Meet Jeffrey Riley of Liontortoise in Denver

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeffrey Riley.

Jeffrey, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started playing the bass guitar when I was roughly 14 years old. I took a summer job working for my dad, to buy my first beginner bass. Shortly after, my mom paid for my first bass lessons. This was, of course, to set me on the right path for being a competent bassist in my school’s jazz band. Honestly, I wasn’t even interested in playing music until my grade school best friend, Travis, suggested I pick up the bass guitar so that we could start a band together. This all led to some amazing years together learning and playing covers of sum-41 and ACDC. I took to music and playing guitar very quickly, and at times, it seemed like I couldn’t get enough of it and couldn’t learn fast enough. I earned my spot as the bass player in our highschool Jazz 1 group and that was my first real crowning achievement in music.

Fast forward a few years later, I started generating interest in playing guitar, something I swore I would never do. As you might expect, my experience learning guitar went very quickly and easily for me as well. The driving force behind my aspiration to play guitar came from.. you guessed it, another band. I was accepted as a second guitarist in a local metalcore band. We were together for about two or three years and recorded one ep together that I am still proud of today. It was my first true introduction to what it’s like to be a somewhat professional musician. We often played sold-out shows and I admittedly like to think of us as being pioneers in the metalcore/hardcore early days of our small town.

From there, I went to college and my guitar playing took a slow decline. The only lifeblood in my playing that remained were a few opportunities to play in some churches for the worship bands, back when that was my cup of tea. It was actually quite funny, as I would often get away with playing these sweeping metal solos and crazy leads. I suppose I was lucky that I wasn’t immediately kicked out. It still makes me laugh to reminisce about my self at 20 years old with long hair, shredding over worship music. And from there, that was pretty much it.

I barely touched my guitar for years. I want to guess maybe six years without any real or consistent playing? Life kind of happened and I just didn’t have the time or creative energy for it.

Now at 30 years old, the light that once was has been re-ignited and I’m playing more and stronger than I ever have. I got back into playing roughly two years ago by reaching out to a gentleman on Craig’slist about jazz guitar lessons. It had always been a goal of mine to learn proper jazz guitar. Well, Jim was my guy and we met every week for almost a year. It really helped my playing and gave me a new voice that I now cherish.

Today, you’ll catch me playing in a project I started called “Liontortoise.” Liontortoise is an instrumental progressive rock project that began as a solo outfit and has been since expanded into a full band. I recently recorded and ep and have released one official music video for my first single titled, “v3.” The ep, “Photosynthesis” will be released in October on all major music platforms.

Has it been a smooth road?
I can’t say that I experienced any “struggles” along the way, as music has always come so naturally and easy to me. If anything, I would say that forming a band is really freaking hard. I’ve tried to do the band thing quite a few times throughout life, but it’s taken a very long time to find the right people. You’ll get close, but there’s always something that comes up and shatters all the momentum your group had. Whether it’s a member deciding they no longer want to do it, music taste differences or even simply personality challenges; being in a band is very much like being in a relationship and it takes a lot of work to keep that relationship thriving. Also, writing your own tunes is quite challenging also.

The art of songwriting is very taxing and time-consuming. You pour so much of yourself into this four to five minute thing and you’re constantly listening to the same track asking yourself if everything is right or if you should just trash a part of the whole song completely. If you’re reading this and you take anything away from my experience, I want you to walk away with this: Whenever someone shows you their music, please keep in mind, that’s a piece of their soul! Your response is very important, and the smallest most nuanced things can be absolutely catastrophic to the musicians’ psyche. Just be overwhelmingly supportive. Even if it’s shit. Just be positive and supportive.

Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I started this project called “Liontortoise” earlier this year. It began as just myself writing a couple of songs and hiring a drummer (Evan Dansforth, who is very talented) to record with me. I recorded with Ernesto Dominguez in Fort Collins, Colorado. Ernesto did an awesome job making my music come to life and put together an amazing sounding album. Liontortoise could be described as “progressive rock” or “prog metal” or even at times “math rock” or “post-rock.” I blend a few influences ranging from jazz to metal and even to bossanovas. The music explores many faces, yet has its own continuous voice within the small Liontortoise catalog of songs.

I started with sharing my playing on Instagram, as a means to show people who I am, and what I’m about. I wasn’t sure how well people would take to my style, and fortunately, it’s been going quite smoothly. In fact, I am currently holding 3,000 followers on my account, which has only been around for six months. As I’ve begun to see how much people dig my playing, I’ve broadened my idea of what this project could really be. As of today, Liontortoise is almost a full band and will expect to start playing local shows early next year, by performing tracks off of “photosynthesis” and few new songs as well.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Denver is an awesome city, ripe with culture and opportunity. I’m really excited to dive into the local music scene and begin to form relationships with other musicians and bands around town who are also hustling hard to get their music in front of the local community.

My favorite thing about the city is either a large number of excellent breakfast burritos and Thai curries, or, how many excellent climbing gyms we have available to us.

My least favorite thing is by far, the traffic. If you get caught on the wrong highway trying to cross town at a busy time of the day, it’s just awful. I really hate that.

Contact Info:

• Email: liontortoisemusic@gmail.com
• Instagram: liontortoisemusic

Image Credit:
Noble Bison Productions

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