How has it been for you, someone who's been an active musician for over a decade in some fashion or another. How does an artist adapt to not touring for two years?

It's weird, I mean for 2011 I didn't plan on touring anyways, I just wanted to focus on recording the album [Break in the Clouds]. But it really hit me once I was done recording last February, and I recall a few days after the record was mastered, I had a appointment with my doctor and he told me that he couldn't clear me for touring. It was much like a basketball player when he has a torn ACL and the doctor has to tell me he can't play for a year; that's what the doctor was telling me, "you can't sing for a year."

Did your doctors give you much hope that the surgery would be successful?

No, there wasn't a ton of hope in that room when I got the news. A lot of singers who develop a granuloma in their throat, usually need to undergo multiple surgeries, and even the success rate is not in your favor. They told me the best diagnosis they could give me was a year in a half without singing, the worst diagnosis anything more than that.

How have you been handling yourself without being a performing musician?

I learned to enjoy the immediate space around me. Which is nice, I didn't have a choice. I might rather be playing music 300 days a year than be comfortable in one place. For me personally, if I'm not a musician, I can't be songwriter. The entire artistic side of me, the singer, the guitarist, the songwriter, everything shuts down. It's quite cynical but I use to have conversations with people at parties and I wasn't ever actually there because I just kept thinking, "I just want to go home and write a song." It was an adaption period to come to terms with seeing the same people more often. It was interesting when I now spend time in L.A. and New York, I am now part of a social circle in both coasts. In my adult life, I never had that before. I have tour friends, and I'm friends with everyone I've toured with, but my friends now aren't musicians. It's been years since I've actually taken the time to learn somebody that's not in the same career field as I am. It's like, "Oh, I'm going to see these people at movie nights, and dinners, and house parties, so let me get to know them and let them get to me." It's nice having conversations with people that don't start with, "Hey, you're that guitar guy, where are you playing next?" That's something good that has come out of this experience... that now I have some really close friends in my life.

Who are some of the close friends that you've made in your time off the road?

I have a lot of friends who are writers now, screenwriters... a couple of comedians. I have friends who have never seen me on stage before because I met them during this span where I wasn't playing shows. They know I'm a musician but they've never seen me play before. So I'm hoping if I can talk some of them into coming to a show soon they won't have a terrible time trying to figure out, "Oh, this is what you do for a living."

You don't have any shows scheduled yet, but I assume a tour is not too far off.

Yeah, it's coming soon. I plan on touring the entire summer.

For you, where would be the ideal place to make your long awaited return?

I've debated a lot with my manager whether I want to do it in an intimate venue or just go for the biggest stage I can. There's nothing confirmed, but I think it'd be cool to maybe play a small show in Montana.

I recall when we talked in May 2012, you said that you already knew of its existent, the granuloma in your vocal chords, since September or October 2011. Why would you further aggravate it by singing on the record?

Well it came down to a simple decision, it was either sing on the record and not be able to tour, or waste a year. Break in the Clouds was an album that I needed to make. I needed to get those songs out of my system, and I knew I couldn't restrain myself to wait a whole another year before being able to sing on the songs I had already written. When you're a songwriter, you can't waste a year just having a pile of songs already written that you know are great songs. For me, I can't have songs sitting that long without doing anything with them because how my mind works, I can't move onto writing the next song when the previous good song doesn't have a place yet. I'm glad nine or ten months after it was released I can still say that I love that record and feel that I made the right decision.

Despite the surgery being a success and the granuloma has now completely healed, is there an off-chance it can return?

Absolutely. I've been singing for 15 years now. I'm 35 and I realize that I can't be careless with my voice anymore. I have to be extremely careful now with my diet and sleeping habit. I was told that overusing my voice contributed to getting the granuloma in the first place. My longtime fans know that before 2011, I would tour be it on a small scale or large, I would tour every year whether or not I had an album to back. I just need to keep an eye of what I put into my body now, especially before going to sleep. Maybe if you're a singer in your early 20's you don't have to worry about it, but I need to be very careful in what I intake before going to sleep. I can't have three glasses of single malt scotch every night, it raids your esophagus with acid. If you do that then spend two hours singing during a show, eight hours when you're recording a album, your throat is going to feel the effects in the long run.

Since we last spoke, your voice sounds different.

Yeah, my voice has changed somewhat. It's not only due to the surgery. The multiple times I had the botox injected into my neck, that still hasn't worn off yet. Someone brought to my attention that my laugh has changed, which is a little weird, having your laugh change overnight. I can't say how or if my voice has changed until I'm able to completely use it as I please. Hopefully it doesn't mean that I've lost a few notes, already with how my voice was before, I couldn't hit super high notes.

