Today's Business Highlight: Bryan Yurcan

rosajaviersales
Aug 8
16 min read

Today's Business Highlight Features Bryan Yurcan, a local musician based in Bethlehem who originally hails from New York and New Jersey. Bryan is becoming a meaningful part of the Lehigh Valley music scene, not only because of what he plays, but his original music is something that I will like to call a Historian Musician.

His original music captures the moments, emotions, and observations that many of us experience but rarely can put into words. Whether he's writing about television culture, love, or life experiences, New Jersey, or the everyday moments that shape us, Bryan has a way of making a feeling/emotion that feels unique, universally relatable.

When I attended his show at the A&F Grog House in Bethlehem, I was struck by more than just the songwriting. Between songs, his quick wit and sense of humor made sure the audience was kept entertained the entire evening.

So, without further ado, join me as I sit down with Bryan Yurcan to talk about his music, his creative process, and the stories behind his original music.

Business Information:

Bryan Yurcan

Email: byurcanmusic@gmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/byurcanmusic/

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/bryan-yurcan/1550409666

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfqekRJJ6tx67Ye6FVM14Q

Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/albums/B0D2FQ58M7

ReverbNation: https://legacy.reverbnation.com/bryanyurcan

bandcamp: https://bryanyurcan.bandcamp.com/

Meet Bryan Yurcan

Bryan Yurcan at the A&F Grog House in Bethlehem

Rosa: Hi, Bryan. Can you hear me?

Bryan: Yes, I can. Can you hear me?

Rosa: I can. It says we're recording, so I just wanted to make sure.

Bryan: Sounds good.

Rosa: How are you?

Bryan: I'm good. How are you?

Rosa: I'm doing well. Let's jump right in. Tell us who you are and what you do as a musician.

Bryan: My name is Bryan Yurcan, and I've been playing music and writing songs for about thirty years. I primarily play guitar, though I occasionally play other stringed instruments like the banjo.

Ever since I picked up a guitar, I've wanted to write songs. Songwriting has always been my passion. I enjoy listening to many different genres of music, and because of that, it's hard to define exactly what I create. Some people describe my music as indie or folk, and one person even called it "outsider art." That's not necessarily the label I'm aiming for, but maybe that's just how it comes across.

Rosa: Musicians often connect to the world through their art, so that's really interesting. What first drew you to music, and what inspired you to start writing songs?

Bryan: I've always loved music. When I was a kid in the early '90s, I listened to cassettes and was into grunge bands like Nirvana, along with Guns N' Roses and other hard rock and heavy metal groups.

As I got older and became a teenager, I started exploring my dad's record collection. He grew up in the '60s and '70s, so I discovered artists like Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Sly and the Family Stone, Marvin Gaye, and many others. That completely broadened my musical interests.

Around the age of fifteen or sixteen, I picked up the guitar. From the very beginning, I wasn't just interested in learning how to play, I wanted to write songs. For some reason, creating music always interested me more than simply performing other people's songs.

Rule-less Learning

Rosa: Are you self-taught, or do you have any formal training?

Bryan: No, I don't have any formal training. My friend in high school, who had been playing guitar since he was about ten, taught me the basics, all the basic chords, what each string should be tuned to, and everything. After that, I just learned by trying to play stuff that I liked. This was the late nineties, before the internet really took off, so I bought a lot of tablature books for bands that I liked and learned their songs that way. That's kind of how I went with it.

Rosa: So how did that shape the way you became a musician since you taught yourself, basically?

Bryan: I think that way lends itself to more creativity. Like I mentioned, all those bands from the sixties and seventies: the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and others, they would sit there with their guitars, listen to Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis, or whoever, and try to learn it themselves. They'd keep replaying the vinyl record until they could figure it out, and then they took that and made it their own.

I feel like that's kind of what I did. I was influenced by a lot of people, and I took what they did and made it my own. A lot of people say this too, but I feel like if you have formal training, like if you went to Juilliard or something, it's harder to be creative or write songs because you know everything that's "supposed" to be done. I feel like if you just start playing and trying to be creative, it's better that way.

