Ryan Loftsgaarden (born May 19, 1988), commonly known by his

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

Ryan Lofty, is an American producer, composer and songwriter.

Career

Early beginnings

Lofty was introduced to piano and trumpet at a young age by his mother, who is a piano teacher. A near-death accident at the age of 15 inspired him to pursue music as a career. He studied music business at

Columbia College Chicago Columbia College Chicago is a Private college, private art college in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1890, it has 5,928https://about.colum.edu/effectiveness/pdf/spring-2021-student-profile.pdf students pursuing degrees in more than 60 undergra ...

during which time he held an internship at a small record studio. After college Lofty worked as a composer at

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

's creative campus in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

eventually leaving to facilitate a songwriting contract in India. Throughout this period he performed with multiple groups including a national tour as drummer with indie-electronic duo Bestfriends.

2015–2017

In 2015 Lofty debuted his solo project, releasing four singles and one remix over the course of the summer. His single ''The Mountain (feat. Bonx)'' won

Insomniac Events Insomniac (formerly Insomniac Events) is an American electronic music event promoter and music distributor. Founded by Pasquale Rotella, it is the organizer of various music festivals, including its flagship electronic music festival Electric Da ...

' Discovery Project with the award of a one-hour DJ set at

Life Is Beautiful (music festival) Life is Beautiful Music & Art Festival is an annual music, culinary, art, and learning festival held in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It debuted in 2013 as a three-day event. In 2019, it was one of the world's highest grossing festi ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, opening the stage for

Felix Jaehn Felix Kurt Jähn (born 28 August 1994), known professionally as Felix Jaehn (), is a German DJ and music producer specializing in tropical house. He achieved international success with his remix of Omi's song "Cheerleader", which topped the cha ...

Robin Schulz Robin Alexander Schulz (; born 28 April 1987) is a German musician, DJ and record producer. On 4 February 2014, he released the first single from his debut album, a remix of "Waves" by Dutch hip hop artist Mr. Probz. This remix later received ...

, and

Porter Robinson Porter Weston Robinson (born July 15, 1992) is an American DJ, record producer, musician, and singer from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Robinson began producing music in his childhood. He signed to Skrillex's record label Owsla, OWSLA at the age o ...

. On the day, Lofty performed a surprise collaboration with

Bill Nye William Sanford Nye (born November 27, 1955), popularly known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, is an American mechanical engineer, science communicator, and television presenter. He is best known as the host of the science television show ''Bill ...

the Science Guy who was booked to speak at the event about climate change. The appearance was covered in major electronic music blogs and after the festival

Yahoo! Music Yahoo! Music was a brand under which Yahoo! provided a variety of music services, including Internet radio, music videos, news, artist information, and original programming. Previously, users with Yahoo! accounts could gain access to hundreds of ...

named Lofty one of "Five Rising Acts to Watch". In early 2016 Lofty released eight-track album ''Tourists from the Future'' which featured ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...

'' alumni

Casey Abrams Casey Abrams (born February 12, 1991) is an American musician from Idyllwild, California, who finished in sixth place in the 10th season of ''American Idol,'' five weeks after being saved from elimination by the judges. A self-titled debut al ...

and

Mansions on the Moon Mansions on the Moon was an American band from Los Angeles, California. History The group was formed by Ted Wendler on guitar and vocals, Ben Hazlegrove on keyboards, and Lane Shaw on drums. Both Shaw and Hazlegrove were also members of Pnuma Tri ...

vocalist Ted Wendler. The album contains heavy lyrical references to space and time travel which are recurring themes in Lofty's music. Popular music blog EARMILK called the album a "cosmic pool party" with "nothing but good vibes", and singled out track ''Dimensions (feat. Casey Abrams)'' as an example of Lofty's focus on melody. Global Dance Electronic (GDE) called the album a "cinematic experience" and dubbed the genre "tropi-galactic" – a play on Lofty's blend of tropical house and space themes. Shortly after release Lofty performed in the capacity of an official artist at

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

and

Beyond Wonderland Beyond Wonderland is an electronic dance festival organized by Insomniac Events. The event has been held in various locations across the west coast including Seattle, San Bernardino, and Mountain View spanning either one or two days. As the fe ...

SoCal.

