Desert Island Jams #1 - Ryan Swift

Accompanying playlists: click HERE for Spotify and click HERE for YouTube.
Click HERE for the transcript of the podcast.

Ryan has been swing dancing since 1998 and started DJing for dancers shortly thereafter.  For the last 10+ years he has been the co-organizer, music coordinator and house DJ for Frim Fram Jam, the longest-running weekly swing dance in NYC.

He has had the privilege of DJing for numerous Lindy Hop exchanges, dance camps, weekend workshops, and competitions, including events such as Stompology, Camp Hollywood, Uptown Swingout, Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown, Swingout New Hampshire, California Balboa Classic, & Frankie100, and in NYC at events like Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night Swing.

Ryan also serves as head DJ at the International Lindy Hop Championships, LindyFest & Lindy Focus.

In addition to DJing, Ryan was a founding member of Rochester's Groove Juice Swing, is an accomplished photographer, and is the creator and host of the popular swing dance podcast, The Track.

https://www.ryanswift.com

https://www.thetrackpodcast.com

https://www.patreon.com/thetrackpodcast

@ryanswift
@thetrackpodcast

Transcript

Ryan Swift : 0:07

Hi, this is Ryan Swift, swing DJ and host of the track podcast. You're listening to desert island jams with Sarah spoon.

Sarah Spoon : 0:37

Hi, I'm Sarah spoon, and this is Desert Island Jams, a monthly podcast where I sit down with people from the dance community be they DJ, musician or just general music nerd and asking them which 10 tracks they would be taking with them if they were stuck on a desert island with a really tiny mp3 player. My guest this month is Ryan Swift, who is a New York City based DJ. Ryan's been swing dancing since 98. And pretty much DJing since then, as well. And for the last 10 or so years, probably longer. He's been the coorganizer, music coordinator and house DJ for Frim Fram Jam, which is the longest running weekly swing bands in New York. I've been, it's awesome. He's also DJed, basically all of the things, all of the big camps that you would have heard of as a Lindy Hopper, in addition to DJing Ryan is also a photographer, and He is the creator and host of podcast The Track, and if you haven't heard of it, you now have no excuse, go and download it now. Hi Ryan, great to have you here! I mean, virtually of course. Thank you so much for being my first guest, I am beyond delighted.

Ryan Swift : 1:37

Hi, how are you? It's my pleasure to be here. Thank you for asking.

Sarah Spoon : 1:48

Was it hard to compile the 10?

Ryan Swift : 1:51

Yeah, it was really hard. I don't think that's a surprise. I mean, it's probably hard for everybody. But there were a couple things I've had like a hard 12 songs. For a long time, yeah. And I just didn't want to, I didn't want to cut any of them. So that was hard. And, you know, the other thing, one thing that was hard, if I were really going to a desert island, I would pick 10 really long songs. One of them is mega long, and I almost cut that one for length too. But, um, I mean, I have some pretty broad tastes and to be able to cut it down to only 10 was really challenging. And the other thing that I was actually surprised about, that I hadn't really given a lot of thought to was the fact that outside of when I'm listening to specifically things like for DJing for swing dancers, I listened to full albums. Yeah, not just single songs and when I go through my most listened to stuff like tracks 123 and four have a lot more listens than eight 910 11 just because I listened to out full albums all the time. So I really think of a lot of music as like the music that I would listen to, I would if you said 10 albums, it would have been a lot easier for Then Then 10 songs. But yeah, I tried to make it a mix and things that were nostalgic and interesting. And I tried to cover all my bases. It's hard with only 10. I mean, if you asked me tomorrow, I'd probably have an entirely different set of 10.

Sarah Spoon : 3:16

So you've been you've been DJing for a long time now. What was the scene back in 1998. And how did you get into DJing

