Ryan Shuck

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Ryan Shuck bigraphy, stories - American musician

Ryan Shuck : biography

April 11, 1973 –

Ryan Christopher Shuck (born April 11, 1973 in Taft, California), better known as Ryan Shuck, is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, composer, producer, and entrepreneur. He has been a founding member of the successful industrial rock band Orgy. As of now, he is the leader of the electronic rock / indietronic / dance project Julien-K and the guitarist and backing vocalist of Dead By Sunrise, the alternative rock side project of Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington. Growing up, Shuck played in the Bakersfield-based rock band Sexart, alongside Korn frontman Jonathan Davis, Adema bassist Dave DeRoo, and Videodrone frontman Ty Elam. Aside from his musical career, Shuck is also a successful entrepreneur who owns four popular restaurants in the Orange County, CA area and a recording studio in Long Beach, CA.

Musical Style and Influence

Shuck’s first musical influences were heavy metal bands such as Metallica and Slayer, until he discovered electronic music at an age of 14 or 15 when he first saw music videos from the new wave genre at a dance club in San Luis Obispo. This key experience really changed his life and made him turn away from heavy metal to more electronic music. With his first project Sexart, Shuck also had a great impact on the development of the genre nowadays known as "nu metal" or "alternative metal". The band also laid the foundation for several successful musical careers.

Being a member of Orgy, Shuck was able to define a completely new genre called "death-pop" while playing a very synth-oriented sound that one had never heard before, by means of using instruments and effects that had never been used in music before.

Shuck’s current project Julien-K also has a high focus on visual aspects, fashion, design, and presenting a certain lifestyle. The band always tries to include its sense for aesthetics into their music and into an extraordinary stage setting that makes them stand out from their contemporaries.

Early life

Shuck was born and raised in the tiny town Taft in California. From his earliest years he had been an artist. As a child he painted with his grandmother, and then sold his paintings at local art shows where people bought the painting thinking they had been painted by an experienced adult artist.

At an age of 16, Shuck finally discovered music for himself when he first picked up the guitar. He soon moved on to experimenting with keyboards and other electronic instruments and learning that he could sing, while simultaneously listening to strange combinations of music from the likes of Depeche Mode, Metallica, The Cure, Slayer, Run DMC, and Kraftwerk. These odd combinations of music would influence Shuck for years to come. Shuck had stated in later interviews that he always thought they went together beautifully and didn’t understand why there were so many lines dividing styles of music.

In order to combine his love for music, design and fashion, Shuck left his hometown Taft at an age of 18 in order to move to Bakersfield and enroll at a Cosmetology school to become a hairdresser.

Discography

Music career

Early Musical Projects

After relocating to Bakersfield for his studies, Shuck made a new friend in Jonathan Davis. They both shared their love of fashion, heavy music, and electronic/dance music, so they formed the alternative metal band Sexart, along with Ray "Chaka" Solis on guitar, David DeRoo (Adema) on bass, and Dennis Shinn on drums. On the only released Sexart song, "Inside," they were joined by Ty Elam (Videodrone) on vocals.

Davis left the band in 1993 to join Korn and had major success with songs that were also originally co-written by Shuck ("Blind," "Daddy"). Shuck also eventually left and went on to form the band Orgy.

The Orgy Era

Shuck found his first major mainstream success as a founding member of the Los Angeles band Orgy. The band, which also consisted of the other two founders Jay Gordon (vocals) and Amir Derakh (guitar, g-synth) and also Paige Haley (bass) and Bobby Hewitt (drums), was eventually signed by Korn to their Warner Bros. Records imprint, Elementree Records. Dubbed "death-pop," Orgy blended electronic music with modern alternative rock at a time when the rest of popular music was dominated by grunge bands. Orgy, who had been lovingly described by some magazines as "The Cure on cocaine," went on to sell over three million records, receive platinum awards, and hit top positions in the Billboard charts, giving Shuck a taste of real music industry success and massive MTV and radio exposure.