Ryan Innes: Mormon Musician

Ryan Innes is a native of Utah and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is a vocalist and songwriter who is best known for his soulful voice, and believed by some to sound like Marc Broussard, Gavin DeGraw, John Legend, Allen Stone, or James Morrison. Ashlie Lohner, the author of his biography on ReverbNation states, “Ryan’s voice will dig deep into your memories and help you release emotions long repressed in a way that is new and inspiring. Not only is his skill as a vocalist impeccable, but his ability to express emotion is the difference he brings to the table—then serves with a side of pie.”

Ryan has not always had a passion to pursue a music career. While in high school, he was allowed to play football under the condition that he also played the piano. He graduated from Eastern Arizona College with an associate’s degree in pre-medical science and had dreams of attending medical school and becoming a pediatrician. While in college, he became engaged to be married only to have the engagement broken off three weeks before the wedding. After the breakup, he began to reconsider his reasons for wanting to enter the medical profession. In an interview with Deseret News dated 11 June 2010, he remarked, "I hated my job. I started to reassess why I was going into medicine. Did I really have a passion for it? No. I was just doing it because of the money and status and nobility of it all." He continued, "Then, through a friend, I discovered the media music program at BYU and realized that was exactly what I wanted to do. I applied to BYU and got in. I auditioned and made it into the school of music. I took the aural skills test (having never taken anything like it in my life), and somehow passed. The doors opened up and I was on my way to BYU to study songwriting and contemporary voice — neither of which I’d ever done before."