Ryan S. Leavitt is an accomplished author known for his work in fiction, thrillers, and science fiction. He is also a musician who has appeared on a reality sitcom. His bands, Allision and The Every Year, remain active and continue to produce new music. So, how did we come to know about him? We receive numerous submissions daily, but occasionally, a multi-talented individual crosses our path with a remarkable story that deserves more than just a simple review of their work. Ryan S. Leavitt is a perfect example of this.

At just 34 years old, Ryan has achieved so much and continues to thrive. While thrillers and science fiction are the primary subjects of his books, he presents them with a distinctive flair. Originally from Massachusetts, Ryan's creativity and curiosity led him to New Orleans, where he has resided for the past ten years.

His humor and wit are charming, and his true character shines through in all he does. He is brilliant, philosophical, and overflowing with creativity. Read on to learn more about him.

MaM: It says in your bio on your website that you appeared on the reality sitcom, Quiet Desperation. What was that about? Tell us more.

Ryan: That goes way back. That was in a time when YouTube was in a semi-embryonic state. I grew up in Massachusetts, and I used to listen to the local rock radio. One day, I just heard something I had never heard before, when this shock jock came on and was like, ‘I’m gonna spin my song today’, and he played this bizarre satirical song called ‘I Put a Baby in You’.

(laughter)

Ryan: I started following him from that point on, and he was doing a bunch of weird YouTube videos, just making weird outsider music, and he started making what was kind of like The Office, except it was with Boston creative types.

MaM: That’s awesome!

Ryan: So, it was a bunch of stand-up comedians and musicians in the area, and they coalesced with the storylines and stuff like that. I just ended up getting in touch with them after I had turned 18 and was able to be on for an episode. I did this Fight Club parody. Instead of soap and lye, it was like Gatorade and fruit punch or something, and the suffering was being creative and never making any money.

(laughter)

MaM: Dude, that’s the struggle for all of us.

Ryan: Yeah. It was cool. We did a bunch of stuff, and he got it on local access TV for a while, too, so this little thing that started on YouTube ended up being on television briefly.

MaM: You mentioned The Office, and there’s this other show, if you haven’t seen it, and it’s based loosely on The Office, but it’s called PBC. It’s about accountants, though. It’s an office show about accountants, and you can only watch it on YouTube. It is so freakin hilarious. If you haven’t seen it yet, go check it out. Ok, back to the interview.

(laughter)

MaM: You mentioned you grew up in Massachusetts, so how did you end up here in Louisiana?

Ryan: I had this creativity in me flourishing because of the music scene in Boston. I used to go up to Boston often, but there was usually so much traffic. It was such a big scene—a big city. There was an advantage to all of that, though, because the music there was always good. One thing I didn’t like was how massive and inaccessible everything was, but another thing I didn’t like was how cold it was up there. I’m not a big person, and the cold would always get me. I was looking for different places where the cold would not be a factor, and I happened to have visited New Orleans. I perceived it as this mecca for creative types, but not just now in the time we’re living, but just over the decades … the 1920s, 1930s, and so on … it was sort of the edge of the world, and there they were honing and working on their arts, so that appealed to me. I’ve lived here for the past ten years, and it’s worked out well for me. The first couple of years here felt like a crash course, but after that, everything I wanted to do started to fall into place.

MaM: You’re in two bands – Allision and The Every Year. Tell us a little more about that.

Ryan: Allision is just original alt rock, sort of just a bunch of different influences that I liked growing up, like 90s alt rock and the whole MySpace era and things of the 90s. We try to make each song sound different every time. Just a pastiche of different eras, or as an homage to a particular band we liked a whole lot. The Every Year is a little more loosey-goosey, and it encompasses, like, well, when I do Allision, I want it to be very kick you in the teeth, a lot of frenetic high-energy for gigs, but then I have more acoustic singer-songwriter stuff. It’s kind of what doesn’t go into one bucket goes into the other—that kind of thing.

MaM: How many books have you published total, and what made you want to become an author? Tell us a little more about Swiftopia, too. That’s your newest book, correct?

Ryan: I’ve got about ten or so books published between the Kindle E-book format and paperback. Swiftopia is the first audiobook, and it’s kind of old. I first published it in 2016, but the audiobook is new. The reading of it was done this year, and what had happened with that one was that I had these ten books, and then I wrote that one as sort of a big joke, and then it was the one that ended up selling the most. Because of that, I could justify getting an audiobook produced because I had sold so many copies. That one is about Taylor Swift creating an album so hypnotic that the entire world turns into zombies. It’s a book about how pop music today is sort of like a zombie apocalypse.

MaM: Dude, it is!!!

Ryan: You can’t escape it, and then if you get exposed to a song too many times, it’s like, ‘I don’t like this song, but now I can’t get it out of my head.’ You walk around like that – like a zombie.

