One of the many lessons that I learned in 2011 is that trust is something that should be earned over time; never should it be given all at once. Every morning when I wake up and start posting news, I remind myself of just how far Ryan’s Rock Show has come in five years. What began with an idea and a $20 audio recorder homeless in Hollywood has slowly grown into what this site is now. We may not make lots of money, but we’re damn proud of what we do. Thank you so much for being a huge part of our lives, and for giving us the opportunity to earn your trust.
In retrospect, this year has been the craziest year of my life. At the start of 2011 I was faced with the realization that everything I was taught about the world as a child was completely wrong – sometimes in life you’re forced to rediscover yourself. For my 26th birthday in April, I made it a point to throw a MASSIVE PARTY, since I felt deprived of one having grown up on a farm. Dorothy (who is my assistant editor and handles a lot of behind the scenes stuff) helped me plan what we called “Disco in Wonderland” – an Alice in Wonderland disco party (with costumes of course). We spent three months renovating the shit out of our house, gluing chairs to our walls, and planning this insanity. We wanted this party to be so legit that we hired a bouncer and only those with the secret password were allowed entry through the front gate. We had over 100 people attend. Did I mention that alcohol was free?
When we printed our invitations, we said that the party would be held at “Bonnerhaus.” And since we had put so much effort into reconstructing our humble abode, we decided to keep everything as-is following the event — to help channel and encourage our inner creativity and have a sick place to do interviews. In case you were wondering, that’s the story of Bonnerhaus. We hope to do many house shows in 2012, so if your band is touring and wants to play, send me an email. We’re big fans of doing it your fucking self.
As we begin the 2012 year, we have some cool shits a-happenin. We’ll be rolling out a really badass interviews archive, and plan to do some major upgrades to our video quality. And of course, news will be posted every day as usual and interviews will be published every week (or two). I also have plans to write more articles like this.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you again for an amazing year and for understanding what we do. Please be safe partying tonight.