March 24, 2020

Austin Work Mixes: Ryan Britton

3rd + Lamar
Print from The National Bureau

We’re speaking to Austin locals to discover their favorite work mixes. What do you rock out to when it’s time to get shit done? Send us your playlist at [email protected].

Long-time Austin resident Ryan Britton is the founder and CEO of The National Bureau of Product Research, an up-and-coming fashion label that sells direct-to-consumer online.

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A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Britton is a former NASA contractor who found inspiration in archived aerospace blueprints and command module schematics. That artwork is now present in his garments.

Britton works from a detached office space behind his house. Since high school, he’s been a night owl.

“I’m most productive from 10 p.m. to 2-3 a.m.,” he says. “The sun coming up for me is always bad news. It’s like, ‘Uh, I have an entire day of sunlight to deal with now.’ But after it goes down and things get quiet, it seems like the world gets quiet. Then I start to really pound out the stuff that I need to get done.”

Britton, whose go-to work playlist is below, describes his musical taste as “just a little bit darker.”

“It’s all electronica with overtones of industrial and dark wave,” he said. “It’s got a steady beat. It’s kind of down low. ‘Fineshrine’ by Purity Ring has a bunch of high notes. I sort of note that when I work. In a lot of ways, it grooves along. You can listen to it, or you can tune it out for a second to concentrate on something else.”