Journey' is the first studio album by British rapper Ryan Bomzer, released in 2014. The album features guest appearances from Sadie Barr and, Ben tipping. The album was promoted with one single: “Making Me“ which is the first track on the album and it was also released as a separate single on 6th, August 2014, featuring on iTunes, Amazon, Shazam, Spotify, and several more online stores.
The tracklist
1. Making Me, 2. Life, 3. Complaints, 4. Hide Away, 5. Bus Ride, 6. Addiction, 7. Keep Calm, 8. Reserved, 9. Feel Good, 10. Runaway, 11. Beautiful Day, 12. Just Jamming
Making Me
I wrote my single 'Making Me’ after completing a level 2 course in music production at college. The song has a Gospel feel to it, which is very different to the usual type of music that I was used to, pushing me out of my comfort zone but it was definitely for the better. The song powered me up to feel that this is now my chance to make me as a person, this is my victory, my chance to show the world what I can do and how many lives I can affect with my music.
It took over a year to release ‘Making Me - due to creating the audio production, lyrics, filming the music video and editing it and doing a lot of the work without the help of others, which I have now learned since that, if I had opened up to others sooner and accepted help, I could have grown faster. Everything other than the filming was done by myself. The music video received over 18,000 views on YouTube, and as it has been off my own back with not much budget, my uncle who filmed the video had never made one before, I think it turned out pretty well.
Filming the video made me understand that most things need to look over-exaggerated to look real on camera, it seems Un-natural filming it but it looks natural. There is a lot of techniques and camera tricks available to use and when it comes to the edit, it simply becomes magic, the only problem with film making is having the need to spend lots of money on cool gadgets for your camera.
Although all the gadgets I have brought haven’t been a waste as I can use them again and again on every video I decide to make, they are all a future investment. I’ve brought things like a smoke machine, strobe lights, camera lights, camera filters, light reflectors and much more.
You can purchase Making Me by Ryan Bomzer here.
Complaints
I and Sadie were at my house, we were thinking about making a short film about relationships. We were brainstorming ideas to show what can go wrong, after a while we started acting out this short film in front of my camera and started messing around with a few ideas. Sadie wrote some ideas on a few pieces of paper, I took a look, and one said about how people “complain a lot in relationships” I then took that and said to myself ‘All I hear are complaints’ I then wrote it down and continued writing this song. The song was practically finished, we both wrote a chorus to the instrumental beat that was on youtube, I was rapping, and she was singing.
The next day I set up my microphone up, after reading through the ideas from the night before, I made a quick guitar melody and I recorded my rapping. I completed a quick mix then Sadie recorded her part and to our surprise, the song sounded pretty amazing. I spent a few weeks on the production and after a lot of hard work and a few late nights the song was ready.
The song is called complaints because the woman complains about everything that the man does, even though she is cheating on him. We had both in previous relationships experience being with someone that had cheated on us, cheating in relationships is horrible, and a lot of people experience it.
When you are found in that situation the only thing you can do is leave, otherwise, it will get worse and worse. Being cheated on can make you feel so horrible inside to the point that you feel you are being tortured or even feel like your world is ending but you just need to remember that when this happens it is just fate's way of saying that this person wasn’t and isn’t right for you.
Don’t beat yourself about it but don’t stay in that position because it is not worth it and it can happen again, the term ‘I’ve changed’ is used way too many times. In relationships, trust is very important if you cannot trust it simply won’t work. I think the best way to be in relationships is to trust everyone you are with until they break the trust. It's okay to be scared of losing someone but be careful not to push them away with your insecurities.
Keep Calm
Keep Calm" is a song that I wrote about some social anxiety issues, that I was struggling with at the time. The anxiety was created after a few hard times in my life, and a couple of bad experiences. What happened I will not mention but it is life, we all have our ups and downs. I believe that anxiety never leaves us, it cannot be cured, however It can be controlled over a period of time, When I was going through a really hard time, it felt as if I couldn't talk to anyone, no-one understood me, every time I tried speaking I gained a lump in the back of throat but I learned to control it a little and that is all that mattered to me.