In the time you've been out of the spotlight in the music world, have you kept up with the current music on the charts and radio?

Somewhat, not as much as I use to. I don't exactly want to know every hit song on the radio now. I fully understand that times change and music trends are always going in different directions. The generation of musicians I started out with are long gone from the commercial success they had. If I were starting to make music now and I released the exact album I came out with first, it wouldn't make it. It would not survive on the radio. I'm fine letting someone from the new generation taking the spot I held in a commercial standpoint.

What I'm listening to isn't massive. Maybe 5 years ago I needed to know the latest pop song on the radio, but now I don't. I'm moving into another part of my life. At 35 you shouldn't know that kind of stuff. If you look hard enough you will find some gray hair on me. I'm okay with not chasing hits anymore. I'm moving into the next chapter in my life, which will bring new music, and I know people who listen to my music are growing older themselves. I'm not shipping my music to any demographic, if you want listen to my music, that's cool enough.

Break in the Clouds has been out for close to a year now. It stands for me, as the most personal, meaningful, wholeheartedly record I've ever made. It was very significant for me to create that album. It's also the least popular album I've ever released. The excuse the label gave me was that I wasn't touring or promoting, but you don't need that. We are in a world where there are so many ways to get music to people that it more so depends on the artist much less than touring to sell records. Isabel or Riot! in the Boulevard or Nadia Berry could announce tomorrow they have an album coming out next week and do zero promoting or touring behind it, it'll still sell 400,000 copies the first week. Break in the Clouds had a shot, it was released, singles came out, it had some promos behind it. I'm okay with that. The time I've had off the radar has made me a lot more mellow and relaxed.

It's a sigh of relief to sit here and tell you that I have no opinion to share with you about music, I've become aware that in reality my opinion doesn't matter.

Really? I would say you're still thought of as one of the most successful musicians making records today.

Yeah, that's fine. Personally, I don't think you can think of me in the same wavelength as you do with the artists who are currently selling a shitload of records and singles and downloads. I just want to experience what the music I make gives me. Whether it's on a small or large scale. I don't care if people have this vision of what I should be doing with my career.

Have you been writing any new music?

No, I haven't written a song since last July when I had a jam session in the studio right before the surgery. I've been listening to a lot of old school, 1970's jam stuff. Where instrumentals and harmonizes are stretched out for quite a bit. It's a very expressive, free spirit music. 13 minute songs on a record is a bit too much, but five or six minutes is just right for me.

Is that the direction you're going with your music on the next record?

There's not a ton else my ears haven't heard, I feel like I've heard everything. As a musician, I've learned everything that I wanted to learn. I know what's the next step in my career as a recording artist, it's the natural progression from Break in the Clouds. I know how I want to live in the studio and onstage. It has its differences yet they meet somewhere in the middle and intertwine. I'm going to do music that makes me happy.

A lot of the backlash you suffered within your fan base when Break in the Clouds came out, was due to the shift of music style you made towards a folk/country sound. What do you tell to those fans who want you to return to blues music?

They can go ahead and listen to my old records. Those blues songs were organic and I had a great time playing them, I still do, I'm not writing them off a set list now. If I can't perform for two years, isn't it cool to forget the musician you were before and try to achieve something totally different when you come back? I love the sound of that. No one is seeing the set list or videos on YouTube from a month ago. I hope this is the final time I have to press the reboot button on my career.

You've had a pretty set live band the last few years, will there be any changes to it?

Some guys are coming back, others aren't because they don't fit into this new direction of what I want my live shows to be. The idea I have for the next tour are not trying to censor myself when it comes to wrapping songs up because I think people wouldn't be into a 10 minute jam. I'm going to extend songs if I feel like they should be extended and vice-versa. I don't need the validation of the crowd. Maybe they won't cheer as loud for those instrumental moments, but it doesn't mean I need to change my set list. It's okay.

Have you done any recording before you underwent the surgery?

I did, yeah. I used the little bit of voice I had left and had a fun recording session in my studio in Montana. I called the band up and just hung out, played in this barn turned rehearsal space, just breaking it in. We played for like two weeks and I wrote a couple of songs that won't ever make a record I think, they aren't great songs. But maybe they'll be fun to play live on a given night.

You spent a couple of months in Montana, but now you're once again splitting your time between Montana, Los Angeles, and New York.

