Shmedly

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Shmedly
Shmedly.jpg
Background information
Birth name Ryan Maynes
Born February 10, 1973 (age 51)
Origin Huntington Beach, CA
Occupation(s) Musician
Associated acts
Arlo

Ryan Maynes, also known as "Shmedly" or "Shmed", is a musician. He is perhaps best-known for his work with the pop band Arlo.

Early life

According to Maynes, he started playing piano at the age of three, and gave himself the name "Shmedly" at age thirteen because "there were too many Ryans around." [1] Before working with Weezer, he performed with the bands Floor 13, Date with Dizzy, Holliston Stops, Northern Lights, and The Ben Vaughn Desert Classic.

Connection to Weezer

In 2002 he was briefly recruited as a session keyboardist, beginning June 21[2], for Weezer and can be heard on various tracks from the recording sessions for the band's intended fifth album. In a 2010 article from The Missoula Independent[3], Maynes explains that he was hired as a potential fifth member:

While playing with Arlo, Shmed got a call that seemed to herald his big break. Indie rock favorite Weezer was enjoying a surge of popularity after a two-year hiatus—the band's songs were in heavy rotation on the radio and MTV, and the eponymous album dubbed by fans as "The Green Album" was a raging success. Weezer needed a keyboardist for some new songs, and Shmed got the job. He spent weeks recording on their 2002 demos, playing piano on tracks that never made it onto the band's 2005 release, Make Believe.

"They said I was going to be in Weezer," Shmed says. "I was going to tour with them. I was going to be the new guy."

And, momentarily, he was famous—at least in the Weezer community.

"I looked at the Internet," he says. "About 70 percent of people hated me. They're like, 'Shmed should die. He's ruining Weezer.' Because these kids, they don't think you're a real person. I'm reading it and going, 'Oh my god,' but I'm thinking, 'I'm going to be in Weezer. I finally made it. I'm gonna be a rock star.'"

The whole time he was recording Shmed dreamed of playing stadiums and having enough money to rent his own apartment in the city. Then, after just three weeks, it all came to an end.

"All of a sudden they were done with me and it was over," he says. "It was totally crushing. I cried."

Maynes can be seen playing piano during a recording of Prodigy Lover featured on the DVD Video Capture Device.

Other credits

Maynes played piano and celesta on the Space Twins' 2003 album The End of Imagining[4]. He played piano on the Ozma album Spending Time on the Borderline, also released in 2003. He also played in the band Yes Dear after the departure of Ryen Slegr and Jose Galvez.

See also

References

  1. Koch, Karl. "Karl's Corner - 07/14/2002" Weezerpedia (archived from weezer.com). 14 July 2002. https://www.weezerpedia.com/wiki/Karl%27s_Corner_-_07/14/2002
  2. Koch, Karl. "Karl's Corner - 06/22/2002" Weezerpedia (archived from weezer.com). 22 June 2002. https://www.weezerpedia.com/wiki/Karl%27s_Corner_-_06/22/2002
  3. Fredrickson, Erika. "Pitch Perfect: Ryan "Shmed" Maynes has played with Weezer and recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, but the musician's biggest break may have been his move to Missoula." Missoula Independent 27 May 2010. (archived by Wayback Machine) https://web.archive.org/web/20150910010726/http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/missoula/pitch-perfect/Content?oid=1259757
  4. "The End of Imagining," Allmusic. https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-end-of-imagining-mw0000694365/credits