Ryan Hennessy talks Syncopated Blue
SPIN's Sarina Bellissimo caught up with Picture This frontman Ryan Hennessy for a chat this week.
They spoke about his new poetry book Syncopated Blue and the amazing way in which he honoured his father.
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Ryan's dad and grandad inspired his love of poetry.
He told Sarina, "The first poem I ever wrote was when my grandad actually passed away, and I wanted to mark his passing..."
"As a 7-year-old, I was like, 'How do I mark his passing meaningfully?'"
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The singer wrote a poem and placed it on his grandfather's grave.
"I really have my grandad to thank because if it wasn't for him, I never would have done that."
"That kind of started my journey," he explained.
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Honouring his father
Ryan told Sarina that his dad used to write poetry, but he stopped when he got older and started a family.
"I always knew that my dad and my grandad had done it so it was kind of an encouraged thing," he revealed.
To honour his father, the artist had one of his poems published at the start of Syncopated Blue.
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He said, "I inserted one of my dad's poems that he wrote, which was a surprise, he didn't know I was doing that."
"I felt like it would be remiss of me to not acknowledge my grandfather and my dad so I put my favourite poem of his in the front."
"So he's now a published poet as well as me."
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Ryan said watching his dad's reaction was incredible.
"He couldn't believe it and it was the most fulfilling thing I've ever done or experienced in my life," the singer admitted.
"That's kind of the success to me now," he continued, "anything from there is just a bonus really."
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"It fills up my heart even thinking about it," Ryan said.
In the same interview, the singer revealed why now is the right time for him to release this book and what's next for Picture This.
Syncopated Blue is out now.
