Serena Ryder – Got Your Number

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) How would you describe your sound?

A) I wouldn’t. I would kind of leave it up to other people to describe what they feel when they hear me. I feel like describing myself gets complex. It’s kind of interesting to do that, but the more I’m alive trying to describe myself to other people gets pretty complicated. If I had one word, it would be diverse.

Q) Who are some of your musical influences?

A) I would say that I have a lot of different influences, styles and sounds that remind a lot of people of a lot of other people because I’ve had a lot of influences in my life. I grew up listening to Etta James, Roger Miller, Neil Young, Ben Harper, Tracy Chapman and Ella Fitzgerald and The Culture Club. Even more recently, I’ve been listening to a lot of great music.

Q) What is the song writing process typically like for you?

A) For me, with this particular song I came up with the drum beat. It was a really simple melody – four notes. So, it was really fun because I felt just like a little kid playing the drums and doing my thing. It wrote itself in a way, but it felt like I was coming from a place of actually not really knowing how to play the drums. I was just sitting down and experimenting and I think that people feel that in it. It is more of an innocent song in that I didn’t have a theory behind what I was doing. I was just bashing on the drums.

Q) What do you think it is about the song that fans are connecting to it?

A) It’s a fun song. It’s a song that I wrote on the drums. It was the first time I had written on a song on the drums. I had a drum kit and it was in my living room and I was just kind of bashing away at them. I was thinking about kind of New Orleans and the style of music and how they like to dance and sing. There is a lot of history in their music and the lyrics just started coming out of my mouth. When I’m playing, I usually write like a lot of musicians do. We just kind of make sounds like little kids. We don’t necessarily know what we’re saying right away. So, I tried jamming on the drums making beats and noises. I was randomly singing numbers like “five three four double six oh seven.” I just like how “double six” sounds and had a great time playing it. I didn’t put much brains into it. I really just felt the rhythm of that. When I looked back at what I had written, it was a cohesive song. To me, it’s just about owning your own power and knowing you can call someone to ask for help, but you don’t need to. You can look inside and realize maybe you need to listen to a song, have a little dance, have a little cry, need a little laugh or maybe you need to call your mom/dad/sister/friend. For the most part, it is about waking up the own answers inside you.

Q) How does the video play into the message of the song?

A) The whole concept of the video is about a bunch of psychics having a little party at a bowling alley. It’s a diverse way of dealing with the dichotomy of the song. You have these people who are these “spiritual know-all people,” but really don’t know that much. They’re just chilling out bowling. In the last scene, there is this beautiful young woman with a crystal ball bowling and letting go of that crystal ball, which to me symbolizes the knowledge of yourself. You’re holding a crystal ball looking into your own spring of personal knowledge and history and letting go because you realize you can just let it go. She lets the ball go and hits the pins. You let go of something that you have such a strong idea about liking yourself. It can be really freeing and exciting because the mystery of not knowing if it is going to be a strike, you get no balls or one balls. It’s a mystery! That kind of ties back into the New Orleans vibe of the history and mystery of music.

Q) How much of a hand do you have in the production of your music?

A) Oh very much! I’m there and present for all of it. I work with really awesome producers. That song was produced by Jerrod Bettis who produced half of my last record. I met him a few years ago and we just connected and clicked because I really love playing guitar, singing and writing lyrics and he really likes melodies and playing with sounds and rhythm. So, I would sit there and play my guitar and he would say, “I like that.” Then, he’d put down m riff. I’d record it and he’d come up with the drum beat because he’s first and foremost a drummer. He was the original drummer for One Republic and he grew up there with Ryan Tedder and the rest of the band. They started One Republic together and he is originally a drummer, which is nice for me because I didn’t really play the drums that much. He came up with sick beats and it was the first time I recorded like that. I had always written my songs, picked a producer, gone into a studio, hired live musicians and played. That was awesome because you get to be a part of every little step, but it is kind of a longer path. When I worked with Jerrod, it was the first time that I sat down with someone that was able to create all of the instrumentation just on their computer with live samples. He has a bunch of live samples of things he has actually played and then he records them. Within three or four hours, we had a whole finished song and that’s been really what has been happening with this new record. I have been sitting down and recording something and writing something and then less than three or four hours it’s a song! And it sounds like there is a whole band there, but it is just me and one other person.

Q) Who would you most like to collaborate with on a song in the future?

A) There are a lot of people I would like to collaborate with, but I feel like maybe I’m more excited about sitting down and learning how to produce myself, just for fun. I have ProTools and Logic and different things on my computer that I haven’t really given much time to because I’ve been touring, writing and stuff. But I’m really looking forward to learning how to do it myself because I think there are other musicians out there that would be phenomenal to work with like Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars and Ryan Tedder. And there are a lot of people that I am working with now that I’m excited about. It’s not necessarily songs just for me, but for whoever likes it and whoever it sticks with.

Q) You are a part of social media. Why is that such an important way for you to communicate with your fans?

A) They are the ones who listen to my music. I can listen to it myself, obviously, but it is just really magical when you have a big group of people who love what you are doing, relate to what you are writing and how you are writing it and want to dance with it. They feel like the song is about you and they want to come to a show and support it. It just becomes something bigger than your idea of what you are all about personally. Connecting with my fans or just people who like my music is very important to me, absolutely.

Q) Is there anything else you want to be sure fans know about “Got Your Number?”

A) I want them to know that it is really a song that I wanted to share with people to allow them to dance, sing and enjoy by themselves. I wrote it in as simple a way as I can because I feel like the more innocent you are in your life and the more things you stop pretending you know the more living becomes awesome and magical. I want people to love the song and I want people to feel like it is just for them. If they are singing it by themselves in the shower, while they are driving or to their little kids in the backseat or to their best friend, their boyfriend or girlfriend…I love it! If it is just them listening to the radio and singing along to the lyrics that’s rad to me too because I wrote it by myself having fun in a room. If it reaches other people like that then that’s amazing. I’d love to have 50,000 at a concert dancing and singing to my lyrics. That’s the dream!

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your music?

A) Thank you! Thank you very much. It wouldn’t be the same without them. It wouldn’t be the same without people listening to me and enjoying my music. Just enjoying how it feels…