If you don’t know what anxiety is, it is very hard to explain but it is a feeling of worry, nervousness. Often about something that isn’t going to happen, for example, if you know in your head that today you have to wake up, get dressed, get the bus. You may feel almost frightened to even tell the bus driver what you want.
You may get anxious or have panic attacks, causing you to feel like the world is on your shoulders, everything seems to be going wrong. It seems as if you get a lump in the back of your throat, chest tightens, words appear mumbly and that is only the basics. Concern and worry build up and the more you want to do something and do not do it because of the anxiety controlling you, the worse it will get.
The chorus of the song states: ‘Keep calm, though it's hard. There's no harm you will get so far, you’ve got to let it out, your better off without, don’t let it control you! - the words are extremely powerful, and I used to listen to my own song when I was at my worst and it helped me get better!
Feel Good
After 'Keep Calm' was finished and I learned to control my anxious thoughts better, I wrote another song called 'Feel Good'. The song was about overcoming problems and feeling better. Everyone should feel good because life is too short.
It took me a couple of weeks to produce and a couple of days to write. I don’t struggle with songwriting because my songs have a special meaning behind them and all of the words are in my mind already, it was just getting the words out. This song was a collaboration with Benny boy Artist AKA ben tipping, the song needed my Ben on the chorus as his voice added that special touch to the happiness in the track.
Addiction
I wrote a song called “Addiction” everyone has an addiction at some point in their life, whether it is related to alcohol, drugs, tobacco, foods or even a computer game. Any addiction means too much of one thing, which can be bad for you.
The main referral in this song refers to drugs, and alcohol, when people are under the influence they do not understand the damage and risks made to their health and do not realize that they are actually damaging their relationships with ones they care about, friends can be a bad influence and so can family but it is up to you to fight for your health and sort these issues out, to do what is good for you, there is plenty of help out there!
Addiction was produced back when I was at college, it is an acoustic guitar track that was very simple. There was a lot of addiction around me in my upbringing which won’t speak about but it has affected me in a way that means that I can see clearly about how addictions can affect people and take over peoples lives and because of that, and other influencers around me, It inspired me to write the song and helped me see some positive out of such a negative.
Reserved
Technology is amazing, but how much is too much? People are so addicted to phones and, I feel that when people meet they do not even talk because they have already spoken beforehand on the phone. The song I made called “Reserved” is to try open peoples eyes and minds to the fact that we are spending too much time on our phones and to show beliefs that technology is slowly taking over our lives, I too sit on my phone a lot as to which I try to not go on it but it seems to have a hold over me I hope you can see the damage it causes.
Whilst producing reserved, I learned a lot of new techniques in how to add power to a track. This track made me start realizing how I could add sound FX to match up to the lyrics. I also learned how it was really nice to creatively work with effects like reverb and tape delay together by turning up the feedback, I used that mainly for the bridge section creating an alarming atmosphere to basically shout the message “We need to sort this out NOW!” whilst still making the song sound really nice and crisp.
Bus ride
The music video for bus ride explains a boy walking to the bus stop and there is a persistent problem with buses, the point is that buses really are unreliable, it's easier to walk and at the end he waits too long for the bus that when it gets him to his final location which is a cafe to meet someone, the cafe is closed. The story is completely blown out of proportion, however, it was fun to make, and there are some truths in how long buses can take, sometimes walk, it’s good for you!
The music video was filmed, edited, planned and directed by myself and it features "Perry Wallace" aged 11 years old, it was quite an incredible experience filming Perry because he was a complete natural in front of the camera, he didn't know himself how good he was, his expressions told the story and his timing was perfect with every shot, he listened well and understood his role even though it was his first time being in any kind of video.
The video was filmed in 4 days and was such a huge success, the visuals worked very well, experiments were made to get the correct shot and the creativity paid off. You can learn from reading, watching, listening but the best way to learn anything, in my opinion, is by giving it a go - Through trial and error. Let the natural creative energy run through your soul, it truly feels magical when you get a good result and can inspire you to go further.
I hope that you like the overview of the album, to support Ryan Bomzer's music you can like his Facebook page or you can purchase the album.
