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On February 7th, crowded into a small venue in Akron, Ohio, what seems like half the local music scene piles in to celebrate something big. Cherry Yachtsman, a staple in the NE Ohio music scene, has just released their newest record, Bison. Months in the making, tonight marks the first time many of these songs are being played live.
Ryan McCarthy: My name’s Ryan McCarthy. I’m in the band Cherry Yachtsman. We’re at Musica in downtown Akron to celebrate- it’s a release show for our album Bison.
Ryan’s the frontman of Cherry Yachtsman whose first full length album, Stag came out in July 2024.
Ryan McCarthy: This has definitely been the longest, um, time that has taken me to make an album. I started working on it pretty much right after I released our last album, Stag, and that was July 2024. It started out with me just kind of writing them and showing my bandmates Eric and Josh and Delia and Katie and like, kind of working on them in practices.
But Cherry Yachtsman isn’t just one band, it’s a collection of musicians, most of whom have other bands or projects. Ryan himself also plays in Nafan and the Mailmen and The Dick Golden Experience. Katie, the drummer, fronts The Jo Shmos, a band that also includes Cherry Yachtsman’s keyboardist, Delia, who also releases solo music, just to name a few. It’s a cast of collaborators, messy, overlapping, and deeply connected, and out of that chaos comes a tight-knit community built on supporting each other’s art.
Rubin Shirley: The Bison album is my favorite thing I’ve ever worked on. I don’t know- I had so much fun.
That’s Rubin Shirley, who like so many of the people at tonight’s show, isn’t just a fan, but a collaborator. Rubin makes music under the name Forthmember, and mixed and mastered the record
Ryan McCarthy: I got Rubin to, uh, kind of help me mix and master the record. So Rubin and I just started sending demos and- and stuff to each other, and a lot of sending it back and forth kind of retooling things.
Rubin Shirley: Ryan let me kind of go as crazy as I wanted to. It’s the first time I ever really, like, collaborated with someone on a project. Unreal. Like a first, a first of firsts, I would say, yeah.
But Rubin isn’t the only collaborator on the album, Bison credits eleven different musicians working together, and the sense of community is palpable in the room.
I asked Ryan and Rubin what it’s like to create in this environment.
Ryan McCarthy: I think it’s definitely a community effort. I would write the songs, but then I would constantly want feedback, and I feel that our music community is very strong in the way that we collaborate. There’s no- it doesn’t feel like there’s any competition or kind of competitive, you know, nature in the scene. And even if there is, I think it’s the most positive form that there could be. I think it’s a really positive environment that we get to work in, and I’m very grateful for it.
Rubin Shirley: A lot of these people knew each other before I sort of hit the town. I don’t know, we’re all friends now and it’s amazing. I found that these are some people that want to play music. I also want to play music. It’s kind of all I want to do.
In a scene like this, music doesn’t happen in isolation. It’s shared: between bands, between friends, between crowded rooms like this one, and tonight certainly feels like a shared celebration.
Rubin Shirley: It’s amazing that there are people like me that, you know, have to make do, but at the end of the day, there’s one thing we want to be doing. Yeah, it’s awesome. It’s awesome. I feel so seen.
For Cherry Yachtsman, Bison isn’t just a milestone, it’s a collage of all the love, artistry, and friendship that went into it.
Bison is available now to stream and you can check out the band on Instagram to catch upcoming shows.
