When we last checked in with Kyle Riabko in early 2004, he was in the initial stages of what turned out to be a year on the road accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. After every show he would greet crowds at the merch table and sell copies of The EP, a limited run ’taster’ only available at shows and online. Kyle was also in the middle of his junior year of high school, getting high 90s in all his classes at an Internet institution sponsored by the Canadian government. “I’d bring my textbooks from hotel to hotel and fax in my assignments,” he says now. “I’ve learned to keep my work in my back pocket at all times and whip things out whenever there’s any time at all. I’ve learned there’s no allowance for any procrastination.”
Kyle’s been performing since he was 10, so he’s already a road warrior of sorts. Still, this extended road trip, which led up to the recording of his full-length album, Before I Speak, was the most demanding form of musical boot camp, as he opened for the likes of John Mayer, Robert Randolph, Keb Mo, Buddy Guy and Maroon 5, playing in front of crowds who had absolutely no idea who he was. Chances are they know him now. No shrinking violet, Kyle relished every minute of the experience, scrambling up that steep learning curve like an expert rock climber. “What I’ve learned over the last year you can only pick up by playing every night in a new place,” he says. “There’s nothing I love more than playing with a band, but playing solo is the best way to learn about yourself as a musician.” The words you hear most often from him are “I’ve learned.”
The kid has great pipes. From the James Taylor like sweet soul of ” Waiting” to the funky falsetto of Prince in “Miss Behavin’, his voice excudes both sensitivity and sexuality. He plays a number of instruments and his grooves are as deep as the snow in his hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Kyle’s primary instrument is the guitar, and he’s capable of heating up the fretboard with the fleet-fingered flamboyance that put guitar heroes BB King and Jimi Hendrix on the map, but he prefers to use his prodigious chops in the service of his songs. “I’m not interested in being pigeonholed as a guitar slinger,” he says. “It’s not about speed or flash; it’s about the feeling real music gives you.” As you talk to this guy, you have to keep reminding yourself that he’s 17, not 35.
Before I Speak, released on April 19th -- a couple of months before his high school graduation -- documents an ambitious and nervy young artist in the midst of a period of intensive self-discovery. The tracks range from Stones-style rock & roll to hip-hop-flavored R&B, Delta blues and old-school funk while seeming totally of a piece, bound together by Kyle’s youthful dynamism and old-soul savvy. “I wanted to make a diverse record without anybody saying, ‘Hey, you can’t do that,’” he explains. Riabko handles all the guitar and bass parts on the record, blazing in front of a killer studio band that features former Prince drummer Michael Bland and former Grapes of Wrath keyboardist Vince Jones, who now works with Sarah McLachlan. Riabko co-produced the album with Matt Wallace (Maroon 5, REM, John Hiatt) and Chris Burke-Gaffney (who’s also Kyle’s manager and sometime co-writer).
On the rocker “Chemistry, Kyle is joined by Liz Phair. “It's our white boy/girl version of the hip-hop guest-spot phenomenon,” Kyle offers. “She just slams down a couple of verses and provides some lady-having-a-nice-time noises throughout the rest of the tune. I wanted her because, to me, she represents sexuality in such a mature yet fun-loving way. We're talking about the creator of Exile in Guyville! That woman is sly.” Pedal steel phenomenon Robert Randolph – “one of the best musician friends I’ve made over the past year” – trades licks with Riabko on the gospel-rooted “Carry On.”
The sessions took place at L.A.’s venerable Sound City, but Riabko wrote and recorded two of the songs, “Before I Speak” and “Doesn’t Get Much Better,” afterward in his bedroom back home in Saskatoon, playing all the parts himself, including the drums. “I loved all the songs,” he says, “but I felt it needed some glue to make it a continuous listening experience, so I wrote and recorded these two songs, and we decided to put them on the record just the way they are.” These two late editions, Kyle says, were inspired in part by listening to Jill Scott and Erykah Badu. “They’re groovy soul songs that allow you to play some cool guitar over them and sing the hell out of them.” The former also encapsulates the album’s theme. “It’s an obvious message,” he says: “that I’m young, so what I have to say at this point doesn’t mean as much as my music, so just listen to my music.”
The fact is, Kyle has plenty to say on Before I Speak. Smartly, he writes about what he knows, exploring relationship riddles on the album’s first single (“What Did I Get Myself Into”), the stirrings of first love (“Do You Right”), and raging hormones – “Miss Behavin’,” joking, “it’s a sex song that confuses adults and reminds horny packs of teenagers that they’re normal.” Other songs catalogue the lessons Kyle has learned in his travels. “Teach Me,” he says, is about feeling phony (“When you meet a lot of people, you realize how many people you wouldn’t wanna meet,” he explains), while the sizzling “Paranoid” expresses the psychological damage that results from moving too fast and losing the plot – a notion eloquently articulated in a jaw-dropping yet concise solo Hendrix would approve of.
Riabko’s gift is that much more impressive because of the insightful way he employs it. “I consider what I do soul music,” he says, “and not just in the Stevie Wonder sense. Don’t get me wrong – I love P-Funk, Prince and Marvin Gaye. But to me, Jimi Hendrix was a soul musician, and so are Bob Dylan, Beck and Jeff Tweedy. It’s music that doesn’t come from a need to be marketed – it comes from inside.”
Some people are just born with it. How else do you explain Riabko’s rarefied skills, remarkable poise and mature perspective? “The only reason I’m doing this,” Kyle says, “is that I love to make music and play in front of people. I know that my year is gonna be full of playing and playing, which can be a lot of work, but it’s what I signed up to do, and what I’ve dreamed of doing since I was really little.”
Just wait till he’s all grown up.
Source: http://www.kyleriabko.com/
