Ryan Rosoff: Gypsy soul lands in Rehoboth
It's easy to see why Ryan Rosoff has moved around so much in his 43 years.
He has a restless energy as he speaks. He is animated and inquisitive, and his friendly demeanor spreads everywhere as he pounds fists with a waitress he knows during lunch, chats up strangers who notice his Gibson Les Paul guitar and eagerly seeks common ground discussing bands or his beloved Oakland Raiders football team.
Like the Johnny Cash song, the bald-headed and muscular Rosoff seems to have been everywhere. A California kid by birth, Rosoff grew up in Seattle, went to University of Arizona, maintains a business in the San Francisco Bay Area and cut his teeth musically in El Paso. He moved to Rehoboth two-and-a-half years ago with his then-wife and 9-year-old son, Asher, who attends Shields Elementary School.
"It's been an interesting assimilation," Rosoff said of Delaware. "Being here, taking the time to get to know people and them getting to know me, it's been awesome." He said the best part of Delaware for him has been that people have been friendly and welcoming and he enjoys the easy access to the beach.
"I love the off-season here. Small-town living, which suits me as a dad. My son's school is great; his teacher is my friend.That doesn't happen in the big city," Rosoff said. "It's quiet. It's nice."
Living on the Forgotten Mile, Rosoff is enjoying being a single dad and making his mark on the area, something he said he has tried to do in every place he has been. He runs a corporate team-building company, Team Building ROI, in the Bay Area and commutes there mostly during the summer, although he is able to work online most of the time. After years of travel, Rosoff seems to have found his landing place.
"It seems like I move every five years," he laughed. "When I came here, you have to establish your comfort zone. Now I'm kind of in a comfort zone and ready to get back into music."
"I never wanted to be sedentary too long. I recognized pretty early on I needed to accomplish things in my life in a limited amount of time. I've had a lot of experiences. To me, the ability to listen to someone and try to understand someone and get to know them, and maybe have them change my life or me change their life. I could've grinded away at Microsoft at age 24, and probably have a fat pension and a massive bank account. But then my brains may have been splattered on the wall," Rosoff said.
Time has been a big theme in Rosoff's long-running music project, Little King. He describes the spiral artwork on the group's 1997 release, "Time Extension," as representing the "spiral of time."
"I was 26 when I wrote this," he said. "I have a really hyperconscious sense of time. The older you are, the quicker time goes. Even back in the day, these were things I spent my time thinking about. So much that I wrote a record about it."
Less a band than Rosoff and a rotating cast of El Paso-based musicians, Little King has most notably included Eddy Garcia, who has played with industrial metal legends Ministry. Little King, named for the Gaelic translation of the name Ryan, has released five albums since 1996. The most recent is "OD-1," a three-song EP that Rosoff said is the first in a series of albums. He plans to take the band on tour later this year. He joked that he hoped to play his new home state of Delaware halfway through the tour, so "hopefully we don't suck by then."
Growing up in Seattle, Rosoff missed out on the nascent grunge scene.
"By the time I was 18, I was ready to get out of there because of the weather. I had enough of rain and cold. So I took the first college down south that would accept me. So I went to Tucson," he said. "Of course, I'm a musician with no timing. In 1990, I leave and then Nirvana broke it open. I missed it by about six months taking myself to Tucson."
Rosoff started playing guitar at age 16. His dad, who still lives in Seattle, gave him his first guitar, which Rosoff said is still the primary guitar he uses to write songs. Self-taught, he was heavily influenced by progressive rock groups like Rush and Dream Theater, and British heavy metal bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. He was drawn to the musical complexity of these groups, with their mix of heaviness and melody, and of course the face-melting guitar solos were a big draw to a would-be guitar player
"That spoke to me right away," Rosoff said.
He learned to play using guitar tablature books and started writing his own songs. After a stint in a group called Tweed Quickly, Rosoff moved to El Paso and began writing and performing as Little King, falling into an eclectic music scene, known for groups like The Mars Volta and At The Drive-In, both of whom share common members and are known for their noisy and experimental sound.
"El Paso doesn't have the richest, most popular music history, but there are great musicians there. These guys are great. I put them up against the guys in Seattle I grew up with. I'm super proud to have been a part of that scene," Rosoff said.
Those he befriended ended up playing in Little King, which mixes melodies with prog-rock style musicianship.
"I like melodies and harmonies. I like heavy stuff. I like prog-rock a lot, I like the time changes. I also like to make it challenging but with harmonies, like Rush," Rosoff said.
Now settled in Delaware, Rosoff is set to work on promoting "OD-1," taking it to college radio stations, where the band has developed a fan base over time.
"A lot of people seem to like it, so that's cool," Rosoff said.
The new album includes a song called "Happy Home," which describes Rosoff's nomadic existence, and another called "Black Hole," a tribute to his favorite sports team, the Oakland Raiders.
The year 2016 figures to be a busy year for Rosoff and Little King, with a summer tour and the planned release of the next EP, "OD-2."
Rosoff said he wants to make at least 10 records and leave a musical legacy. That seems to be rubbing off on his son, whom Rosoff said has already taken an interest in music.
"In our house, everything turns into a song," he said.
For more information on Little King, go to littlekingtunes.com.
