Reel Big Fish drummer Ryland Steen joined the band well after its initial success in the 1990s. He filled in for other drummers since 2000 but became a full-time member in 2005.
"I think I am actually the longest-running drummer this band has ever had," Steen told MStars. "I'd like to think that I am the drummer of Reel Big Fish now."
Steen took the time to talk to MStars before the band played at the Vans Warped Tour in Holmdel, N.J. on Sunday. Steen talked about the band's heavy touring schedule, staying relevant today and much more.
Mstars: You guys are one of the more veteran bands that are here this year. Are you guys conscious of that? Is it an interesting experience for you seeing all these younger bands?
Yeah, it's fun or us to impart our many years of experience on some of these younger bands. But for our own selfish reasons, it's nice to still feel relevant with a younger audience because each day we have these great, big crowds that come see us play. We do these autograph signings that are like two hours long. Anything else, it's fun for us to just know that we're still cool with the younger kids.
And also, it's just kind of fun when you have some of the younger bands come up to you like, "We love you guys so much! You had a big influence on us." So it's a lot of fun for us.
Coming to Warped Tour, because you guys play so many shows, is this just another show on the schedule or is there something special about playing this venue?
That's one of the weird things about Warped Tour because the way it works is like, we end up playing so many parking lots of venues. So a lot of times, we're not actually playing the venue like some of these bands get to. So one parking lot kind of runs into the next one. Unfortunately, you don't get a real unique sense of the area that you're in each day. But we do our best to try to mingle with the people at the shows and sort of get a feel for each area that we're in. But yeah, we enjoy every stop just because we never know what's going to happen from day to day.
The band has had a very interesting trajectory. You had the grassroots success in the 90s, then the major label stuff and then you went independent. Is there a style that you prefer, working with labels or working on your own?
Well, Reel Big Fish got the benefit of getting a lot of love from the record label in the beginning because the ska scene was a lot bigger. So, if your record label is going to push you, it's great. It'd be great to have a record label if they're going to really put the money behind you to get you out there.
But now that we've sort of developed this fan base, a wonderful, loyal fan base at that and then when sort of the whole ska punk thing went back underground again and record labels didn't really know how to market the band, that's when we were able to sort of part ways with them and kind of go out on our own. We do work with a label called Rock Ridge Music and they distribute our records throughout the world and make sure it gets out there and available to the public.
But it's great because we have this fan base now that they sort of find us. So it's not as hard for us to get the word out to people. It seems like all we have to do is sort of post something on a Facebook page or send out a tweet and all of a sudden people are like, "Sweet!' It's sort of a symbiotic relationship with us and the fans. We depend on them to keep us going and I think they depend on us to keep bringing out the fun-loving ska punk music that we do.
Was it odd for you at all to join the band after they had had that success in the 90s, coming in after that period?
I gotta say, I love being able to join a band...It's kind of like jumping on a moving train. You don't have to help push it along or anything like that. It's like it's already moving and I was able to be just sort of projected into this world and it was great.
Because the success of the band seems to be just as big today, if not bigger, than even back in the mid-90s when they were all on MTV and everything, simply because the band didn't really tour much internationally. And then actually, oddly enough, as the band got less commercially successful, it gained more international , I don't know about fame, but just fans, which allows us to sort of continually tour year round the world.
You put out Candy Coated Fury recently, which was the band's seventh album in 20 years. And you guys do 250-plus shows a year.
A lot of shows, yeah.
So are you guys working on anything else anytime soon or are you just doing the touring?
We're always constantly touring. It kind of never stops. (Lead singer) Aaron (Barrett), he's the musical mastermind behind Reel Big Fish. Usually what'll happen is, he's always got ideas cooking up and he's always kind of working on songs in his head. And usually what'll happen is, it's like we'll have a couple of weeks off between tours and it's like, "Oh, hey, come into the studio. Let's work on some new tunes." And maybe we'll do some drums for a couple songs and then a few weeks later, "Oh, let's lay down some bass."
It's like building a house, so the record (gets) to a point where after a year or so or two years or however long it takes, then we end up having this new record, whether it's a record of new material or a covers record or just some sort of album project we're working on.
It sort of just happens over the course of time. We're not really one of those bands that just says, "Okay we're gonna take a year off. We're gonna write and record a record." Because I think the constant touring is one way that we sort of stay relevant with our fans. We're not constantly on the radio. We're not on TV. We're not doing all that stuff. So our way of reminding people we're still out there is keep touring, but we love it though. That's just what we're used to now.
