Artist Interview: 1-on-1 with Small Town City

This is going way back, but I grew up in Indiana. The Hoosier State is known for things like corn fields, college basketball and the Indianapolis 500. But Indiana has a really good beer scene and has produced some incredible musicians. Remember John Cougar Mellencamp? What about Cole Porter? Michael Jackson was born in Gary and while the band was formed in Los Angeles, born William Bruce Bailey, Axl Rose was born in Lafayette. Another prominent band from Indiana is Straight No Chaser.

Straight No Chaser is an a cappella group that originated in 1996 at Indiana University. In 2007, a 1998 video of “The 12 Days of Christmas”, went viral with over 8 million views (with over 24 million as of this writing) and led to a record deal with Atlantic Records in 2008. I became good friends with a couple guys in the group and have stayed in touch with them over the years. A few weeks ago Ryan Ahlwardt, who released some incredible music on his own, reached out about a new project he’s working on with Mike Luginbill. Mike is still in SNC, recently appearing with them on the TODAY show, and I couldn’t wait to listen to their new EP titled This Year.

This Year was released on December 4 just in time for the holidays. The title track is incredible, and they tossed in a few Christmas songs. They end with a cover of Joni Mitchell’s classic hit single “River”. The EP only has 5 songs, but has been stuck in my head all month. To help them further promote this release and to just catch up, I connected with Ryan to do an interview. It has been a long time since I’ve seen these guys, but it felt like only yesterday we were hanging out at Birdy’s Bar & Grill watching live music and planning our next move. It goes without saying, I am simply honored to introduce you to Small Town City.

You released Round in Circles in 2013. 7 years later you released This Year. Welcome back! What inspired you guys to record a new album?
Ryan: Thanks, Ricky! It’s good to be back. We recorded that first album all the way back in 2003 when we were seniors at IU in Bloomington. It was our first venture into songwriting together in our early 20s and, besides putting it on iTunes, we never heavily promoted it. When 2013 came around, we released it (finally!) to our fanbase ten years later. Mike and I decided in late 2019 that it was time to start writing songs again together. We had some writing sessions in Nashville and Indy before COVID really hit and ultimately decided to release a winter EP in 2020.

Mike: Thanks for the opportunity to chat with you about Small Town City, Ricky! Indeed it is good to be back writing and collaborating with Ryan on new music, specifically our new EP, This Year. I think it started out with us just wanting to write together again and see if anything happened. It had been a long time since we’d actually sat down with the intention of creating a project, and with both of us having some downtime from our usual day to day this year due to COVID, it seemed like the right time to jump back in.

The album only has 5 songs on it. Are you planning to record more tracks in the New Year?
Ryan: Yes, we are aiming towards releasing a new full-length album in 2021, most likely in summer.

Mike: Yes, that is the plan. We feel like the response to This Year has been very positive and we plan to continue writing new music as we head into next year.

We are all from the Midwest. Indiana, to be exact! I’m curious, what town/city inspired the name Small Town City?
Ryan: Mike and I have been around each other since our days in junior high school in Fishers, IN, outside of Indy, but became close friends in high school through choir and theatre. We were huge James Taylor fans then (still are!) and were inspired by a lyric in a song he co-wrote with J.D. Souther called “Her Town Too” about his (JT’s) break-up with Carly Simon (“Lord knows that this is just a small town city and everyone can see you fall”). I don’t remember exactly when we decided on the name for our duo, but we loved how the words “Small Town City” looked on paper and how they sounded. Plus, our last names can be tricky to pronounce (Ahlwardt/Luginbill) and we wanted a duo name that was easy to remember and reflective of our Midwest roots.

Mike: What Ryan said. (Laughs.) No really, he pretty much covers it.

Let’s go back in time a little bit here. Mike, we did an interview 12 years ago. Ryan, we did a Twitter interview 11 years ago and a follow-up interview 6 years ago. Crazy how time flies! What all has changed over the years for you guys? Just want to see how you guys are doing!
Ryan: I was part of Straight No Chaser on Atlantic Records with Mike for five years (2008-2012) and left the group at the end of 2012 to come home, start a family, and lead a growing chapter of Young Life, a worldwide outreach ministry for high school students. I led the chapter for five years and, in 2018, stepped away to move into full-time self-employment as a creative entrepreneur. Since then, I’ve been performing ~100 shows a year, writing and releasing new music, working as a voiceover artist, and growing a worldwide community of patrons of my music on Patreon. Earlier this year I co-created The Presiquential Podcast, which explores the life, legacy, and little known facts of every American president and releases on Inauguration Day (Jan. 20, 2021). My wife Lauren and I sing in an 80s and 90s party band called Mixtape in Indy and have two kids, Olivia (6) and Gus (3).

