Bio
Ryan La Valette, a New Zealand-born guitarist, saxophonist, and bassist, brought his unique blend of contemporary jazz to the spotlight in 2022. With collaborations with top Billboard #1 producers like Nicholas Cole, Greg Manning, and Chris “Big Dog” Davis, he quickly gained recognition for his musical talents.
His debut album, New Beginnings, made history with four #1 hits, an impressive feat for a first record. A lifelong fan of George Benson, La Valette is known for his exceptional skills in writing, producing, and mixing. He toured with pop artist Stan Walker and has worked with notable musicians such as Nathan Mitchell and Randy Scott. In late 2024, he relocated to North Carolina to pursue his career as a producer and artist.
What did you study at SAE?
I did the Bachelor of recording arts degree. After SAE it was a string of side hustles for a long time, until you could say talent scouted and spotted by a record label in the states and from there things changed. I signed a record deal and a few years later I ended up relocating and moving over to America to pursue everything full time.
Tell me a bit about what your up to these days?
I write and produce for artists full time in the States, between a catalog of artists in the UK and America. I do that full time as well as I am a recording artist myself touring too.
What do you think has been the biggest factor for your success overseas?
I would say having an education. If I didn’t have any sort of level of education and kind of learning about the business from studying here at SAE there’s a lot more big mistakes I would have probably made, that I wouldn’t have recovered as quickly from. Having worked on my craft a lot before going over there gave me a really big head start for sure.
How did SAE prepare you for what you do now?
Having deadlines for assignments…cause when your out in the real world there are deadlines for jobs. Then learning to be prepared, honing those skills here, being taught by some of the best lecturers how to do different things like automation, how to mix properly.
What you wanted to do starting off verses what you’ve ended up doing?
I took a bit of a right hand turn, so it was my mum pushing me to study here, I had unrealistic ideas, I wanted to drop out of school and just do gigs full-time, but mum said no I want you to go and do something and at least get a qualification in the music industry…So I chose the engineering side, it wasn’t initially my dream to produce, but I’ve ended up through all of this doing it even more than the performing side and I do enjoy it more sometimes.
What was some of the most valuable things you took away from SAE?
Absolutely relationships and connections, and learning to mix the old way with analog gear, patching and effects. Everything is so plug-ins based now, which of course I use primarily but being able to have the opportunity to work doing signal flows and everything else and mixing, doing EQ on an analog desk was absolutely super valuable.
What do you wanna do next?
Just continuing on with what I’m doing and just building my career. I’m in the very early stages of my career as an artist and as a producer as well, but it’s just taking things forward and seeing how far I can go with it
What advice would you give to students aspiring to become successful in their field?
That no matter what you do your reputation is everything. Do you show up? Do you show up on time? Do you follow through for people? Do you overcommit? Do you under-commit? I think getting all those things in order is crucial. Your name becomes everything in the business, no matter what you choose to do and if you’re known for being the one who always follows through and puts the highest quality into their work I think you will have longevity in the business for sure.
What has been a highlight of your career?
When I got signed by Trippin ‘n’ Rhythm records… Less than a year after signing my first record that went billboard number one for them, I did a debut show at the SeaBreeze Jazz Festival in Florida, which had about ten to twelve thousand people at it. I was opening for Ruben Studdard… I remember finishing my set and walking off stage and he was walking past me and smiled at me as he was walking on and that was pretty big for me… I had done other small things here and there but that was the first massive festival and I was just thrown into it.