Rosa: Okay. That makes sense. I guess if you're constantly remembering how you were taught, it's hard to break the rules.

Bryan: Yeah. Most popular musicians aren't classically or formally trained. Whether you go back to those bands from the sixties or even to Taylor Swift today, most of them just did it because they wanted an outlet for creativity.

The Historian Musician

Rosa: I did listen to a lot of your music, and I found it really interesting that it's basically super local. Even the parts about New Jersey and the Mercer County stuff, it very much feels like an experience for the people around here, the border between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. With that in mind, it also reflected a lot of memory and nostalgia. What do you think has been the continuing theme of your songwriting?

Bryan: Hopefully people who live in California, Brazil, or wherever can appreciate it too. I'm very observational. When I first started writing songs, I would try to write like other people. Then I had an epiphany in my early twenties. I was driving in the rain, it was really pouring, and then I looked ahead and there was a break in the clouds. I wrote a song called That Break in the Clouds, and that's when I realized I could become more observational.

From then on, if I was driving through a quaint small town, I'd write a song imagining what life there was like. That's kind of what I do. Since I lived most of my life in New York originally, then New Jersey, and now Bethlehem, my songs naturally tend to be about those places because that's where I'm from.

That's how I write songs, just observing things. I'm definitely big on nostalgia. I'm in my forties now, so I write a lot about the past.

Rosa: When I was listening to your music, it felt like you were some type of historian, marking all the things that were happening during a specific time that you lived in. I thought that was pretty cool.

Bryan: I love history.

Memories & Atmosphere

Rosa: Looking back now, what has music helped guide you through, and what lessons has it taught you?

Bryan: I don't know. It's just been a fun creative outlet. Everyone has something they enjoy doing that helps them get through the days and the years. It could be woodworking, quilting, or whatever the case is. I've just really enjoyed music.

When I was younger, I played in bands, and for the last ten years or so, I've mostly played solo. Most of the gigs I do are solo. I kind of want to get back into playing with other people because it's fun. It's fun to write and create music with other people. It's a fun creative process. For me, it's just enjoyable.

Rosa: Another theme that I heard in your music was the atmosphere. You have a lot of atmosphere within your music, a lot of open space. I'll talk about this song in a bit, but I think it was High School Poetry. I liked that song. That was my favorite, and I wrote a few questions about it. Is the songwriting process emotional for you when you sit down to write?

Bryan: It can be emotional. Some songs in my past were definitely about people, maybe girls that I dated. More recently, as I've gotten older, it's become more observational or about thinking about the past.

It really depends. That song is just me and an acoustic guitar. I have other songs I've recorded more recently that have drums, bass, and lead guitars. It all depends. I'd love to have full arrangements, horn sections, and string sections, but it's all about what you can afford.

Rosa: At the same time, there is a space for music that has a lot of atmosphere.

Bryan: Yeah.

Rosa: Music today has a lot of layers and a lot going on. There is something to music that leaves space.

Bryan: I totally agree with you. Music today is very overproduced. I don't know much about pop music today outside of people like Taylor Swift and maybe a couple of others, but it definitely has a lot going on. There are so many layers. I would never want anything like that.

I do like minimalistic music. At the same time, there are some songs where I think, "I'd love to have a horn section in here," but I can't afford to pay a horn section.

Rosa: I do think you have a style where, even if you were to add more layers, it would still have that atmosphere. Especially when you're talking about nostalgia and things that happened in the past, it kind of takes you back. The atmosphere is almost like another musician, if that makes sense.

Bryan: I totally agree with you. That's a good way to put it. I never would have thought to describe it that way myself. It's interesting when other people listen and make observations like that.

Even if I added more instrumentation, I still wouldn't want it to sound like pop music today. It's fun to do different things. Sometimes I like doing minimalistic stuff, but other times I want to challenge myself.

