Like most children do at young age, Ryan Harvey “played drums” on pots and pans. This continued so long that his mother bought him drumsticks to use rather than kitchen utensils. Then his sister made a toy drum for him. The drumming encouragement continued through his adolescence. Today, Harvey plays drums for local band Pretender/Contender. He’s also a freshman psychology major here at IPFW.
Harvey has been playing drums for eight years and has been in various bands for the past three years. Those bands include VT, In the Back of My Van, Burnt Among the Ashes, and A Dead Calling. While he’s involved with the band, he’s not very involved in the songwriting. “I don’t really even know the lyrics,” Harvey admits, smiling. While Pretender/Contender has only played three shows this far, there is real optimism among the band about their success in Muncie. They performed at National Record Store Day on April 17 in Muncie and were very well received. They’ve performed in Muncie once before and also got great reception, so the band as a whole would like to return to perform more concerts there. They also performed here on campus during Spring Fling week—they played on Wednesday morning at 11. If you happened to be in line for the free hot dogs, hamburgers, or pitas that day, you probably heard them.
While Harvey loves playing the drums and performing with Pretender/Contender, he regrets that he does not have as much time to practice as he would like. He says he used to practice all day, but now that school and a job are involved in addition to the band, his practice time has greatly decreased. He does have a favorite song to play, however, which is “We Were Young, We Were Silent.” Harvey is looking forward to summer, because it will give him a chance to play more, as he won’t have to focus on classes. He is unsure about what the band will do during the summer, but he’s looking forward to the fall, as they’re adding a second guitarist. Not only will that leave the lead singer time to focus on the audience, it will fill out the sound of the band and make it more complete.
In addition to the shows the band has been playing, they’ve been working on an album. As of now, the entire album is recorded and is being mixed. There is no definite release date in sight, but everyone in the band is excited to hear the final product. A friend who attends the University of Saint Francis is mixing the album for them. They also post songs on their Facebook page every so often, as they are completed.
Despite being a freshman, Harvey already knows that due to his psychology major, he’s going to have to go to graduate school. However, because he’s a freshman, he has only looked at one graduate school—the University of Michigan. Harvey says he wants to “get as far away as possible to experience as much as possible.”
