I Went On A Date With Indie Rocks Poster Boy: PURE's Ryan WilliamsAnna Villiot met up with Ryan Williams to talk about his love for music, PURE, philosophy, god and drugs
(Anna Villiot and Ryan Williams)
The man that has become infamous for his 'disappearing acts', agreed to meet up for a coffee and several hundred cigarettes, to talk over the past year and the year ahead. Often outspoken, Williams has gotten himself into a lot of trouble in the past, even with his fellow artists. Back in his Misery Loves Company days, then drummer Josh Heyler spoke out about Williams' dominating ego, which he couldn't let go off. Times have changed since then, he's grown his hair out long and changed his entire wardrobe to black and white clothing. An unusual candidate for poster boy for little tweeny boppers, Williams has a habit of disappearing for months on end, without so much as a tweet update. It was quite hard to tie him down to an exact time for this, but, alas we arranged our 'date' and he showed up promptly.
By the way, this interview got a little flirty, which is why we decided it we would just be better off calling it a date.
As soon as you sit in a room with Ryan, you can't help but feel small beside him - despite his modest 5ft11 stature - as he breezes through the room with an air of confidence. Even I started to feel a little weak at the knees for the guy, and i've been his friend for the past five years. It's not unusual at all for Ryan to turn up to an interview stoned as fuck, however, today I think we're in the clear. "Yeah, i've caught back a bit.". There isn't a thing I could say and he wouldn't have an opinion on, which is a massive factor into why he gets himself into trouble so often.
In a mild afternoon in New York City, sitting at the tables outside Roundhouse Cafe, cigarettes and coffee in hand. We were ready to begin.
So, it feels appropriate for me to ask this, when was the last time you went on an actual date?Christ. I have no fucking idea. I would say, the last proper date I went on was probably around August or September. I'm not a datey kind of guy. I'm much more like ah, hey, let's do something reckless that we might regret. I always feel like their perfect for getting to know someone. You actually like, find out way more that way than just pissing about with a fake smile pretending to be someone you're not. I don't know, I say that but i'm the lonely heart. Wow, that sounded very 2006.
Ah man, truffles and flowers not always enough?I have never bought a girl chocolates and flowers. Ever. Fuck, i'm lying. My prom was the only time I did it. Even then I didn't buy them, my parents insisted on picking up the expensive bunch for her. Didn't bother me, I was taking my best friend, she didn't expect much.
Any woman on the go currently?Ah, I don't know. That sounds really bad. I've been gone for a while and kinda dropped all my communications.
Rehab?Actually no. I have no idea why everyone keeps asking me that, I'm not that bad. Them fuckers in The Stat Nerds probably snort more shit than I do. Speaking of, Weekend, the blonde one, i'm pretty sure he's the one that had the cocaine addiction. People forget that very easily. We're all labelled cunts and bad role models for our way of living, then the most lucrative artists in the world are all at it too. I shit you not, 60% of them are on something.
Changing subject slightly, I'm sure it won't be hard for you to sweep her off her feet again?Oh this, uh, maybe. I mean, I don't know. I actually don't know what to say. This date is going very well.
Sorry, sorry! What kind of music have you been into recently?Uh, I've been listening to a lot of shoegaze really and big 80's drum beat bands. I think for me personally, at the minute im really digging Cocteau Twins. I've always been a fan but only recently have I gone back and listened to their entire discography and wow, fucking incredible. A lot of electronic music too, uh, Thundercat is a guy out there at the minute making really dope beats. Can I get away with saying that?
Cool with me, you work it. Ah good. You ever hear people saying something and think, 'what a cool bastard'. Then you go to say it and everyone in the room looks at you like you've got a dick on your head. But yeah, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Echo And The Bunnymen, Sonic Youth, Slowdive.. i've been blasting out their music recently.
If we were on an actual date right not, what song would you have playing for our first kiss?Cool question, I like where this is going. I think I would go for something like 'Birthday' by 'The Sugarcubes'. It's a song that screams freedom and youth, and when you're sharing a kiss, you do feel young again. You feel like nothing else in the world matters, only these couple of minutes. Also 'Pictures of You' by 'The Cure'. I reckon that would be really nice. It all depends on what kind of kiss really and what I wanted it to mean and show. It's crazy the logic behind kissing.
You're very passionate about love and lust.I am because it's so sentimental for everyone. It's crazy how much those things dominate everyone's life in some shape or form. Everyone is searching for love, maybe not actively, but in the end they want love or to be loved. Lust is like the devil on the other shoulder. It sometimes tricks us into believing the sex is love, but it's not. It's quite a beautiful concept. Fighting for love in lust. I don't know, i'm just obsessed with that whole feeling of 'true romance'. Just meeting someone on any random day, and in that moment you would do literally anything to be with them. It's romantic.
Do you believe in God?I don't and i'm kinda jealous of those who do. I would love to have someone to talk to at night before bed, rather than getting seriously fucking baked and writing really bad music. I don't think jealous is the right word, envious, maybe. I was brought up in a Christian family, but from about the age of 15 I stopped giving. The idea of having a God is nice, but I'm way too sceptical to let myself be convinced.
If there was a god out there, im sure he'd accept you not believing in him.Exactly.
I hear you've cut back on the weed? Or has it just been replaced by other substances?I've tried to. But I haven't really to be honest. The past 3 months when I went back home to just get away form everything I smoked a lot. But i'm clean today if that helps. I mean there's a difference between getting really high and being a couch potato doing fuck all. I manage to combat that and put it into a creative mouth. The day that I couch around after smoking is the day i'll quit.
Do you remember the first time you got high?Ironically, yes. I was about 16 and in my friends house. We got this legal high shit called 'XO', and man, it melted my entire brain. It opened my eyes to a whole new world, which i'm forever thankful for. But yeah, me and three other dudes were just sitting laughing together for about 40 minutes, nobody spoke, just constant laughter. It was scary as fuck, but really fucking fun at the same time.
This had to come up at some point. Night Moves, will we see it released soon?Ha. Yeah, i'm surprised we got through this long without it coming up. TO be honest, i've stopped talking about it publicly now because people love to shoot it down. People love to doubt you and make you feel like shit. We have been rubbish sticking to a release date, but people need to realise that it's only been 15 months since our last album hit shelves and we've released 4 brand new singles in that time. However, plans are in place for it to be released soon. Again, not setting a release date until it's complete because it isn't. That's the truth. We constantly taken songs out and recorded new ones. We've even changed producer and brought a good friend of mine George Celestin who's changing the sound up really well. You will hear it.
Yeah a lot of people speculated that you all fell out and scrapped it.Yeah, that's total bullshit.
Are you working on anything else at the minute?Not really. Hands are pretty full with PURE and helping Alex (Ward) out with his Last Light project, which is sounding so fucking sick. Everyone better jump on his hype cause he is making music that nobody else can come close to at the minute. I love the guy.
What does the New Year hold for Ryan Williams?AH, we're looking to get a tour out after the new year in support of the album, I think you'll have to wait til about March time before that happens though. But who really knows. Plans change very often, may be doing something else pretty big soon, you'll just have to wait and see.
Well we're about done. If this was a real date would you be picking up the tab?Probably.
Probably?Well, if I feel like it went well then, yeah. If it didn't, depending on the reason why, then probably. Right now, im definitely picking it up, this has been a wonderful morning. Now everyone is aware of my dating secrets they could combat it all though. Big call.
Then Ryan ran off to conduct more interviews and hit the studio with his bandmates in an attempt to get the album wrapped up. 