Highly Suspect - Burned, Now Back
Drummer Ryan Meyer shares the story of how Highly Suspect found their voice again on As Above, So Below
More than a decade into their career, Highly Suspect had to lose themselves in order to find their true sound.
Almost exactly one year ago, Highly Suspect released “Summertime Voodoo,” the first single off their fifth full length release, As Above, So Below. The desert-tinged, blues rock tune was a strict departure from the band’s last few albums, but a welcome return-to-form for the Cape Cod five-piece.
Ryan Meyer, Highly Suspect’s drummer and one of the three founding members of the band, had doubts that the band would even record another album, following a falling out among the members during the previous several years.
“On the last two records we brought in co-writers because, for lack of better words, the band was struggling to get along. It was difficult for us to make music together, for reasons that had nothing to do with music and the songwriting process was affected,” he said.
“We were either going to finish our contractual obligations with the festivals and shows that we had signed up to do and we were going to quit, or we were going to make this record together as a band.”
The band had been writing, recording, and touring nearly nonstop for the better part of the last 10 years, and tensions ran high as they began work on the 2024 record.
“It was difficult at first. It was really hard to all work together in the same room and there were a lot of arguments, a lot of storm outs- there were days where nothing happened. But, eventually we got into a groove and we got into the flow of things, ” Meyer said.
The friction between the band members was partially due to personal struggles some of them were facing. For Meyer, it was difficult watching people he had known for more than 15 years work through internal hardship. He described this time of the album writing process as particularly difficult, but ultimately rewarding.
“It was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever been through, but the music really helped bring everything together. I’m actually happy we went through it because it has given us perspective and maturity and growth,” he said.
Meyer likened the band's journey to that of a Phoenix, rising from the ashes of their previous projects and stirring disagreements. With the whole band working together on the album, the only solution was letting the music lead the way.
“It’s a bit like the story of the Phoenix, you know- the band, in a sense, burned down to the ground and was reborn through making music together. It feels good, it's validating, it feels hopeful- the last album was a struggle in so many ways, and touring was a struggle and there were a lot of disagreements and resentment that caused a palpable tension in the touring party.”
Today, Meyer said, the band is operating as well as it did when they started, with fewer arguments and more love for each other. The process of creating this new album breathed new life into the band, and for them, it was the only way forward.
“Putting us in that position forced us to fix all the problems we were having. We are certainly doing better than we have ever been,” he said. “I think we all started really appreciating and respecting our abilities, our musical chemistry, and our love for Highly Suspect.”
That musical chemistry began when the first three band members, Ryan Meyer, Rich Meyer and Johnny Stevens, began playing music together after high school in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. For a while, they mostly played covers at local bars, favoring the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Sublime.
Meyer attributes much of their early sound to the music they frequently listened to while working in construction- “boombox music,” he explained.
“When you’re in the trades, there is usually a boombox in the corner playing a local radio station, and the thing that always got played the most for me was the classic rock station- Tom Petty, The Mamas & The Papas, The Police. The one thing that was consistent with the three original band members across the board was always this construction site boombox.”
Other early influences included 90s and 2000s musical acts like Dave Matthews Band, Jack Johnson, Phish, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave, and of course, Sublime.
After moving to New York City, the band found their voice. The hard rock of their first few albums did well, both commercially and critically.
“We were just a bunch of beach boys that drank too much and we moved to New York. We were broke and there was a lot of angst- that kind of turned into hard rock,” Meyer said. “That did really well for us for a little while and after that, through lots of complicated reasons, we did some exploring, as artists often do, for a couple of records. That, on the other hand, didn't do so hot.”
At the time, Meyer said, Highly Suspect’s fan base had a hard time getting along, especially with the continuously changing sound of the band. For fans that had been listening to the band since their debut album, the experimentation was hard to digest.
“Our fanbase was divided, between people that liked the albums and people that didn’t like the albums. The Reddit page was toxic with people talking shit to each other. I think the constant clashing they were having was also a bit of a wake up call for us that we had strayed too far,” he said.
