Sedona residents and visitors have one last chance to cover themselves in red dirt while watching and dancing to local acts this Friday. The last of five free concerts held by the City of Sedona takes place June 21 beginning at 6 p.m. at the Posse Grounds Pavilion at Barbara Antonsen Memorial Park. 

Closing this year’s Red Dirt Concert Series are two singers and songwriters. Grace Noelle will open the show, while Ryan Biter is the headliner. 

Biter’s name might be familiar because the Flagstaff native has been playing around coffee shops in Sedona since he was a teen — long enough to create a local following. He also opened at last year’s Red Dirt Concert Series. The 27-year-old talked performing again in Sedona as a headliner, the Southwest influences on his music and what Sedonans can expect from the performance. 

•  The Red Dirt event website describes your music as “Equal parts rural Americana, spectacled college-town hipster, mountain bluegrass and new age funk beatbox drum circle.” So, I’m going to start by asking you to describe your music. 

I would describe it as a mix of rural Americana, but with some more pop and rock elements. It is very eclectic and can have a pop vibe from all of those styles, so there is some folk and there is some rock with the more pop side of all of those. Those are all influences on it. I’m not a folk artist per se, but I definitely have elements of that in what I do.

My last album [“Ryan Biter”] came out in January of 2017. It’s been a pretty decent reach … It is not the number one platinum hit but there’s a lot of people that enjoy it and it’s growing. I’d say this last CD I did had a very clear sense of place … [it] sounded a lot like Northern Arizona. There’s some folk in there, there is some African drum­ming elements in there. I would say it is influenced by the Southwest as a whole.

• What are some of your influences?

My biggest influences, in terms of music, are pretty much anything that grabs me in a way that hits me or has an authority to it. Elton John is one of my favorite ones, some Jason Mraz is really great. Anything that has authority to it and grabs people.

• What was your relationship with music growing up? Did you start playing instruments at a young age?

My dad sang, he would sing in productions and plays around town, but it was not anything that was really [done] at home. I think it was in third grade [that I became] interested in playing in band with the saxophone and clarinet. I got involved there and I did that from third grade until college. In middle school I picked up the guitar, but I was always involved in music in some context.

• How did you transition from just being involved with music at school to performing live?

It took a long time for this to become my full-time thing, but it started with me just playing in the hallway in middle school and in high school with friends. I think my first gig was in high school, and it is cool because I don’t think I stood out and I could not see music as my full-time thing but the more I was working, the time I started spending with music and playing gigs, I started to notice that was where most of my energy was going, so it made the most sense to make it a career. Now I have traveled a good chunk of the U.S. and played almost everywhere and anywhere. It kind of spider-webbed. So, once you get some momentum, you feel like you just have to keep pushing it and that is sort of where I am at now.

• Why did you like more about playing music compared to a “normal” job?

It got to this point where it just felt right and it felt like it was my calling. I saw it as “this is the thing that I am supposed to be doing with my life.” Some people might think of it in a spiritual sense; I do not, particularly.  I do think there is something that we are all here to do, and this feels like my thing and it feels right. That does not mean I don’t go through periods of self-doubt or anything like that, but I keep coming back to this and I don’t think I am going to stop anytime soon and I don’t plan to.

• You played Red Dirt before, right?

I played last year in a singer/songwriter showcase. We did a short set, maybe 30 minutes. This will be the first year [by myself] and my first time doing a full set and full show.

I am super excited, it is a great space and it has such a beautiful backdrop. Those types of gigs are kind of ideal, all you got to do is show up, do a sound check and have a grand old time. I really like shows like that. One or two weekends after that, I’m doing a similar show in Payson. I like the ideal of the community concept. There are some older people, there are some kids, I like the addi­tional vibe from that. It is a fun thing, I like having a mixed audience. I enjoy that.

• How is playing outdoors compared to playing at coffee shops or indoors in general?

Outdoors is cool, it has an energy. It enables you to have volume, and I enjoy that. It is relaxed, usually. People come with a different mood to the outdoor shows compared to a theater. It is a good vibe. When I do the outdoor stuff, I tend to be a lot more vocal and move around a lot more and use the space and keep people entertained. If you have a big space, you should use it.

• What can the public expect from your set?

I do play acoustic and electric guitar in my solo set, so I have some drum beats in the back. Especially for the outdoor shows, its upbeat, it is a big sound for a one-man show.

There is a lot of fun in it. It’s a very uplifting, and people of different age groups tend to connect with it.  Most of what I [play] is original, but it is mostly pop accessible, it is catchy. I will throw in a few covers because when people go to an event like that, they want also to hear something they know. I have been playing in Sedona long enough that there is probably a group who knows a good chunk of my music; that is the fun thing about it. There are lots of familiar faces. It is kind of like a second home base.

• Is it nice to have those familiar faces in the crowd?

The [shows] I tend to be more nervous at are the ones with familiar faces. I actually enjoy the challenge of going out to a new crowd and presenting my music as something I believe in and trying to convince them to believe in it too. I enjoy the challenge of going in front of new crowds and new people. I am always happy to see familiar faces, but I also like seeing a crowd and not having any idea who they are. It just means you are reaching new people.

Natasha Heinz can be reached at 282-7795 ext. 117, or email at nheinz@larsonnewspapers.com