodes. This might be like, uh, fifth or sixth episode in the studio. Yeah. Go back and let's to it.
Justin Rocks. Proud Triton alumni. Oh, is he? Justin and I, we went to a school 70 ish kids per graduating class. Yeah. And both of us ended up connecting here and are in like the artsy kinda space in Indianapolis. Did, did you see that he painted the mural on in, in green? Yeah. Come on now. Shout out to Justin.
Shout out. and last, and certainly not least, uh, my dear friend Meghan Mellinger. she is, uh, a dear friend of my wife and I, but she's also my graphic designer. She does all my, like web merchandise, uh, cover art for my music. But she's also, and I'm putting this out there so she and I can do something with it.
She, like, she will take quilts. And turn them into these amazing fashion pieces. So it's like very Indiana. She grew up in Illinois, but she's lived in Indiana for a long time. You should make an intro. I have a, yeah, I'd love to, a great quilt from my grandmother. Maybe put it on the inside lining of a suit jacket.
So she's nostalgic, like I am, like it's, it's very personal, it's very custom, it's all handmade. it, her, her, uh, creative company is called Deep End Creative Studios. Yeah. but that business that we are actually talking about, uh, is called Luckylee. And so. Heck yeah. Meghan Mellinger, Justin Vining, Brian Kelly.
Amen. And this one guy named Nate Spangle. Ha. He's fantastic. What a guy. Hey Ryan, I appreciate you coming on the show. I appreciate you sharing your journey. Thank you. From singing in the backseat of a car in Germany at five years old. Yeah. To performing on incredible stages. Opening for the Beach Boys.
Yeah. Opening for Barry Manilow. Yeah. I was gonna combine those students a beach berry there, you know, beach berry man for doing the whole thing. it's been an incredible journey to giving back to, you know, our, the next generation of leaders in young life. Yeah. And helping, you know, through a, I mean, high school's already a challenging time.
It's tough. Yeah. Two, now what you're doing with Indy Now, it's been an incredible journey. Thank you. one, if people wanna find you and they wanna connect with you, yeah. They want to, they learn more, they wanna hear more, where can they do that? I would love to connect with you Ryansongs on all social medias.
Or you can go to ryansongs.com. And then you can see 'em on your tv. Yeah. Every day. That's well, every weekday. Yeah. FOX59 from 10 to 11 in the morning, and then CBS4, our sister station, uh, from nine to 10 in the morning. Amen. Here we go. Hey, we appreciate you coming on and keep the good work with FOX59.
Thanks, Nate. Likewise. Thank you for listening to this episode of Get IN. If you'd like what you heard, make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations@sweetwater.com.
If you want a behind the scenes look at everything we're doing across the state. Make sure you follow me on Instagram and TikTok at Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being part of what makes the Hoosier State. Great. We'll see you next time here on Get IN.
