At bat with Rookie of the Year's Ryan Dunson

By Josh Levin     4/9/09 7:00pm

On April Fools' Day, The Rice Thresher had a phone conversation with Ryan Dunson of the North Carolina-based pop-rock band Rookie of the Year. Currently on their third album as a band, Sweet Attention, Rookie of the Year are playing at Java Jazz tonight. Their music can be heard at www.purevolume.com/rookieoftheyear.Rice Thresher: How did Rookie of the Year get started?

Ryan Dunson: The band started as a solo project; I used to be in another band, a harder band, from Orlando, Fla., and we were on decent-sized tours, and we'd come back and be sitting at home for four weeks, just relaxing and doing whatever. All the other guys would work, and I would start doing solo shows just for the heck of it, [or] jump on other shows.

And then I just came up with Rookie of the Year so I could have a name on the flyer. It was just a fun thing for a little bit, and it wasn't supposed to be serious. It was just to make extra money, and then from that I was at a show and a record label guy randomly was there for another band, saw it, liked us, and then gradually it came to what it was today. It was kind of a big, messed-up situation that made a band happen out of it. Kind of weird.

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RT: Tell me a little bit about the songwriting process with your band.

RD: Me and Mike Kamerman, the other guitarist, we write all the songs; I think there were two songs on the new record that I just did, and then on the old record I did pretty much all of it besides three songs. But the new record was more me and Mike writing everything. My process kind of goes like, I'll come up with a structure or something, or he'll come up with a structure, and then I'll do all the melodies and vocals over it, and he will add in little parts to it. Then I'll add my little parts to it, and we bring it to the band, and then the band adds the drum parts and bass parts after we're cutting a song.

RT: So it's a gradual process?

RD: Yeah, it kind of takes a while. Songs definitely become something different than they usually do when I first write it. It will become more heavy, more poppy, faster, you know? It depends on the vibe that goes on.

RT: What artists do you most admire?

RD: Have you ever heard of a band called Wheat? They're awesome; they're from Boston. They had a big single, that song "I Met A Girl." That song was huge for a while, but the rest of that record is amazing. I'm a big Goo Goo Dolls fan - I guess everybody is, in a certain way. But I'm big on that band, because we use the same guitar tunings as the Goo Goo Dolls. Open tunings and fun, light, little open-D tunings and open-C tunings and stuff. It just creates that substance of acoustics behind a band. We like Copeland. There's a bunch of bands we listen to. I'm a big fan of Hit The Lights, I don't know why. They're a kind of poppy-ish, kind of punkish band. They're amazing.

RT: With today being April Fools' Day, what's the best April Fools' joke that you've pulled or had pulled on you?

RD: Today we're hoping to pull off something amazing. We're going to set all our stuff up, and all of the bands on tour with us are all going to set up and get situated, and then what we're going to do is call in one of the guys that works [at the venue] and we're going say the show's cancelled. It's going to be great, because today's presales are pretty high, so everyone's going to be pumped for the day. I'm going [to say], "Show's cancelled, can't do it today. Stack everything up, you have about 15 minutes to clear out." ... Hopefully, it will go well.

RT: What's the weirdest thing you've seen on tour?

RD: I've seen so many weird things. So many things. I'll tell you this - this is a more wholesome weird thing: We were driving in Texas, middle of the night, you know, super-dark, one of those dark roads from El Paso to Dallas, like one of those crazy roads that's dark the whole time and nothing's out there except fields. All of a sudden a huge white monkey runs across the road. And we're like, what was that? Everybody's freaking out. We turn around, and it's not there, but we actually sat there and were freaking out. It was awesome. It's like Congo. The next day, we get to the hotel, we're all sitting there in the morning, and all over the news, one of the monkey farms out there broke loose or something and thirty monkeys escaped and we were like, "We saw one!" It was awesome.

RT: I was going to ask if you'd been to Texas before, but clearly you have. Have you ever played Houston before?

RD: Yeah, this will be our fourth time, I think. We've played Java Jazz twice with Secondhand Serenade. This is our first headlining tour. All the shows are with us as the draw. We have three baby bands out with us that draw, you know, five or six people, but it's kind of nerve-wracking because you get to the show and if people don't come out, these bands are going to think you're stupid. We sold records, hopefully they'll come out - hopefully the word's out.

RT: Is there a band you've been listening to a lot recently?

RD: There's a band called More Amor [with a guy who] used to be the guitar player for The Higher, the band on Epitaph Records. He quit that band, moved to L.A., and started this band and it's fantastic. They premiered their set this year. It's an amazing band, just two guys. It kind of reminds me of Wheat [or] Jimmy Eat World a little bit. It's really good.

RT: What one thing would you want people to take away from your music?

RD: I should be cheesy and say it's for the people who have been hurt before.

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