The star of Jessie has a passion for music, digital and otherwise
If you've familiar with Debby Ryan (you can follow her on Twitter or Facebook), you probably know her as an actress: she starred in the popular Disney Channel show The Suite Life on Deck. But if you're not familiar with Debby's work, now's a great time to get started: she's playing the lead in Jessie, which premieres on Disney Channel tonight at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. Central). But what you may not know is that Debby has a passion for music, maintaining her own music blog and collecting vinyl records. We had a chance to catch up with Debby recently, and we couldn't resist asking about her thoughts on digital music.
Music in the digital age
Fortunately, Debby thinks digital music is great (it would have been a very short interview otherwise). With vinyl records, she explains, once they were recorded, mixed and mastered, they were done. "Now, because it's digital," she adds, "it's easy to make remixes. You can take out the drums, add this, make club mixes, sample folk songs or add a rap track. I feel like this has opened up an entirely different cabinet, an entirely different realm of possibilities."
The age of digital music is also good for independent artists. "Ten years ago, [if you wanted to make a record] you would have to get yourself to a studio, but now you can download a program and create a piece yourself at home," Debby says. And what's good for musicians is good for consumers buying music. "It makes it very accessible, not only for artists trying to get themselves out there but for consumers trying new music," she adds.
Debby RyanFinding new music
Having musicians around the world able to easily distribute tracks to anyone with an internet connection does pose one problem for consumers: How do we separate the signal from the noise to find what we want to hear? There are plenty of online services clamoring to solve this problem. Pandora creates playlists of new music based on songs you like, and iTunes and Amazon offer recommendations based on what you've purchased in the past. But sometimes the old ways are the best ways. When she's looking for music, Debby tells us, "A lot of it is random, old dusty vinyl shops. I've found really interesting things that I wouldn't know about had it not been for stumbling across them."
"I also ask a lot of people," she says. "I have a makeup artist who vacations a lot in Brazil. The way she travels and the way she lives, she has really different taste in music. I learned a lot from that. And it expanded my library a lot."
Modern mix tapes
Though tapes are a dying breed and CDs seem likely to follow, Debby's enthusiastic about making mix CDs for friends. "People don't carry boom boxes or Walkmans anymore, but everyone has a CD player in their car or in their computer. That's how people know if I really like them or love them — I make them a mix CD."
And just what is it that makes mixes so special? "It's not just 'These are songs I like that I think you should listen to,' it's 'I think these are songs that you'll like,'" she explains. "A lot of times people are like, 'I wouldn't have stumbled across that, and I'm so glad that you gave it to me.' And it's cool to watch people grow."
Music on the go
Any music lover who travels — whether on cross-country business trips or a daily commute — knows that having some kind of music player is essential. Debby's music gadget of choice is the iPod. Of the music on it, she explains: "Some of it is for business; because I produce music, I download a lot of music that I don't listen to recreationally. So I have a lot of pop and things like that. I have a lot of scores, original songs for movies, friends' songs, songs that I'm working on, songs that I'm proofing, and old stuff, songs that I used to listen to in sixth or seventh grade. Those all go on my iPod, and on my actual phone is recent stuff: music that people give me on playlists, songs I've downloaded recently, and my tried-and-trues."
Debby's favorite tech gadget is her smartphone. "If I write something," she notes, "I write it down in the notepad and then I figure out the tempo on my metronome app, and all of the essential things I need are on my phone."
Debby RyanIn fact, she's so fond of them that she carries two, an iPhone and a myTouch 4G. "When I go out of town I use my myTouch 4G, and I make a lot of videos," Debby says. "I make and edit videos; I take a lot of photos and upload them directly. And social network. The myTouch is my traveling phone, but my personal assitant is my iPhone. It's where I write a lot of my lyrics."
Anyone who carries around that much tech must have at least a few favorite apps. "I love my thesaurus app and my Shakespeare app," she admits. "And my to-do list app is my saving grace. But I love photography apps: Cross Process and myFilm. I love myFilm because I like making collages."
Retro tech
But newer doesn't always mean better where gadgets are concerned — and Debby's as excited to talk about old electronics as she is to talk about collecting vinyl records.
"Going through my electronics box the other day, I found my old Game Boy Color, which is now residing in my purse," she recounts. "I am literally like a 13-year-old boy circa 2001. It's in my purse wherever I go, and I love it. I also have an old iPod mini, which used to be considered really sleek. It's a blue color, and I want to get it restored. That's my absolute favorite, this old-school iPod, and it doesn't have color and it doesn't know anything about cameras and it just plays music — and that's what I love about it."
This article originally appeared on Tecca
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