Interview & Photos: The Ritualists

Interview & Photos by Keira Zhou

How did you four meet?

Christian: The band began when I recruited Pat. That’s the drummer. So it was Pat and I. And then we found Jeff, the keyboardist through mutual friend. And after Jeff, we found Dave through and an ad on Craigslist. And we met Iggy through mutual friends. 

When did you start playing music together?

Christian: Collectively for about 10 months. 

What got you into music?

Pat: I first got into music in 4th grade in elementary school playing drums. I signed up for the drums. It was either drums, saxophone or trumpet, and thankfully it was drums. My parents didn’t like that I was playing the loudest instruments in the band. Ever since I started playing drums, I haven’t looked back. 

Jeff: I play keyboard. Obviously I took piano lessons, classical, at a very young age. And moved onto rock, jazz when I was in school. And then I moved out here.

Ignacio: I’m from Buenos Aires. I started playing guitar in different bands over there. Then I jumped into the engineering side, started recording, and came to the US for school. I started working on recording studios and sounds engineering. I played in different bands and met people and that’s how I met the guys and started playing here. 

David: The Rolling Stones. That’s it - The Rolling Stones. 

Christian: I started getting into music I used to do performance for my whole family when I was about 3 or 4 years old. I put music on and then I would dance and sing to whatever music they would put on. And from there, I started to play the drums, and I was a singing drummer for a while, and that wasn’t too cool. So I decided to front the band and play some bass.

Who are some of the musicians that inspire you?

Christian: David Bowie, The Doors, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Cult, early Pink Floyd, Duran Duran.

David: The Rolling Stones

Pat: The Animals.

Could you tell us a little more about your latest album that came out? 

Christian: The Album is called Painted People. It’s a collection of songs that are we put together for about a little over a year ago. We had a demo shot, and we were picked up by Out of Line Music. Since then we’ve started the process of mixing and mastering the record. We did our first video for the first single Ice Flower, and we were about to start working on the second single video. That’s gonna come out soon. 

Where do you guys usually draw inspirations from for your songs?

Christian: I would say heartbreak, love, mythology, poetry, and war. We are into high art and high drama. And New York City.

What would you be doing if you weren’t playing music?

Pat: If I wasn’t playing music, I wanna play music. Either that or, before I switched to be a rock star, I wanted to be a major league baseball player for the Mets. Let’s go Mets!

Jeff: Definitely music No.1 but motorcycle racer.

David: I’d do Jeff’s mechanic for motorcycle racing. 

Ignacio: If I wasn’t playing the music, I’d be working on the music, sound engineering, mixing and recording. 

Christian: If I weren’t doing music, I would probably be doing Archaeology. I like history.

Live show at Berlin Under A