In conversation with French singer Ryder The Eagle, for the release of his newest album Megachurch: Tearing down love from its pedestal while keeping faith in life and music
Ryder the Eagle
Singing about lost and found love, Ryder the Eagle is a French singer and songwriter who just released a second album about his new faith and old devotion. Today, this tough guy with a tender heart is getting on board with the band Oracle Sister to tour in Europe and will follow across the US the singer León Larregui to promote his album called Megachurch. Lampoon went to his concert in Paris and met him.
Ryder the Eagle on his start in music
Anna Prudhomme
When did you first get introduced to music?
Ryder The Eagle
I was fourteen when I started a band called the Dodoz with my twin brother, my best friend and my girlfriend at the time. I was living in Toulouse and got into drums, three years prior to that. I stayed twelve years in the band and left when I got married. We had all moved to Paris as the band was signing with record labels and bookers, so going solo was a big leap of faith. But I just couldn’t ignore the fact that I needed to express myself as a solo act. The drive to create something of my own was bigger than the comfort of being in a band that was doing well.
Becoming Ryder The Eagle
Anna Prudhomme
And how did you come up with the name Ryder The Eagle, where does that come from?
Ryder The Eagle
When I try to remember, I cannot really put my finger on it. But I wanted a name that was a three-time rhythm and a pseudonym. But that could still be a real name. So I thought of Ryder, because I guess around that time I was really into motorcycles and road tripping. I was always fascinated by the idea of leaving some place and going to the unknown. The road has always been a great inspiration to me, and it is my way of coping with whatever happened in my life.
Ryder The Eagle – the reason behind the bird
Anna Prudhomme
And the Eagle?
Ryder The Eagle
My dad was a flight attendant his whole life and as a kid I was really scared he would crash, and not come back. So the first tattoo I did was an eagle a way of representing him I guess. But with eagles, there’s also this idea of being above — in the sense of seeing the bigger picture— and not being stuck in small fears and emotions.
When I told the name Ryder The Eagle to most of my friends, they said it sucked and sounded like a heavy metal band. But I thought it was interesting to have this intense name and do ballads about love and hate. Weirdly, I don’t regret it at all. It is not necessarily cool but it feels so right that I don’t question it.
The Strokes, The White Stripes and The Beatles as inspiration
Anna Prudhomme
What are your musical influences?
Ryder The Eagle
As a teenager I would listen to a lot of American rock music from the sixties and seventies. The Strokes for the almost symphonic arrangements, The White Stripes for the raw way of doing things. The Beatles was more about the melodies, and The Doors about the intensity, and the romantic epicness. I was always listening to two pretty opposite bands at the same time. Somehow, they influenced me the same way and I managed to make a mix of these things. Then for some reason, the more time passed, the less I was listening to music and I got into motorcycles, road tripping and all these things not music related.
The Ride of Love, Ryder the Eagle’s first EP
Anna Prudhomme
So why the biker aesthetic and when did you get into those sorts of things?
Ryder The Eagle
In my twenties, I suffered from intense emetophobia [fear of vomiting], I was skinny and introverted. I wouldn’t eat any more, nor was I socializing so I went to therapy. After therapy I did feel strong in my mind, but still weak in my body, so to show strength on the outside I became obsessed with all those things we call manly. Motorcycles, boxing, fuzz guitar…anything that was wild, strong and free. At that time I really needed an extreme, to then go back to something more balanced.
That’s why the first EP, The Ride of Love was way more rock-band sounding. I recorded all the instruments myself, the lyrics were confrontational, and I was literally screaming on stage. On tour, I was playing lots of saturated sounds with my over-the-top energy band. It was kind of cliché, but if you take out the layers, then the songs remained pretty much the same as what I do now—melodies resembling sweet ballads and lyrics about love. But everything around it was intense.
A karaoke style that changed the ways for Ryder the Eagle
Anna Prudhomme
When did your musical style change?
Ryder The Eagle
Almost at the end of The Ride of Love tour I was supposed to go play in Eastern Europe with my band, but two weeks before leaving most of the musicians had too much work and canceled. I couldn’t pay them, so it was quite normal that they couldn’t follow me on my crazy trips. I had to find a solution, so I bought this hundred euro synth from the late seventies and recorded all my songs with it. I didn’t want to cancel the tour and needed to play my songs. So I went and sang in a karaoke style with that childish keyboard. This truly was a big turning point… an epiphany in a way.