Ryan Swift : 3:26

Yeah, I'm old. It was very different than it is now. Everybody was a beginner. Everybody was a beginner, because we didn't necessarily have access to the people that weren't beginners. yet. You know, like Google wasn't even a thing really. So you know, I remember when we were trying to like Ask Jeeves like what what Lindy Hop was, I remember that, you know, we were watching swing kids on repeat, and we knew all we knew was like Lindy Hop was eight counts. Yeah. And we would like count what certain couples are doing in the background of swing kids and be like, I think that guy did a Lindy Hop. So it was terrible, but we didn't had no idea how terrible it was, but also everything, everything was brand new. The music, the dancing, the clothing, it was a level of excitement and enthusiasm that I'd never seen before and probably will never again in my life as far as you know, that experience. And being able to learn about swing music was incredible for me, not just because of how it related to dancing, but how it related to two particular friends of mine, who I had made early on freshman year of college. So this is three or four years before we had started dancing, and they're lifelong friends and they're both dancers. And they had a tremendous influence on me and the music that I listened to some of the songs that were picked here also. But how I got into DJing it's a couple things. One of the reasons why I kind of started DJing seriously as I have a notoriously bad knee and had injured my knee and it hurts to dance and it hurt to dance, especially after the first injury that I had. And I still wanted to be a part of the community and kind of just started going to dances and, and being able to DJ allowed me to stay part of that scene and continue to learn and grow and, and do all those things. So I had been learning a lot about the music and collecting music and, and all of those things. And when I first started DJing, what we had was a weekly pr- practice that's still going in Rochester. It's called Lindy Jam. It's every Wednesday, you know, none of us knew anything. There was just like a community set of CDs in a book in a binder. And we would just take turns picking songs for the rest of us to dance to from the community book. And that's kind of how I started and that was a really incredible learning experience. And I started buying and saying, Oh, I found this thing. It's amazing. I want to learn more about this other thing and stuff like that. So that's kind of how I really cut my teeth. And did that for years.

Sarah Spoon : 6:05

If you didn't discover swing jazz, jazz, I guess it's two parts, would you have still discovered it? Do you think somehow? And if you didn't, what genre Do you think you would be obsessed with instead?

Ryan Swift : 6:19

Well, I discovered it outside of dancing. So I would have to imagine that yes, I would have discovered it at some point. And you know, by the time we got to 1998, swing music, in some form, at least was everywhere. So I would I think I would have gotten exposed to it in one way or the other. But it's not the only music that I obsess over now. So I think I've got fairly broad tastes, I might just have a small window into what really broad taste actually means. But, you know, a lot of the music that I grew up to in my household was Motown and r&b. You know, my mother played the hell out of their dirty dancing soundtrack. So a lot of Motown and a lot of soul is Something that I obsess over. Like when it comes to my recreational purchases, I would say that like soul music is probably up there. And the other thing that I kind of obsess over too is I listen to a lot of movie soundtracks, like scores and stuff like that. And I'm not a particularly educated musical person. You don't have a lot of background, but I really love a lot of like, the classically themed things that are fit into pop culture type things.

Sarah Spoon : 7:26

And we see that in in the list that you

Ryan Swift : 7:28

Yeah, yeah, that's one of the reasons why I picked it and that was an obviously very influential part of my life.

Sarah Spoon : 7:34

Um, let's let's talk about your first track that you've chosen. One o'clock jump by the metronome All Stars Yeah, cracking cracking tune, but out of all of the versions in the world, why this one?

Ryan Swift : 7:46

Well, it was a tough choice for me to I don't even know if this is necessarily my favorite version. It's definitely a favorite. It's the one I probably DJ more than anything. The original camp AC version is probably still my favorite. I don't have any tattoos but I've considered getting tattoos and I've always wondered like what I should get. And the closing riff on the original one o'clock jump is one that I had considered like getting around my forearm as a as a little thing. I haven't done that yet. And that riff is actually not even in the song. Which is funny. But for me, you know, I'm trying to diversify what I get to listen to. And there's a couple of reasons why I think I picked this one. The first of which is it does remind me a lot of a lot of my favorite people that are in the swing dance scene. And we kind of kind of connect and nerd out over the song. And the second reason why I picked this one over any of the others is that since I wasn't going to have 10 different swing era jazz songs, or jazz songs. I figured you can't go wrong with a band that has bacey Goodman, James Coleman Hawkins, Buddy Rich Tommy Dorsey, Charlie Christian, all in one track. I was like, Well, you know, I might as well just get them all. Get them all in one shot and And then, and then and I've got everybody that I've ever loved all in one track. So that was kind of my my thinking there.

Sarah Spoon : 9:06

Um, for those people who don't know how the metronome all stars were formed, do you want to give a little brief ones over?