Mike: Yea for sure! When we did that interview, Ricky, I believe I was living in Los Angeles and going to school at Musicians Institute to study music production and audio engineering – at the same time writing music and performing live as much as I could. It was when I was in LA that I got a call to be in the professional Straight No Chaser group that had recently signed to Atlantic Records. Needless to say I jumped at the chance even though the future of the group at that time was very unknown. I’m currently still in Straight No Chaser and we just released our 8th full length album, and our 4th Christmas album, called Social Christmasing. We’ve also recently parted ways with Atlantic Records and now have our own label, SNC Records, which is in partnership with Arts Music, a Warner Music Group label. We’ve also jumped into the spirits business with the release of our vodka, Straight No Chaser Vodka, in partnership with a distillery in Southern Indiana called Hard Truth Distillery. That has been quite a fun experience to say the least! I’m currently living in Nashville, TN, with my wife Zoe and our two daughters Nova (5) and Ivy (3).

Mike, you recently performed on the TODAY show performing with Straight No Chaser. Tell me about that performance and what it was like performing with these guys on national TV.
Well, it’s always fun to have the chance to sing on national TV and something I never take for granted. We’ve found it’s really the best way for people to see/hear what we’re doing and it’s a privilege to have that chance. So yeah, we recently performed two songs from the new album, “A Long December” and “Silver Bells”, and the response has been great.

Speaking of Straight No Chaser, there is a lot of history there. Can you give me a quick update on what that band is up to? Ryan, do you miss singing with the group?
Ryan: I miss seeing them all as often as I used to, yes. I recently realized that I’ve been out of the group longer than I was in it professionally. The most difficult part of leaving the group for me was going from seeing those guys nearly every day at the height of our early days on Atlantic Records to maybe once a year now. I text every day with at least one of the guys in the group (or my fellow alumni). It’s a joy to still be able to support SNC now, just from a different space and season of life.

Mike: All things considered, Straight No Chaser is still doing very well. Currently, as I respond to these questions, SNC is bubbled up at the MGM National Harbor just outside DC performing 10 Live Stream shows. We wanted to find a way to safely keep the tradition alive of performing our annual Christmas shows. And with all things COVID not allowing us to tour like normal, we thought this would be a great alternative. We’re 5 shows in, 5 more to go this week. Tickets are only $20 and you can find out all the info at sncmusic.com!

COVID-19 threw a wrench in things. No more live music for the foreseeable future. Are you guys doing anything online to keep fans entertained while sheltering in place?
Ryan: I haven’t had as many shows cancel this year as Mike has had, but 2020 has been a challenge as an independent artist to say the least. It’s also taught me so much, though. I probably wouldn’t have adapted and shifted towards the new creative projects and collaborations that I have this year had things simply stayed the same as last year. When quarantine really hit us in Indiana in the spring, I was doing concerts on Facebook Live every Friday night from my studio at home. It was inspiring to see how many people were engaging with me and each other every week, requesting songs, joining my Patreon community, and encouraging one another in the chats. I took a break from the public weekly live-streams in the fall after I released an album in July and virtual school was starting up for our family. My patrons and I still have a weekly live-stream together full of music, Q&As, and laughter, which has helped me the most this year!

Mike: See above for what SNC is doing to keep fans entertained and engaged. As far as Small Town City goes, I think Ryan and I would love to find a way to perform live shows ASAP.

I think my favorite song on This Year is the title track. What is your favorite?
Ryan: Yeah, this is impossible. They each have their special moments or elements to me. This Year feels and sounds the most “Small Town City” to me. “Snow Time” is a 2:01 snowball of FUN that Mike wrote that my kids request every time we get in the car. Mike’s tune “Christmas Ain’t What It Used to Be” has such a great melancholy, yet uplifting vibe to it and Nathan Gamble’s keyboards on it are so cool. I’m most proud of how we collaborated on writing “Very Merry Christmas” in two days of voice notes and texts back and forth. Mike texted me, “BRO. THIS IS A HIT.” when he heard the demo. I still don’t know how Mike sang what he did on the cover of Joni Mitchell’s “River” that he arranged. It’s one of the best recordings I’ve heard him sing over the past 10 years.

Mike: My favorite track on This Year is probably “Very Merry Christmas”. I told Ryan when he sent me the first initial demo that I thought it had all the makings of a hit song. Catchy melody, uptempo, lyrics are great. I just love it.

