Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Rud
Hi Ryan, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I always wanted a career in music. In short, I wanted to be a rockstar. Whatever that means. When I was 14 the pastor that led our church youth group took us to a KISS concert and from that day forward I was hooked on music. Much of the past 3 decades I spent chasing that dream. Playing in bands, making records, playing shows, repeat…you know the deal. About 5 years ago, after 30 years of grinding it out in the music scene, I started being less involved and more importantly, less interested, in that dream. I still love playing music but I don’t enjoy the late nights in clubs anymore. I’m a home body. I have a small “studio” in my basement where I write and record music under the name “Frequency Collisions”. The creating process was always my favorite aspect of music anyway so I love that I can create and make my music available to folks without having to leave my home or be in clubs till 3am.
Music has taken a bit of a backseat to something else these past 4-5 years. I have turned my focus towards my radio program “The Rabbit Hole” and my radio station “Rabbit Hole Radio”. My brother Matt is a co-host of the show and also helps run the radio station.
It’s a fun story how it all came about actually…Right before the pandemic I woke up one day and had the thought “I’d like my own radio show”. I had looked into a career in radio broadcasting years ago but for various reasons didn’t follow through on it but the interest in radio has always been there. I have mostly lived my life just getting random ideas and seeing where they take me. This particular morning I thought I wanted a radio show so I took to Facebook and posted something to effect of “I have some things to say and someone should give me a radio show”. Within 24 hours a fella that ran an internet radio station got ahold of me, gave me a time slot on his programming schedule and just like that I had a radio program and The Rabbit Hole was born.
In the beginning The Rabbit Hole was just me spinning local music. It was really nothing special…Then I moved and the pandemic hit so I shut down the show for awhile. Once the dust cleared I started the show up again in 2020-2021. I invited my brother Matt onto the show one night and it was fairly obvious that The Rabbit Hole needed to expand from one to two. We’re brothers and best friends so the conversation was natural, easy, and light. Conversations were funny, and through our shared experiences from growing up it just worked. Matt became a permanent co-host of the show and from that day forward it’s been the Rud Brothers and The Rabbit Hole. In February we also launched “Rabbit Hole Radio” which is a 24/7 internet radio station. We have complete creative freedom with it. It’s also the new home of our weekly radio show “The Rabbit Hole”. The station is very much in its infant stage but we have a lot of ideas and are very excited to see where it goes.
What’s The Rabbit Hole radio show about? Well, for starters we have a dress code for the show. Yes, a dress code for a radio show. What can I say? We like to keep it classy. A supper coat is required. Some may call it a dinner jacket or a blazer but down here in The Rabbit Hole it’s a supper coat. We’ve had several guests on the show over the years (mostly local musicians) and yes, they must adhere to the dress code as well. As for what the rest of the show is about? Our “communications liaison” wrote this for us…I think it explains it fairly well.
They play great music. It’s kinda like college radio for adults but not really.
Sometimes they interview local musicians. Kinda like Oprah but not really.
It’s two musically comical cool dudes kinda like Tenacious D but not really.
They are huge movie buffs and often provide the public with useful movie reviews. Kinda like Siskel and Ebert but not really.
It’s something to look forward to every Thursday night kinda like ER when it was on tv but not really.
I love conspiracy theory podcasts. It’s kinda like that but not really.
They let you in their personal lives a little bit. You end up feeling like old friends kinda like Steve Edelman and Sharon Anderson on Good Company but not really.
A dress code that rivals Ron Burgundy but not…. Well, actually pretty close to Ron Burgundy actually.
Oh Heck they describe it much better than me!
Two brothers’ ridiculous and spontaneous conversation, Great music, movie quotes and a strict dress code. What could go wrong? You may not learn something new but you will laugh. Supper coats required.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I’ve never been much of a planner if I’m being honest. I get ideas and just start doing them. I make mistakes, I learn and then I repeat. When The Rabbit Hole started I knew how to be in a band. How to promote a band. I did not not know how to do that with a radio show. I’m not a great promotor in the first place and I have a love/hate relationship with social media so getting the word out about the show in an effective manner has not always been easy. If I could hire someone to take care of the promotion side of things while I focused on creative content I’d do it in a second. As a society I think we’re at a point with social media that content is the sole point. Period. It no longer matters what that content is as long as there’s content. That’s why there is so much garbage out there. It’s also part of the reason I hesitate to get more involved in social media. Content matters to me. Kind of a “don’t say anything unless you have something to say” kind of thing. It seems we’re saturated these days with people saying a lot but not really having much to say…if that makes sense? A bit “hey, get off my lawn” kind of thing but I think you get the point. The internet is a daily struggle for balance with me. I hate social media but realize I also need it to get the word out on what I’m doing. What’s a radio show without an audience?
It also took me awhile to make the connection that pairing my local music background with The Rabbit Hole was a great idea. So we have a pretty large focus on the local music scene here in Minnesota. We have a lot of local musicians on the show and Matt and I really feel like we’re part of a cool community of creative and really kind people. Honestly it feels like family to us. If you’ve been on the show then we say you’re part of The Rabbit Hole Family. We mean that. We support our music scene and they support us. We’ve met some of the best people doing this radio show.
