Ryan Ross Hernandez is so excited he couldn't wait to start recording his third album. Hernandez has begun recording his new album while on the road.

"People like putting labels on things that aren't right. A lot of people are calling "Dark Secret Love" a blues LP. That [album] was not blues. Dark Secret Love was a rock album, with some contemporary pop. Slow Dancing, was a blues record, Loneliness, was a blues record but that is just two songs out of ten. You can't call that a blues album. My next album, that is gonna be a blues-rock LP. I want that 'pop'-label, out of my genres on Wikipedia and other internet sh-- outlets like that," Hernandez continues, "I don't want to be considered a Pop Idol anymore. I got the Men in Black suit and the soulful guitar solo's ready in my closet. I wanna be a bluesman, that simple."

"My next single is gonna be a cover of Jay-Z, 'I wanna be forever young,' " Ryan Ross Hernandez said recently, referring to the New York City rapper's "Young Forever." "I've got some unraveling of my career to do. [Singing] 'Forever young, I wanna be forever young. Do you really want to live forever? Forever and ever.' I'm gonna bring that to it. Not like I'm gonna start rapping or nothing like that, but the laid-back style of that song. You're gonna hear that [type of style]."

So is Hernandez going hip-hop? We doubt it. But if you ask Hernandez, himself, he doesn't see the possibility as a long shot. "Like I said, I don't want a pop sound on my LP. If I incorporate other elements that aren't blues or rock, it would certainly be hip-hop. That doesn't mean I'm gonna go all Eminem on my next album. I don't see myself rapping 'cause I can't do that, but some freestyle? I can see myself doing some of that." So hip-hop is a direction he's been exploring.

On the other hand, Hernandez influences are blues-icons B.B. King, Eric Clapton Buddy Guy, and Jimi Hendrix. The latter who Hernandez recently covered on his European tour, "Bold As Love", and given the blues show Hernandez played in New York at the end of last year, that seems a likelier route.

Or perhaps the follow-up to Heavier Things will be a little bit of a lot of things.

"My goal now is to record as soon as I'm done writing," Hernandez said. "I don't like to write, demo, record then waiting until all the tracks are done to mix the album. On this album, as soon as a song is recorded it will be mixed before continuing to the next one. I want to be really inspired by the song that I've written, really wait till I'm familiar with it and then put it down and be excited by it. I'm not thinking, 'I gotta hit 12 songs, gotta hit 12 songs.' I might come up with a bunch, track 'em, go home and take a month off."

"I have written enough material for two studio albums, and I've debated for about a week whether or not I'm gonna make it a double album. But I decided that I'd rather have one excellent album as opposed to one good double album," Hernandez laughed. "Once I got a decent number of songs recorded, I'll see which songs make it and which are hidden under the rug for a later time."

Hernandez' also considering testing songs with some small-scale shows on his upcoming tour kicking off in Sunrise, Florida later this week ("It's just going to be me and a couple of people jamming if I go out," he said), and he definitely wants to keep covering songs from his idols.

"I wish I was [living] in the '60s, when you'd walk down the street and there would be six clubs with the doors open and music blaring and you could just drag your amp down the street," Hernandez said. "The hip-hop song structure is the closest you can get to blues."

"No one knows better what I want to hear on my album, than I do," Hernandez stated when asked who was gonna producer his album.

Sessions already began, Hernandez confirms, and last week the first song was recorded in the UK. "In Abbey Road Studios, we recorded. It just took three days. Demoing, one day. Recording, the second. And mixing the third. The song was one that I have previously commented on that was my Tom Petty, sort-of tribute record."

We asked him if he had found his Stevie Nicks for the song... Ryan says it is complicated. "A lot of talented young ladies have contacted me to be featured on it but the truth is that, I'm so proud of that record, that I don't want to rush it. Maybe I wake up one morning and get hit by who it will be. So, I'd say the song is still left open for additional vocals."

That's not to say, however, that Hernandez isn't still excited for his next album, which he promises will be a departure.

"My next record, I'm closing up shop on acoustic sensitive and I'm gonna go to electric guitar and make something else happen," he said. "I'm bored, man, [singing,] 'I miss your kiss so much.' Truth is, I don't."

Now don't get him wrong, there will still be love songs on the record. "Of course, those [love songs] are never going to be 100% gone from my music. But these new love songs aren't going to be in the way you'd think. Their honest love songs, not cliche or sugar-coated ones."

"I'm trying everything I can not to be jaded 'cause I don't like jaded musicians," he continued. "But slowly, as I get older, the radio's on and I go, 'What the f--- is that? How did that get on the radio?' It's not music out there right now."

Now is Ryan Ross Hernandez going to make blues-rock with hip-hop the new trend is yet to be heard of. Only time will tell whether Hernandez can accomplish his goal of bluesman / hipster status or if he is permanently stuck on cute-boy, pop stardom.

Edited by user 03 February 2010 06:39:14(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified