Country and pop singer, songwriter, and guitarist (he also plays piano and mandolin) Ryan Kinder was born August 1, 1988 in Knoxville, Tennessee, but raised in Birmingham, Alabama, where his first interests were baseball and hunting. After falling in love with John Mayer’s debut album Room for Squares, he got a guitar and learned how to play it, and from then on, music was his main passion. He began playing gigs at local and regional venues while he was still in high school, and he continued playing local clubs and frat parties after moving on to attend the University of Alabama. Relocating to Nashville, Kinder further refined his songwriting skills by working with songwriting veterans like Jen Ketner and Luke Sheets, eventually signing a record deal with Bigger Picture Group and setting to work on an album with producers and engineers Keith Stegall, Ketner, and John Kelton. A debut single from the project, “Tonight,” appeared in 2013, with a second single, the catchy and well-crafted “Kiss Me When I’m Down,” arriving early in 2014.