Ryan Allen has been on a musical journey ever since he first heard “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins and began pantomiming along with an unplugged guitar in his parent’s basement when he was a kid. Or maybe it started earlier when he saw the premier of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” on prime time television. Or perhaps before that, with the sounds of the Beatles, James Taylor, and Paul Simon trickling into his developing ears in the womb. Either way, one thing’s for sure: through changes both expected and unpredictable, music has been a constant.
Ryan first picked up a guitar like a lot of kids who were born in the late 70s and early 80s — he heard Nevermind by Nirvana, and as much as Kurt Cobain’s anguished screams and confusing (for an 11 year old, at least) lyrics about libidos and mosquitos freaked him out, he thought, “I think I could do that.” His dad - Brad Allen - was already a prolific musician and songwriter, and some of Ryan’s earliest memories are of spying on the old man’s band practices through a tiny window just off the basement stairs in his childhood home in Livonia, MI. The sounds of “Drift Away” by Dobie Grey and “Don’t Dream It’s Over” by Crowded House - songs that a naive Ryan thought his dad had actually written - mixed well with Brad’s original compositions, showing a young Ryan that anybody could write their own song (even his own, very talented pops).
According to scholars, 1991 is the year punk broke. It’s also the year Nevermind was released, as well as the year Ryan turned 11 and decided that it was time to pick up a guitar of his own. First came sheepish requests for his dad to help him learn the grunge hits of the day on an old Ovation acoustic guitar; “Black” by Pearl Jam; “Polly” by Nirvana. Eventually Ryan started figuring out songs on his own — “Shine” by Collective Soul, the Lemonheads version of “Mrs. Robinson”, Dookie front to back. This practice proved to be less about learning songs to impress the girls at school (though that certainly played a part) and more about dissecting the components of a song; how a verse could be shorter the second time through; how the chorus could be extended at the end; where to drop in a rest for dramatic effect; how a turn of phrase can help a song go from just ok to eternal. Soon songs of Ryan’s own appeared, fully embracing the cringy nature of a teenager just trying to figure shit out. Most of them never left his bedroom, locked away due to embarrassment and fear of being called a poseur.
After watching a classmate tear up Stone Temple Pilot’s “Plush” to the screaming adulation of his entire 8th grade at Emerson Middle School, Ryan thought, “That should be me up there doing that.” But, shyness often got the best of him. Still, going into high school, he vowed to not let any opportunities pass him by, and promptly put together his first band with childhood friends, neighbors, and new allies - Adam Kempa on bass, Marty Smith on guitar, and Rob Bryd on drums, respectively - that all felt drawn to the power of the indie and alternative rock of the day (Weezer, Sloan, Sebadoh, et al.). Various names came and went; The Pocket Protectors, The Sugartunes, Genetiks, all of which recorded homemade demo tapes that still exist somewhere. Eventually, Ryan’s first “real” band Remington was born, influenced by the burgeoning emo scene of the mid-90s that included bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Texas is the Reason, and Braid.
Remington lasted through high school, playing sketchy coffee shops, university food courts, and even opened for post-emo antagonists Joan of Arc (they did not like Remington). The band released a CD EP and a split 7” with Last Days of August (an eponymous last batch of recordings made it to Bandcamp as well). Soon, it was time for college, and while the band tried to stay together during Ryan’s freshman year at Central Michigan University, they fizzled before the first semester ended.
