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XPN Welcomes Gordon Gano & the Ryans

Presented by WXPN at World Cafe Live - Philadelphia

January 14, 2010

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Gordon Gano was the voice and pen at the center of the Violent Femmes' stark and seething musical storm. Fast-forward a couple of decades, when Gano and the Ryan brothers found themselves living in the same New York City neighborhood and hanging out in some of the same places. When the three would get together, there was much talk of music and musicians, with discussion topics ranging from Leonard Cohen, Television, and Frank Black to Jackie Mittoo, Jimmy McGriff, and Mose Allison. After Brendan ended up playing keys on Gano's 2002 solo release Hitting the Ground and between major studio film score projects (Fever Pitch, The Heartbreak Kid), the Ryans started handing off instrumentals to Gordon, who'd come up with lyrics and ideas for the music. Thus began a mailbox-centered collaboration that would last, literally, for years.

Gano is thrilled with the results and the collaboration. "The different strengths that we have really come together in a very good way with this record and these songs," he says. "This is not a side project, because Violent Femmes are over, so it's not like this is the other thing for connoisseurs or somebody who really wants to dig into it. This is what I'm doing, as far as singing and writing and playing music. This is what I'm doing."