Ryan Shuck is an American musician. A co-founder of industrial rock band Orgy, Shuck is the lead singer and rhythm guitarist in electronic rock band Julien-K, and lead singer of the rock band Adema. He was the guitarist and backing vocalist of Dead by Sunrise, the alternative rock side project of Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington. Shuck played in the Bakersfield-based rock band Sexart alongside future Korn lead singer Jonathan Davis, future Adema bassist Dave DeRoo, and future Cradle of Thorns singer/drummer Ty Elam.
Shuck owns four restaurants in Orange County, California and a recording studio in Long Beach, California.
Early life
From Shuck's earliest years, he had been an artist. As a child, Shuck painted with his grandmother, and then sold his paintings at local art shows where people bought the painting thinking they had been painted by an experienced adult artist.
At an age of 16, Shuck finally discovered music for himself when he first picked up the guitar. He soon moved on to experimenting with keyboards and other electronic instruments and learning that he could sing, while simultaneously listening to strange combinations of music from the likes of Depeche Mode, Metallica, The Cure, Slayer, Run DMC, and Kraftwerk. These odd combinations of music would influence Shuck for years to come. Shuck had stated in later interviews that he always thought they went together beautifully and didn't understand why there were so many lines dividing styles of music.
In order to combine his love for music, design and fashion, Shuck left his hometown Taft at the age of 18 in order to move to Bakersfield and enroll at a Cosmetology school to become a Barber.
Music career
Early musical projects
After relocating to Bakersfield for his studies, Shuck made a new friend, Jonathan Davis. They both shared their love of fashion, heavy music, and electronic/dance music, so they formed the alternative metal band Sexart, along with Ray "Chaka" Solis on guitar, David DeRoo (Adema) on bass, and Dennis Shinn on drums. On the only released Sexart song, "Inside," they were joined by Ty Elam (Videodrone) on vocals.
Davis left the band in 1993 to join Korn and had major success with songs that were also originally co-written by Shuck ("Blind," "Daddy"). Shuck also eventually left and went on to form the band Orgy.
The Orgy era
Shuck found his first major mainstream success as a founding member of the Los Angeles band Orgy. The band, which also consisted of the other two founders Jay Gordon (vocals) and Amir Derakh (guitar, g-synth) and also Paige Haley (bass) and Bobby Hewitt (drums), was eventually signed by Korn to their Warner Bros. Records imprint, Elementree Records. Dubbed "death-pop," Orgy blended electronic music with modern alternative rock at a time when the rest of popular music was dominated by grunge bands. Orgy, who had been lovingly described by some magazines as "The Cure on cocaine," went on to sell over three million records, receive platinum awards, and hit top positions in the Billboard charts, giving Shuck a taste of real music industry success and massive MTV and radio exposure.
They were also featured on several soundtracks for popular movies, such as Not Another Teen Movie, Charlie's Angels, Scream III, and Zoolander.
During the work on the band's third album Punk Statik Paranoia, Shuck and his long-time partner and close friend Amir Derakh began to realize that they clashed with singer Jay Gordon regarding the future direction of the band. While Shuck and Derakh wanted Orgy to pursue a more experimental electro-pop and dance path, Gordon wanted the band to be heavier with more rock influence. That is when Shuck and Derakh began the "Julien-K experiment".
Julien-K
With Julien-K, Shuck finally found the outlet to do the music that he always wanted to do – "passionate electronic music." So far, the band (which, besides Shuck, nowadays consists of Amir Derakh on guitar, Anthony Valcic on synths and bass, and Frank Zummo on drums) has released two albums – Death To Analog (released on March 10, 2009, via Metropolis Records and executive produced by Linkin Park's Chester Bennington) and We're Here With You (released on January 23, 2012, via Julien-K INC). Death To Analog made it to the top 10 of the Billboard Dance/Electronic album charts and We're Here With You hit #4 in the US iTunes charts – both in the first week of release.