Ryan McAllister is no stranger to the music scene since he in the early 2000's had a major label deal with his band Dakona. Unfortunately it didn’t happened too much with their only album "Perfect Change" on Maverick Records, which is a really modern Rock classic, filled with timeless tracks. But without a very good back-up and promotion even a great album like that will have hard time to reach out. Since then he has continued to be active in music business, but more anonymous than in Dakona days. Did enjoy his first solo album that came out relatively quickly after the breakup that felt a more solo-inspired variant of Dakona, but in a demo format. The country project Cowboys & Indians was not that interesting since I do not like that style at all, but I think it was a smart move to get a break.
However, he is back and now with an album that he wrote, produced, recorded and mastered on his own. Impressive considering to the sound and quality we got that is prefect and could have come from any of the big giants. Musically, I am also impressed since we get twelve strong songs with a great sense of heart and pain. Stylistically, he’s not that close to Dakona since he now feels more like a modern singer / songwriter than someone who writes radiofriendly rock / pop. And nothing against me when I really like matureness in "Music for a Rainy Town" that is a record that I will probably listen more to Dakona in the future. Just listen to the beautiful "I Believe", “By Your Side” and "Too Many Pills" and you will understand what I mean. Check it out if you like artists like Devlins, Brad Byrd, David Usher and of course Dakona.
According to member Jared Leto, the name Thirty Seconds To Mars is a rough translation of a phrase from the manuscript Argus Apacase and was chosen by the band for being "imaginative and really represent[ing] the sound of our music in as unique a way as possible.