Small town Mount Pleasant, MI - home to CMU - was perhaps an unlikely place to find other like-minded kids into Modest Mouse and June of 44 in 1999, but it’s exactly the place Ryan’s musical odyssey really started to take shape. At CMU, Ryan befriended Trevor Naud - a lanky, sensitive oddball and inventive guitarist, who brought along with him his Minutemen-loving friend Paul Bissa on bass to form what would become Red Shirt Brigade. Allen heard Naud’s abstract pop-jazz guitar noodles, plucked on his distinct Dan Electro, and thought, “I can play drums to this”. They began a friendship, and later, jamming together with Ryan on drums - mostly at the Allen’s basement/jamspace 2 hours south back in Livonia. Eventually Ryan’s teenage brother Scott sauntered along on an old keyboard - complete with colored-dots taped to the keys to identify notes - which he somehow didn’t but also did know how to play. And with that, Red Shirt Brigade V.1 was hatched. Eventually Bissa left, and Naud’s associate Dan Clark took over on bass. This is when RSB V.2 took flight, playing all over the state, befriending other freakazoid indie weirdos doing wacky shit like having cello players or thinking Slint was better than the Beatles. As a live band, RSB was exciting - Ryan was known as an aggressive and wild, yet groovy drummer, influenced as much by John McEntire from the Sea and Cake as he was Keith Moon. Naud and Clark harmonized abstract fragments of genius while they pogoed off of one another seamlessly. And then there was Scott Allen - the not-so-secret weapon; totally captivating live and - at 16 - musically beyond his years. The synth, the stage presence, the energy, and a fearless approach to songwriting set the band apart in a Detroit scene that was otherwise obsessing over garage rock.
RSB also left a mark, especially when the band opened for a then up-and-coming Death Cab for Cutie in a basement in Ann Arbor, MI. Impressed with RSB’s set, DCfC guitarist/producer Chris Walla invited the band out to Seattle, WA - basically on the spot - to make a record. The young upstarts, totally floored, accepted, and off they went in the summer of 2001 to The Hall of Justice studios in Seattle fucking Washington. The result of 10 days with Mr. Walla was prog-pop masterwork Home of the Cannon Saints. If you’ve not heard it, imagine The Dismemberment Plan, but if they were really into Yes and the close harmonies of Simon and Garfunkel. It explodes with youthful energy, but also has a maturity that makes it feel fresh even now. It got some great reviews, the band played in and out of state for a bit, opened for Death Cab again, and even tried to work on new music…but ultimately college and other things were getting difficult to juggle. The run was strong. Friends were made. Hearts were maybe a little broken, but in the end, it had to end so other things could begin.
2002 was the year that things really got cookin’. With Red Shirt Brigade in the rear view and college coming to an end, Ryan set his sights back on playing music with people in the Detroit area. For the past four or so years, Ryan had been primarily drumming, but he missed playing guitar in a band. That said, he also had somewhat made his name around Detroit as being a better than decent drummer, so some folks sought him out. One band that Ryan started jamming with was lead by local songwriter Eric Weir and eventually called Tiny Steps (yes, after the Elvis Costello tune). Ryan loved Eric’s songs - reminiscent of Canadian power pop bands like Sloan and The Superfriendz, as well as Superdrag and Matthew Sweet - and wanted to keep drumming.
On the opposite end, there was his old bandmate in Remington - Marty Smith - who was playing guitar in a band called One Trip One Noise. It was, as it sounds, noisy; OTON was off-kilter, post-hardcore — think Drive Like Jehu or Jawbox. They lost a guitar player, and Smith invited Ryan to jam. He agreed, learned some of their songs, wrote new lyrics and sang to them, maybe brought one of his own, and fairly quickly, played a show at Mac’s Bar in Lansing, MI.
What happens from here is, well, everything. Or at least the beginning of everything else. It’s impossible to encapsulate how One Trip One Noise - a band that wasn’t really even a band - became Thunderbirds Are Now!, and went on to tour the globe, earn accolades from publications like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, and cement themselves as one of Detroit’s most important bands of the 2000s. But, we can try…
After a couple of OTON gigs, Ryan started to assert himself and became more focused on the songwriting in the band. He had recently been obsessing over some of the dance-leaning punk music coming out of NYC in the early 2000s - Liars, The Rapture, Les Savy Fav, and more. At the same time he was introduced to 70s post-punk bands - Wire, Gang of Four, and ESG. Mix that in with some of the lingering post-hardcore influences heard in OTON (including Fugazi and Q and Not U) and the formula for Thunderbirds Are Now! was starting to coagulate. From here came a name change, and some lineup shuffling, with powerful drummer Michael Durgan, former guitarist Smith locked in on bass, and - as if lightning could strike twice - Ryan’s brother Scott reprising his role in RSB, again on synth.
