By.SESSIONS With Ramsey Thornton

by Ely Cocklin

December 26, 2024

EM: When you started out as a performer, was it a conscious choice to use your name and not an alias?

RT: I think I knew it was going to be just me for the most part, so I just thought it was the most natural thing for it to be my name. I think it’s cool sometimes when there’s a project, it’s just a guy, and they use a weird name. Not just the guy’s name, but just like a word or something. That’s cool. Sometimes I wish I would have done that, but I’m glad with just my name. I like my name, you know?

EM: I think for artists in a similar lane to you it makes the most sense when you’re performing with another artist to say Ramsey Thornton with ”insert band name” opposed to two band names.

RT: That’s a good point. Also I think for the genre of music as a singer songwriter it makes more sense.

EM: When you first started writing music what instrument did you start with?

RT: I started playing drums when I was six, most of my life I’ve played drums and I was in percussion so I could play keys and stuff like that. I didn’t start playing stringed instruments until I was like 18. I started playing Banjo first. I really didn’t even start playing guitar until like 2 or 3 years ago. It transferred really quickly because I play guitar really similarly to the way I play banjo. I kind of forget that I haven’t been playing guitar for that long.

EM: I think it would have fooled all of us that guitar wasn’t your first instrument. When I first started seeing you play drums in different bands I was a little thrown off, I had no idea!

RT: I feel like most gigs are guitar or banjo and not drums which is fair, but I’m so much more comfortable on drums since I’ve just played them so much longer. It’s always nice when I get a drumming gig ‘cause I’m like great, I know what to do here.

EM: Did you take music theory and classical training or did you pick most things up by ear?

RT: I guess I did, but I feel like none of that helped with anything. I was in band until my sophomore year of high-school so I learned a bit there. I was in the drumline at OSU my freshman and sophomore years too and that was fun but it was taking up way too much of my time.

EM: Did you want to be in bands at that time?

RT: Yeah, and I kind of was. I’ve been in bands on and off since I was like 16.

EM: What was the name of the first band you were in?

RT: The first serious band I was in was called the Gales. Before that I would play for the battle of the bands and talent shows and stuff like that. I took a music theory class my freshman year of college and was the only kid in there that didn’t, like, need to be in it since I wasn’t a music major. I got like half way through the semester and just decided to drop it since I knew I wouldn’t need it.

EM: Music Theory was the only class I ever almost failed. It was the hardest class I have ever taken.

RT: Honestly, yeah I wasn’t playing a melody instrument at that point so it was kind of hard to relate to it. If it’s just theory and you’re not seeing it in front of you like a piano or something then it’s just tough.

EM: Who were some of the first people you were listening to?

RT: There’s a guy named Kristian Matsson, who plays for Tallest Man on Earth. I think he’s swedish. I’ve been listening to him for a really long time. That’s the one singer or artist that I can see my stuff still influenced by just from listening to so much of it as a kid. There’s another band, that I don’t think my stuff sounds like, other than it just being acrostic, but the Avett Brothers I listened to for a really long time. Not even sonically, I don’t think they influenced me, but the idea of doing what I want to do seemed possible through them.

EM: You’re from Tulsa right?

RT: Mhm, yep, I’ve lived in Tulsa my whole life.

EM: Is there anyone in Tulsa who’s had an influence on you and your career?

RT: Yeah, definitely later. I was pretty oblivious to the Tulsa scene until I was like 19 or something. I started listening to John Moreland and John Calvin Abney. He’s played and worked with John Moreland a lot over the years. Those are the people that come up first, and there’s definitely others but they’re who come to mind.

EM: How does being from the midwest and being from Tulsa influence you?

RT: I’m not sure if it influenced the substance and the things I’m writing about too much, but I think that if Tulsa even is the midwest or whatever we are...

EM: Technically we’re South Central

Both laugh

EM: LA’s South Central is so much more famous than the entire South Central USA that we get lumped into the Midwest haha.

