A still from Owen Ragland's "Wild Things"
Once you’ve been removed from the high school experience by a few decades, it’s all guesswork as to what makes for a “fun weekend” for a 16-year-old. Our sense, though, is that there’s no student at Webster Groves High School that’ll have a better time over the next 72-hours than Owen Ragland. Heck, there might not be a person, generally, who’s got more reason to wake up today. And tomorrow. And Sunday.
By way of quick introduction, Ragland is releasing his first album, Soul Searcher, this morning, under the umbrella of the respected collective FarFetched, which will be going live on a variety of digital platforms through the day. Tomorrow, he’ll be playing the Bud Light Stage at LouFest at noon, working in a collaboratively-built band fronted by MVSTERMIND, aka Muhammad Austin, who happens to be featured in this month’s St. Louis Magazine. Earlier in the week, Ragland’s video for “Wild Things” debuted on YouTube, a video helmed by Sammy Longstreth.
Heady stuff. Love live the audacity of youth!
Interestingly, when asked what's most excited him over the past week, Ragland notes that an Italian blog’s featured his work, which came about by his submitting his material to a web submission portal called Submit Hub.
“It’s a cool way to get your music out,” Ragland says. “And it’s really cool that someone in Italy happened upon it.”
Ragland’s ability to discuss music and the business behind it doesn’t, over a course of a 25-minute interview, differ from a conversation with someone twice his age; save for the fact that he seems even cannier about the process, mentioning the word “connections,” at least a couple dozen times in a short time period.
There are the connections he made to FarFetched, with whom his older brother, Wes, has collaborated with through his own group, Subtle Aggression. There are the connections that he hopes to make over the LouFest weekend (“If someone needs a keyboardist, I’ll hand them a card”). There’re connections between jazz and hip-hop that he hopes to continue exploring through collaborations; with Mvstermind, yes, but with other artists, as well. He’s got a fresh face and an active, entrepreneurial mind, which happens to be linked to a deep creative streak, to boot.
“My brother has been on FarFetched for a while, so it was a natural progression as I sought out the right pathways for releasing this music,” he says. “It seemed a natural place to put it out and even if he hadn’t been with them, maybe I still would’ve found my way there. I really appreciate their help with this release.
“It’s a really exciting time,” he adds. “My favorite thing about this is the feeling of recognition for this album; it’s been in the works for three years, and it’s great to see it get some attention; I would feel bad if it didn’t. But I’m also humbled by the experience. I’m young, and I’m new to the scene, so to get this kind of early exposure is really awesome. These things are difficult for young artists starting out and it’s awesome for the people at FarFetched to be behind me. It really helps.”
A press release from FarFetched indicates that the music was inspired by Ragland’s family’s travels in activist work, including time in Tanzania. But his brother, particularly, features into Owen Ragland’s genesis as a musician.
“It’s kind of a funny story,” he offers, referencing himself at age three or four. “My brother started playing piano, and he was good at it. But the minute he quit, I saw that as an opportunity to get better than him. I was very competitive about it. Piano is the instrument I gravitated towards first, it’s a great way to express the sounds that I hear in my head. It’s also a great instrument to use with MIDI, to get any type of sound that you want. With the state of music production, even people who don’t have it as their first instrument use the piano.
“So I really have to give credit to my brother,” he adds. “He’s older than me, and I’ve been sort of able to learn from him. I’ve seen him make connections with FarFetched, and I even though I knew I was talented, I had the misperception that alone would get me somewhere. But you have to put yourself out to the crowd. I’m not a huge extrovert, but I like to meet people, put out positive energy. Ultimately, people may not even like my music, but they appreciate the way I’ve approached them. It’s worked for me, and I realize that’s come from my brother. And with the internet, it’s even easy to make connections in that way, like getting an article in an Italian blog.”
Moving rapidly from recorded the excitement of the album release today, Ragland gets all of 24 hours to shift into the largest performance he’ll have enjoyed so far, via tomorrow’s LouFest appearance.
“At LouFest, we have a seven-piece band,” Ragland says, “and it actually came about through a studio session with Muhammad. We were collaborating on a track, and he said that he needed a band and I had one, so… Well, not everyone could do this gig, so we shifted things around a bit, and so it’s not exactly the group we assembled at the beginning, but we’ve been able to make connections between musicians who’d have never done before. Definitely, something that’s excited me lately is working with Muhammad. I really enjoy the way his style’s pushing against boundaries and I look forward to pushing boundaries with him, together.”
Quickly adding that he wants to make “collaborations with a lot of different people around the scene. There hasn’t been a whole lot of planning around a new record yet. I really need to sit down and think about it, though I know that Muhammad has something new in the works. I’m thinking it may be about more singles. Release those and give them to people, though an album is definitely down the road. I’m very excited to see some singles happen first.”
Somewhere along the way, he’ll turn 17 and graduate high school. So, for the time being, “the age thing” can—and will be—a part of the narrative. A fact that Ragland takes with what seems like a trademark sense of pragmatism.
“Probably it will be,” he figures. “It doesn’t really bother me. It is part of the story. My age does influence my music. Maybe, or especially, because it allows me to do things that I won’t censor myself doing. I may not realize some things are too new or have been used too many times. Those are things I’ll learn. I’ve already progressed from this album and am excited for people to hear this. But I’m really excited by what could happen on the next one.”
