Ryan kershaw

Ryan Kershaw
''(born January 24, 1983) is a lead singer, guitarist and songwriter from Auckland New Zealand. ''

Early Life
Ryan was born two months premature, and had two holes in his heart and collapsed lungs at birth. He also suffered from chronic asthma. At an early age Ryan was introduced to music such as Iron Maiden and Quiet Riot by his older brother Jody. At 7 years old he bought his first cassette, the self titled debut from Iron Maiden with money he won off a scratch and win ticket. Around this time he developed an obsession with the band Guns N Roses. Kershaw quickly dubbed all of Guns N Roses music onto cassette tape, and collected anything he could that was related to the band. The first large scale rock concert he attended was Guns N Roses at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand on 6 February 1983. That same year he attended his primary school summer camp. All students were required to do an act in front of the students, so he formed his own pretend band called ‘Water Pistols and Daisies’ and the group mimed to the Guns N Roses song ‘Welcome To the Jungle’. The performance can be seen on the Kershaw DVD ‘Live @ Studio’ in the special features menu.

First Bands
Ryan borrowed his first guitar at 10 years old from a friend of his mothers. It was a classical guitar and quite often he would use a bread clip off a bread bag for a pick as any picks he bought would soon go missing. His parents put Ryan into lessons with a local teacher who’s passion for music lay in the Country and western genre. Although not to Ryans taste, he would learn the songs as given, while learning songs by ear, from bands like Black Sabbath and Nirvana, while at home. Ryan formed his first real band at 12, during his time at Intermediate school in New Zealand. It was a two piece line up. There was some conflict to the name of the band as his friend wanted to call the group ‘The Dead Poets’, but Ryan wanted to call the band ‘Draconian Misery’. A couple more line-ups and bands came and went and Kershaw formed the band Paradox with childhood friend Tim Wenzlick at age 13 or 14.

Mainz
In 2001 Kershaw attended the Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand. Fresh out of high school, Ryan found himself slowly his money he saved through school on drinking alcohol, which started in the morning most days. Two thirds of the way through the year, he was admitted to hospital for a hernia, and as a result of this and partying, stopped attending Mainz. While trying to purchase a cask of wine, Kershaws credit card declined and he found himself broke, unhealthy, unemployed and without a band.

Paradox
Kershaw and childhood friend Tim Wenzlick formed paradox in 1996. As a 4 piece line up they entered their high school’s battle of the bands during their first year at the school, and were given strict instructions from the music teacher to ‘behave appropriately’. During the performance of their song Déjà vu/Addiction, Kershaw stopped playing and addressed the audience over the mic: “The teachers don’t want you to mosh but fuck the teachers!” Encouraged by this the students rushed to the front of the stage and started moshing. Paradox had another performance the next year, in which Ryan declared, “Satan is my King” and encouraged the students to get high. After this show, Paradox were banned from playing for two years at their school, although in a letter addressed to Ryan’s parents it was directed more towards the lyric of “I love it when you smash your head against the wall”. Although not allowed to play at their own school, they were permitted to enter the Rockquest competition, which is a national high schools battle of the bands competition in New Zealand. After being unsuccessful in their first two years of entering, Paradox persisted and finally won their regions final. Kershaw also picked up first place for lyric writing. Interesting considering the focus his lyrics had a couple of years previously. After the two-year ban was lifted, Paradox also put on a show at their school during its lunch break. Students from other schools had skipped class to attend the show, and there was a crowd of people lining up around the theatre, which had to be turned away due to the show attracting a full capacity crowd. They also came back from the ban to win their school’s battle of the bands. The performance Ryan’s original song ‘Drowning In the Ice’ can be seen on the Live @ Studio DVD as an extra feature. The bands profile caught the attention of the local newspapers. When asked to describe his bands music, Kershaw described it as being ‘buzzy’. After explaining what it was multiple times, the reporter still misunderstood and the heading of the article was published in the newspaper as ‘Fuzzy Music’. After leaving high school the band continued to play gigs in iconic Auckland venues such as The Temple on Queen Street, The Masonic, The Poenamu and The Kings Arms. Paradox also played a New Years show, which was broadcast to main cities around the world in America, England, Japan and Australia. Around this time Ryan’s drinking had increased quite significantly and various members of the band were pursuing different lines of work. As a result, Paradox fizzled out in 2002.

Solo/RKB
After Paradox finished, Ryan had no band, no money and was binge drinking frequently. After a frustrating year with no band he decided to enter the New Zealand Battle of the Bands as a last ditch effort to pick himself up. He ended up getting through to the Auckland Finals as a wildcard entry and then won that stage of the competition to become the first person to get through to the National finals as a solo act. His old bandmate Tim Wenzlick came in on drums for the competion. Not long after the competition friend Mark Weston joined to make RKB (Ryan Kershaw Band) a 3 piece. It was this line up that can be seen perform on the Live @ Studio DVD, which was shot at Studio on K Rd in Auckland City. Good friend and long time supporter of Ryans music, Karl Rice, recorded the DVD After Wenzlick left the country to persue his own career in the music industry, Ryan once again found himself without a full band line up. After a period of inactivity, he contacted a friend of his cousin to play on the drums. Jamie Tanielu joined around 2007. Not long after this, Mark Weston left for America. It was during this time of auditioning for bass players that Ryan recorded the Little Green Dragon E.P