Discovered on IMC on July 9, 2021, with "Where The Sea Ends", his debut EP for which he received praise and encouragement from the IMC Family (read here), the young Australian Declan Ryan is back. In just a few months, he surpassed 250,000 streams on Spotify and was spotted by our biggest peers, like Rufus at Indie Folk Central, Susanne at Susbidi, and Alex and Beth at AlexRainbirdMusic. You were warned that this little one would go far.

He is now 16 and lives in Brisbane. And the least we can say is that his talent grows with him. His new single "Far Again" is out today, and fills a gap of eight months since his last release. Some people may think it's too long and not serious to leave the fans in expectation. I would tell them they are wrong. Producing very high-quality music is really time-consuming. This is why the most qualitative artists you find on IMC (Thomas LaVine, Ben Greenberg, Kahone Concept, Luna Keller, Carnival Kid, Taylor T to name a few) leave several months between each release, for a simple and good reason: they work hard to offer impeccable quality.

And Declan is one of his artists who, despite his young age, has understood this so well. In a video teaser posted a month ago on Instagram, we can see him recording the vocals for this new track, "Far Again", and playing all the instruments himself. He also sings into a Shure microphone that looks like an SM7 (this kind of microphone that I used in all the radio stations where I worked for 20 years). Suffice to say that this material can only bring good quality.

The production of "Far Again" is excellent and includes many small details which make the difference. Like a watchmaker who plays with very tiny things, Declan follows in the footsteps of Thomas LaVine. But there is something pure, innocent, and magical about Declan's musical universe. His voice alone is enough to give you goosebumps. And he doesn't use a lot of different instruments. He's also a wonderful guitar player ("Where The Sea Ends" is the perfect proof of that). And his talents as a producer (or magician?) do the rest.

And wow, the writing is absolutely perfect. As Declan said: "Although happy and carefree, Far Again is actually inspired by a TED Talk about the darker issues of male mental health." Being able to talk about that kind of subject in a song with such maturity at only 16 is literally insane. And brilliant!

Sometimes there are favorites that are difficult to explain, as a blogger. As I've already told you, when you're used to listening to thousands of songs each month, you know in 5 seconds whether or not you're going to share a song with your favorite audience. Yes, you! You guys looking for goosebumps and thrills. You know you will find them here. And if we have goosebumps in 5 seconds, bingo. Declan Ryan is one of the few artists who can do that. And by far the youngest.

Reach out to Declan Ryan

_________________

Written with love by Niko. "Far Again" has been added to our "Indie Music" playlist on Spotify.