I'm recording a couple more songs in July or August at a studio in downtown Bethlehem that was co-founded by a guy I go to church with. A lot of times I think, "I'm going to do minimalistic stuff." But for these songs, I'm thinking about adding vocal harmonies, background vocals, and lead guitar. I want to make them a little more layered just to challenge myself.

Original Music

Rosa: Playing original music is way harder, especially when trying to connect with the audience. People love covers because they already have memories or some connection to those songs. At the same time, when people are listening to your original music, they're creating new memories in real time. Especially at a special event, it's hard to make that connection with the audience. How do you go about doing that?

Bryan: People definitely love to hear songs they know, and I enjoy playing covers if it's a song that I like. It also depends on the venue. At a gig that's at a bar or brewery, like one I'm doing in July, I'll probably do about seventy percent covers and thirty percent originals. Someone once told me to always play "Country Roads" by John Denver. Ever since then, I always play it. People love it, they sing along, and they'll usually come up and leave me a tip.

I also play around thirty percent original songs, and when people come up and tell me they really enjoyed one of them, I really enjoy that because it means I connected with them.

At open mics, especially in more intimate venues, I usually play all original songs. There's one here in Bethlehem at the library on Monday nights where people generally come to listen to songs. There's also one at Godfrey Daniels on the South Side of Bethlehem, where everyone is there to listen to each other.

I've also played songwriter gatherings in Princeton, New Jersey, where I performed all original songs. In a venue like that, I'll play all originals. But if I'm somewhere like a bar or brewery, I'll play a lot of covers too. It's always good when people enjoy your original music.

Rosa: Do you think that when you mix it up like that, people pay more attention to your original music?

Bryan: I don't know. Maybe. It's hard to tell. There was one place I used to play in New Jersey quite a bit, but now that I've moved, it's about two hours away, so I don't play there anymore. It was a nice upscale gastropub, but nobody was ever really listening. You could hear everyone talking in the background, and you were just kind of there being ignored. I was basically there to get my check at the end and go home.

Other places, though, people really do listen. I guess if you play a cover song they really like, they're probably more inclined to pay attention afterward.

Rosa: What do you think is the most vulnerable part of sharing your original music with people?

Bryan: It's always personal. It's kind of like writing a memoir. A lot of people write songs about breakups or family experiences. You're sharing part of your feelings with the world, so it can be scary if you think people are going to think it's bad or laugh at you.

But really, no one ever laughs at you. That's what I always tell people. I've met a lot of people who say they're afraid to play out. I tell them I've been to hundreds of open mics, and no one has ever laughed at me. People are usually pretty friendly.

Rosa: Have you ever had a time where somebody connected with one of your songs very deeply, where it really stayed with you?

Bryan: Yeah. For example, I played an original song at an open mic recently, and the guy hosting it said, "That almost brought a tear to my eye." I thanked him, and that's something I remember.

Another time, I was playing a gig at a bar where most people were drinking and kind of ignoring the music. But there was a couple who were probably around my age, and they both came up afterward and said, "We really like that song of yours." Stuff like that really stays with you.

Rosa: How does that make you feel as a songwriter?

Bryan: Good. It gives you encouragement to keep going. It's always nice getting comments. One of my YouTube videos got a comment from someone in Japan saying they really liked it. I have no idea how this person in Japan found my song among billions of songs on YouTube, but it inspires me to keep writing.

Rosa: That's the perfect segue to talk about your actual music. The first song, TV Guide, was the one you told me was your favorite. It's less about television and more about memory and comfort as time passes. Other than the TV shows themselves, what inspired this song?

Bryan: It's all about nostalgia, like you mentioned earlier. I never really sit down and think, "What should I write a song about?" Ideas just come to me.

This one came from thinking about being a kid and buying the TV Guide. From there, the whole song just wrote itself. It wasn't really about television from the eighties and nineties. It was more about nostalgia, thinking about being young, and remembering a world that doesn't exist anymore.