The writing and recording of their previous two albums had further distanced Highly Suspect from their original sound, which Meyer believes may have been a factor in the disillusionment the band had begun to feel.
As a hard-rock style drummer, he was having a hard time being enthusiastic about the electronic and hip-hop oriented style the band had adopted. Meyer felt that the contemporary-minded writers and producers being brought in at the time had too much influence, suppressing his personal style.
“Nothing against our previous producers, but we leaned a bit too heavily on them for help making the music and in doing so, and in doing so, they took away something that made me who I am as an artist,” he said. “It felt like they were saying ‘you know that thing that you love doing? Don’t do that - do it completely differently. I want the tempo to be way slower and I want you to play behind the beat.’”
Meyer, who modeled his style after the likes of high-powered drummers like the legendary Taylor Hawkins, prefers to push the beat and speed up the tempo.
“Taylor Hawkins, RIP, love him to death, played ahead of the beat. He gave it an angst, and a hyper amount of energy. That’s always the way that I’ve played, and our producers in the past have disagreed with that,” he said. “I had been put in a position where I kind of just had to listen to them, and it felt like they were taking away the style of art I wanted to make.”
It’s no coincidence that As Above, So Below sounds more like these early influences than the last several Highly Suspect albums. The band needed to dig into these roots to find the love for playing and creating music together that came effortlessly when their career began. The only way they were going to see past their personal and creative differences was by connecting with their own unique language as musicians.
“We had a decision that was made by the group that we were either going to make a record all together and it was going to be the organic sound that came out of us naturally or it wasn’t going to happen, and it turns out it was the best decision we ever made. There was no preconceived notion of what it was going to sound like.”
“it just had to be natural- the thumbprint of the artists in the room working together. We wanted to be as raw and as real as we could be because we had gotten so far away from that with our previous records. We needed to return to form and do the thing that the fans loved and that we loved to do,” Meyer said.
When it came time to begin working on the record, Highly Suspect found themselves in Santa Monica, California. Having toured for a majority of the year, the band had reserved most of the summer to write the new album. Following their tour alongside Muse, Meyer had befriended drummer Dominic Howard, who allowed the band to record at one of Muse’s studios in Santa Monica.
“We initially went to Santa Monica to do some writing and we realized that we were kind of onto something, so we started recording it. We ended up getting this insane opportunity to record at one of Muse’s studios,” he said.
The band brought in producer Aleks von Korff, who Meyer said helped the band stay true to their goal of creating an album that only Highly Suspect could make- von Korff “understood the assignment,” as Meyer put it.
“Instead of pushing us to change our sound or write it for us, he forced us to work together and he would just kind of let us do our thing,” Meyer said. “In doing so, he validated me and pushed me to play the way that I wanted to play.”
“I was able to express how I actually wanted to feel and play, and I think the same went for the other guys. You get a more true impression of who we all are on this record, and that makes us even more proud of it.”
He said that working with the intention of truly being themselves helped them reconnect with each other and their work.
“We needed to remember who we were and the only way we were going to do that was by creating music that was the natural flow that came out of us, instead of the things that are trending on TikTok right now or what we think the next #1 rock album would sound like,” he said. “We no longer felt like we had to create with the intention of competing with modern day trends.”
Meyer said that it is particularly hard to pick his favorite songs on As Above, So Below because of the vetting process for each song. For the band, every song on the album had to be unanimously agreed upon.
“It’s really difficult to call just one or two songs my ‘favorites,’ because of the process we went through while working on the record- although it was very difficult, if all five of us didn’t love a song, it didn’t make it on the album. There are plenty of times where it would be four to one and I was the one who disagreed.”
For Meyer, it often came down to whether or not he could picture himself enjoying playing a song live. If the idea of playing it for fans didn’t excite him, he knew it couldn’t go on the album.
