In September of 2008 something clicked and Saving Throw was truly born. Asked what changed, Ryan is uncertain. "I don't know man, I mean, something just happened and all of the sudden, we were all there. All of us, me, Nick, Lesley, Sinclair, we could all tour together, but still feel like solo artists. Creatively it was very freeing because we still were able to bring all the songs we had learned in our own spaces, as well as some new ones and tour as a band yet retain the solo feeling." Energized, they started what they jokingly dubbed "Solo World Tour Mode". Success came quickly.

Ryan and the band soon learned about the rigors of the road. "Yeah, we started out small, I mean real small. I'm talking just a few hundred people at a time at our shows, but you know, those numbers started going up pretty quickly and before we knew it we could play in San Fran and LA which really helped us broaden our base." Along with extra fans, the band found the perks of being a rock star falling to them with alarming speed. "We had one gig, like, I don't know, four gigs into the tour when this guy gave us a tour bus. Just up and gave it to us after we did well in a show. He kept going on about us being his five star performers and wouldn't shut up about it. I know that I'm new to touring, but this seemed kind of weird. I mean, it's a huge bus with a toilet and everything. But hey, if he didn't want it, we were happy to take it."

As the band grew in fame, constantly crisscrossing the country Ryan discovered that managing the music was the least of his worries. "Oh, staff, yeah. What a mess. Well, first we had a street team, and they were pretty good about spreading the word, but then we hired a PR guy and man, we lost serious credibility with him. After that, I think it was the East Coast Promoter, then the West Coast Promoter and then the stylist. We looked great, but the dude took like all of our money. None of us actually have a lot of clothes, maybe like one outfit each, so to keep paying this guy to make us look good was kind of stupid. When you can only have like, one or two people on your payroll at a time, it's hard to make the right choices."

Equally difficult was choosing their set list from gig to gig, made especially hard by the fact that Saving Throw, to date, has never written an original song or released an original album. Ryan bristles at this. "Look, we can play. All of us. There's no doubt about that. And yeah, we play a lot of the same songs and they're all covers, but you know what, people come to our shows and they have a good time. Who else can you go and see go right from a Megadeth song to "Cool for Cats" by Squeeze? You dismiss us, but we're up there every night. We hear the crowd singing along, we know that they're into it. And every week, every single week, we're adding new songs to the line up. Wednesdays are our unofficial new music days where we go over what we're going to perform next. So yeah, we do covers, but we rock the s&^% out of them, which is more than I can say for most bands."

Ryan does recognize that there are other bands out there, many cover bands themselves and they're all looking for the type of success that Saving Throw has enjoyed. "Of course there are other bands. There will always be other bands. Look at outfits like Henpecked. Look at CD3. These are good bands, they bring it, same as us, every night and there's fans for everyone. Sure, some bands may get in these fights, these battles, but in the end, we all want the same thing. To play, to entertain, to get fans."

When asked what's next for Saving Throw, you can tell that Ryan honestly doesn't know, but he's not in a rush to find out either. "Keep touring, I guess. We've been waiting to tour for so long now, that it seems silly to stop. More gigs, more fans, more achievements. I hear there's a plane we can get if we can just get more stars in Boston, whatever that means. Maybe one day we can get inducted into the hall of fame, maybe sing all of our songs in a grueling seven hour marathon without taking a break to pee, who knows. This is what it's all about though. This is it. This is a rock band."

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