I was talking with one of my friends about how, even in the late nineties when we were in high school, the internet existed, but you didn't have everything at your fingertips. We'd go to record stores looking for obscure or rare albums. Today you can find any show, movie, or song within five seconds.

The song is really about that world gone by, when you had to wait until a specific day and time each week to watch your favorite TV show instead of binge-watching everything whenever you wanted.

Rosa: It seems like the song is about everyday life, very ordinary life. As a kid, you go to the store with your mom, you watch TV, and it just feels like another day. But with your music, you gave those ordinary moments emotional power. How do you even explain how you were able to do that?

Bryan: It's hard to explain. Like I said, I never really sit down with a process. Songs just come to me. Inspiration just comes to me.

I think it goes back to what I was saying about thinking of a world gone by. I wouldn't have thought to write that song in 2003 because the world wasn't much different then. Now, though, things have changed so much. Kids and teenagers today will never have the same experiences I had. That was really my mindset when I was writing it.

Rosa: How did you approach the instrumentation and, like I mentioned before, the atmosphere for this song?

Bryan: In terms of what I played on guitar, I wanted a vibe you'd hear in a ballad, with picked strings. I also wanted a string section because the song is emotional.

When I recorded it with a guy named Matt at his studio in downtown Bethlehem, I told him I couldn't afford a real string section, so I asked if he could create one on a synthesizer. That's what you hear in the song. I felt the song needed strings, and that's how we did it.

Rosa: My favorite song was High School Poetry. How intimate is that song to you?

Bryan: It's funny because, like I said, I make up songs based on observing things, so it's not even specifically about a person. I was actually inspired to write it after watching the movie Juno, about the girl in high school who gets pregnant.

Rosa: Yeah, I remember that one.

Bryan: It was a pretty big movie at the time. The soundtrack was very sparse, just acoustic guitar and singing. The lyrics were kind of irreverent, and all the songs in the movie had that style. I thought, "I want to write a song like that." Just acoustic guitar and maybe a silly or weird kind of love song that would fit in that movie. That's where the idea came from.

Rosa: Do songs work almost like films in your head?

Bryan: I don't usually think about them like films. That one just happened to be inspired by trying to write songs like the ones in Juno. I mostly imagine a scenario in my head—what it would be like if I were writing for those characters or what they would say to each other.

Rosa: In the beginning, I called you a historian musician. Do you feel like you're preserving moments through your songwriting?

Bryan: Totally. I never thought about it that way, but now that you bring it up, that's pretty much exactly what I'm doing. I'm going to use "historian musician."

Rosa: When I was listening to your music, that's exactly what I thought. You're capturing moments and putting them into music and words, then creating an atmosphere that actually takes people back there.

Bryan: That's exactly what I am doing.

Finding a Home in the Lehigh Valley

Rosa: What has the Lehigh Valley music scene meant to you personally throughout your journey as an artist?

Bryan: I've only lived here for two years, so I can't talk like I'm a longtime local. But I will say that as soon as I moved here, I started looking for open mics, and there's a lot going on. There's a lot of good music around here.

When I lived in New Jersey for almost ten years before moving here, there was a really cool local music scene. I went to open mics, got gigs, and networked with people. Here, it's been very similar.

I've met a lot of cool people through open mics, and I've been able to get gigs around Easton, Bethlehem, and the surrounding area. There are also places in Allentown that have live music, although I haven't played there yet. There are a lot of breweries and venues that support live music, which is really cool.

There are also a lot of people making music. Like I mentioned, Matt, who I recorded TV Guide with, was recommended to me by someone who hosted an open mic. I also mentioned another guy who opened a recording studio.

It's nice that there's a real music community here. There are people making music, plenty of venues that host live performances, and places like Godfrey Daniels on the South Side of Bethlehem, which has an open mic and is a pretty famous venue. There's a lot happening here musically, which has been really nice.

Supporting Independent Artists & Connecting with Bryan

Rosa: To the people listening, what do you think is the best way to support you as an independent artist?