Ryan Swift : 9:12

Yeah, it's super cool. So metronome is a is a magazine. I don't know if it's still around, but it was around for decades and decades and decades. It's a jazz magazine for, you know, kind of like the Rolling Stone, or Spin Magazine of its time. And they had reviews and, and one of the things that they used to do is they used to put together a poll every year of, you know, who's your favorite guitarist, who's your favorite clarinetist? Who's your favorite piano player who's your favorite trumpet player, whoever it is, and then who the winners of that poll, they would get them together. And they'd cut one or two tracks, usually two tracks two sides of a record, and they'd record it and release it as a as you know, a record and this version is from 1941. And this is something that I would kind of love to do today. I've been thinking about it forever as like I would love to do like a modern day metronome all star band but I mean it would basically be like the Lindy focus big bands so that's just a who's who of, of mega stars from from Big Band swing era jazz.

Sarah Spoon : 10:11

Sweet. Well, I think we should wrap our heads around it right now. Okay

Ryan Swift : 13:40

I love that hi hat at the end that was good. Yeah.

Sarah Spoon : 13:44

track number two on the list instantly brought a smile to my face and actually my one of my favorites of this artist is also a live track. So tell us a little bit more.

Ryan Swift : 13:58

Yeah, I love live cuts. A lot of live stuff on a DJ too. It just has a certain energy to it that, you know, sometimes the studio recording doesn't have. But this song is bringing on home to me. It's Sam Cooke. And this is live at the Harlem square club. And I love the history of this album. They wanted to record a live album with Sam Cooke. And he recorded in Miami in 1963. And they instantly shelved it, they didn't put it out. It's got King Curtis on saxophone and the album short. It's only about 30 or 40 minutes. And it's just rip roaring, intense. And the reason I read I've read why they shelve it was the marketing team, the record label wanted Sam Cooke to be a little bit more of a crooner and a little bit more polished. And this was not that this was a boisterous audience. You know, I'd read that they you know, Sam let his hair down for this one. He had the entire crowd in the palm of his hand. They eventually put out a live record the next year live at the Copa which is still a really great record, but it is a little smoother, a little bit more polished as a little bit more crossover, he, for the time. It's kind of the same Sam Cooke that you always saw as presented out and the Harlem square club is just this loose, intimate affair as mostly a black crowd. And it just gives me insight into Sam Cooke as an artist in a way that I had never heard before I had found this some record exec found it in 85 when he became the label that he had the label I don't remember who it was, but it's like I heard rumors about this can I find it and they put it out and it was huge, huge, huge album and is you know, widely considered now to be one of the best Live albums of all time. It's my favorite live album of all time.

Sarah Spoon : 15:44

Did you discover it at home through your family listening to the Motown and r&b or was it was it like a record shop find or was it like passed over to buy one of your your music friends?

Ryan Swift : 15:55

That's a good question. I honestly don't remember I mean if it came out at first It's not a new record that my parents would have bought at the time. It was probably just as I, as I started buying music and collecting Sam Cooke. Um, you know, he he drives died tragically young. So his catalogue is not huge. I think I found live at the Copa first, which is I think, you know, kind of the one that a lot of folks find first. And then I saw this one I was like, I don't know what this is. And actually, I don't think I knew that the Harlem square club wasn't in Harlem, then it might it's in Miami. So I grabbed it, and I put it on, and I was just like, holy shit, just like the opening. It's just like, holy shit. What is happening right now. And this track bring on home to me is one of like, he kind of it's like a pseudo medley of three different songs that are that are similar in tone, I guess. And this is the middle of those three and man. He just has the entire audience in the palm of his hand. And one of the things that I love about this particular track is you can really hear the women in the crowd. Crowd just screaming their lungs out shrieking and he's just eating it up. You know, like I said, it's a side of Sam Cooke that I hadn't heard prior to the first time I heard this so I love this track. Yeah