2018–present

In 2018, Lofty announced a collaboration with composer Jay Vincent, writing electronic music and songs for DreamWorks Animation's

Harvey Street Kids ''Harvey Girls Forever!'' (originally titled ''Harvey Street Kids'' in its first season, then retroactively retitled) is an American animated comedy television series produced by Brendan Hay and Aliki Theofilopoulos for DreamWorks Animation Tele ...

, a

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

Original series based on characters from the legacy Harvey Comics franchise. In an interview with

Animation Magazine ''Animation Magazine'' is an American print magazine and website covering the animation industry and education, as well as visual effects Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outsi ...

, Lofty and Vincent discussed writing and producing the songs featured in the show, voiced by guest stars

Nick Lachey Nicholas Scott Lachey ( ; born November 9, 1973) is an American singer, actor, television personality, and host. He rose to fame as the lead singer of the multi-platinum-selling boyband 98 Degrees, and later starred in the reality series '' Newl ...

Joey Fatone Joseph Anthony Fatone Jr. (born January 28, 1977) is an American singer, dancer, actor, and television personality. He is best known as a member of the boyband NSYNC, in which he sang baritone. In 2007, he came in second place on the ABC realit ...

Joey McIntyre Joseph Mulrey McIntyre (born December 31, 1972) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. He is best known as the youngest member of the pioneering boy band, New Kids on the Block. He has sold over one million records worldwide as a solo a ...

and

Shawn Stockman Shawn Patrick Stockman (born September 26, 1972) is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as a member of the vocal group Boyz II Men. In addition to Boyz II Men, Stockman was a member of the group Black Men United ...

. The duo are co-composing another series for

DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios and simply known as DreamWorks) is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division ...

that features electronic music genres such as “

future bass Future bass is a style of electronic dance music which developed in the 2010s that mixes elements of dubstep and trap with warmer, less abrasive rhythms. The genre was pioneered by producers such as Rustie, Hudson Mohawke, Lido, San Holo and Ca ...

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken be ...

, grime, jungle,

drum & bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

complextro Electro house is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by heavy bass and a tempo around 130 beats per minute. The term has been used to describe the music of many ''DJ Mag'' Top 100 DJs, including Benny Benassi, Skrillex, Steve Aoki ...

and...

riddim Riddim is the Jamaican Patois pronunciation of the English word "rhythm". In the context of reggae and dancehall, it refers to the instrumental accompaniment to a song and is synonymous with the rhythm section. Jamaican music genres that use the ...

.” In 2019 the pair co-composed

Cleopatra in Space ''Cleopatra in Space'' is an American children's graphic novel series drawn and written since 2014 by Mike Maihack, and published by Graphix, a division of Scholastic. The premise of the series is that a teenaged Queen Cleopatra is brought t ...

and

's Fast & Furious: Spy Racers, an animated spinoff of the blockbuster

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a ...

franchise. Lofty previewed the Spy Racers score at CTNX Animation Expo ahead of the series premiere.

Licensing

Lofty's single ''The Mountain (feat. Bonx)'' has been featured on television programs such as E!’s

Dash Dolls ''Dash Dolls'' is an American reality television series that premiered on the E! cable network, on September 20, 2015. The show is a spin-off of ''Keeping Up with the Kardashians''. The series features a group of young female employees, referre ...

and

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's Real World: Go Big or Go Home. ''Higher (feat. Bestfriends)'' was featured on Season 14 of

Bad Girls Club ''Bad Girls Club'' (abbreviated ''BGC'') is an American reality television series created by Jonathan Murray for the Oxygen network in the United States. The show focused on the altercations and physical confrontations of seven aggressive, q ...

. An unreleased track from collaborative project BabeWave was licensed in an

Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...

Guided Tour and on season three of

Daredevil (TV series) ''Marvel's Daredevil'' is an American television series created by Drew Goddard for the streaming service Netflix, based on the Marvel Comics character Daredevil. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), acknowledging the continuity of ...

. Lofty has also completed custom work for brands such as

Mountain Dew Mountain Dew, stylized as Mtn Dew, is a carbonated soft drink brand produced and owned by PepsiCo. The original formula was invented in 1940 by Tennessee beverage bottlers Barney and Ally Hartman. A revised formula was created by Bill Brid ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

and Los Angeles Kiss Football via Future Vega, a publishing house he co-founded.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lofty, Ryan 1988 births 21st-century American musicians Remixers American DJs Living people Musicians from Iowa