Bryan: You can find all my music online and listen to it on whatever platform you use. If you're on YouTube or another platform that allows comments, liking and commenting really helps.

I know everyone uses Spotify, but I personally don't like it. They pay artists the least per stream compared to platforms like YouTube and Apple Music. It's still not much, but it's more than Spotify. Spotify also promotes a lot of AI-generated music, and they removed a lot of my songs because they claimed bots were listening to them. I have no idea where they got that from. I wouldn't even know how to create a bot.

If you're going to listen anywhere, I'd say anywhere but Spotify. Bandcamp is especially great because you can directly support the artist. If you listen to one of my albums on YouTube, I might earn fifteen or twenty cents. On Bandcamp, you can buy an album for five or seven dollars. It's kind of like the old days of buying a cassette or CD. You still get the music digitally, but you're directly supporting independent artists.

Rosa: On the other hand, if there are venues, businesses, or event organizers listening who may be interested in booking you, how can they reach out?

Bryan: I have a dedicated email address that I use for booking venues:

byurcanmusic@gmail.com

You can also contact me through my YouTube page. I believe YouTube has a "Contact Artist" feature, so either of those would work.

Rosa: I know this will go live in July. Do you have any performances after July where people can see you, or where can they find your upcoming shows?

Bryan: I have a page on ReverbNation where I post my upcoming gigs. Just search my name and you'll find it. I don't have a website. I probably should, but I don't.

Rosa: Facebook works just as well.

Bryan: Yeah. I'm also on Facebook as Bryan Yurcan Music. I usually post my performances there, on ReverbNation, and sometimes on YouTube in the updates section.

Rosa: Last question. Let's name all the places where people can find you online. You mentioned YouTube, Spotify, Facebook... Are you on Instagram?

Bryan: No. I used to be on Twitter and Instagram, but I deleted all of my social media. I found it annoying trying to keep up with it, and there are so many people and bands online. Instead of trying to compete with everyone else, I decided to go the opposite direction and lean into being a little more anti-tech and outsider art.

I do keep Facebook because some venues ask artists to create Facebook events to promote shows. Other than that, you can find me on YouTube and all the major streaming platforms like Amazon Music, Apple Music, TIDAL, and others.

Rosa: Very cool. Bryan, thank you so much. I really enjoyed our conversation.

Bryan: Me too. It was great.

Rosa: I'm going to write the blogs, and this whole conversation will also be available on the podcast. The podcast is on Spotify, but...

Bryan: That's alright. I guess you have to be on Spotify.

Rosa: Exactly. It's been a great conversation. I'm really happy you're part of this little project. Thank you again.

Bryan: Thank you. I really appreciate it. It was great.

Rosa: Awesome. We'll keep in touch, and I'll come see you at one of your shows.

Bryan: Thank you. I appreciate that.

Rosa: Take care. Bye-bye.

Bryan: Bye.

Supporting Bryan Yurcan Means Supporting Local Music, Storytelling, and Independent Artists.

As part of Season Three of Business Highlight, I had the opportunity to sit down with Bethlehem-based singer-songwriter Bryan Yurcan, an artist whose music transforms everyday moments into lasting memories. Through thoughtful songwriting and a deep sense of observation, Bryan captures the people, places, and experiences that shape our lives, preserving them through music in a way that feels both deeply personal and universally relatable.

Throughout our conversation, we explored his journey as a self-taught musician, the inspiration behind his songwriting, his love of nostalgia, and why I came to think of him as a historian musician, someone who preserves moments in time through lyrics, atmosphere, and storytelling. We also discussed the creative process behind songs like TV Guide and High School Poetry, the importance of supporting original music, and how the Lehigh Valley music scene has become part of his artistic journey.

Supporting independent musicians means supporting the venues, open mics, recording studios, and local businesses that give artists a place to create and perform. I hope this conversation encourages you to discover Bryan's music, attend a local show, and continue supporting the talented musicians whose work helps tell the story of our communities.