Written by: Dante Estrada & Madison Fowler
Artist Ryann Barnes is making a splash in the indie-pop scene! Barnes began her music career during her last years in high school and has been creating music for over five years since. The singer grew up in Northern California playing piano and after watching her brother play guitar, she was inspired to pick up the guitar as well. Although the internet is scrubbed of her first early sounds, she does keep some remnants of her early works on her platforms. From her early beginnings, she moved to Los Angeles to study at UCLA. Along the way, she made new friends and grew in her musical career. In light of the new year, Hard Timez sat down with her to discuss her career, the evolution of her songwriting process, her music inspirations, and the plans she has ahead this year.
Barnes said, “I’ve always loved to perform just for my family, and then that segued into musical theater, which then segued into figuring out how to play my own music and pop music that I liked.”
Over the past year, Barnes released several singles, which led to an EP that tied them together titled Hang Me to Dry. She said it was never intentional to put these songs in one project. She described that after moving to Los Angeles, she wanted to work with as many people as she could. The songs came naturally to her, and later it clicked to her to have them compiled together. “But the title track for that EP, Hang Me to Dry, kind of tied them all together for me in terms of conceptually,” Barnes said.
Ahead of the live show that she played on Saturday, January 17th, she shared the excitement she had for the performance. As it marked being the first show she was playing this year, she described it as a fun opportunity and that many of her friends would be playing along with her. Barnes described the rooftop show as containing stripped-back versions of her music and said it’s a perfect segue into the year.
She had planned to make her song interactive at the show, “So in ‘Head to Head,’ I talk about something being gold and shiny. And when we were rehearsing for the show on Tuesday, I had this aha moment where I decided I wanted to get poppers that would pop and have gold like confetti come out when I say that line. So I ordered them, and I don’t think they showed up to my door.”
When looking at Ryann’s social media posts, I noticed they contained short snippets of unreleased songs. Curious, I asked the singer if most of those snippets develop into official releases. She stated, “I think that at least recently, I’ve been trying to exercise only sharing songs that are done and that I’m gonna put out. I have a tendency to get really excited about songs that I make and just want to immediately share them, because I think nowadays, everything moves so fast, especially on social media, and you never know. And if I post, you know, maybe this one is the one that’s gonna hit. So I just try to post stuff all the time, but I’m trying to be more thoughtful about it, because I do have a lot of music that I’m ready to put out, and I want to promote that stuff first before I confuse everyone. If anyone is listening, I don’t want to confuse them with the things that I post.”
It’s been nearly 5 years since the singer first started releasing music. Just as people change over time, the sounds of their music also change with them. Asking Ryann how she felt her songwriting and music have developed since 2021, she said, “I think that there’s a lot of music that I actually put out, even before 2021, that I’ve erased from the internet, and no one will ever be able to find it because it’s not good. I’ve never been protective of putting something out and worrying that it’s not like the best that it could be, because I think I would sit on songs for a long time if I did that. So, since 2021, I’ve just tried to share stuff that I’m personally excited about when I make it. And now I’m kind of at this point where the stuff that I’m rolling out now, I’ve thought more about in terms of conceptually and it being cohesive.”
“I’ve also just found collaborators that I love to work with, and I think that naturally makes things cohesive because you have the same people working on the same songs. I hope that I’ve gotten better over the years and that my songwriting has changed. I’ll write down most of the songs that I write,” she said. “I keep a list of the songs that I write, because I’m a tad OCD when it comes to remembering things, like, I like to know where everything is, and if I look at the list, I kind of will indent when I feel like something switched or something clicked for me, and like my songwriting style changed. And so there’s kind of these indents in the list of moments that I felt like I changed, and I think that just comes from the minimal life experience that I’ve had and emotions that I’ve experienced more so over the past few years. Because, I mean, in 2021, that was five years ago, so I was 16, and now I’m 21 so there’s been some things that have happened to me, some tragedies, some heartbreaks.”
Coming to the conclusion of our interview, I asked Ryann what artists and music she has been listening to lately. “I have a tendency to listen to the same things over and over again,” she stated, “So recently, I’ve really tried to start listening to new things. And I love Robyn’s album, Honey, so I’ve been listening to that.” The singer also shared what artists have inspired her latest music. “The most recent music that I’ve made is really inspired by kind of the early 2000s female pop girlies. So like Natasha Bedingfield, there’s this one band that’s not from the 2000s, but they’re super, super 2000s they make music now, it’s called the band, After, I really love them. I love Dora Jar and Oklou, just really experimental. Singer-songwriters, and Imogen Heap is always one for me. I think her melodies are really inspiring to me, because she kind of like jumps, she says, kind of cool melody and fluctuations. But, yeah, those are, those are the first that come to mind. I think the music that I’m gonna put out is definitely different, I think, from the stuff that I already have out, in terms of, just like the music that inspired it.”
Finally, I asked Ryan about her upcoming music releases and what is to come in 2026. She exclaimed, “I hope lots is to come in 2026, it feels like a good year. I am putting out a lot of music, and I am hopefully going to be playing live shows a little differently than I’ve played live shows in the past. And yeah, I’m just trying to focus on showing people the world that my music lives in, in my mind, and just the artist that I want to be. So yeah, it feels like I have more of a footing in terms of what I’m trying to say in 2026, I suppose.”
Following the drop of her EP, Hang Me Dry, and continual teasers of new music, the singer is making waves with her music. Although she has only been making music for five years, Ryann Barnes’ talent for music is clear with her enchanting, gentle vocals and raw lyricism. Her reign in the indie-pop scene is only just beginning.
Listen to Ryann’s newest single “Words You Can Twist”, out now on all streaming platforms!
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