US Progressive Rock Guitarist Ryan Liatsis Launches New Single & Video
Following on from the release of his warmly received debut solo album ‘Music That Makes No Cents | Vol. 1’, US progressive rock guitarist and composer Ryan Liatsis has released a new single for the brand-new track “Elephant Battle”! The track and its accompanying animated video was released on October 31st, 2023.
“Elephant Battle” is an epic orchestral piece I made to create imagery of two massive elephants battling out in the wilderness. Around the time of its inception, I had watched a documentary about elephants and learned just how amazingly wise and emotional they actually are. My initial idea for the video depicted my original idea of two elephants battling, but my gut was telling me I needed to have some sort of spin on that to keep it a bit more interesting. So, I went the route of showing two humans using elephants to battle, and the twist… the elephants, being as wise as they are, say we’ve had enough and turn on the humans.
Ryan Liatsis is best known as a guitarist, music educator and composer. Over the span of his two-decade long career, Ryan has performed all over the United States, composed scores for top selling video games and worked with some of the most respected artists of our time. Drawing influence from a wide variety of revolutionaries like Frank Zappa, Hans Zimmer and Slash, Ryan’s unique approach and emphasis on originality has always remained at the forefront of his musical offerings.
Music was always a part of Ryan’s life, coming from a musical family on both sides. As a teenager, he discovered guitar as well as picking up knowledge of audio engineering. His Father, who is in the A/V business, helped him put together his first functioning home recording setup at the age of 16. It was around this time he met one of his greatest influences in his teacher Marty Celay. With Marty he was introduced to Jazz and music theory. In college, Ryan furthered his engineering skills while also playing with a slew of local musicians in the New York / New Jersey area.
In his early 20’s Ryan studied with guitar legend Steve Khan (Steely Dan, Billy Joel) for two years. It was with Steve he was able to really work on honing his sound and start to pursue music as a full-time career. Ryan would spend most of his 20’s touring and gigging with a variety of acts while also finding success as a live sound engineer. Around the age of 30, Ryan linked up with a producer named Steve Molitz and began creating video game scores. In his time composing he’s worked on scores for several big title games such as World War Z: Aftermath and Evil Dead.
In early 2023, Ryan released his first solo album called ‘Music That Makes No Cents | Vol. 1’ which was entirely self-produced. Around that time, he also began to gain notoriety as an online music educator, garnering over 20k subscribers by delivering weekly tip videos to help guitarists take their playing to the next level. Ryan, now 36, currently resides in Montclair, NJ and regularly works on video game scores, educational material, and original recordings.