Yeah, Montana was a real safe haven after putting out Break in the Clouds. I could just rest and have enough alone time to myself to prepare myself to undergo everything. What I enjoy about the town I live in that they've been so accepting to have some well-known person come here, technically two well-known people. My personal life is much bigger than anyone I could be dating. It's about knowing the guy who owns your favorite bar, knowing the people who work at the local coffee place. I want to help out that community, I want to play shows for that community, I want to be a part of it.

Initially, why were you interested in moving out to Montana?

It was where I wanted to be while I recovered from vocal surgery. I wasn't running away from L.A. or New York. I wanted a place where I could use as a home between tour legs, but when I got word of my vocal problems, that changed how I looked at it. I've had enough tough times in my life where I would just get right back out there. I wasn't retreating to Montana, I was just laying my roots somewhere that my private life is just that.

Well you can't totally live a private life when your seeing Nadia Berry, someone who's perhaps even more famous than you are. That has to make it difficult to live a private life.

The only difficult thing about it is that people know who you are. That some people know me just because I'm seeing this person. I'm not even paranoid about having paparazzi's outside in L.A. or New York, just waiting to take our picture. That just means someone can know where I was last Thursday night or give someone a chance to judge my style, what I'm wearing while out. I don't see that as my personal life, it's just there.

Nadia confirmed last December that you two were engaged, but you've remained mum on the matter, as well as speaking of your relationship with her.

I'm highly uncomfortable in speaking about her in an interview. I just don't feel comfortable doing interviews at all. I don't know what she's said but I'm sure whatever it is, it's fine. I'll back up what she's said about us.

Are you at least happy with your relationship?

I am... I'm happy where my life is at. I'm really happy to be 35 years old.

It would be fair to say you're the most famous guitarist who plays the guitar in front the masses you do. There aren't a ton of solo artists out there who are known for that.

I like thinking that people still care about me or look out for my name, is for the music I put out. I think it's okay if people ever doubted me for other stuff I've done or said. I'm still trying to put out the best possible music I can. I know that everyone who knows my name isn't necessarily a fan of my music or has even ever heard it. I hope that at least some of the interest that I hold in the world among some people is because of the records I put out.

What new music have you been enjoying?

Hmm, I'm not really up to date with what you would consider new music. That last Misery Loves Company record I still find really cool. Hey Lolita's album is wonderful, I think. I'm into that whole Frank Ocean, Weeknd, Miguel thing too. My girlfriend has been playing Passion Pit lately and I dig that. But I don't really know like what's been released so far this year or even who's releasing stuff this year. I knew all this a few years back because I was locked into it.

In this downtime you've had, you also deleted your Twitter last summer.

Yeah, which was the best thing I could do.

Why?

Well, if you overthink stuff as much as I do, Twitter is just something that would drive you mad. Twitter is pointless, really, there is no real factor to it. The thing with me was that with each tweet I put out I would feel that it mattered to however many people followed me. To move into the next part of my life, I needed to get rid of anything that that pulled me down mentally, especially when Twitter was a choice.

Would you ever return to Twitter?

No. It's lovely to now actually keep things to myself.

Are we going to hear from you more than we've had since last May?

Maybe, I really don't want to live a reclusive life. I'm critical of any idea that enters my head. I'm expressing a lot of ideas while thinking freely about how it's printed. It's true to how I feel.

You don't care about sharing your opinions with the public anymore?

I really don't. I'm much more interested in living a life that's invisible to everybody not in my day to day life and more vibrant to a few people. I'm out of trying to change people's minds. I'm 35 years old and it's the best time in my life to just be okay that some people are never going to like me. I've actually been lucky to be off the road when I broke myself down in a period of a few years, deconstruct myself. Then it was a painful process to reconstruct myself, but I was able to assess everything and kind of figure out what I want in my life in the next 15, 20 years.

What do you want out of your life 15 or 20 years from now?

Playing music, putting out records. I'm never going to retire from that. I just want to be living a good life in general.

Do you hope to be well into marriage life by then?

Yeah, hopefully. I would hope I don't need to be dating when I'm in my 50s.

You also have Sweet Unknown. Where do you see that show going?

2 seasons. If the ratings are right for the first season and we get ordered for one more, that'll be it. Sweet Unknown is a side project, it won't last years and years. I already know how it ends.

When is the tour starting?

I'm not quite sure. I just know it'll be in the summer, at some point in the summer it'll kick off. I don't know what dates and venues are being booked.

Will we hear any new music from you this year?

You'll hear new stuff I'm involved in, but it won't be a Ryan Ross Hernandez record. It's something else that's just recently been talked about and I'm excited for.

I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me. Hopefully we'll see you on the road again soon.

Thanks, man. Hopefully.