Ryan

City of residence: Salt Lake City, UT

Age: 22

Length of time "in the scene": 7 years

Occupation: Assistant Manager at Wherehouse Music

Education: Currently a junior majoring in English at the University of Utah. Graduated from Brighton High School in 1994.

Musical taste: "Goth, Ambient, Jazz, Synth-Pop. Rosetta Stone, Suede, Sarah McLauchlan, Underworld, Fields of the Nephilim, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Love Spirals Downwards, William Orbit, Peter Murphy, Love and Rockets, Marc Almond, Cure, Edera, Echo and the Bunnymen." He likes music of many varieties that is lyrically intelligent.

Distinctions in appearance: "Far too much black, obscure band T-shirts, pointy shoes, a little bit elf... sometimes more frill - depends on the moment."

Hobbies, activities, interests: "Music, writing, reading, net surfing." He likes listening to music as well as playing guitar, keyboards, and tambourine. He writes a variety of poetry, short story and novel and enjoys reading Jazz age authors, like Fitzgerald, as well as Franz Kafka and Percy Shelley.

Spiritual, philosophical, religious affiliation: "Christian, LDS, Mormon"

Goals, dreams: "I'd love to be a writer or be involved with music somehow - if not as a performer, perhaps a producer - or maybe I'll own a music store. Who knows really." He can picture himself being the starving artist type.

Do you consider yourself gothic?: "Naw I'm goff, or goffik... I suppose, yes, I'm gothic in the sense that I listen to a lot of music that is connected with goth and wear far too much black, which might have more to do with Luke Skywalker in the Return of the Jedi era than Dracula." He also mentioned that he doesn't think that being gothic should have anything to do with depression or misery. "It's very theatrical - fun in that sense… but you've got to realize that behind all the theatrics is a person. No reason to be dismal. I don't know why anyone would want to be miserable." You have to keep your life in balance and have fun with it. Goths should have a sense of humor. He tries not to be arrogant or take it too seriously. He said it's part of his life, not his entire life.

5/7/97 last updated 11/18/99