"...a man unmistakable because of two key things – his insanely talented work, and his mustache"
Ryan Liatsis is best known as a guitarist, music educator and composer. Over the span of his 2 decade long career, Ryan has performed all over the United States, composed scores for top selling video games and worked with some of the most respected artists of our time. Drawing influence from a wide variety of revolutionaries like Frank Zappa, Hans Zimmer and Slash, Ryan’s unique approach and emphasis on originality has always remained at the forefront of his musical offerings.
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Music was always a part of Ryan’s life, coming from a musical family on both sides. As a teenager, he discovered guitar as well as picking up knowledge of audio engineering. His Father, who is in the A/V business, helped him put together his first functioning home recording setup at the age of 16. It was around this time he met one of his greatest influences in his teacher Marty Celay. With Marty he was introduced to Jazz and music theory. In college, Ryan furthered his engineering skills while also playing with a slew of local musicians in the New York / New Jersey area.
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In his early 20’s Ryan studied with guitar legend Steve Khan (Steely Dan, Billy Joel) for 2 years. It was with Steve he was able to really work on honing in his sound and start to open doors in his career. Ryan would spend most of his 20’s working with his original Prog Rock band SHWIZZ. During those years he also had the pleasure of collaborating with some incredible artists like Pedro Capo, Jordan Rudess, Matisyahu and many more.
Around the age of 30, Ryan linked up with producer Steve Molitz (Phil Lesh & Friends / Robbie Krieger) and began creating video game scores. In his time composing, he’s worked on scores for several big title games such as World War Z: Aftermath and Evil Dead. Ryan has also been the lead composer on a niche game called SnowRunner, for which he's recorded over 15 hours of music. Additionally he's created music for dozens of trailers and other in game music cues.
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In 2020 Ryan joined the band Western Skies, a 3 part harmony rock powerhouse unit. As someone once described..."It's like Crosby, Stills, a female Nash and Hendrix on lead guitar" (with Ryan obviously playing the role of female Nash). The band has been writing, recording and performing around the Northeast (U.S.) for several years. Visit their site HERE.
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In early 2023, Ryan released his first solo album called “Music That Makes No Cents | Vol. 1” which was entirely self produced. This was his first major effort to release material solely written by him. The album was made over the course of about a year, and included tracks he had written over 10 years prior.
Around that time Ryan began to gain notoriety as an online music educator, delivering weekly tip videos to help guitarists take their playing to the next level. Ryan, now 37, currently resides in Montclair, NJ and regularly works on video game scores, educational material and original recordings.