Ryan Cabreraʼs claim to fame was initially as Ashlee Simpsonʼs boyfriend on her reality show. However, once he released his album Take It All Away last summer , Cabrera came into his own. Cabrera is currently on tour to promote the album. When The Quad spoke with Cabrera, who will stop at the Electric Factory on Sunday, he was inCalifornia still in rehearsal for the tour, but donʼt expect him to be working out in preparation. “I always attempt it. But I know it only lasts, like, two days. I get on the kick…and then it never happens,” he said. He is, however, rehearsing with his band, preparing to perform some new songs he wrote. There will also be some surprises for the audiences who comes out.
Cabrera likes to be very interactive with his fans. On his Web site there is a journal that he writes in, and he will go out and meet with fans after he gets done playing a show. “If they will wait two hours after the show in the cold, I can wait in the freaking cold and sign some stuff,” he said.
Though many of his fans are intense in their devotion, he admits that only once in a while someone crosses the line. In fact, following the tour from city to city or waiting in line are things that he thinks are the craziest things fans do. “People will get there at like nine in the morning and start lining up. Thatʼs always pretty crazy to me, just the fact that somebody will wait all day. Itʼs really cool,” Cabrera said.
Cabrera says that he is surprised by how quickly fame has come and has planned to use a slow-building strategy to his career. “I always planned on doing the grassroots style. Even though I signed my record deal and was about to put out a single, I was like, you know you gotta put me on the road first,ʼ” Cabrera said. He has opened for Jewel and Jessica Simpson.
Unlike many of the musicians out there today, Cabrera got a relatively late start. He didnʼt start writing songs or playing guitar until the age of 16. Though he wasnʼt good in the beginning, it helped him personally to write songs at the time. “Every time I wrote another song I was learning things about myself and song writing,” admits the 21-year-old performer.
After a while, he was so sure that he wanted to be a musician that he dropped out of college anddecided to move back home while his parents were away. “They came home and I was moved back into the house. It was not a good six month period,” he recalls.
In the beginning, he couldnʼt even get his friends to go out to shows, which is part of why he likes going home to Dallas and playing shows. “I used to play there so much for like two or three years and I could barely get my friends out to the shows. Now I go home and do a sold out show,” he said.
Cabrera is known almost equally for his music as he is for his spiked hair. “My hair is its own interview. It could have its own interview, it has that much life,” Cabrera laughed.
Despite the notoriety his hair has gotten, Cabrera doesnʼt see it as anything but normal. “I never thought it would be that big of a deal because when I see it itʼs completely normal. I find out that itʼs not when I go to the airport. The flight attendants look at me like Iʼm some strange animal.”
His hair has also begun to be copied among guys in our age group. This trend has not gone unnoticed by Cabrera or his band. “At my shows, we have a character named Bryan Cabrerod.
Thatʼs the guy who looks exactly like my twin. There is always one that has the hair,” said Cabrera, who revealed that he is in talks for a hair endorsement deal. Cabrera is planning on 2005 being even better for him than 2004, and he plans to accomplish his goal using good old-fashioned, hard work. The singer said that he is working harder this year than he did last year and feels that this is only the beginning of the album. “People kind of know, but donʼt really know yet. I think the word of mouth and continuing to play shows and different things on TV is really going to help to kick it.”
With a tour, a hot single, and possibly hair endorsements and even a reality show, 2005 is shaping up to look like the year of Ryan Cabrera.