Running EP by Ryan Sterling

"Running" taken from the Specks Of Golden Dust album (hac263). All other tracks previously unreleased.

“Running was written in my favourite way. Very quickly, straight after an experience. During lockdown in 2021 I took my kids to a restored historical building called Ellis Cottage in Diamond Creek. When I was a kid it was abandoned and very run down. One day I went down there and got chased by some older kids who very much had the intention of beating me up. Driving home from the cottage after visiting with my own kids the song popped into my head fully formed. I picked up my daughters guitar and it wrote itself. My 10-year old daughter Stevie wrote, filmed, acted in and edited a video for the song.

“I loved it in the 90s when bands would do a single but with some B sides added it would essentially be an EP. Those songs that didn’t make it onto an album for whatever reason were often very interesting to me as they showed a different side to the band. For me, getting the chance to put out some B sides is quite exciting for that very reason.

“Motel Peephole was written a few days after reading something about Scott Weiland being in a motel room. It’s very much not about Scott but the story triggered the song. The track has one finger picked acoustic guitar, a little bit of slide and some harmonica.

“I wrote Most of My Heroes Are Broke or Dead on my daughter’s guitar while the kids were in the bath. I’ve written quite a few blues influenced songs over the years but I don’t recall any actually making it onto an album. I heard so much blues in my house as a kid. The fingerpicked country blues artists were certainly the ones that resonated the most. This song is one guitar with my thumbs doing the bass lines and fingers doing the melodies. When I was a teen, I saw an interview with Chas Chandler and he was talking about how Hendrix played the bass with his thumb and the other bits with his fingers. It was quite an epiphany for me and now I always use my thumb and fingers on my fretting hand.

“Looking Back was going to be on Specks of Golden Dust but I decided to leave it off. In 2020 I was honoured to be asked by the AIDS Action Council to provide live fingerpicked guitar instrumental music while they did their roll call of Australians who tragically died. I had just written the instrumental music for what has become Looking Back and I played a 6+ minute version for the ceremony. The lyrics came later. The words were certainly inspired by playing music for such an important event.” – Ryan Sterling

Half A Cow is an independent record label from the East Coast of Australia. Run by musician Nic Dalton, Half A Cow has been releasing music since 1990. More releases can be found at https://viasatellitedownloads.bandcamp.com

halfacow.com.au