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Portland, Oregon-based rock band Metts Ryan Collins will celebrate the release of their sophomore full-length album, the ten-track, power blues-rock collection entitled No Days Be Wasted, at the Gemini Bar & Grill in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Show starts at 8pm. Also on the bill are The Loyal Order. Tickets are $15 at the door.
If your idea of a real rock band for the 21st century is one that blends the swagger and bluesy elements of classic bands like The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and Humble Pie, alongside more recent bands like The White Stripes, Black Keys, and Rival Sons, then let me introduce you to the power trio from Portland, Oregon – Metts Ryan Collins.
Members of the band include Geoff Metts (guitar, lead vocals), Dain Ryan (bass, vocals), and Mike Collins (drums, vocals). Both the 2015 self-titled EP and the 2018 debut LP Homegrown show that Ryan Collins is a prime example of the power-trio, delivering loud, guitar-driven rock with heavy blues influences. The band has recently released No Days Be Wasted, their second studio album, which was recorded at the height of the pandemic. The members of No Days Be Wasted worked together to create a cohesive album, which is a departure from their prior releases when they each contributed a song in various stages of completion.
“There were a couple of months where I didn’t see the guys,” recalls frontman Geoff Metts. “Then we finally met at our rehearsal space and just started building songs out. Except for ‘Complicated,’ which I had demoed at home, it wasn’t me or one of the other guys coming with full songs. It was someone coming with a riff here and riff there and going through to completion. It was a more organic process.”
No Days Be Wasted, recorded primarily at Portland’s Primal Recording Studio with their frequent engineer/producer Kevin Hahn, finds Metts Ryan Collins coming into their own, expanding on the power blues-rock of their previous two releases while also breaking free of any previously unrealized boundaries. In particular, the pandemic’s impact can be heard on the album’s title track, which might not have been written otherwise.
Hahn proposed that they all take a trip to the Oregon coast, rent a house, and just hang out in order to allow the songwriting process to unfold organically. The end product is the album’s lead single and a strong contender for best track.
“At Hahn’s request, he pressed us to do the track that way,” says Metts. “We had just a couple of pieces that we were calling progression A and B and that was it. ‘Don’t overthink it. You’ll figure it out when you get to the coast,’ was what Kevin said.”
Metts continues, “The whole process was immersive — it was just the four of us. All we did was work on that song.”
The result is ten songs that both recall their classic rock forebears and fit comfortably alongside those of their modern counterparts, establishing Metts Ryan Collins as a band capable of delivering guitar-driven rock, blues swagger, and catchy melodic melodies that will have you singing along. Despite the fact that the album may have been conceived in the midst of a pandemic when time was all the band had, No Days Be Wasted is a perfect reflection of its title.
All of this is well captured on today’s new single for “Back To Sleep”, which we are premiere today.
About the song and video, the band comments:
“We wrote Back To Sleep during the pandemic lock down. The lyrics depict how things that seem important can become meaningless overnight. Once you wake up to that reality, it’s hard to go back to sleep. ” – Geoff Metts, guitar/vocals
“As far as the video goes, I went for a dreamy and surreal vibe to go with the feel and lyrical content of the song. In the first verse, the band members are in black and white. But when the first chorus hits, we become colorized. It’s sort of a tip of the hat to the scene in The Wizard of Oz when everything turns to color when Dorothy’s house lands in Oz.” – Mike Collins, drums