MaM: Do you have a favorite book you’ve written, and if so, which one?

Ryan: I would say my sci-fi series is my biggest project and has taken up the most time. I’ve been working on a third project, which explores what would happen if all the wealthy, elite, and billionaire types got their way and left the planet. However, the story doesn’t follow them. It follows their children, who don’t have any context on how megalomaniacal these billionaire people are, so they go through the courses and learn how divorced they are from actual humanity.

MaM: What role do you take in your bands, and are you currently working on anything new?

Ryan: I’m the line leader in everything.

MaM: Are you the one-man band?

(laughter)

Ryan: Yeah, I have my bassist and drummer, and then I have a friend who helps me out. She does lovely lady vocals singing, and stuff like that, but for Allision, we have a split EP that we’re doing with this other band, Collections, which we found a savory and intriguing prospect because we don’t see a lot of people, at least in the New Orleans music scene that are collaborating on that level. It’s going to be that we have two songs on it, and then they have two songs on it, and then we kind of each have contributed parts to each of the songs. His guitarist came and played guitar for one of our songs, and vice versa.

MaM: With you being a New Orleans musician, what are some of your favorite venues down there to play?

Ryan: I think Siberia is wonderful. Siberia is located on this St. Claude stretch where a lot of people walk by – tourists and stuff. The Fred Hampton Free Store is particularly intriguing because it’s a desecrated former Family Dollar store with no electricity, yet they host various events there. We’ve played there a couple of times. There’s no air conditioning, but it’s so DIY and lively. I remember the last time we played there; it was a diverse crowd in a good way.

MaM: I saw you have some books written under a pen name, and I wanted to know why you chose to do that.

Ryan: I started as Ryan Starbloak for a couple of the E-books I published. I was coming at it from an angle of satire, and after I had done four or five books that were humor-heavy, I felt limited. I wanted to be a genuine storyteller, so I wrote a darker psychological thriller. Then, I moved on to science fiction. When I went to record Swiftopia for the audiobook, I wrapped everything up. There are a couple of things from the satire days that I’ve been just trying to unfold into one name.

MaM: What inspires you to create either in music or writing?

Ryan: You know, at first, when I got the idea to do all of this stuff, and when I was a teenager, I didn’t have quite the same skill level I do now, but I wanted to produce and things like that. It was a concept from Friedrich Nietzsche, where he said art is the conversion of suffering into beauty. I probably labored under this illusion for what seemed like eight years, and I knew I had to do this because it makes me feel better after something bad has happened. I turn this depressive muck into something that I can utilize. That kind of oppressive atmosphere didn’t work and created emotional isolation, so now I’m just motivated by the premise of being myself for a living. Being able to transmit and communicate ideas. Make people snicker, smile, or think. The depression stuff has gone away, but it was interesting to think it all worked under that model for a long time, and then one day it didn’t, and I was just a lot happier.

(laughter)

MaM: Back to the music - What band or musician would you say has most influenced you with your music?

Ryan: I’d have to go back to that guy with whom I did the YouTube show. His music career – I wouldn’t call it illustrious, but it was very productive. He did a lot of comedy albums in the beginning. He did thirteen comedy albums, and then the fourteenth one, it was more sincere and vulnerable, and he did an Americana sort of Johnny Cash thing. His name is Rob Potylo, and he remains active in the comedy scene. He’s been in a couple of TV shows, and I love how, at first, he was this very satirical Boston man, and then he shed that off and did something different. When that was over, he did a Bob Dylan thing, and everything since then has been closer and closer to his authentic self. He's been my biggest inspiration. When we did that Fight Club parody, it felt like an initiation into a creative life.

MaM: If you could share the stage with anyone in the future musically, who would it be and why?

Ryan: This one feels implausible on a couple of different levels, but this band from Spain called Dover, which had been active in the late 90s. They came out right after Kurt Cobain had passed, and they were the biggest thing in Spain during that time. They disbanded in like 2015, I believe. I would want to play with them more than anyone else.

MaM: Professionally, where would you like to see yourself in the next five years?

Ryan: I’m hoping to do the full-time author thing, and I’m working on this sci-fi series, and book three will be the closing of this trilogy cycle, which will open up a lot of marketing opportunities for me. I don’t aspire to much more beyond that, other than being able to be myself for a living.

To learn more about Ryan S. Leavitt:

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*All photos by Gary Governale

www.governalephotovideo.com

I have been working as a video professional since 1993, with a wide range of experience writing, producing, directing, shooting and editing. A strong interest in videography, specifically lighting and composition, led me to photography in 1998. Rapidly changing technology has blurred the line between video and photography, allowing me to work in both mediums.. Baton Rouge, LA, United States

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