I also have 2 teenage boys and a wife so it’d be easy to say that juggling family, jobs, and music and the radio show is difficult but it’s really not. You adapt….My wife is really supportive, my kids are great, and we work together. I’m extremely lucky in that aspect. Very lucky. Family and creative life never feels like a struggle to balance for me. I try and roll with what the universe allows me to do and what feels right in the moment. I handle my business and I don’t argue with the universe anymore. I’m always learning to pay attention and only take on things that I can do and do well. At least well enough to satisfy my standards for myself.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Music. I love music. My life is just a soundtrack from day to day. Music is always on. The Rabbit Hole radio show has a huge focus on music and I’ve also been writing and recording music since I was 14. I’m now 52. I love it more now than I ever have. My absolute favorite thing to do is to lock myself away in The Rabbit Hole and write and record music. I have a set up in my basement that works really well for me. I can write, record, produce, and release music while sitting in my sweatpants. It’s fantastic.
I love everything about the musical creative process. Especially mixing and doing some of the more “producing” side of things. I’ve mixed records for friends, mixed records for my band and of course do all that for my musical alter ego “Frequency Collisions”. I love sound. I love sounds colliding and somehow doing this beautiful little dance together. I don’t know much music theory so I’m sure there’s a word for all this…not sure what that word is but I just call it “Frequency Collisions.” I know what sounds good to me and I chase that sound constantly.
Music is a unifier. It brings people together. It bookmarks moments in our lives. It’s the soundtrack to memories. It’s the audio to our moments. It will make you cry. It’ll make you laugh and it will meet you at any and all points on the emotional spectrum. It’s the universe’s greatest gift to us. Music just is…Music is my home and where I feel like I’m my truest self. I feel truly blessed that I’m able to create and feel moved by music. It’s something that constantly surprises me and has never let me down. Music is a journey with no real destination. I will never know everything about music so there’s no ceiling. That’s exciting to me.
What am I most proud of? Musically? I’ve gotten to do a lot of really cool things through music. I’ve had my songs on TV shows, I’ve scored a short film, I’ve traveled a large portion of this country in a van with my best friends playing music. The best people I know I met through music. Besides all that though, I’m proud that I make music that’s real and true to me. It’s honest. I’d like to think there’s nothing fake or “plastic” about what I do.
I’m proud that I wanted a radio show and I made that happen. I’m proud that I wanted my own radio station and I made that happen. I’m proud that I’m not afraid to try and fail. I’m proud to do my part to foster community through music and the radio show.
What sets me apart? Wow. I don’t know. The people that know me best I think could answer that question better than I could. I do things that I’m interested in and that I have a passion for. Does that set me apart from anyone else? Probably not. I’m not afraid to try new things and everything I do I try to do with integrity, honesty, and with pure intentions. Does that set me apart? I don’t know. The best thing I can do to “set myself apart” is to try and be the best version of myself. There’s plenty of people out there trying to be someone else. I like me. I’m just gonna be me. That seems to work the best for everyone involved.
What does success mean to you?
I’m probably going to dance a fine line with cliche’s here but success was never a monetary thing with me. Probably why I never made much money from my creative endeavors lol. Would I have liked to make more money from my art? Of course. But it was never a driving factor for me. Never will be.
I love to create. The end.
From a creative standpoint, success is creating from a point of honesty and truly being who you are in your art. Sounds cheesy but the size of my audience was never as important as offering something I was truly proud of and was representative of who I was in that moment. I’ve found that the right people will find you if you’re true to yourself in the creative process. Creating is a very personal thing for me. The simple act of finishing a song can be a success. Some people journal, I write music. My life can be documented in music. I showed my kids a box I have with things I’ve recorded and kept over the years. Band posters, CD’s, hours of stuff I’ve written, etc…and told them that it was my life in a box. I told them that when I’m gone this box will tell them everything they need to know about me. As teenagers often do they looked at me like I was nuts and gave me a few eye rolls. But I cling to the romanticized idea that box will one day be cherished by my sons.
I approach the radio show in a similar fashion. It’s real and it’s honest. We laugh a lot but we also talk about our lives and have honest conversations on air about it. We processed the death of our father on the show. We’ve talked about our kids, our lives…it’s real. The folks that listen know who we are. The radio show is very much part of who I am and there’s nothing fake about it. I like to think there’s success in just being yourself and being honest about who you are and what’s important to you.
Success is also trying to be the best husband, parent, friend, and person that I can be. I sometimes say to my kids, “Be better today than you were yesterday”. My dad was a self taught wood worker and when I was young I asked him how he learned how to do all he knew how to do with wood. He said, “I made mistakes and learned from them”. I carry that with me in everything I do. In music, in radio, in parenting, in being a partner to my wife, literally everything. I make mistakes and I learn. I apologize when I should and I learn. My youngest son is a wrestler and I tell him often that there’s always lessons in losses…as long as he’s learning then he’s moving forward even if it doesn’t always feel like it. To me that’s success.
I understand the folks that define success from a monetary standpoint but no one will remember me for how much money I made or didn’t make. But they will remember the kind of human being I was.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rabbit-hole-productions.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/radio_therabbithole
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/radiorabbithole
- Other: https://live365.com/station/Rabbit-Hole-Radio-a35638