“Sometimes I disagreed because I knew that if we played and tracked a song I didn’t like, and it goes on the record, I might have to play that song for the rest of my life,” he said “It’s one thing to play a song that you once loved but maybe you’ve played it too many times, but it sucks to start off not liking something, so we really wanted to avoid that.”
If he had to pick favorites though, Meyer would say the two songs he likes the most are “Suicide Machine” and “Plastic Boxes.”
“Suicide Machine I really like because, for me, it brings out those punk rock, ska, grunge roots and raw sort of caveman drums. It’s super exciting to play and it has a lot of style,” Meyer said.
“Plastic Boxes, on the flip side, really evokes a sort of classic rock, Tom Petty-ish vibe, and highlights a maturity in the songwriting,” he said. “It sounds so simple but it was so difficult to make. The song has two different tempos and they are 30 beats per minute apart, so we had to figure out how to get from the verse, which is slower, to the chorus, which is significantly faster, and then we had to get back into the verse.”
Though Meyer and the band found the writing and recording process of the album to be fulfilling, the long hours they put in throughout the summer could be tiring at times, and left most of the band exhausted by the time they put the finishing touches on the record.
“We worked from 2:00 in the afternoon until 2:00 in the morning, six days a week. By the end of the summer we were pretty exhausted, and then we immediately went on an eight week tour in Europe,” he said.
In the past, this kind of schedule might have been too grueling for Meyer. In the early days of Highly Suspect, he found that he was not prioritizing his physical and mental wellbeing. Partying became paramount, and music sometimes played second fiddle.
“A couple of cocktails is great to knock the edge off, but I was drinking a little too much. I realized that in doing so, my motivation had gone from making good music to finding the best party,” he said. “That became the incentive. So instead of working hard on my craft, I was working hard on getting drunk and chasing women- it kind of sent me on a dead-end road.”
"I always heard that advice, my whole life- don’t play with fire, don’t touch the stove. But until I actually touched the stove- I had no idea that it was hot,” Meyer said. “In that same way, I had to drink myself into a pit of depression to realize that I was going down the wrong path.”
Meyer realized that his lifestyle had gotten in the way of his devotion to making music and felt that it was time to change his habits. He knew that reframing his thought process would be difficult, but necessary, if he wanted to continue his career as a musician.
“The only way to really stay afloat is by staying on top of your mental and physical health and actually facing the issues that you’re having, rather than running and hiding from them as quickly as possible, because you can’t outrun yourself,” Meyer said.
Now, as a veteran in the industry, he has developed a routine that allows him to balance writing, recording, touring and his personal life. He began exercising more regularly, eating healthier, and sleeping better.
“You have to take time out of your day to stretch, and work out and seek healthy food and drink lots of water- it’s not very rock and roll, and it’s not very masculine,” he said. “I think I was driven by those factors- masculinity, being a ‘rockstar,’ and I finally realized, fuck all of that, I need to take care of myself.”
Meyer also recentered music in his life, which helped him find a new sense of internal motivation and allowed him to improve as a musician.
“I learned to find motivation and validation by just performing well and working hard at my craft,” he said.
His new mindset, along with the revived relationships among the band members, has given Highly Suspect a new lease on life. For the first time in a long time, Meyer has high hopes for the future of the band, and said that one day he’d love to be able to play in arenas around the world.
“We’ve been doing what we have been doing at our level for a long time and I would love to just get into something new and bring a new environment to the fans and really just shape things up a little,” he said. “ I would love to be able to do that, not just for the vanity or the money, but to be able to put on a show that I really want to put on for the fans.”
With disagreements behind them, positive reactions to the new album, and an upcoming tour to look forward to, Meyer and his bandmates found passion in the music again. The fervor they used to have for creating music together had returned. It was through their conflict that they were able to create their most authentic album yet.
“We wanted to go way back to the very roots of what got us started in the first place- which is just the love of making art without fear of what it would need to be. The music really helped bring us back together and you can hear it in the album- it sounds like the real Highly Suspect: good ole fashioned rock and roll.”
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