TAN! first grabbed attention for their frantic live shows, with each member of the band typically mere moments away from climbing the rafters of rock venues across Detroit. After a few home-recorded EPs, TAN! attempted (and succeeded) in capturing their spastic live energy to tape on their debut, Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief. With their live rep gaining steam and the album getting reviewed in a few surprising places (including a salty Pitchfork review), the band hopped on some fortunate opening slots for a handful of modern influences, including The Rapture and Les Savy Fav.
It was at that fateful gig with the Fav where things went into hyperdrive for the band. Impressed with TAN!’s set, Les Savy Fav bassist Syd Butler - owner of up-and-coming indie label Frenchkiss Records - offered to put out the band’s next release. Dumbfounded, the band agreed and set to work on what would become their breakout record - 2005’s Justamustache.
Released to wide acclaim, Justamustache was a right time, sorta-right place scenario; the dance-influenced punk that the band was channeling was having a moment, and acts like LCD Soundsystem, DFA 1979, and Moving Units were appealing to skinny-jeaned hipsters, clad in American Apparel deep v-necks and neon headbands, to take over big city rock clubs. Thunderbirds Are Now! were part of a midwestern wave doing the same.
Justamustache also struck a nerve with the critics and peers alike; positive reviews cropped up on the internet and in magazines like Alternative Press, crucial local-gig opening slots for the likes of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were acquired, and tours with bands like Enon, The Hold Steady, The Constantines, and Minus the Bear materialized. The band was even offered the opening slot at the Pitchfork-curated Intonation Festival (which later became the Pitchfork Music Festival), playing alongside The Decemberists, Les Savy Fav, The Wrens, Deerhoof and more. The band brought a box of 100 t-shirts with them, and sold out by the middle of the day (despite, or in-spite-of their 1:00 pm time slot). Soon the band was a “must see” at CMJ and SXSW. Shows became legendary (were you there when Scott surfed on top of an unhinged door? Or when he drove the van around the block while playing outside?). Weird run-ins with celebrities started happening (Fred Armisen, Wayne Coyne, David Cross, George Wendt from Cheers?). The once small-time agitators now found themselves rubbing elbows with tastemakers, idols, and new fans alike.
But like all things involving youth, cheap alcohol, and living off the change you have clanging around in your pocket, Thunderbirds Are Now! never quite reached the heights of, say, the Killers, or even Bloc Party, and eventually ran out of steam. Between 2005 and 2006, new members joined - first friend of the band Howard Chang on bass (later replaced by Julian Wettlin of Javelins), then drummer Matt Rickle of Javelins - and ventured outside of the states to Europe and Australia with Les Savy Fav and the Hold Steady (a high point was playing on a moving yacht in the middle of Sydney Harbor). They found time to record a new album - 2006’s Make History - in New York and Philadelphia. The record wasn’t received by fans as well as Justamustache (even with the unexpected endorsement of Robert Christgau on NPR’s All Things Considered and it landing on Rolling Stone’s Top 50 Albums of 2006) and after a few frustrating tours and too many days sleeping in their van, they activated a hiatus that more or less has been in existence to this day (they did reform a few times on and off since, and recorded a digital single of new material in 2017). Despite the gas running out, TAN! unquestionably made their mark, and are still regarded as one of the most exciting bands to come out of Detroit since the Stooges roared to life in 1967.
