0:00 Shakira is there. >> What? >> And then Acon. >> Wow. >> And Red One, who's like Gaga's uh producer. First thing he talks me up and he goes like, "This guy can play whatever you want. Go ahead and try." >> YOU'RE LIKE, "NO, NO." >> I WAS LIKE, "OH, ████ ME, MAN." >> Welcome back to another episode of the Careful Boys. Hey Ryan, like you obviously were super number one in the world professional dancer supreme extraordinaire season 1 inaugural so you think you can dance champion twice ABDC Emmy awardwinning >> my god you should introduce me every day >> I I will uh that being said like uh you made the decision eventually at some point in your career to kind of transition to mainly professional music
0:51 now because you don't dance anymore and most of your larger scale projects uh or money making in general like is in music production or mixing or anything like that, right? >> Yeah. H >> how did that transition happen for you >> life after dance? I think like the well I I would say there's like a soft transition era and there's like a hard one but the soft one was like I would say when um when I started when Quest started working closely with LMFAO and then um I wanted to like basically be doing music at that point but I was all dance. All my responsibilities for the tour were just all dance related. And then um at some point it had already been like maybe like a year I want to say maybe like a year and a half even of uh working with them. But I never talked about music to
1:41 uh to LMFO at all really just cuz I didn't want to sound like another person that's like, "Hey, put me on like I do this." And then uh there's one point where I was like just playing I was practicing piano ████ uh at the lobby of a hotel when we were in Spain. And then um >> was foo like what is that you Riot? >> Yeah he's at the bar like who's the who's the one playing piano? >> I I didn't even do it that often but then like just that one time he happened to be coming down. It was like during a day off and then he was just like oh what the ████ And then we just started talking about music ████ and then he was just like yo come with me. I'm going to go to this uh studio session right now. And then that's when uh he brought me with him to the session that I thought I thought it was going to be a normal thing. I've been with him in sessions before. I didn't think it was going to
2:31 be like a a really major thing, but we go to this studio and it's ████ first I see this guy Martin Kaisenbomb who's the head of the label that uh which is Cherry Tree Label. That's the label that um that LFO is on Far East Movement. Uh he was in there and I'm like, "Oh, what the ████ Martin's here. Damn." >> And then ████ uh Shakira's there. >> What? >> And then Acon. >> Wow. >> Crazy. and Red One, who's like Gaga's uh producer. >> That's crazy. >> And then Fu and me and that's it. And then he's like he goes the uh first thing he talks me up and he goes like, "This guy could play whatever you want. Go ahead and try." >> YOU'RE LIKE, "NO, NO." >> I WAS LIKE, "OH, ████ ME, MAN. >> That's so sick, though." >> Yeah. And then we just started >> What a cosign.
3:21 >> Did they start Did they start trivia you you like, "Okay, now play this. Play this." No, not really. They were just they were just kind of like uh like Shakira just started singing some random stuff and then I just started backing it up. So it was very like >> Were you like, "Oh my god, don't ████ up. Don't ████ up." >> Because I just wanted to be as like smooth as possible cuz whatever their workflow is. >> Yeah. I'm like I just don't want to get in the way of whatever the flow is. I don't want to be like the one that they got to stop for. So I'm just like whatever you're doing, I'm just going to do it. If red one says let's try this cuz they're already going. We walked in the middle of them working. So it's like >> plus plus if they're high up in the game, they've got to see like a hundred people that can play whatever. >> Yeah, there's probably a ████ million of me. And plus, they don't even know how good I am. So it's like they can't there there's nowhere to judge what they can say to me or not. So I'm just like whatever they're doing, I'm just going
4:11 to keep on like flowing and and going. And then um and then we just start like catching on to like, oh that's a good that's a good thing what you just did, let's do that. And then we just made this like whole thing. Long story short, it never went anywhere. Like nothing left that room. Nothing ever got made or whatever, but it was like a pretty uh thrown to the wolves experience with him. And then from that day, I think was the proof that I gave that I could actually be like I guess like employable in that way. So then um >> like a session musician. >> Yeah. So then I started he started to let me in on sessions like all the time. And then it wasn't until uh we were doing the American tour and I tore my ACL on stage and I was out from like uh from dance like >> not permanently but like I was going to be out for like nine nine months or so. So then um I wasn't going to be on tour
5:02 anymore. I was just going to be at home. And that's when Fu was like Red Fu is like hey can you like help me with the He's like I want to start my own label and I want to like get different artists signed under that label. So, if while I'm away, if you could stay back and uh work with different artists that I'm interested in and just develop them musically, he's like, "That's the next goal." >> Wow. >> Yeah. So, then I started doing that where like he would uh not sign people, but he would be like interested in certain people and then we would workshop them and stuff. That also didn't go anywhere. >> How would you workshop or develop? Would you like try different sounds with them to see if anything would be like, "Oh, this would be good." >> Right. Yeah. basically basically play different stuff, record different stuff with them, and they just keep sending it to him and be like, "Oh, how do you want to hear their voice like in what way?" And then he'll tell me, "Okay, let's just try that." And then I'll just go with that art. I'll bring I'll bring the
