Ryan Simpson has been chasing music since he first sat behind a drum kit in 1997. What started as a kid's obsession in southwestern Ohio has turned into nearly three decades of playing, writing, and performing across genres that don't always agree with each other — and he wouldn't have it any other way.

At 14, he co-founded KSP, an instrumental prog rock band that played their first show at Twisters in Kettering, Ohio. A few years later he picked up a guitar, taught himself to play, and discovered something new: songwriting. That spark has driven him ever since.

From 2007 to 2014, Ryan was the drummer for The Scotty Bratcher Band, a blues rock and jam outfit steeped in the spirit of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Government Mule. After that chapter closed, he spent time on the road and performing in Nashville before coming back with a renewed focus on original music. In 2015 he co-founded Highway Radio, a band built entirely around original material, followed by Dat Band in 2016 — a funk and groove project he played with until 2019. In 2017, he was also a founding member of Crown Watts, the progressive rock cover band where he remains drummer and vocalist to this day.

"I find it so amazing when people can connect with my music."

His influences are all over the map — Rush, Tool, Dream Theater, Pink Floyd, the Beatles, Sam Cooke, Death Cab for Cutie, Porcupine Tree — and that range shows up in his writing. Drummers like Neil Peart, Danny Carey, and Gavin Harrison shaped how he plays. Songwriters like Steven Wilson, Maynard Keenan, and Ben Gibbard shaped how he thinks about what a song can be.\n\nRyan recorded his first demo in 2008 and has released six projects since, including Free of Shackles (2012), Breaking Delicate Things (2018), Catch Me in the Catacombs (2020), and his most recent full-length, Carriages at Midnight (2025).