As Thunderbirds was preparing to land the plane, ideas for Ryan’s next project started to take flight. He knew that he wanted to get back to writing the kind of energetic power pop that got him excited about songwriting in the first place - think Superdrag, Superchunk, and Supergrass (all the supers, really). After a few awkward attempts at a more folkier identity, he began to demo new song ideas that involved big power chords and major-key melodies - styles Ryan tended to avoid, often on purpose, in TAN!. After a handful of songs started to take shape, he struck up a friendship with new-to-him drummer Brad Elliott, formerly of the Satin Peaches. Elliott had jammed previously with bassist Liz Wittman (of Cleveland’s Kiddo), and next thing you know, the three strangers wound up in a Ferndale, MI practice space working out Ryan’s batch of new demos. The trio settled on the name Friendly Foes, and before too long, found themselves swept up in a post-TAN!/post-White Stripes Detroit rock scene that was blasting noise out of bars all over the city on any given night of the week.
Friendly Foes proved to be the start of Ryan’s confident entrance into the world of chunky, sing-song-y power pop. Their debut, 2007’s Born RadicalI, buzzed with male/female close harmonies, buoyant drumming, and stylistic left turns that found Ryan mining influences as disparate as The Beatles, the Supremes, The Pixies, and The Buzzcocks. It’s the kind of record you create when you think you may not make another, with special guests and sounds intermingling in a new mission statement from Ryan; Born Radical seemed to say: “THIS IS WHAT I DO NOW.”
Elliott left the band, replaced by drummer Sean Sommer (who would play with Ryan in various projects over the course of the next 10 years). The band recorded another EP (2009’s So Obscene), opened shows for bands like the Walkmen, the Meat Puppets, Real Estate, Free Energy, and Surfer Blood, and played just about every local festival you could. All the while, they enjoyed thriving in a community of exciting local bands riding a wave of newfound accessibility - thanks to Bandcamp, streaming sites, and a handful of blogs that were actually covering the scene in earnest.
As the decade turned, 2010 ushered in the start of a active time for Ryan. In parralel with Friendly Foes, Allen joined Sommer in backing up big-voiced local songwriter AJ Sherman as a part of the Cold Wave and released a stellar self-titled EP. After Friendly Foes went their separate ways (amicably, following a final EP), Ryan finally stepped into the light as a solo artist, pumping out records at an increased clip, often playing most or all of the instruments himself. 2011 saw his debut solo release (Ryan Allen & His Extra Arms), followed quickly by Resurrect The Mammoth - the first LP by his post-Friendly Foes collaborative new supergroup Destroy This Place (featuring longtime friends John Nelson on guitar and shared vocal duties, Monday Busque on bass, and Sommer on drums). 2012-2016 saw him dropping solo joints in between rippers from Destroy This Place, with both projects actively playing shows around Detroit and beyond.
While Destroy This Place had an impressive and aggressive run, delivering three bad-ass, loud-rock slabs of wax, doing some out of state runs (even playing at legendary Brooklyn, NY DIY space Death By Audio) and opening up for a gaggle of killer bands (including Cloud Nothings, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Motion City Soundtrack, and more), Ryan felt the itch to focus solely on his own songs. Following the release of his 2016 solo record Basement Punk, Ryan formed a live outfit consisting of Michael Gallacher on guitar, Ryan Marshall on bass, and - once again - Sommer on drums, to bring that album’s songs to the stage. After a successful CD release show, the band decided to continue working on songs together, eventually crafting enough tunes to record 2017’s Headacher. Dropping the “& His Extra Arms” tag from the band-name kickstarted a run of Extra Arms band records that would soon become Ryan’s immediate musical focus.
In 2018, Ryan’s personal life took an unexpected turn. Already a father (his son Emitt was born in 2011), Ryan now found himself having to make some life changes following the end of his marriage. Details feel superlative, but shit was hard for a while. Luckily, Ryan found solace in songwriting, pouring every ounce of himself into what would eventually become 2019’s heartbreaking-but-hopeful concept album Up From Here. Out of pure coincidence, the concept of change was a throughline for this time in Ryan’s creative life as well; Sommer left Extra Arms, and new drummer Daniel Stover (of Break Anchor, Reuther, and Splitters) joined the fray. For Ryan, a new living space was acquired, practice spaces relocated, and even a new relationship materialized. Seemingly in a flash, a rejiggered Extra Arms found themselves with a mission and on a plane to California, to cut the LP in a matter of days with producer Paul Miner.