5:52 artist into his studio in Hollywood and we'll be like, "All right, let's try these three different genres." Or like or just try to follow along or like we just work on what the tone sounds like. Just kind of It's more of like trying to find out what kind of artist this person can be. >> But then he got so caught up with other stuff we never launched the label or anything. How do you think you would feel if you sent in a project and it was like you and Uncle Sam, Uncle Chin made a >> What do you think about these guys? >> I wish back then I wish I was more bold with suggestions. I was just so meek and like try not to step on anybody >> just like a joke a joke track that he gets to listen to, you know? He's like >> this guy wasn't bold enough. >> Not in that way. Not in that way. I just I didn't know how quickly someone could be like, "Oh, you're doing too much." >> So, I just I wanted to be like very careful. But then by that point already uh that was after the the Spain stuff. So he had me do uh keyboards for
6:42 >> when was this like 2013 14? >> It was about 2011. >> 2011 >> 2011 2012. And then once that happened I'm like once I I got a taste of just being on stage just doing keys and I'm like this is so much better than dancing the whole time. >> What songs would you play like on stage with? >> I would play their whole their whole set list. So, is it cuz it's easier on the body or like what did you like about it more than dancing? >> It's easier on every part of me molecularly like so like my it's easier for my brain. I could basically turn my brain off and do it. With dance, my brain's like hyper mode where I'm like really focused. >> But with music, it's more like I'm just I just coast on the pocket and I'm like, "Okay, I know what's going to happen from here." >> That's cool. >> And it's not like LMF songs are hard to play. So it's really >> is it does it have anything to do with
7:32 like when you are the like main performer and the other one is more of like kind of like a backup role? Does it have does that have to do with anything? >> Kind of. I think like I think for music it's like you because I I'm more confident that I'm more dependable musically than dance to be honest which I'm not like the biggest ████ up in dance but I think I have a higher likelihood of messing up in dance than music. I just feel so comfortable. I'm like, there's no way I could ████ this up because it's like such elementary stuff based in my mind. I'm like, >> cuz you have high risk moves that you were doing. >> Yeah. There's always a percentage of risk where like today I may not hit it. But with music, it's it's the same thing like all the time unless you're freestyling, which that's also it's not like we're a jazz band, >> you know what I mean? We're playing pop songs. It's mad easy and it's just fun vibes. You said that uh before you even like uh were caught in that hotel lobby
8:23 and stuff like that, you had already thought about transitioning to music or just doing music, but like you were just maybe more, you know, reserved and like bring it up. You didn't want to bring it up and stuff, but like where was your mentality with that? Like you always just knew you would eventually and dance was just like this thing that heavily inserted itself into your career path for a short period of time. >> I wanted to. I mean, I just didn't know how and I and I was part of a lot of failed projects prior to that. So, I just always felt like it was so difficult. Like, why spend time trying to make it in music, which is so ████ hard when like dances right in front of me, you know? It's like, might as well just keep doing gigs. But, there were a lot of things I was involved in that didn't take off. Like, a ton of stuff. Even like um like uh I had soundtrack this entire video game that just got canned, like massively canned. And it was like I had done like 30 tracks for
9:13 this thing and oh man >> and it like was supposed to be picked up by Sony just fell through >> and then uh I had a music partner way back in the day. We used to produce a bunch of ████ together. I actually if you go to like Ardan Cho's YouTube the first ████ thing she ever uploaded is like a song I made. >> Oh wow. >> And then um and then we he moved away started doing music for like Asia and and now he lives here in Summerland which is crazy. But uh and then making like remixes and stuff was a thing that I was so good at, but I I didn't know it had a niche. I didn't know there was like a place for that. I always thought it was like a novelty. It's like, oh, you do like cool remixes or mashups. That's cool. It doesn't really go anywhere. So then there wasn't really a place for that until eventually there was, which is where I am now. But um at the time I just it was just like a far-fetched ass dream. I'm like there's no freaking way. So you always wanted music but then dance was there for you
