The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/4/08 Section: Variety

Media Credit: COURTESY RUSSIAN SPY CAMERA [Click to enlarge]

Local band Russian Spy Camera offers its second album "Mutiny In The Kitchen With Knives" on the band's Web page for free download. It is an attempt to put one and a half years of recording to use after a series of bizarre circumstances.

After returning from touring for its first album, "You Are A Vulture," the band had saved about $1,500 to put toward printing its second album.

It was not until January that the band knew the album's printing would be postponed indefinitely or even cancelled.

Lead singer Ryan White, 26, had taken the money to buy a plane ticket to Turkey.

"You could say 'stole,' you could say spent behind the band's back," White said.

White said it was the difference between the lifestyle he led on tour and the nine-to-five job at the Hobby Lobby Framing Center that he keeps here in Athens as his primary motive.

"I kind of hit that 'Office Space' moment in my life where I just had to smash the copier and get out of here," White said. "I have sucked everything out of Athens that I can and have no interest in any of this anymore."

White said he hopes to change his thinking and "redefine himself and humanity as a whole" in Europe. He plans to fly to Istanbul to meet with a Turkish journalist who discovered the band on the Internet and wrote an article about it for a Turkish music magazine. She and White have been pen pals ever since.

While he said he denies the Turkish friend was the reason for him taking the money, he said the trip is all about being "open to life and all of the possibilities that it holds."

"If I came back with a wife, that would be incredible," White said.

When most band-mates would be angry to find the entire band fund had been drained, Russian Spy Camera members have taken it in stride.

"We have been very supportive and understanding of Ryan," said McGregor Button, the piano/keyboardist for Russian Spy Camera. "He has lost his marbles and is searching for the meaning of life, just like everyone else."

Button said the record's online release has turned into a good thing. He said he just wants to reach "as many ears as possible" and for people to share the album with friends.

"There is no catch," Button said. "After all, we have learned that there is no point in making music if no one hears it."

Drummer Andy Turner said he is turning the situation into a positive one for the future of the band.

"I'm not mad at Ryan," Turner said. "I am going to use the next album's funds to go on a Mars expedition.

I've found that there is nothing more relaxing than terraforming an abandoned planet on your vacation."

Turner said he likes the idea of a free download album because it "has been a great way to promote the band without having money involved."

"I have always felt weird asking my friends for cash in exchange for my band's music," Turner said. "I would usually just end up burning them a copy."

He said he believes the response for this album has been far better than the previous album.

The Web site does have an option where fans can pay any amount for the download of the album as a way to show their support.

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