RSR554 – Ronan Chris Murphy – Modern Songwriting Knight Writing Medieval Melodies in Ancient Italy
Recording Studio Rockstars
Lij Shaw
4.8 • 543 Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2026
⏱️ 123 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when a tree destroys your home and studio - and it leads you to a new creative life across two continents?
In this episode, I talk with Ronan Chris Murphy, the world-traveling producer, engineer, and artist known for his work with King Crimson, Steve Morse, and Tony Levin, and for teaching hundreds of musicians how to finish their records through his Recording Bootcamp and RIPA Festival of International Sound.
Ronan shares how losing his home and studio in the mountains north of Los Angeles became a turning point that reshaped his creative life - leading him to rebuild from scratch in the Berkshires of Massachusetts and a medieval hill town in Italy. We dig into how his surroundings inspire creativity, how he balances his own artistic work with client projects, and why finishing creative ideas matters more than chasing perfection.
We also talk about building community through workshops and retreats, finding joy in collaboration, and creating music that connects people across cultures. Along the way, Ronan offers hard-won advice on protecting your studio and data, trusting your creative instincts, and staying productive when life throws you curveballs.
Ronan’s story is a reminder that art, resilience, and curiosity can keep us inspired - no matter where we make our records.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Howdy, Rockstars. Are you working on a project right now or you have one coming up where you could really use some help? |
| 0:05.8 | So I want to let you know about Native Instruments 360. This is over 150 plugins, 24,000 loops and sounds, |
| 0:15.0 | and it gives you everything you need to turn your ideas into release ready tracks. You can explore sampled instruments, powerful synthesizers, |
| 0:23.9 | creative effects, and lots more, all in one place. And right now, you can get one month free |
| 0:30.7 | on the monthly or annual plans over at native instruments.com if you use the special code, Rock 30. |
| 0:39.6 | I don't know how long this is going to be here for, |
| 0:41.3 | so take advantage of it now while it's available and go get your free month and check it out. |
| 0:45.8 | This episode of RSR is brought to you by isotope Native Instruments, |
| 0:52.3 | SAE Institute, Spectra-1964, and Grace Design. |
| 0:58.3 | These are tools that I use every day in my studio from the Spectra-1964, STX-600-100-100-100-D, |
| 1:07.0 | and native instruments complete 15, to isotope ozone and R and Rx and the central hub for my studio, |
| 1:15.8 | the Grace Design M701 audio interface. Follow the sponsor links in the show notes. |
| 1:22.3 | Grab my free mixing course at mixmasterbundle.com And remember to like this video and subscribe on YouTube because |
| 1:30.2 | it's a great way to help support this show. Now, get ready to rock. I want, basically want an event |
| 1:37.0 | to just get people from around the world to come hang out and just get inspired and get excited |
| 1:43.8 | and learn things and connect with new people from around the world. |
| 1:47.0 | And so like the minute I walked into the town square, I'm like, yes, I got to do an event here. |
| 1:52.0 | It's going to be September, end of September, 2026 is the inaugural one. |
| 1:57.0 | There'll be a four-day program with tons of workshops and master classes. But the |
| 2:01.7 | crazy part of it is it is just a big experiment in community building. And everybody involved |
| 2:09.2 | organizing, teaching, participating is working as a volunteer. So it's nobody's doing it for money |
| 2:16.3 | at all. I'll certainly lose thousands of dollars |
... |
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