Sarah Spoon : 22:56

Sharon Jones and the Dapkings, stranger to my happiness.What a banger

Ryan Swift : 22:59

Yeah, man Sharon Jones. Was actually really sad day when she passed away for me. Some of the band lives in my neighborhood, but a lot of them are. They're all part of Brooklyn. And so my friends here in New York introduced me to Sharon Jones before I even heard her on a record. She put on a live show like nobody I'd ever seen, except for maybe James Brown. She was just the most badass woman I'd ever seen. She was a prison guard at Rikers Island in New York, which is like, not a nice jail. And she was tiny. She was a tiny woman, and she just owned the stage and owned the microphone like nobody like nobody's business. And for somebody that was basically told for so much of her life, like you don't have the Lux you don't have the whatever it is to be a star. She was just like, EFF that I'm gonna be a star. Yeah, and she was Yeah. is amazing and this track is the band is super, super tight. And for those of you that don't know the DAP kings are also the band that played on the they were the backing band for them. Amy Winehouse is back to Black Album. They're phenomenal. And they've influenced so many artists and we're part of you know, this whole soul revival that has been going on. That's been great. And it's got baritone sax, which I just absolutely love, and it's super prominent, and it's got a Motown feel to it. But you know, I saw Sharon Jones in tiny clubs in Brooklyn. I saw her at the Nokia Theatre on Valentine's Day, one year, I saw her at the Apollo. I saw her many, many times. And so I picked this song is, you know, a way to, you know, it's a little nostalgic in that way, and it there's lots of good memories associated with Sharon Jones. And like you said it's just an absolute banger.

Sarah Spoon : 24:52

But in relation to your desert island jam list, if your desert island stay was a movie, This would be the montage section. What are you doing in this montage?

Ryan Swift : 25:04

Oh, that's funny. Um, I mean, what is what is there to really do on a desert island? I guess I'm I guess I'm building huts and stuff. I'm trying to make it look as much like Gilligan's Island as I can. And failing, there would be a lot of failure. That's what it would definitely be. It would be a lot of me trying to unsuccessfully do the things that people would normally be able to do. So I would be failing to crack open a coconut and failing to to build a hut out of bamboo and all of those things and then ultimately figuring it out. I think that'll be it.

Sarah Spoon : 25:37

Okay, good. I was glad glad that you succeed in the end. That was I mean, it's your movie. You deserve to write yourself a happy ending, right?

Ryan Swift : 25:43

Well, I mean, if you know me, that's probably not how I would write it. But that's what I think the montage would be. Yeah,

Sarah Spoon : 25:50

all right. Okay, so strange to my happiness. Sharon Jones and the Dapkings Okay, next up we have an instantly recognizable song I think from arguably one of the all time, I want to say greats, but I'm not actually a huge fan,may the music Gods not strike me down. We've got God only knows by the Beach Boys. Tell us about it.

Ryan Swift : 29:45

It's the greatest pop song ever written. Paul McCartney said it's his favorite song and I can't argue with Paul McCartney. Pet Sounds is a huge, huge album. For me. Actually, the first cassette I ever bought with my own money was the best of the Beach Boys. Volume Two. I did not own Volume One. I don't know what possessed me to buy this. I don't recall ever having listened to the Beach Boys other than I think we had a 45 of good vibrations. I was maybe 10 I bought it with my own money when we were on a family vacation. It did not have any of Pet Sounds on it. So it was the surfer stuff of the Beach Boys but the harmonies that the Beach Boys have and the brilliance of Brian Wilson started shining through. And you know, one of the things that I was actually kind of grateful for, like and looking back I'm kind of grateful for is that that cassette didn't have any pet sound stuff on it. Yeah. And like I said, I was only kind of familiar with good vibrations. So I was able to, I didn't have to go backwards in time to like research like the roots of the Beach Boys I kind of was like into the early Beach Boys and discovered the progression into Pet Sounds and then was like, blown away as opposed to like, maybe let down by like the stuff that had come beforehand. You know? It's just the most beautiful song and it's complex. And the lyrics are beautiful and bittersweet and kind of weird. I mean, the opening line is like, I may not always love you, which is not what you would expect coming out of a love song. Yeah. Brian Wilson didn't write that one that was Tony Asher's line. But it's, it's beautiful and complex, but also very simple at the same time. So there's a lot to listen to within the same song. And even now, when I listen to the same song, I don't necessarily hear the same thing over and over again. So just the arrangement that Brian Wilson put together for it is incredible. And Carlson's vocals are incredible, his brother Carl, I really for me, it's the entirety of the song that makes the song so beautiful. And its mix of like, simple and complex at the same time. You know, I got to say, Brian Wilson was a bucket list person for me to see live. And I wound up seeing him. I think it's four years ago now I just went by myself. I couldn't find anyone to go With and I got a ticket like right before on StubHub and I went. I think he's kind of surprised at the fact that he came up with the song because he said like, this is the best song I've ever written and will ever write. And like, he sung the lead and he doesn't sing the lead on the recording. But like, it brought me to tears in the theater just sitting in the balcony by myself watching Brian Wilson play it it's it's a beautiful song.

