A 35-year-old musician and a DIY lifer, Ryan Hizer has joined various bands over the years and produced music for other artists, establishing himself as a veteran of the indie music ecosystem.
In 2011, leaving behind the legacy of a moderately successful band called Librarians, he moved from Morgantown, WV, to Pittsburgh, and started a synth-driven solo project called Good Sport.
Among the many who can claim to know his name, few seem to have met him in person. Including the one who is writing these words. Never mind, we’ll get over it, maybe one day, who knows…
In the meantime, we take advantage of the comforts offered by modern technology, and in a couple of clicks the single ‘Big Push’, Good Sport’s latest work off of his ‘Boring Magic’ album, is already ours.
Less than 10 seconds flat and the head is already bouncing over an irresistible, immediately danceable beat.
Driven by a rhythmic flow fueled by a lush cornucopia of electronic elements, the groove of ‘Big Push’ is a tempting and appealing “reference” book. And while the mid-tempo traction given by a deterministic drum machine works alongside the evolutions of a prominent synth-bass, the vocal glitches and the forays of vocoders dye everything with the exquisitely retro nuances of a futuristic atmosphere.
As we arrive at about halfway through the song, around a minute and 50, everything seems to thin out, as if wanting to turn into an ending. Fortunately, it’s just one chapter in a much longer story, of which we want more, and Good Sport knows it well. Thus he gives new life to the piece and everything fluidly grows up to an even higher level.
The spectrum is further enriched with more elements, even more lush and saturated than it was before, while maintaining all of the cleanliness and crystallinity of the musical message. It is a new perspective, in which airy pads move opening and closing along the chiaroscuros of an harmonic sinusoidal, while formidable vocal hooks and captivating melodies seal that treasure trove of prosperous and fertile musicality that is ‘Big Push’.
The founding elements from which we started, those that have magnetically attracted all our attention in a matter of seconds, are all still there, lined up above that four on the floor tempo, now practically unrecognizable. And it is precisely here that we want to keep the focus and find our personal reading key for the meta-narrative of ‘Big Push’.
are you like that every night? (not quite)
cuz you embarrass yourself (yeah)
you gotta take better care of yourself (i know)
and i ain’t going to talk (thanks)
but i’m not looking for a big baby
who’s still teaching himself how to walk
and harsh though this seems (nah trust me, i get it)
man, your whole peter pan thing is dead to me
everybody’s gotta grow up eventually
i hear you and it’s gonna happen for me
Confronting your demons with your head held high is always something that can scare us, arousing existential insecurities related to the idea that change and separations can lead to losing something personal. Here, however, the message we want to read in ‘Big Push’ is that it is not a question of distorting or annihilating oneself, bending to popularly imposed conformism, but rather of humorously neutralizing the torturers of our serenity, to empower ourselves and become a better person: honest with ourselves, free from that sterile edifice of complacency typical of modern society.
Listen now to ‘Big Push’, the latest single from Good Sport, available for streaming on all the major digital platforms. Find you preferred one via linktr.ee/goodsport_band.
To know more about Good Sport and his music, find and follow him all over the web by checking the links below:
Also you can discover ‘Big Push’ on NOVA ERA, our playlist featuring on a weekly rotation all the artists covered by Nova MUSIC blog.