Kit Ryder Retrowave

https://kitryder.bandcamp.com/track/quiet-threnody

A lament about the state of the world today? Or a warning about the future...
lyrics
Traded our names for a number in line
We watched them rebuild all the towers of stone
And smiled at the promises, thinking them kind
As they silently carved out the marrow of bone

The sirens grew softer, the candles grew bright
A comfortable cage in the warmth of the sun
We traded the struggle of choosing the light
For a master who told us: “That battle was won”

Oh, look at the kingdom we built from our fears
A garden of iron, watered with tears
We gave them the keys and we gave them the crown
Now there’s nobody left here to pull it all down
Nobody left here, to pull it all down

The papers are clean and the database deep
They know every whisper, they measure our sleep
The quiet surrender, beautiful chain
We cheered for our captains and welcomed the rain

Now the silence is heavy, the desolate sound
The roots of the Empire are deep in the ground

Oh, look at the kingdom we built from our fears
A garden of iron, watered with tears
We gave them the keys and we gave them the crown
Now there’s nobody left here to pull it all down
Nobody left here, to pull it all down

The quiet threnody…

We built our own cemetery…

And we called it...peace

Quiet Threnody, by Kit Ryder track by Kit Ryder

https://kitryder.bandcamp.com/

It's 1987. 3am. Frustrated, unable to sleep, you throw on some clothes and head for the garage, climb into your parent's late 1960s Dodge muscle car that they gave you as a college graduation present. You fire up the engine and turn on the tape deck. Your favourite track is already queued up. It's been raining, and as you head into into the city, the bright neon lights reflect in the wet surfaces and the cool, humid late summer air rushes through the windows and through your hair, clearing away the frustration.

https://youtu.be/1dHAjFxrb5U?si=VUYKUyW9ddKB_KUA&t=46

Lone Driver From the album The Long Ride Home, Performed by Neon Maple Writte...

As I look out my window this morning, it's drizzling rain, a low mist hangs in the creek below the hills and the leaves are starting to change colour...Autumn is coming.

Autumn Rain From the album The Long Ride Home, Performed by Neon Maple Writte...

Just a reminder: you can pick up my new album now on Bandcamp for the price of a couple of cups of coffee:

The Long Ride Home - Director's Cut, by Neon Maple 13 track album

My favourite track off the whole album and for me, the most nostalgic about the 1980s:

https://youtu.be/WZ_KV-E8ZGw?si=eKvCoAwIiiUDQ0j-

https://kitryder.bandcamp.com/album/the-long-ride-home-lite-narrative-edition

Red, Yellow, Teal, Pink And Blue From the album The Long Ride Home, Performed by Neon Maple Writte...

https://kitryder.bandcamp.com/album/the-long-ride-home-directors-cut

10 years...It was exactly 10 years ago I made a decision to work on, what I considered at the time, the weakest area of my creativity...song writing, and to deliver my first song based album before I turned 45. And here, on the eve of my 45th birthday I am releasing what I consider to be my best, most considered work.
Something I’m happy to say was a labour of love, something I took my time with. Something that was a cross between 1980s retro-wave, AOR, post rock, and even a dash of Disney musical, with sound design and theatrical elements, and all while using only vintage synths, drum machines and production techniques from the 1980s.
In a way, I went back to audio engineering school through the whole process and learned an unimaginable amount of new things about the art. So much time elapsed from the conception of the songs to the completion of the album that a pandemic came and went, we had a beautiful daughter who is now almost six and I re-taught my self to play electric guitar after a 10 year break. And I’m glad it took that long because I was able to play guitar on almost all of the tracks on the album.
At some point during the production AI presented itself as the illusion of a useful tool, however aside from using a neural network to generate the voices for the theatrical sitcom elements of “The Directors Cut” edition of the album (I still wrote every word of the script, emotional prompting and timing), I didn’t use AI in anyway shape or form for the musical elements.
So, have I become a better song writer through the process? My brother Rickard Persson once said something to me: “You’re not a bad songwriter…you just have too high expectations of yourself”. I went away and though about that and after a while it hit home that if we endeavour to be perfectionists, we will never complete anything. So I just let the process happen, I wasn’t precious about anything and if something wasn’t working I reworked it or deleted it and moved on. I pushed myself to be objective. I begged, borrowed and stole time where I could, an hour in the evening here and there just to find the time amongst life’s responsibilities.
Another part of it was something my father told me when I was 19 and struggling to write songs (thankfully they are all lost to time, mould and rat p**s). He said “You can’t write songs if you haven’t lived a life. You need to write from experience. Most song writers throw their first 100 away.” Well, he was right about life experience. Suddenly I found, when writing for this album, I had many years of a wild life to draw on for inspiration, so I can say that the songs are loosely based on my own experiences, semi auto biographical…but loosely.
So, with that out of the way, here it is: Neon Maple: The Long Ride Home. I sincerely hope you have the time to check it out, and that the songs can mean something to you as well.

https://kitryder.bandcamp.com/album/the-long-ride-home-directors-cut

Just produced a little documentary for my friend Rickard Persson who lost his hand and eyesight in an explosion and how he successfully overcame the challenges he faced afterwards.
Check it out on Youtube:

The Explosion That Took My Sight and Hand — and Why I Still Play Music An explosion changed everything in a single moment. Sight lost. A hand lost. Nowhere left to go but into the present moment. This documentary is about what c...

Imagine if 1599 collided with 1986. I wrote this for my wife when she was pregnant more than 5 years ago. I was finally inspired to finish it as so many people I know are having babies at the moment. Plus I've wanted to make a bardcore retro wave fusion for ages...and use a fat 3 oscillator bass under it. It all stems from a study I did into renaissance music about 6 or 7 years ago.

From This Moment... (Fram þissum tīman/Of þysum dæge) I wrote this for my wife when she was pregnant more than 5 years ago. I was finally inspired to finish it as so many people I know are having babies at the m...