10:03 and then you got your foot in the door in entertainment with that but then you after so it's not something that you did after the fact. It's like you actually got to do what you want to do eventually. >> Yeah. There's like it's like that's what I want to do ultimately but I just kind of accepted there's it's kind of a stupid thing because that's not what I'm famous for in at at all >> music. >> Yeah. But like at the time dance was like there's opportunities left and right. there's like a oh we can take this job, we can do that job. And that's mainly where my any amount of reputation I ever had is basically in dance. So any music stuff I had as like a bonus or it's a deep cut. If you know me, then you know that I like to do that. But um but the opportunities were never paid. Anything that came my way was not a paid job. >> That's crazy cuz uh I think dance is one of the hardest places to make money in and you found success there before
10:55 music. Yeah, I think that's it's it's way harder, but like just as luck would have it, we just landed at the right timing with dance. So, it was able to live for a pretty good amount. But I don't I was confident I couldn't stretch dance longer than I could music for sure. There's no way. >> Especially with the way I do it, I'm like, I'm not going to be doing this ████ in like two or three years. >> So, you knew that there was going to be an out one day and it wasn't going to be like a thing forever. >> Yeah. And I think like once I started doing so like uh oddly enough a person that kind of helped change my life in that way was Dante Bosow because he was one of the first people that recommended me uh outside of the dance world to do music cuz uh most of the time like I I would I would make a lot of the uh mixes for Quest that we would dance to and then sometimes I would make those same
11:46 mixes for other teams or other like things. Um, and then Dante had suggested me to the Olympic skaters cuz they were talking about like we need some kind of creative music for our next program and then they were telling him about that and then he was the one who said, "Oh, you know who could probably flip it and make it dope and then he suggested me." And that first project was the one where I did like a I did a Frank Sinatra Jay-Z program for the Olympic skaters. Yeah. And then they competed with that and then I think that helped me kind of like show the oh like here's the application of how you could do such a thing >> the proof of concept >> right and then from there it just like it just kind of like snowballed into other uh like harder projects like then there were like TV shows and then films and then it was always the niche was always how do you like put an
12:36 interesting flip on this thing. So, it was never what I imagined would be like just me playing piano or some ████ but that definitely helped, but it was more along the lines of like unique uh remixes of existing songs. >> How did Dante know that you did stuff like that? >> I think because he knew that I I'd made all the Quest mixes. Oh, >> so one of the things at Quest was like Yeah, Quest was like uh like we had a lot of like signature things to our whole um schematic, but like one of them was that we always danced to like unique stuff like uh it was always like a tailored mix with like remixes that were only we did them and and if you were like using the same one, it was probably from us kind of deal. Um, and so it helped us because we kind of did a chicken or the egg scenario where like we would make I'd make a mix, we would make a dance to it and then once we see how the dance came out, I just do the
13:27 mixover to match all the new ideas we had. So it looks like we did it that way from the beginning. >> Wow. >> And then that solution kind of, if you really think about it, really makes sense in film because they need a song to dance to. They end up changing 50 ████ things as production goes and then when post comes you got to go back and redo it sometimes in a different song entirely >> for China that was the story every day. >> So it's like you just always have to like fix all the f██████ over and over and over and I'm like I didn't realize that >> I became like an expert at that >> specific thing. Yeah, >> that's such a niche kind of skill that is like if if if they seek you out, they're like, "Who's the master that does it?" goes, "Oh, I know a guy, but he's a dancer." >> Yeah. It's, you know, it's a it's a problem solving skill. But the funny thing is that >> I guess like because of my skill set of
14:18 being able to quickly hear something and go, "Okay, that's this." Then I I'm probably doing it faster than most people >> because I just see him move his thing, whatever. And if we need a melody on that part, then I it's very obvious to me. But um but that's also bad because if I work fast enough, then I do more work. So I act like I take longer. Yeah. >> Yeah, you have to. >> But yeah, that would be that would be where it really like changed was getting injured and being forced to not be able to dance. But then thanks to Red Fu, like he gave me every opportunity that really like transitioned me fully into that line of work just because like on a resume ████ it helps a lot to be like, "Yeah, I ████ played on a pop tour like internationally." You know, it shows that you're dependable in that way and that, you know, they don't know looking at the resume that like, oh, I was a ████ dancer on there for years
