Rising Country Music Duo Ryan and Rory Talk New EP (Exclusive)

Country music duo Ryan and Rory, featuring Hot Chelle Rae singer Ryan Follesé, recently dropped their debut EP.

By Stephen Andrew

PopCulture.com often has the opportunity to sit down with some of the most talented rising stars from country music, and this week we're chatting with a new duo that you need to know: Ryan and Rory. 

The pair is fresh off some concert dates with Sam Hunt and Jamey Johnson, and they've just dropped their first self-titled EP, which features six undeniably catchy tunes, including their first single, "Pour Decisions." Comprised of former Hot Chelle Rae singer Ryan Follesé and multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter Rory John Zak, Ryan and Rory are poised to be a staple of countless playlists and radio stations. Scroll down to read our chat with the guys!

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(Photo: Daniel Brown)

PopCulture: Let's start at the beginning. We want to know how you guys connected and what has been the journey that brought you to where you're at now.

Rory: Well, it all started about seven years ago. Ryan and I met at a LOCASH concert. He was opening for them. He was primary support. After Ryan got off-stage, I was like, I should go meet that guy, and went back to his merch booth. We got a picture of the two of us, and he's got his T-shirts in the back and stuff. Later, about a couple of years ago, we got reconnected through a family friend, and she was like, "You two should work together." After a couple phone calls and a round of golf and a studio session, we were like, "We should start a duo."

PopCulture: Let's talk "Pour Decisions." The song is an absolute banger, it's so much fun. I want to know about writing that song and why you guys chose that for your introduction into the audiences, the country music world.

Ryan: I mean, for us, I know us personally, we're not ever tired of breakup drinking songs. We thought, man, it just felt like a really, really great representation of what we're going to bring to the table as a duo. It's super fun. Even though the content is what it's about, it's still just a blast. We hadn't heard it done in that way, and it's just a song that kept raising its hand. It's one of those ones where when you listen to a lot of the songs, it just kind of goes, "Hey, I think this is it."

Rory: We put it out before Memorial Day weekend, so we're like, this is the right timing.

Ryan: Yeah, a hundred percent. He's right. If we needed any more validation for it, we saw stuff on Instagram, we were like, 'Oh yeah.' I mean, we wanted to be in every post we saw.

PopCulture: It's a summertime jam. It is 100% a "add this to your summertime playlist," windows-down, top-down track. That song is super catchy. You got a EP that's out now. When it came to putting together songs for that and deciding on what is the best way for us to introduce ourselves, what was that process for you guys together choosing what you put on the EP?

Rory: Well, this EP has six songs, and we really wanted to take our listeners on a journey that an album would. So, it was a tough decision, I mean, not only between Ryan and I, but we also coordinated with the team, and we were like, "OK, how can we tell a story through just six songs?" Because it can be kind of hard. In an album, it's a lot easier to do that. 

Even before Ryan and I were talking about doing a duet thing, he had a lot of great songs in the bank that we were like, "OK, we should cut these songs," and I think him and I had a story and vision in our head. Also, how would we do this live, and how do we want to take our fans and listeners on a journey live too? So that also had some play, but yeah, it was super tough, man. Ryan, if you want to go off that, you're more than welcome.

Ryan: I mean, we've got songs we love that are going to be on the back half of what's going to be an album. But for us, I know music is subjective, but it all kind of comes down to a feeling. When we listened to all of the songs that we had together, I mean, we did it as a group, not just as the two of us, and these just felt the best together. When we listened to them together in any particular order, we're so happy with the order we have, but in any particular order, these were the best representation to us of what we felt like.

PopCulture: What do you want people to know that they're going to see when they come see you guys?

Ryan: Well, I can take this one because Rory won't say it, but I think what they can expect and what we are not really able to do when we go and do these acoustic things and kind of showcase the songs for people is Rory is an absolute virtuoso piano player, and that's his real strength. Aside from the fact that he's an unbelievably good guitar player, un-self-admittedly, he won't tell you that, but he's an insane musician, and I know that his caliber is super high for who's going to be in the band. So it's going to be a lot of players, man. It's going to be really, really fun.

Rory: Yeah, I mean, it is just going to be, like Ryan said, we're going to have a kick-ass band, and that automatically is just going to make it one big party. Our songs, I mean, you've listened to the EP, and here's a sneak peek for our fans and whatnot. Even the, I guess, slower songs have some sort of uptempo thing to it at the same time. So I don't know, of course it's going to be rollercoaster, but at the same time, our live show is going to be super fun, and we'll have a couple curveballs that we're going to throw in there and surprises. So you got to come on out and see it.

PopCulture: What's on the horizon for Ryan and Rory? Are you guys working towards doing a full tour?

Ryan: I think we're working on as many dates as we can get for the rest of the year, but the main focus for us right now, which is the tough part, is what we had to do in the first half of the record, which is we've got a really, really, really strong collection of songs for the back half. One that is an absolute for certain on the back half, and we got to figure out how to pick five more kids out of all the batch, and we've got the rest of the year to focus on it and do it. And we're really excited about it, and there's no more fun game than playing beat the song.

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Editor's Note: This interview has been partially edited for time and content.

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