All Photography by Lauren Kirsch.
Ryan Holman has lived all over the United States, but has built a home in Milwaukee. Holman has become well-known in Milwaukee as an affable and witty standup comedian, while also working behind the scenes producing dozens of music and comedy shows.
Holman’s latest venture is Hear Here Presents, a music series taking place at his small venue in Walker’s Point (which will soon be moving to a larger venue in Bay View), in which bands perform for small, intimate crowds, and those concerts are edited into high-quality videos for online distribution.
We caught up with Holman to talk about Hear Here Presents, what makes Milwaukee a unique artistic environment, and Hear Here Presents' upcoming move to The Lincoln Warehouse in Bay View.
How did you initially decide to focus on this project?
About a year and a half ago I started making mix CDs and sending them out to friends, because I have a lot of friends who love music but aren’t able to stay up on stuff. So I would give these CDs out as gifts and my girlfriend would decorate the cover. So that was around January 2015.
My girlfriend and I had been talking about that if we ever owned a venue we’d like to set up permanent video equipment and film bands and comedians as they come through like KEXP, Audiotree, or Tiny Desk, but also make it an artist collective, where we can sell vintage things and art.
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Quilt Performs @ Hear Here Presents
Those were things we were always talking about, and then I went to a show with my buddy Michael Martin, whose band The Cave Wives practices here, and he was talking about how they just moved into this cool practice space and it was really affordable. So I asked him to let me see it, and as soon as I walked in, I was pretty much like ‘this is the spot, we can do it.’ So then I pitched it to Ryan Gardiner, whose name was on the lease, to see if he was down with it, and from there it just kind of developed over the summer and then we started.
Was Hear Here Presents the product of your experience producing shows in the city?
I hurt my back a year ago, and so I was really slowing down on getting up on stage to perform because it was distracting. I have always been a big music fan, and I had been producing comedy and music shows in Milwaukee for a while, where I’d have six or seven comedians and a featured band. That’s how I made a lot of connections early on, and how I really fell in love with this scene.
Lex Allen Performs @ Hear Here Presents.
Are you not from Milwaukee originally?
I actually moved around quite a bit before I lived here. Previously I was in L.A, but I was only there for a half a year. I was in Hawaii for a half a year before that, and I spent my early 20s in New York, in Manhattan. I never thought I would leave there, but I left on a vacation, and then ended up in Milwaukee randomly for a girl.
It’s been the best thing that ever happened to me. People who grow up in Milwaukee, I can understand why you want to get away, but people should really appreciate the city. There’s enough culture, and music, and food, and comedy, it’s very cool and really affordable. It’s a special city. I’ve traveled a lot around the country, and I could see myself here for a while. Even if I move away, I could see myself coming back here.
What was your goal going into this project?
It was to create an art and music collective. A collection of all sorts of artists. Whether it’s visual artists, or music, we wanted to bring all of these people together and create something awesome.
I don’t play music, but I’ve always been a huge fan. Music is even a deeper passion for me than comedy, which is interesting because I’ve had success as a comedian, but music touches me deeper. Just being in Milwaukee and being around all of these artists and going to shows all the time, I thought it’d be great to get a video series going.
How many shows have you recorded up to this point?
I believe that we have shot 21 to date, and we’ve released 11. We’ve had Ugly Brothers, Dream Attics, Foreign Goods, Stereo Frontier, Devil Met Contention, Oh My Love (from Madison), Lorde Freddee, Amanda Huff, Soul Low…. We still have about 10 in post-production that we haven’t released, I’m trying to pace it for the people who are editing both the sound and video.
What type of music do you look to feature?
I think my array of music that I listen to personally is very vast, and there’s really nothing that I’m not into. So I would include anything from jam bands to hip hop, I want to incorporate everything.
Would you ever consider having comedians as part of the series?
It’s definitely crossed my mind, it’d be a separate name, but a part of the same production company. I guess the difference between comedy and music is that comedians don’t always like putting their stuff online, because it’s not the same where you can listen to a joke over and over again, so the comedy stuff has to be done more delicately.
How long is your average turnaround for a video to be produced?
It’s between 1-2 months right now. Ryan Gardiner does all the engineering, mixing, mastering, and I don’t want to put too much on his shoulders at once.
Do you have one videographer in-house?
We’ve been very fortunate, I think we’ve had 12 different people film. Our buddy Brendan Jones was the first video guy, he’s a really busy videographer, but he’s hooked us up with other people and tries to be hands-on as much as he can.
How many people are on your team?
I would say at least 20. There are a couple key people, my girlfriend, Jenny Vanderheiden, kind of hatched this idea with me, we talked about it for probably like a year or two. We had put on about 50 shows in Milwaukee, so it was just this natural progression.
Also Ryan Gardner, he was our first partner in this, the first person we had to pitch this to. It wouldn’t be possible without him, because every single recording is mixed by him. Then, Brendan Jones was our first videographer. Jared Guess helps Ryan with sound, and Mark Glatzel does other cover art. Kate Hoffman from Safelight Photography has done a lot of photography for us. So those are the key players right now.
So the behind the scenes guys are building their resumes and their portfolios, and the bands are gaining exposure, and everybody wins?
Yeah, I want to create something where even if people aren’t making money doing it, they can put it on a resume, gain experience, or gain recognition. That’s the goal. You can’t be mad at this thing.
What are you working toward long-term?
It’s coming together as it happens- I have goals, but I’d like it to just naturally progress. I’m not in a hurry, we’re all having a blast. It would be great to eventually have our own festival, that’s a dream of ours.
Do you aim to feature mostly local artists?
No, the goal is to be worldwide. Out of the 20 that we’ve already shot, we’ve already had 5 bands that are not local. Bands from Chicago, Austin, Boston, New York and Madison. The last shoot that we had was actually the first band that I had no connection to, that I reached out to because I knew they were on tour and had a show in Milwaukee, so that was a nice little milestone. It was one of my favorite bands for a few years, and we were able to catch them. That was a band called Quilt. That was surreal, having one of my favorite bands doing a show here.
I’ve had multiple surreal moments doing this. One of the first ones that we filmed was with Amanda Huff, who goes by Selfish Skin.
I always use Amanda for stuff because she was one of the first to play at a show I put on in town, and I fell in love with her music that day. So whenever I’m using a venue for the first time or I want something to go well, I always have her come. She did our first shoot, and I knew it was going to be good. I feel that at every shoot, I just get to sit here and have my own private show and share it with the world.
Do you plan on staying in this space for a while?
We actually have to move out of this space in 2 weeks. It’s sad to leave this place cause we’ve done so much here, this is where we developed and fell in love with what we were doing. This is the place that inspired it, but we also knew at that time that the building was already sold. We couldn’t completely settle in, because we were always aware that we’d be getting kicked out eventually.
The new space is actually bigger, it’ll be fresh and clean, it has the same tall ceilings, but I think it’ll be even cooler than this place. It’s being built out for us. It has an isolation booth, which is great because we really want to develop into a record label. Ryan Gardiner went to school for sound engineering, so that’s what he wants to do moving forward.
Hear Here Presents will be moving to its new location in The Lincoln Warehouse in Bay View early this May. Stay in the Hear Here Presents loop by following them on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or checking out their website.
