Meet Christian Dryden

We recently connected with Christian Dryden and have shared our conversation below.

Christian , so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I think I’ve been blessed in that music has always been inside me. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been singing, dancing and dissecting the music around me. There was no long journey of self-discovery. To quote Marc Bolan, “I danced myself right out the womb.”

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I sing, play bass and write the music for The Ritualists. We are a “gothic art-rock band,” that formed in 2018 and have 3 albums outs.

In 2019, we were signed to Out of Line Music, which released our first record, Painted People. The pandemic completely shut down our ability to tour that record, but we received some nice press, both stateside & internationally.

In 2021, we signed with Suite484, releasing Baroque & Bleeding, which was produced by Ed Buller (Suede, White Lies, Pulp). We toured this album extensively, up and down the coast & received radio airplay from Simon LeBon of Duran Duran on SiriusXM.

Our latest album, Too Pure to Cure was produced by Grammy-winner, Mario McNulty (Bowie, NIN) and released on Suite 484. The cover artwork was provided by Sebastian Correa who shocked us by painting 9′ x 9′ portraits of each band member! These were combined to provide the image you see. We are currently playing shows supporting this new album. Our next show will be November 29th at TV Eye, Brooklyn, NY as direct support for The Dictators!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The most important quality is love of your craft. I love music and love playing/performing. If there’s not love, the process can become joyless, or worse, a sort of bad pantomime.

I also think, particularly for rock-n-roll, there needs to be some natural ability. I believe the most interesting rock musicians are the ones who have a unique style. It is very difficult to develop such a style if you are rigorously trained by multiple teachers and theorists. I might be a bit biased because I have no formal training, but I think the cats who have an innate understanding of music as communication and interpret it without the strictures of a teacher or professor, always shine above.

Finally, I think you need to have something to say. You can have all the great notes and tones and looks, but if you aren’t saying anything interesting, the whole thing is a bit pointless. So, as a songwriter, messaging is critical and leaving people with something MEMORABLE is essential.

My advice to those interested in this path would be to prepare yourself for criticism. Not everyone is going to love you, and that is completely OK. Don’t set out to please everyone, start with yourself and work your way outwards.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

I can think of two works, Wilde’s essay, “The Soul of Man Under Socialism” and Dumas’ “Count of Monte Cristo.”

I happen to think Wilde was a bonafide genius and in this essay, he sort of provides a recipe on how to be a better artist. As with all things Wilde, it is very readable, entertaining, funny but deeply insightful. His position on the artist’s relationship with the audience is absolutely masterful. I particularly love this quote “Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.”

With the Count, it kind of takes every revenge fantasy and turns it upside down. The theme, for me at least, again is all the triumphs and glory are empty if the motivation/message are faulty, and even the victor is left sort of feeling soulless. Wilde might disagree with me on the messaging part, but to me, this resonates back with the idea that songs can be beautiful, complex, simple, angry, happy, whatever, but I think the ones that have a lasting impact are those with depth of meaning.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.theritualist.com
• Instagram: @the_ritualists
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theritualists
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@theritualists
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6tsENVrTCNWVfGuC4fismV?si=aCWEVoJcRi-WHJASve7rFA

Image Credits

RP- non-live shots
Sebastian Correa/Hypnodoll- album cover