15:09 and then music got added onto that to them on paper. It just looks like, oh, you're the ████ keyboardist for this >> group that made millions of dollars. Yeah. ████ looks sick, you know? >> And and then they check up your name on Celebrity Net worth and then you're a 10 millionaire. And then I ended up doing >> 19 millionaire >> as I and then and then I ended up doing the ████ music directing for Paul Abdul tour which was the same kind of thing where like the problem at hand was >> Paul Abdul is going to do another tour. She doesn't want it to sound like any of her old tours because it has to be like >> modern and different. So what's the spin you could put on it? >> So then that's again it's a very niche thing. It's like if you're amazing musician, you might not be good at that. But then that's kind of right in the ballpark of everything I did. >> You're a niche guy, man. You're highly proficient in two completely different skill sets. >> I don't know, man. That's it's very very
16:01 ████ mega niche. So there's that means the sad thing that comes with that, it's a limited work placement supply. So I never know if next year I'll even have a job. >> You need to start sabotaging other people's soundtracks. So then they so then you be you're like the mafia where you pro you create the problem and you also create the solution. You are the solution. >> Yeah. But then the you know the thing that uh hopefully with this next project that I'm doing now which is that movie which is going to be on Netflix uh this year. So um and I can't really talk about it yet but when it comes out it'll be even cooler to talk about it so you can just watch it right away. But that is probably the hardest like I think in terms of what it is exactly I do. That's the best application I think cuz it's absolutely that >> 100%. It's take this song, maybe take
16:51 five other songs and make a ████ mixture of it, have it match so it looks intentional and add soundtracking and scoring through the whole thing. And it was like, >> wow, >> the biggest ████ challenge. And it's been over a year that I've been on that now. >> Wow. >> Damn. >> This guy won't stop, dude. Can't stop. >> Hey, you make more money if they're indecisive, though. So, >> yeah. They make less money and do more. want drums anymore. >> Yeah, luckily that's I haven't run into that ████ but it's um You know what it is mostly? It's that Oh, we can't use this song now >> cuz they couldn't get it cleared or something. >> That's the worst part. Yeah, China had the worst version of that where they ████ played me like a ████ flute. They were like, "So, what happened is, this is going to sound really convoluted, but try to ████ keep up with it." So, we end up with this ████ song that they want us to use,
17:43 right? Just some regular song. Um, and then the challenge is that we have to make uh a performance where the main dancer in this performance is like a really famous influencer in China. Her name's like uh Angela Baby or something. So, she's like the Kim Kardashian, whatever. So, they're like that we want her in this. She has to dance with a handicapped girl in a wheelchair. Can't walk. >> And they and then the challenge they want her to look really like they want her to look really good, but don't focus on the wheelchair girl cuz she's not the star. >> And then they add 12 other uh kids from a pop group and they're like, "But don't focus on them. Focus only on her." And then so I'm like, "All right, I'll just make this ████ song that makes her look like a saint or whatever." And then we finish it. And then um the night
18:35 after that performance and everything's good to go, I get a call in the middle of the night and they're like, "Hey, so we need to change the song but keep the exact performance. We're going to send it to you and just soundtrack the the dance in the different song." And I was like, "Why the ████ Why do we have to do that?" And then they were like, "Oh, um because the the sponsor didn't approve the use of that song." Turns out the original song they gave me to use was the theme song to one of the sponsors of the TV show. So it's like let's say there's like a sparklets is a sponsor. You got to use a sparklet song >> because it's China. I didn't know that. I thought it was just a regular song. And they're like yeah they denied it. And I was like okay so then what do you want me to do? They're like any song it has to be done by 8 a.m. >> I barely got in like at 1:00 a.m. >> So I so I spent all night putting a whole new song to it. came out better
19:25 than the original. And I was like, "This is ████ amazing. I'm impressed by it." I turned it in. They they go, "Okay, we're going to show it in the meeting." And um everybody loved it so much. And he goes, "Yeah, but we're not using it." And I was like, "Why did I do all that ████ >> What are they going to use?" So, I was used as a leverage against the sponsor because they didn't want to pay the rights to use the sponsor song because they were supposed to pay extra, I guess, >> to use it, but they didn't want the show didn't want to pay. So, they were like, "All right, well then we're going to show you that if we don't use your songs, it'd be even better." >> Oh. >> So, they went back to the original. Because they were just using me as a way to leverage against them. >> Did they at least pay you for it? I I was on salary, >> so it didn't matter. >> ████ >> Yeah, it was ████ bro. That's why I love Chinese people. >> Yeah, >> it kind of made kind of makes sense,
20:15 dude. >> Don't you Don't you feel the pain of that? >> All the time. >> At least they told you the truth. >> Well, they told me after the ████ season was done. >> Oh, we just use it for leverage, bro. >> Yeah, they said the whole thing They said the whole show is leverage. That's most people were just doing ████ like for whatever happens in the meeting room. >> I just want to show you how big my dick is. That's all. >> Yeah, that was that was a low freaking blow, man. >> Damn, that's ████ so bad. Yeah, but that's that's when your niche gets used as leverage.
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