This Year was produced by Matt Mellinger. Tell me more about him and what it was like working with him on this release.
Ryan: I met Matt in Indy in 2013 shortly after leaving Straight No Chaser. He was running sound at an event that I was singing at and we hit it off. (Mike and I actually sang in SNC with his cousin in college!) He’s produced everything I’ve released since our first collaboration, my 2014 album You Are With Me. Earlier this year when COVID had everyone in quarantine, Matt and I had to adapt to finishing all my vocals for my 70s album Seventy Two remotely. Mike and I and the musicians who played on the Small Town City EP recorded our parts remotely from home and Matt assembled everything from his studio (he also played drums and percussion on all the songs). He helped Mike and me rediscover our sound with this project and we’re eager to work again with him in 2021!

Mike: This was my first time working with Matt on a project. I’d done a little bit of background work on some of Ryan’s projects in the past which Matt produced, but nothing to the level where I’d voice my opinion on any production ideas or whatever. Matt is a great producer. He is very collaborative and willing to listen to different ideas and suggestions. I think ultimately that’s what you want in a producer; someone who isn’t running the operation like a dictator but rather is open to different ideas than his own.

“River” is a Joni Mitchell cover. Why did you pick that song? Also, I’m curious what the process is to cover a song like that? Do you need permission from the artist?
Ryan: I’ll let Mike weigh in on this one, since the arrangement was his creation in the studio!

Mike: “River” has always been a song I’ve wanted to cover with Straight No Chaser. I’m really into the obscure songs that lean Christmas, or winter, but aren’t Christmas or holiday songs. Similar to how SNC covered “A Long December” – definitely not a holiday song but has winter vibes. When Ryan and I were talking about the project and wanting to do one cover, this one popped into my head immediately. I’ll say it was the biggest challenge of the EP for me. “River” has been covered so much and I wanted to try and do something different with it. So I started messing around with it on guitar, instead of piano which is how Joni plays it, and after playing it and sitting with it for a few days the arrangement was done. And how you hear it on the record, aside from the drums/bass, is pretty much how the demo sounded.

As far as permission goes, like any cover you’d want to release commercially, you need to secure a license to use the song and that’s pretty much it.

Ryan, you have a newsletter on your website. What sort of content are you sending folks and how often are you sending communication?
Ryan: Lately it’s been a lot of end-of-year sales on merchandise and promotion for our new Small Town City EP. The response has been so exciting! I send out an email a week to my audience. The majority of my engagement with fans is on social media daily and weekly with my Patreon community in a private group we share.

You guys did a photo shoot recently. Who took those photos and how did you decide what to use for the album cover? I love the photo you picked, by the way!
Ryan: Photo shoot slash near death experience, yes. We carried all our stuff about 50 feet straight up this industrial ladder to the roof of Lauren and my church here in Indy. The clouds were moody that night and Megan Mellinger (Matt’s wife and our photographer/designer) did a fantastic job capturing the vision for the cover and promotional photos. Coming down was freakier than going up (which had my knees wobbling when I got all the way up).

Mike: Megan is so talented and she did a fantastic job with the photos and artwork for the EP. I’m really happy with how it all turned out.

Where can folks at home learn more about Small Town City? Where can we listen to This Year?
Ryan: We’d love to connect with your audience on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube! This Year is streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and other digital platforms and available on CD here.

I know you just released This Year, but what’s next for Small Town City?
Ryan/Mike: We’re focused on writing great songs, growing our community of fans and patrons, and building our brand with the help of our team. Long-term, we want to play shows together as pandemic restrictions lift and, since we write as naturally together as we do, explore opportunities for sync licensing and writing for other artists.

Thank you guys for doing this. It is great to hear from you again! Could ask you questions all day! In all of the interviews I do I always give the artist the last word. Go.
Ryan: Thank you for nearly 15 years of support, Ricky! The most helpful thing your readers can do for Small Town City is to share and support our music repeatedly and enthusiastically with their circles of influence.

Within a day of This Year’s release, one of the artist portal apps we use for the various streaming platforms that our music is on let us know that the album had already been Shazam-ed in France and Brazil. That kind of technology was unheard of when Mike and I started writing songs together in college.

Like other art, music can cost thousands of dollars to create and streaming platforms largely aren’t set up to benefit the songwriters and artists whose music they carry. That being said, we invite your readers who enjoy our music to post about it in their stories, follow and retweet our videos and posts, download the album if they can, load the album onto their parents’ phones for them and show them how to play it (let’s be real), and engage with us on social media!

Mike: Thank you so very much for this opportunity to speak with you, Ricky! I remember back in the day when we met you were always so supportive of us, and many other independent artists, and now cut to 15 years later and us all talking together like this – man it’s a real trip. We’re so very thankful to anyone who has bought an album, streamed a song, liked a picture on Instagram, shared our music with someone, etc. We hope to continue creating great music for people to enjoy in the years to come!

Connect with Small Town City:
Website: https://www.SmallTownCityMusic.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SmallTownCityMusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SmallTownCityMusic
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SmallTownCity1
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/SmallTownCity1