After the tour, I recorded the song Wounded Bird with that synth, which is now the one song that people like the most and I think is still my favorite too. I did the whole second EP like that and went on tour on my own. It finally felt like I had found my thing.
Ryder the Eagle: the creative process of EPs and albums
Anna Prudhomme
What is your creative process when making an EP or an album?
Ryder The Eagle
What drives me to create is to express something that feels wrong on the inside and would feel right once outside of me. It has to be a need more than a will. So I take inspiration in whatever emotions I go through : being in love, out of love, or going through a breakup. My divorce was the biggest inspiration because it was something so heavy to carry that it had to come out. Then it’s necessary for me that other people who are going through the same thing can connect with my songs, and that it does good to others.
Megachurch – Ryder the Eagle’s newest album
Anna Prudhomme
Let’s talk about your newest album. Why did you call it Megachurch?
Ryder The Eagle
The previous album, [Follymoon, 2022], was about coping with the pain of going through a divorce and figuring out how to deal with someone who’s not in love with you anymore. Megachurch, which I just released, is about faith. When I began questioning myself, I understood that love goes both ways, and that it’s never the fault of one person. I had got into that relationship with the idea of love being the absolute goal of everything. That it was above music, above my self-respect and at the time I found it super romantic. I had put my ex-wife on a pedestal and was devoted to the point that she was a goddess and nothing could bring her down. But it can do a lot of wrong to the other person too, that’s a lot of weight to carry.
When she left me, it felt like God was rejecting me. My whole world collapsed and I couldn’t make sense of it at first. I spent ten years in that relationship, building something that was way stronger than myself. The first step for that album was getting her down from her pedestal. Megachurches mostly exist in the US, where they built these enormous churches that looked like stadiums, and can fit 20,000 people with big screens of the priest’s preaching.
It truly was the right moment because in five minutes I wrote the first song that actually managed to burn this megachurch I had built for myself for years. As soon as it was on paper, I knew it was going to be an album about trying to lose my faith in her, and find some other faith that would keep me going. It’s an album less about fantasy, and a little bit more about reality. To record the album, I went to Greece, on a road trip starting in the south of France with my old Volvo and my girlfriend Eloïse Labarbe-Lafon who did all the record’s visual artwork. I really liked the idea of attacking this megachurch with few weapons, so I only packed a church organ and a cassette recorder.
Paris, Musée Grevin and the next steps for Ryder the Eagle
Anna Prudhomme
You just played in Paris at the Musée Grevin, where are you flying off next?
Ryder The Eagle
I’m taking my Volvo to the UK as I’m headlining a few nights and playing the opening act of Oracle Sisters’ Hydranism tour. Then we’re going to Hamburg and Berlin together. After that, I’ll be heading to the United States on this big tour with a Mexican singer called León Larregui and opening for him in the States everywhere from the West Coast to the East Coast. So that’s going to be intense.
Anna Prudhomme
What is your relationship with performing live and touring?
Ryder The Eagle
Even if it makes me lose my health, touring is the thing that makes me happier. Sometimes I get off a show and have to drive for hours without sleeping to get the other one. My friends often ask why I don’t cancel some of them but the idea of not going where I could have played, touched and connected with people is too hard for me. I know it doesn’t make sense, one show in a lifetime doesn’t matter but I’m devoted to it as I am to my relationships. It’s kind of self-destructive but it’s the thing that keeps me going.
Anna Prudhomme
What is Ryder’s biggest dream for the future?
Ryder The Eagle
I’m really not into being famous or getting more success. I’m super grateful I can reunite 250 people in Paris. I wish I could get the same amount everywhere in the world. New York, L.A. Bangkok…anywhere. Besides, I’ve always dreamt of becoming a firefighter. I don’t know when I’ll actually make time for it but I want to help and connect with people in a different way than just the music. Right now, I’m basically living my childhood dream. So I don’t really need more than that… except, of course, being a firefighter one day.
Anna Prudhomme
