What Real Life Feels Like: An Interview With Catch Me If You Can

By Staff | June 5, 2026

After a fourteen-year run as Ryan Hanratty’s solo acoustic venture, the project known as Catch Me If You Can has never shied away from blending punk energy with folk storytelling. It’s latest single emerged from an accidental ska influence, transforming anxious themes into an unexpectedly bright, horn-driven bounce. Despite a three-year recording hiatus, Ryan never considered abandoning the outlet, viewing past basement gigs and open mics as essential fuel rather than mere nostalgia. Each live performance remains a raw, stripped-down exchange between a performer and an acoustic guitar.

How did you land on the title "Me vs. The Lack of Context", and what does that lack of context feel like in your day-to-day life as a musician in NYC?

I think I was invoking a bit of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World there. In name for sure, but also in the sense that even when I feel as if I know what I am doing, if I were to zoom out and watch myself, every day can simultaneously feel like a toss-up. Swinging the bat blind and hoping for a home run. Not sure if that makes sense, but I'm pretty sure that was where my head was at.

What made you decide to wrap such heavy themes of millennial anxiety and existential dread inside an upbeat, ska-tinged sound rather than a darker acoustic arrangement?

Darker songs come rather naturally to me. I've been writing in different forms for a long time and more often than not, my instinct is to lean into heavier themes and more complex subjects. I remember when I first wrote MVLOC, I just stared at the words thinking it was awful. Too cheesy. I think even when I posted a clip of it on Instagram for the first time back in 2021, I said in the caption something along the lines of, "hopefully, this isn't too cheesy." Overall, I think I just liked the irony of writing a bright and seemingly positive song, that was the opposite of what I was feeling. Also, I have been referring to the song as my accidental ska song, which I often view as the "emo with a smile" genre.

I had released another song during COVID called "Safety Measures" and I was thinking in the same way. How can I turn something that feels like an inescapable stressor into a song that might make you want to run around in a skank pit.

After three years without a release, what finally pushed you back into the studio, and did you ever worry Catch Me If You Can had run its course?

Trying to tell me something? 🤣

No, Catch Me If You Can has been my acoustic solo project for 14 years, which is crazy. I don't think I'll ever end it. The idea of starting completely from scratch again gives me a headache. I wish the three-year break was more interesting or mysterious, but I was just trying to put money aside and find the right songs to record next. I definitely have the songs. Now it's just a matter of getting them recorded the way I hear them in my head.

You've said momentary dopamine feels more valuable than long-term planning now. Do you think your own songwriting has shifted more toward capturing fleeting feelings rather than telling complete stories?

Most novels or screenplays need an outline before they can be written. I was always terrible at that because once I created the outline, I felt as if I had already written the thing. I would be like, "Now I need to do it again? I just got out of me what I needed to get out! Doing that again sounds exhausting," which I suppose leans into that fleeting feeling aspect. So when I write songs, they're more or less outlines, or pieces of what could be a larger story. When I said "momentary dopamine feels more valuable than long-term planning now," I think I was expressing what real life feels like nowadays. Many long-term goals have been recategorized as pipe dreams. It is easier to focus on little victories that are within reach, which is fine, great even, but we also look for immediate gratification in the form of likes, comments, shares, streams, read receipts, etc. Those have become the priority in a lot of ways, and we've sort of been conditioned to value instant micro-successes over what you can feel when seeing something through to the end.

All that to say, those emotions and points of view certainly leaked into the song and its lyrics.

The ska influence came almost unintentionally. Can you walk us through the moment you realized the song had grown horns and a two-tone bounce?

I've always liked ska. I've seen Less Than Jake, Streetlight Manifesto, and Reel Big Fish more times than I can remember. I also used to play bass in a ska band for a time. It is in my creative blood a bit. However, CMIYC has always found its comfort zone in the Frank Turner, Brian Fallon, and Against Me! sound of punk. And look, over time I've come to think genres are just what you make of them, and as long as the music is yours, as long as it is good, fun, and exciting in your eyes, where it lands categorically really doesn't matter at the end of the day. That said, I'm a chords and strum guy. Plus my guitar playing, write or wrong, has a natural upstroke to it. So while I'm digging into my creative mess of a brain, a lead guitar part seldom comes out. ‍What is more likely to come out is the thought of adding pieces, such as horn lines, harmonica, or keyboard parts that could potentially elevate what I have already placed on the track. As recording progressed, one day it just hit me and I told my buddy John: "it needs horns. It needs I little bit of that Tony Hawk Pro Skater spice that everyone perks up for when they hear it."

How did working with producer John Baldassano and the added horns from Mike Snow change a song that started as an acoustic punk idea?

All my songs have to start as an acoustic punk idea out of necessity. That's where I am settled musically. It's my baseline. One goal of mine is to move that default baseline to another instrument to discover what fresh ideas I can come up with. John, I've worked with him for years. He's a friend of a friend that I linked up with musically, probably around 2017 and we just clicked. He knows what I like and has always been very patient with me as I've navigated the recording process over the years. He provides suggestions to me constantly but always makes sure that what gets put into the song ultimately comes from my vision. ‍Mike Snow I have actually never met. I found him and the track's drummer, Nico Lembo, on a site called SoundBetter. Through there I hired them, sent them the stems, and separately they worked with me to create the additional parts that the song needed. Both incredibly talented people and I would 100% work with them again.

You've played everything from basement DIY shows to Debonair Music Hall and a pub in Ireland. How does "Me Vs. The Lack of Context" translate live, especially with its layered horn and drum parts?

Well, I wish the answer was that it translates beautifully, but CMIYC to this point has literally been "what you see is what you get.” I don't have a band, not at this time. It is something I would love to build, and I do hope it is on the horizon once these new songs are fully recorded. For now though, when you come to a CMIYC show it is me and my acoustic giving you everything I've got.

You founded Catch Me If You Can in 2012. More than a decade later, how do you keep the project from becoming just another nostalgia act when nostalgia itself is one of the things you're singing about?

I'm not too worried about that. There are parts of my time playing music that I hold dearly. If I didn't walk into a bar called The Rail House in Rahway, NJ in the summer of 2014, I wouldn't be playing music today. If I didn't spend as much time in The Court Tavern as I did from 2015 to 2018, I wouldn't know half the amazing local musicians that I know today either. If I didn't go to countless open mics in Astoria, or play The Bitter End, or drive way out into Suffolk County to play shows extremely late at night on a weekday, CMIYC wouldn't even be worth bringing up when I'm asked what I do with my time. So while all these things are in the past now, they're all reasons for me to not stop. And I have a lot of stories that I could not concoct in my weird brain without all those experiences. To me they'll always be a powerful source to lean on.

Anyone you'd like to thank?

For sure! John Baldassano, Mike Snow, and Nico Lembo for their part in making the song a reality. Stefani Janelli of The Mic (@themicnj), for being an amazing marketer and friend. She helped me get this song out into the world and did it extremely professionally and with excitement for each new opportunity we came across. ‍I would also love to thank Chris Fox and Brian Erickson. Both of them are amazingly talented musicians themselves, and they were kind enough to provide me feedback as I spent a whole year recording this song.

Also, thank you to all my friends and family who listened, shared, and supported the track, and all my other songs to this point. Y'all are amazing! Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me through all these 14 years, it means everything. Finally, thank YOU for this opportunity and interview!!

"Me Vs. The Lack of Context" is available today anywhere you stream your music.

All Things CMIYC can be found here: https://linktr.ee/CMIYCMusic

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