Who are we chatting to and what do you do in the band? My name is Patrick Ryan and I’m the guitarist for The Stranger Suite.
What do you reckon people will say you sound like? While trying to avoid associating ourselves with specific artists, we hope it’s apparent that we draw influence from 20th-century American hip hop groups and artists, funk, modern beats and elements of jazz.
What inspires your music most? For this ensemble, I think we use our admiration and the teachings of other past and current live hip hop-derived groups to create our own fusion of a modern hip hop that still relates and remains true to the old-school ways of the earlier defining artists.
If you could travel back in time and show one of your musical heroes your stuff, who would it be and why? I have to be careful here to represent the whole group and not just myself, but, I think we’d all be quite curious to see how J Dilla would respond to our work seeing as he had a great appreciation for jazz musicians and a fantastic ear for how to manipulate time, groove and instrumentation to create beats that are insanely unique.
What can a punter expect from your live show? As a nine-piece band, we’re quite a spectacle. With three MCs matched with a three-piece horn section and a well-fitted rhythm section, we aim to put on a high-energy yet dynamic show that’s full of good times and grooves.
