Ryan Rumchaks has been in bands long enough that most people in the Chicago punk and alt-rock orbit know his name through someone else’s project. Knuckle Puck. Homesafe. Both well-documented, both covered here before. But “My Old Wallet,” out now across streaming platforms, isn’t a side project or an in-between release — it’s the first real signal that Rumchaks is putting his own name at the top of the page and keeping it there.
The single follows an acoustic track called “Peace of Mind” from fall 2025 and his 2023 record “Around The Corner In The Near Future,” but this feels different in intent.
Rumchaks describes “My Old Wallet” as “a ‘saying goodbye’ and an absolute yearning to make a change — one that was long overdue.” Both a closed door and a forced-open one, by his own account. He wanted the overall mood to stay positive, even with all that weight behind it.
“I’ve always known that music is the only thing I wanted to do,” he says. “Putting myself first, and truly first, for the first time has had its ups and downs, oddly enough to say. It’s been lonely while freeing, exciting while scary.”
That tension — between relief and unease — runs through the whole conversation around this release. Rumchaks started looking inward last year more than he ever had before, and part of that meant learning something that sounds simple but clearly wasn’t: that putting himself first isn’t selfish.
He still considers himself a student of that process, but says doing so gave him the freedom and clarity he needed to move forward “at a time most dire.”
He was aware while writing “My Old Wallet” that it was a first step, not something he only recognized in hindsight. And that self-awareness carries into how he talks about releasing music under his own name — more exposed than band life, no question, but he sounds ready for it rather than bracing against it.
There’s a quieter observation he makes about the act of releasing songs in general that sticks: “After songs are released they aren’t yours anymore, it’s a strange thing. These little things that you hold so closely and protect, on paper, in little voice memos, even just in your head are now anyone’s. It’s cool and weird.”
“My Old Wallet” is just a glimpse of a larger body of work. Rumchaks is finishing up writing and heading into the studio this May, with a full record aimed at an early summer release.
All updates and links live at ryanrumchaks.com.