Dropping in late fall of 2019, the band experienced the most positive reaction to their music yet, with the raw, unfiltered nature of the songs seeming to connect with people in a way that Ryan hadn’t experienced in quite some time. With big plans to support the LP on the horizon, the future seemed bright. Until a global pandemic turned out the lights, that is.
By March 2020, everything had ground to a halt. The COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing, and people all over the globe were quarantining, trying to understand how to live in a changed world. Not to downplay how scary of a time this was (because it was terrifying), but this era proved to be incredibly prolific for Ryan. Starting almost immediately in 2020, Ryan began releasing a dizzying amount of home-recorded projects, including the recorded in a single-day hardcore No Disturbance EP by Quaranteen Idles and the shoegaz-y studio project Soft Wires (with Ryan’s brother Scott on keys and programming), as well as an avalanche of solo releases, covers albums, and rarities compilations. Ryan even managed to convince Extra Arms to make What Is Even Happening Right Now? — a new LP of new songs tracked in small pods of masked band members over the course of an entire year.
After a year-long wait, WIEHRN? was finally released in 2022, coinciding with the availability of vaccines and the return to “regular” life. Extra Arms got back to the business of playing gigs around Detroit, but not without a few bumps in the road, which eventually led to Gallacher leaving the band. New guitarist Jordan Wright entered the picture to help support the LP, and the band balanced gigs while working on songs for their next record. Ryan Also dropped the concept-heavy, long-worked-on “rock opera” The Last Rock Band - another solo joint with Ryan playing all of the instruments himself.
Amidst the flurry of songs, records, and projects, Ryan’s pandemic-inspired prolificness spawned another new endeavor: the hardcore, punk-leaning Big Life. Except for each band members’ connection to Ryan, the boys of Big Life - singer Dan Nixon, bassist Sean Gauvreau, and drummer Jordan VonZynda - were essentially strangers. It didn’t take long, however, for the band to gel, and over the course of 3 EPs (from 2023-2025) have made a name for themselves as one of “Detroit’s best punk bands” according to the readers of The Metro Times.
As we round closer to present day, Ryan is as productive as ever. Extra Arms’ 2024 LP RADAR may be their best in a long-standing string of great power pop records. Nearly every song from The Last Rock Band was featured in an actual movie, the roadtrip comedy Band On The Run. Alongside other Detroit-based bands like New Granda, A Thousand Times Yes, and The Trembling, the story of Thunderbirds Are Now! is part of a soon-to-be-released documentary called Is That All There Is?. Ryan’s drumming in indie-meets-classic rock trio Speed Circuit (featuring old bandmate Nelson and bassist Brent Mosser) is imaginative and spry, heard on their 2024 LP Survey the Damage. 2025 saw Ryan drop not one but TWO solo records - the 90s-nostaglia-loving Livin’ On A Prayer On The Edge and the poppy, punky One Week Off. Speed Circuit and Big Life are already in the midst of writing new songs. More solo records (this time with his backup band The Full Court Press in tow), and maybe even another Extra Arms release could be in the near future. Shit, he even spent the end of 2025 re-learning every song on Justamustache because…you never know what might happen.
This brings us to now (whenever that is). While Ryan is always focused on what’s in front instead of behind him, it’s important to reflect on how he got here. In doing so, it’s clear that he didn’t do it alone: from his dad showing him how to play a C7th chord and his mom calming him down when things got sketchy on the road, to the engineers, producers, artists, photographers, record labels, live sound engineers, tour mates, and, most importantly, Ryan’s long list of bandmates that paved the road for the journey. Every single person contributed to every word you just read - and that can’t be understated. Shit, even Kenny Loggins deserves a shout out.
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So…how can you end something that isn’t over? What’s next for Ryan is anybody’s guess, but chances are it’s coming soon. And that’s a fact.
