“I hate cynicism and when people take themselves so seriously. He’s also very likely the first artist to ever shout out Tesco Coleslaw in his liner note thank yous. After all, this a guy who over the course of our digression-filled and lively conversation would lean closer to my recorder so it would clearly pick up that his face looked “like an elderly man’s slow-pitch softball mitt” after eating several footlong hot dogs on tour.

But he is right that there was a disconnect between the self-serious aura of Ryley Walker, the musician, versus Ryley Walker, the goofball dude. Check out my pants!’ It had this whole thing that wasn't me.”ĭespite Walker’s self-lacerating wit, there were moments of folk-rock inspiration on both of his first LPs. When you hear those two, that was just me thinking I could sing and being like, ‘I'm a fucking troubadour. “That and Primrose Green are terrible records. “I don't even remember what my first record was called,” he claims. By all means I should just be a fat load on a couch with my career choice being the check from a truck company that hit me or something.”Īfter long bouts of playing basement noise shows and putting out fingerpicked jam sessions on small tape labels around the city, Walker’s first record 2014’s largely instrumental All Kinds Of You positioned himself as a woodsy folk bard, complete with press photo outfits that were a few steps from being Ren Faire pastiche. “I just feel like I rolled the dice and became an indie rock dude,” he says. Though he came to the city at 17 for college, he quickly dropped out of both Columbia College Chicago and University of Illinois Chicago to, in his words, “become the scene’s annoying little brother” and make music. Times change, and while Chicago’s neighborhoods have gentrified and familiar storefronts have been replaced with bougie brunch spots and four dollar coffee shops like the one we’re sitting in, Walker has also drastically changed since he moved here from Rockford-a quiet but unmotivating Illinois city 80 miles northwest known for being home to Cheap Trick-11 years ago. Now these people are bettering their lives there?” It's funny to look up and see people running on treadmills exactly where I'd literally rip gravity bongs. “The first fingerpicking show I did was there,” he continues.

Ryley walker so certain