Miami Living Magazine features the best Miami has to offer. Click on any magazine below and enjoy. You can download our free app on iTunes. Ideal for iPad and iPhone users.
Issue link: https://digital.miamilivingmagazine.com/i/75674
PEOPLE Post-photo shoot, and as the sun softly sunk into the yawning mountains, Bryan played me a sampling of Everything Changes. Straight from a scene in a movie, the view coupled with this incredibly dreamy soundtrack was magic. Drenched in a richness that classics are made of, Everything Changes sets Bryan's voice against an atmospheric, sound with songs that channel the colorfulness of the Fab Four (fittingly, as Paul and John are his biggest inspirations). His style of music is the kind that catalyzes pivotal scenes in films. More dynamic than his earlier albums, his music retains that soulful quality I am particularly fond of, especially in "Someday" –a guitar driven ballad that takes up residence in your head and refuses to vacate– from his first album, Waiting for Now (2007). And I recommend a listen to "Walk Away" from his second album, We Don't Have Forever, which has a beguiling Weezer-type vibe that I totally dig. To promote Everything Changes, Bryan plans to play a couple of shows in major cities but does not plan to embark on a full on tour. He enjoys being able to interact with fans when touring, as being an actor confines him to a studio or set, and doesn't allow that sort of connection, but confesses that being on the road is lonely. "The only fun you really have is when you're onstage for that hour and a half. That's what you live for, and it's great! But as a singer, I can't party and be drinking all night, smoking. I gotta sing the next day and the day after that." Music has served as a lifesaver for the sage musician. "If I didn't have that, I'd just be out here in L.A. floating around as an unemployed actor, like who am I?" he shares with unbridled candor. Wanting to attain a deeper reality and be more than just an actor or a statistic, music granted him relief from that feeling. Bryan openly touched on how his music has helped. "The highs and lows of being an actor are really hard to maintain, those swings are really emotional. When you're working, it's awesome and when you're not working its like, the days can't go by fast enough. Most people who aren't in this profession, they work so they can live and have their vacations. And I think artists and actors, we live just to work," he pensively explains. Bryan made his big screen debut in A Civil Action starring John Travolta in 1998, and has had some "fortunate breaks" throughout his career. "Even now, I'm still trying. It doesn't feel like, at no point, do I feel like I've made it," says the humble actor, who knew that this is what he wanted to do, for the rest of his life, since he was 10 and participating in community theater in Omaha. This fall, The Normals —an independent film that Bryan starred in— will be released. The Normals follows Bryan's character, Billy Schine and a group of others who have signed up for a medical research study of psychiatric drugs. "I just gravitate toward small, weird films… You're not really sure if it's the drugs or if they're crazy. It's pretty funny. Nothing is really what it seems," Bryan says with a smile. Billy represents the apathetic generation, he says. "They want all the glory. They want to be famous but they really don't want to do anything to be famous. They don't want to work for it, like all these reality show people…" The Normals will be released by FilmBuff on digital and VOD platforms. Also, look for Bryan's independent film, The Kitchen that will debut at the GenArt festival in NYC this August. 66 MIAMI LIVING