Dear Mr. Hood, I have been enjoying your music for some time, and I love the way you mix intricate musical harmonies with meaningful lyrics.  You may remember me from your show in Boston. I played violin for Back Into Blue. I have been studying violin for 9 years, and also play guitar, piano, drums and sing.  I am in high school, and I am considering colleges to continue my musical education.  I write and record songs, and would like to hone and refine this skill for God’s glory.  Could you give me some insight from your experience about these upcoming years? What was the best decision you made in the pursuit of your music career? What is the one thing you wish you had done differently which you learned by experience? What advice would you give someone like me? Thanks for the time and advice you might be able to give.  Believe me, I will...

Guest Blog, by Michael Lin. Ryanhood, formed by Arizona natives Ryan Green and Cameron Hood, gave a free concert last week in their second home of Boston to a small but excited crowd of fans and newcomers. Defined primarily by smooth vocals and slick guitar work, the duo performed a mixed repertoire of flashy jams and deep ballads that demonstrated why, in spite of not having a Wikipedia page about them, they continue to gain new fans with every show.

But mostly reggae. Since we just got finished with our tiny tour, and we are on the eve of re-entering the studio, it seems like the best time of all to write a little bloggy blog blog. First, a math question: If two trains are traveling towards each other at a speed of 130 km/hr, and train A contains Owen Plant, and train B contains Ryanhood, what is the most precise expression of the energy created by their collision? The answer is: One million awesomes. (Feel free to check the math on that. I was fortunate enough to get to sit in on a math class at MIT with my younger brother while I was in Boston, and even though it was mostly beyond me, it DID get me thinking.) So, the tour: Owen Plant. Man, oh man. This guy can SING. If you're lookin' for a boy with a voice… Each night we followed roughly...

Realizing that Ryan and I have been flying under the radar as of late, we thought it was high time we let you know how our recording is going, what the songs are sounding like, and what we think of it. So without further ado: - We began recording in late summer, and we worked on and off up through Christmas. We're roughly 70% of the way finished. (Slow and steady wins the race, right Mr. Tortoise?) - We have completed bass and drums and main guitars for 11 of the 12 songs we're planning to include. - We've sung what are called "scratch" vocals for all of them, in order to find out which harmonies work, where different melodies are needed, etc. - We're currently back home in Tucson rehearsing our acoustic butts off, making sure that we know exactly what we want to sing when we get back to LA to begin...

The Greene Room Recording Studio, 11:30 PM. Ryan's playing the chords for 'Back Into Blue' in the main studio, while I sit in the control room next to Ross, typing. A friend just asked me yesterday, 'You're here. Can you believe it?!' At times I pinch myself (mentally, of course. Why would I really pinch myself? Have you ever pinched yourself? . . . and not like a love-pinch, but like a real 'wake-me-up-when-the-biscuits-are-done' pinch? Hurts.) Anyway, at times I pinch myself and think about how were living out what we dreamed of in high school . . . how we're professionally recording songs we wrote at the edge of our beds and on our friends' couches . . . how even though we've made records before, we've never done ANYTHING like this. But as a balance to that, I also think that this is just the next logical step. I know all...

I know that I need to journal. I know that it's good for me. I know that it’s good for other people, and that people like to read other people's journals too. Throughout the last year, though, I've found myself often stuck...creative block or something. I blame it on a lot of things. I think it's primarily that I stress myself out. I become so occupied and driven by taking care of whatever business is required for Ryanhood, that I feel guilty taking 'time off' to actually practice guitar, or to actually attempt to craft a song. My other problem is that I am a gigantic musical perfectionist snob when it comes to my own music, and rarely does a song birth so beautifully that I will take the time to raise it up proper. A week or so ago, I set some time aside for 'me', and brought my laptop...