Sarah Spoon : 32:24

Oh. That's, that's so lovely. I was delighted to see this name on your list. I wasn't surprised. I was interested in the selection because she's got such a back catalogue.

Ryan Swift : 35:27

I mean, how do you pick an Aretha song?

Sarah Spoon : 35:29

Right? Was this the song that took the longest to choose? Or were you immediately like it's this one.

Ryan Swift : 35:36

I mean, I could have picked 30 different Aretha songs. This one. This one I play for spring dancers. Which is is kind of neat. I like that it's not a fully orchestrated tune. That's a little bit kind of down and dirty. Just quartet. The quartet is amazing. It's I'm Teddy Harrison. piano, Kenny Burrell on guitar. And like they're both huge Ellington nerds. And so there's a lot of jazz influence there. The album I have it on is not the album was released on which is Yeah!!! with three exclamation marks the album and again, like me listening to albums, it's an album called Aretha Sings the Blues. And it's Aretha Franklin singing the blues, you know, there's not strings, there's not horns, there's not any of that stuff. It's just her ripping it up with a piano guitar, bass and drums. And I love that part of I like that part about it. I do kind of like that. It's not it's not respect. It's not, you know, kind of the the first round of things that you would think of, but I also i do think it's the fact that it's just a quartet makes me get to allows me to listen to Aretha a little bit more closely.

Sarah Spoon : 39:45

controversial question. Five years of the track- who has been your favorite guest?

Ryan Swift : 39:55

probably several, but I think the one that I'm most grateful for As one I did with Dawn [Hampton], because it's something that I was friendly with dawn. I wasn't best friends with Dawn, but she was very important to me. And it was really an excuse to get to talk to dawn for two hours. And she had told some things that I never heard her say before, and but mostly it was just me getting to hang out with dawn for an hour and a half. You know, for a lot of people their only exposure to dawn was her doing her Bhangra bit, and you know, not a lot of people got to know the dawn that I think I got to know, the fact that she was the sarcastic, badass lady that didn't give a fuck about anything came through in that interview, and I think gave some insight into the dawn that I knew. And so I'm grateful that folks got to hear that part of dawn. Yeah, huh.

Sarah Spoon : 40:47

Yeah, I think the community is really grateful to have that record.

Ryan Swift : 40:51

Yeah, I only hope so. I'm grateful for it.

Sarah Spoon : 40:54

I have certainly enjoyed listening to the track over the years and I think the most influential one on me was actually I think episode So 10 with Roland actually I listened through through to like 20 minutes and then I literally had to stop and get a notepad and pen and I was just like writing things down and I found that really, really useful and insightful and exciting.

Ryan Swift : 41:14

That was a very authentic capture of basically, what it's like when not Rob and I are nerding out about whatever it is. There's no pretense there. That's just us being nerds. Yeah, Rob is Rob is the best. I love Rob.

Sarah Spoon : 41:28

We need to talk about the next track. And I know there was some back and forth that we had about this because you were concerned about picking a 14 minute track to have analyst and I think it's relentlessly excellent from from the first second to the last. I'm interested to know if you would DJ this because for the dancers listening this is diminuendo in blue, the live version by Duke Ellington. 14 minutes long. It's 195 BPM like Solid. Have you DJed this would you, where's appropriate for you know, because this is informative for the baby DJs listening.

Ryan Swift : 42:08

I don't think I have I think there's a possibility I might have used it for like a teacher demo because it's long enough to do that. And it's one of Sylvia Sykes favorite songs. And I've nerded out with her about this many, many times. I would not I wouldn't play it at a dance. Probably. It's, you know, it's quarter of an hour. I might play the originals. Those are also rockin and they're three minutes each. There's a lot to hear on this song. So this one I could listen to this song for three hours straight and not get tired of it and not hear the same thing twice and man it's Paul Gonsalves is playing 27 courses like it's, it's ridiculous.

Sarah Spoon : 42:51

Where do you stand on people editing tracks so they are a more palatable quote unquote length for people to dance to

Ryan Swift : 43:00

I've done it. I think I'm less inclined to do it. Now. I think at this point, I'm more inclined to play the longer song. Just if you're gonna do it, do it well. And don't cut out my favorite solo. I guess. I guess that's it.

Sarah Spoon : 43:15

Well, diminuendo and blue. This is literally 14 minutes long, folks. So prepare yourself.

Ryan Swift : 57:36

Cat Anderson.

