99% of all music groups that decry religion do so through the use of eardrum shattering metal music and brazen satanic imagery. Ryan Dawson (nom de plume Thirtysilver), on the other hand, uses a more subdued method. He plays stripped-down, acoustic jams laced with dark, thought-provoking lyrics, or as he describes it, “alt-folk for brooding intellectuals.”
His artist name is a reference to the New Testament story of Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Jesus Christ. Judas was paid thirty pieces of silver for information that lead to the arrest of Christ. “I am an atheist and questioning Christianity is a dominant theme in my lyrics,” he explains. “I suppose that adopting the stage name Thirtysilver is my way tying myself to Judas, who is portrayed as a villain but who was only doing what he thought was right at the time.”
Dawson’s original aspiration was to be a concert pianist. He started playing piano at age six and began composing songs with lyrics by age nine on a Casio keyboard. One day, the former devout Christian popped in a copy of his brother’s copy of the Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. “The experience was thrilling not only because it felt like I was breaking some holy rule but also because I LOVED THE RECORD!” he says. “It was about this time that I had started sneaking into my dad's room to try and play his guitar.”
The prolific musician has since recorded over 30 albums worth of material. The majority of his early work was recorded on a dual cassette deck. “Before I had any kind of recording equipment, I used to use my two-deck stereo to record multiple tracks,” he remembers, “recording one track and then bouncing it over to another tape in the recording deck while I laid another track over it. I recorded more than 10 albums this way, filling both sides of the 60 minute cassettes.”
He has toured throughout the Midwest for a decade now, both solo and as a guitarist for two different bands. He’s been interviewed for numerous radio stations and shared the stage with such groups as Bleeding Through and Dragonforce.
“To me, the integrity of my lyrics is paramount,” he says of his style. “I hold myself to rigorous standards of quality. I like to read, and I am heavily inspired by classical literature and epic poetry.”
Thirtysilver has just finished his latest full length album, Swim to Live.