RT: I guess if we’re gonna go with the Midwest, I think that there’s a lot of people in this big area of the United States that are songwriters or musicians that it’s a lot easier for them to be bored. There’s not as much stuff to do. I feel like, compared to people that live on the coast there’s more time to be bored so you can spend more time with an instrument. I feel like kids and teenagers spend more time in their rooms with an instrument or songwriting. There’s more people that aren’t trying to do this for a job or seem some kind of way, they’re just doing it cause they’re bored.

EM: Most of us don’t see making art and music as a viable way to make a living here since we’ve never really seen it done like most people have on the coasts. I think there’s an authenticity that comes with people here since there isn't necessarily a dollar attached to the idea before it ever even comes out.

RT: I definitely didn’t see this as a viable option for a career or living until pretty recently. Until now where I’ve seen some of my friends see some success. Now it’s like “maybe I could do that”.

EM: When you’re writing do you have an alias at play or is it coming from you the person and your life experiences?

RT: I put in effort to have my songs feel a certain way. I’ll tailor my words to fit into a certain mood. At the same time, I feel like I'm trying to be pretty honest. I wouldn’t say there’s any alias at play. I would say I’m intentional about how the words I’m saying come off. When I’m singing or writing a song, I’m doing it as myself.

EM: Do you usually start with lyrics or sit with an instrument first?

RT: I think the thing that happens the most is I’ll start with a guitar part. I’ll normally have that first. Then I just start to sing something. I don’t have a notes app or pen and paper out. I like to just sing it however it comes out. There’s definitely been time where the lyrics have come first but recently it’s mostly guitar parts first.

EM: What do you like to do for fun outside of music? Does Ramsey Thornton have fun?

RT: I’m not a huge social guy. I am more now than I was a few years ago. I casually bolder. I think it’s impossible to be a great bolder who’s a touring musician. I’ve come to find out if you don’t climb every week then you lose your calluses and a lot of your hand strength really quickly then when you come back you’re significantly worse. Which can be frustrating. Anyways, I like to run and climb. Maybe I need more hobbies though, mostly just exercise. I don’t know. I read a lot.

EM: What kind of things do you like to read?

RT: Mostly nonfiction. For whatever reason, I am not as interested in fiction or fantasies. In my mind it’s less interesting ‘cause the author can just make anything up. Right now I’ve been going through Malcom Gladwell’s books. It’s a lot of sociology stuff and looking closely into trends in culture, mostly in America. Last year I finished a graduate degree in history so I was reading a lot of historical non-fiction.

EM: What was your degree in?

RT: It’s a masters of arts in History. My thesis was all about the history of the banjo. It’s a lot of race relations and follows early banjo prototypes from western Africa then into the Caribbeans then into America. Getting into all of that is what forced me to read a ton of nonfiction and start the habit.

EM: Do you enjoy learning about things in more of a macro or micro way?

RT: When it comes to historical trends or themes I like the really specific stuff. If you’re learning about a micro-history then it teaches you a lot more about how to view the bigger picture.

EM: Would you ever want to take your writing and contextualize it into literature?

RT: There was a time where I wanted to be a journalist or a writer of some kind. When I started my masters degree I knew I didn’t want to teach or really what I wanted to do at all.

EM: What do you do with your degree if you’re not trying to teach?

RT: You can do archival work or museum work, which I was doing. I was interning at the Gutherie center. That was cool. Usually, you teach or you research and do archival work.

EM: Do you have any projects coming out soon?

RT: I’m in-between labels right now, but I do have a full length coming out next year. If I had to guess, the first single or two will probably come out in the spring.

EM: Is the album done and you’re just waiting on them?

RT: It’s written I just need to get some finishing touches done. I had an EP come out a bit ago.

EM: What was the EP called?

RT: American Nervousness

EM: What does that mean to you?

RT: I think I was just writing all those songs where I didn’t know what I was doing and I felt like a lot of people could relate to that.