After leaving school, Cabrera played in the band Rubix Groove, which opened for artists like
Cheap Trick and
Third Eye Blind. Cabrera composed three songs that impressed a studio engineer, who then let Cabrera record a full-length album,
Elm St., for free at Deep Ellum Studios.
Take It All Away Cabrera was signed to
Atlantic Records in 2002. His major debut single "
On the Way Down" debuted on American radio in May 2004.
Take It All Away was released on August 17, 2004, at number eight on the
Billboard 200 album chart and sold over 66,000 copies in its first week and eventually was certified Platinum.
John Rzeznik, lead singer of the
Goo Goo Dolls, produced
Take It All Away. The second single was "
True", whose music video featured
Taylor Cole, an actress from the TV show
Summerland. The third single was "
40 Kinds of Sadness". Cabrera appeared on the
Son of the Mask soundtrack with the song "Inside Your Mind" and the Fantastic Four soundtrack with the song "Always Come Back To You". Cabrera has starred in a concert film, Live at the Wiltern, with him performing songs from his album
Take It All Away.
2005–2008: You Stand Watching Cabrera's second album,
You Stand Watching, was released on September 20, 2005, and it included his singles "
Shine On" and "Photo". Cabrera's relationship with
Ashlee Simpson inspired "Photo". Several songs were co-written with singer-songwriter
Andrew Ripp.
You Stand Watching debuted at No. 24 on the
Billboard 200 and sold around 37,000 in its first week. In 2006, Cabrera released the single "I Will Remember You". The song was used soon thereafter as the closing montage for the series finale of
Will & Grace. Soon after, the song was used to send off the female contestants on the 3rd season of
So You Think You Can Dance. He added a re-recorded version of the song at the end of his third album,
The Moon Under Water.
The Moon Under Water was released on May 13, 2008, under Frolic Room Records/ Papa Joe Records and peaked at No. 177 on the
Billboard 200. It released two singles, "Say" and "
Enemies".
2012–present On July 3, 2012, Cabrera released a new song called "Home". On August 2, he released another single called "I See Love" on
iTunes, where it reached No. 83 on the top 100. In January 2013, he went on a U.S. tour with
Tyler Hilton and
Teddy Geiger. In March 2013, Cabrera launched the web series ''Live From Ryan's Living Room''. Joining Ryan were celebrities including
Colbie Caillat, Tyler Hilton,
Chord Overstreet and
Mark Ballas. Each month Ryan chose a charity to benefit, one being
City of Hope National Medical Center. In September 2013, Ryan went on an Ireland and UK tour with
Boyce Avenue. In 2014, Cabrera was the first artist signed to Dynamite Music, which was founded by Mitchell Davis and Marco Liuzzo in partnership with
Caroline Records and
Universal Music Group. On October 7, 2014, Cabrera announced his single "House on Fire" with a video on his Facebook page. The single was released to iTunes on October 22. He released a lyric video for his single "House on Fire" on November 3, 2014, on Artist Direct's website. "House on Fire" peaked at number one on the US dance chart. Cabrera's EP,
Wake Up Beautiful, was released on March 3, 2015. Formed in late 2015, Beyond the Sky is a musical conglomerate consisting of players, producers and vocalists from a multitude of genres. Cabrera took lead in this collaborative project, whose first single "Right on the Money" was released on February 12, 2016. ==Television appearances==