Fifteen years after the release of Living With Giants’ debut album, “The World is Held by a Taut String,” guitarist Ryan Mannie still brims with excitement discussing what it took to record it, how willing his peers from other bands were to help with production and how he’s grown from that experience to become a mentor to those who are learning or starting their own projects.
“I’ve always believed in the arts as a community and a humanitarian thing,” Mannie said. “As a musician, to create and take influence from your local peers — I’ve been blessed in my life as a musician with the support of my peers. And I don’t take it for granted. I think Sacramento has been one of the greatest communities to facilitate that growth.”
Founded in 2009 as a solo outlet, Living With Giants grew to a four-member lineup before going on hiatus in 2015. The instrumental post-rock project returned in 2021 as a duo comprising Mannie and Carver Simmons on drums with a renewed focus on songwriting, recording and studio engineering that had been refined over the years.
Earlier this year, the band, once again Mannie alone, revisited the album that started all, releasing a “re-telling” for its 15th anniversary.
A friend put it in a way that continues to resonate with Mannie: It’s about the cruel mercy of perspective.
“It’s a re-telling of the same story, and his quote of ‘the cruel mercy of perspective’ is the most poignant way to put it, because it’s the cruel mercy of revisiting a time that you never thought you would get through,” Mannie explained. “And it’s only because it’s been 15 years that we’re able to re-tell these things with the vantage point of clear memory and cognitive distance from the original narrative. Because it’s no longer about the crisis. It’s observing the crisis. It’s articulating by maneuvering it like an artifact, you know? Being Adam Sandler in ‘Click’ hitting pause and walking around this situation.”
It also encapsulates the project overall. “With Living With Giants, it comes down to being able to live with that which overbears you,” he continued. “It’s an acknowledgment that we all have things that we go through and that there can be a way to survive. Because a fucking giant rock can be broken by a little plant through persistence.”
The Mark of the Witness
The re-release of “The World is Held by a Taut String” includes an easter egg — the Mark of The Witness — for those who connect with the album. “The Mark of The Witness is an interactive tool meant to represent both the darkness and light with equal divinity,” Mannie said. “This is all about rewarding curiosity. Anyone who wants to know more about Living With Giants, this is going to be the most effective way.”
Interested in learning more? Head to the band’s website, navigate to the bio and inquire upon the mark.
In addition to re-recording his own work with the skills developed over the course of more than a decade, Mannie has created a “mobile rig” — a rack case with high-end signal processing that allows him to take his gear out into nature and record high-quality material.
“I’m working with a few friends on some project ideas, taking them out to local river trails and doing acoustic performances out there, along with video content. Every place has a voice, and every place has a harmonic resonance, and as artists, we respond to those environments. I believe musicians have the ability to resonate and find harmony wherever they are,” Mannie said. “I love collaborative projects and helping expand the craft of music, and that’s one thing that I would love to help facilitate or grow within the music community.”
