Ryan McFadden

Ryan McFadden

Ryan McFadden knows when his artists are happy. Says the Nashville-based producer, “The coolest thing I can hear is: the record turned out like I heard it in my head.” That’s been the story with every performer Ryan has worked with, from hit-making legend Tony Joe White and newgrass superstar Molly Tuttle, to breakout indie artists such as Meg Elsier, Erin Rae and Parker Millsap. 

“If I'm good at anything,” he says, “it's making artists sound more like themselves. They come in with a list of influences of what they want to sound like, but I'm good at helping the artist make something only they can make.”

Ryan says he endeavors to paint with sound the musical vision of the artist. Though he will collaborate on songwriting and arranging, he also knows “when to keep to myself. We build tracks, we build a road map and create an identity so the material knows what it is.”

Though a seasoned musician himself, and a veteran drummer of indie bands in his native Chicago, Ryan says he owes a lot of his musical influences to his older sister, who shared their mix tapes with him. “The early stuff that stuck with me all these years are mix tapes of 60s folk artists my older sister made me and, later, the Chicago math rock and hardcore music scene that I played in in high school.”

He set his sights on producing early on, studying audio engineering at Nashville’s Belmont University. But he didn’t wait for graduation day to get started.

“I booked the school studios every night,” he recalls, “and I would call up artists in town and ask them, ‘Do you want to record for free?’” While still a student, he landed a job at a Nashville studio. There he applied his education to the real world, producing and mixing demos for multiple artists and songwriters. “I got good fast,” he says, “and I got to observe what being a professional looks like.”

His break came shortly after graduating, when a friend introduced him to Tony Joe White, the Louisiana-born music legend who had a huge hit in 1969 with “Polk Salad Annie” and who wrote Brook Benton’s 1970 Top 10 smash, “Rainy Night in Georgia.” Soon after, Ryan became White’s producer, huddling in the singer’s studio housed in a Civil War-era mansion in Franklin, Tennessee. “That first track of the first session, I hit play literally shaking,” Ryan remembers. “We worked together for the rest of his life.”

That collaboration drew other artists to Ryan. Singer-songwriter Mackenzie Scott, professionally known as Torres, asked Ryan to produce her self-titled 2013 debut. The premiere single from that album, “Honey,” was named Best New Track by Pitchfork. 

Working with Meg Elsier on her debut album, “spittake,” was a highlight for both the producer and the artist. The Nashville-based singer-songwriter says, “Ryan is one of the most receptive and empathetic humans. Everything is a collaboration but with the intention to champion the artist’s sound. He creates such a safe environment to explore and get out of your comfort zone.” 

With Erin Rae, Ryan prodded the singer to stay true to her original “lo-fi” vision for the song “On Her Side.” Rae had already recorded a sparse 4-track demo. In the studio, Ryan kept the original track, adding a 12-string guitar, organ and bass. Writing on her bandcamp page, Erin Rae said of Ryan’s production, “I really love how this take captured the emotion.”

Working with acclaimed Americana artist Parker Millsap, Ryan acknowledged the artists’ preference to record live without headphones, which can be a risky proposition. “It means everything is gonna bleed into everything,” he says. “So we booked a live room, and I looked up how they recorded soul bands in the 70s. The trick was to put everyone close together and have mics in an omni-direction, and so make a record that uses the studio as an instrument.”

Next up for Ryan, Meg Elsier’s follow-up album, which he expects will build exponentially on the success of her premiere. He is also excited about a new recording project in Memphis with superstar drummer and soul master Steve Jordan, along with several notable collaborators.

Whatever the project, for Ryan McFadden the goal is to collaborate deeply in order to come up with the best version of the artist’s intentions. “The questions are different for every artist,” he says, “but the goal is to know them and what actually matters to them.”