Shadow Animal

Shadow Animal is the musical alter ego of songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Christopher Ryan.

Shadow Animal creates genre-agnostic music that explores the relationship between hope and hardship.  His eclectic sound may be considered along the lines of indie-rock or singer-songwriter.  However, Shadow Animal incorporates multiple genre influences including ska, jazz, hip hop, blues rock, and spoken word.  Shadow Animal simply cannot be placed into a box.

Christopher's music has been played on radio stations worldwide. In 2019 he was selected as an Artist in Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts where he worked with Grammy Award winner Larry Mitchell. In 2021, Christopher took second place in the COMBO Songwriting Contest. In 2022 he was a Showcase Finalist in the Rocky Mountain Songwriting Contest. In 2025, his "Distant Diamonds" music video won the Best Music Video award at three international film festivals. (Cine Sepia Reels Carnival, Dreamz Catcher International Film Festival, Indie Cine Tube Awards)

His 2025 album, Dreams We Build, was recorded with Grammy-nominated producer Andrew Berlin (Gregory Alan Isakov, Rise Against) and mastered by Latin Grammy winner Jason Livermore (Molotov).​​​