Sarah Spoon : 57:38

What, what a beast. All right, well from a relentless banger to a really chirpy song with kind of scary lyrics,

Ryan Swift : 57:51

right? Yeah. This is a super weird song and I love it.

Sarah Spoon : 57:56

Andrew bird is a quirky quirky Guy, which we love him for, but like,

Ryan Swift : 58:02

yeah, I mean, I first heard Andrew bird when he was playing with a swing band. Mm hmm. He played with Squirrel Nut Zippers. And he had his own band called Andrew birds ball of fire.

Sarah Spoon : 58:13

I love glass figurine. That's probably one, I love DJing, for Balboa dancers.

Ryan Swift : 58:18

Yeah. And his career is one I followed for the last 25 years or whatever it is now. I like how weird The song is. I like that it's maybe probably a response to an old Mississippi sheiks song. And that original song is about this guy. That's basically like, it's super questionable lyrics about, you know, I'm demanding this from you physically. And this flips that. So like, it, definitely you know, the name has a lot of meaning behind it. But there's just a lot of layers to this song. I like the complexity of it. I like how weird it is. I like that. It's First listen, you're like, Oh, this is just like a happy love song. And then it's like drilling holes into your head and tying you up and stuff like that, which is not my proclivity but you know, it's super interesting. And I just love the build of this song and the violin, which is in itself a fake palindrome because it's not quite the same scale going up as it is going down again, that this one challenges me as a listener. And it also is just kind of banging so I'm into it.

Sarah Spoon : 59:32

Let's do it. Yeah, to listeners. Pay attention to the lyrics. It is. It's worth it.

Ryan Swift : 1:02:27

I love that it's just like a cacophony of sound and yeah, he's great doing this live too.

Sarah Spoon : 1:02:32

I haven't seen him live but he is also he's on the list for me. Do it so worth it. Okay, next go crazy Prince.

Ryan Swift : 1:02:40

It's Prince. How do you pick a prince song? How do you

Unknown Speaker : 1:02:42

How did you pick this Prince track?

Ryan Swift : 1:02:45

It's this is not the song that I had on my list for a very long time. Um, the prince song that I picked is not one that I think most people dig on. It's party man from the Batman soundtrack. It's not what people think of when they think of prints. I don't think that's it. But that was my gateway into prints was 1989 buying the Batman soundtrack. Party man is just it's a party hit and it's proven and it's a feel good song. It's about the Joker which is weird but weird in a nerdy way that is absolutely appropriate for me but let's go crazy Was it a last minute switch? I think there's a couple reasons for it one, it's a little bit longer so I get a little bit more Prince for my buck when it comes to being on this violent. It ends with a ripping prints guitar solo, which you don't get on party man. And prints on guitar is one of the greatest things of all time. I'm not a big, like club dancer or wedding dancer or anything like that. I don't get up out of my seat unless I'm like partner dancing. But this is one of those songs that'll do it for me. You know, the generosity of his soul and all of the things that you know went on behind the scenes, which is a good reminder for me, in general reminds me of some good friends. But you know, this song is in the the American National Registry of recordings I think it's called. And in the essay, I actually wrote it down because I love it. They described this song as an existential manifesto cloaked in a rousing rock song. And I was like, I think that's beautifully appropriate. The minute long intro is just the most beautiful piece of anticipation because everyone you hear the Oregon in the first two seconds and you know what's coming, and everyone's like, hell yeah, it's prints and you get to listen to him give this sermon for a minute and I love that part of it so like the book ends for me is kind of what made this flip from another print song to this be in the one I think prints is the best concert I've ever been to.

Sarah Spoon : 1:04:42

I can I miss that? But yeah, let's let's go crazy.

Ryan Swift : 1:04:46

Yeah, Prince

Sarah Spoon : 1:09:25

Are you are you an air guitar Sort of man?

Ryan Swift : 1:09:28

No. No. No

Sarah Spoon : 1:09:30

Drums? bass?

Ryan Swift : 1:09:34

Now I'm more of a air harmonica kind of person. Not really. I'm not an air anything kind of person.

Sarah Spoon : 1:09:39

All right. Okay. Oh, it's just you know, thought a check. No. I mean you following one legend with another with David Bowie. He picked David Bowie song. Yeah. How did how did you pick this one?

Ryan Swift : 1:09:53

It's a good question. It's long I Like the optimism of this song, and even though Heroes is in quotes, yeah, I think it's really it's really a feel good song. David Bowie is a big deal to me. It's uplifting and I think I kind of probably needed that for a desert island. So

Sarah Spoon : 1:10:12

do you have any heroes?

