Indianapolis musician Ryan Perkins said he wants to get out of the Midwest.
“I want to go to space,” he said. “Play on Neptune or something, you know?”
For now, his band, Chives, is confined to earth.
The band frequently travels to Bloomington to play shows, and they performed last Friday at a house known as The Loveshack.
There they premiered songs from their to-be-released album “Porcelain.”
“Bloomington shows a lot of love,” Perkins said. “If a place is going to show love, I’m going to show love back.”
He said Bloomington always brings a big crowd, as opposed to other cities where Chives might play to an empty bar.
It’s also conveniently close to Indianapolis, the band’s home base.
Chives has performed all over Bloomington in the past.
Perkins said they’ve hit the Bishop, the Back Door and a slew of houses.
He said the house shows are some of his favorites.
“There’s just more soul to it,” he said. “Any day I can go play a bar, but like, to get a whole bunch of people in a fucking house and just go crazy, how often can you do that?”
One of Perkins most memorable shows was at a spot called the Big House, he said.
He was electrocuted during a performance at the Big House, he said.
“I don’t even know if people knew I got electrocuted, but I, like, blacked out,” he said.
After a light bulb started to bother him, he said, he tried to adjust it and touched a hot wire.
“I, like, just came back and was just looking around, and I didn’t know what was going on, but the band was still playing the song,” he said.
Regardless, Perkins said playing the Big House was possibly his favorite show in Bloomington.
Playing house shows also means Perkins doesn’t have to worry about the law as much.
Perkins had some problems with booking shows at bars in the past, he said, as he’s only 19 years old.
“Most of the time people don’t even have a clue how old I am,” he said.
At one particular bar in Chicago, Perkins said Chives had already unloaded all their gear when he was carded and told he was too young to enter.
“I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I’m also headlining the show,’” he said.
Thankfully, he said, the bar still arranged for Chives perform that night but at a different venue.
“We just set up down the street and everybody from the bar just went to there,” he said.
Even though Perkins is still a teenager, he’s had plenty of experience writing songs.
He taught himself how to play guitar, Perkins said,
He said he’s not musically trained, but he’s always loved to create.
He uses songwriting to express what he’s going through mentally and emotionally.
“It’s like playing with Legos,” he said. “It’s your own brand. You’ve got an unlimited slate.”