Ryan Swift : 1:10:15

Ah, who? Probably, I don't know that there's anyone that I would necessarily call a hero. I think there are many, many people that have many, many aspects that I look up to, and make me want to be a better person in some way. You know, whether it's friends of mine that are just, you know, generous and kind. And, you know, my friend Mike t-bo comes to mind as somebody that just has so much heart and generosity that I should be striving for every day. So that's, that's something you know, and then I think I like to take a little bit from a lot of people as opposed to putting all my eggs in one basket when it comes to heroes.

Sarah Spoon : 1:11:00

Well then let's let's dedicate this track to all of those people. Good stuff right there. We're at the final song. Yeah. 10 I need to know is a new hope your favorite Star Wars?

Ryan Swift : 1:14:45

Well, yeah. Yeah. It should be the thread answer. It's the it's, it's what started it. I mean, it's the movie I've seen the most in my life. It had a profound effect. My life, you know, was one of the things where I had the figures as a kid and I listened to the soundtrack and the like, read along record series as a kid, and was a really big deal to me when I didn't have a ton of friends when I was younger. And Star Wars seems to be a thing that I've connected with many people with on over the years, including my dad, which is not always an easy thing to do for me, but But yeah, the first one is just a perfect mythology tale and hero's journey and opened, you know, my eyes to on music of john Williams and just like classical music in general mythology and religion and these things that I kind of continue to nerd out about now science fiction, and A New Hope. I mean, the farm boy does the thing. Yeah, he does it any he becomes part of a larger world and that's exciting. I mean, I don't know how you pick a Star Wars song and For me, I listen to the album straight through all the time, the binary sunset for me. That minute of music is just so beautiful and conveys so much emotionally. It was reworked to be the force theme a million different times. And you've heard it a million different ways. But I could definitely see myself being on a desert island and putting that on every night at sunset and being totally fine with that.

Sarah Spoon : 1:16:32

Hmm, I like the way you think it's the final song. So I'm gonna thank you for your time. This has been excellent and really illuminating and lovely to kind of see you outside of the jazz box.

Ryan Swift : 1:16:47

I know it was great.

Sarah Spoon : 1:16:48

And yeah, so if you wouldn't mind would you like to officially introduce your last track?

Ryan Swift : 1:16:53

last track is john Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra. Doing the hologram and binary sunset from the originlStar Wars

Sarah Spoon : 1:21:06

So that was the episode. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for listening. And if you've enjoyed the music that you've heard in this episode, you can find accompanying playlists on YouTube and Spotify, you just need to search for desert island jams. Please know that if you use Spotify that the licensing can be a little bit weird depending on where you are, you might not have access to certain tracks. Sometimes I'm not able to find the track on Spotify because it's not available to me. And if that happens, it'll either be skipped over or my guests will offer me a substitute. You can find Ryan's stuff online with Ryan swift comm or the track podcast calm or patreon.com forward slash the track podcast. If you enjoy your social media then you can find Ryan and the track podcast on Twitter and Instagram with those handles. Desert Island jams is produced by me Sarah spoon. The graphic designer is Sara Azmy me you can find her On Instagram at sazmy underscore design, that's s a Zed m y underscore design. And huge thanks to Jonathan stout for providing this excellent theme tune. If you'd like this song, I mean obviously you like the song you have ears, please go and have a look at his Bandcamp page where you can download his music and listen to it forevermore. I'd like to make special mention to the Andria Helm voice sculpting studio, which is based out in Boston, Andria is I mean, she's clearly a lovely person for sponsoring the music license, but she's also an incredible vocal coach. So we've been thinking about lessons now is a great time to hit her up for some of those. You can find her Andria Helm calm. That is a ANDRIAHELM.com if you would like to support the podcast, we have a Patreon, the Royal we ,patreon.com forward slash desert island jams and obviously if you sign up for that you get lots of interesting and fun behind the tidbits and whatnots You can also find the podcast on Instagram which is at Desert Island gems. Or if you want to look at pictures of my face then you can follow my personal Instagram which is lazy vintage gal, but the A in gal is replaced with an x because I'm a non binary person. And if you're interested to know a little bit more about me Sarah, you can find my website at Sarah spoon dotnet that's Sa ra h SPoon dotnet