Meet RYN

Today we’d like to introduce you to RYN.

Hi RYN, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Growing up, I was always in some kind of chorus in school. I remember in 4th or 5th grade when a classmate of mine got the solo for our Christmas recital instead of me.

It ruined me for the rest of the school year. I wanted so badly to be able to sing by myself in front of all my classmates and their parents. I wanted to be heard.

I started writing music when I was 13. My parents had gotten me a guitar for Christmas that year and it was all downhill from there. I would come home from school and play till my fingers were calloused over.

Before then, I hadn’t found anything in life that I wanted to dedicate so much of myself to and grow with. Fast forward 12 years, and I still have that same passion and fire for creating music. I don’t think it will soon die and I sure hope it doesn’t.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My journey with music has certainly not been a seamless one. I tend to compare it to my sobriety. I got sober from alcohol in October of 2020.

In fact, I was sober for about 7 months before that, but when I got COVID, it destroyed any bit of willpower I had to keep going on that. I drank the whole time I was in quarantine and I felt physically and mentally awful afterward. I thank God every day for my sobriety and ability to think and act with clearer intentions.

With my music, my depression is my “COVID.” Anyone reading this can attest to the fact that the pandemic was an incredible shock to our system and way of life. When the pandemic struck, a lot of artists took the opportunity, with all this time on their hands, to put out more music than they ever had before.

This was not exactly the case for me. I worked on music, sure, but I saw this time as more of a moment to put my foot down and start taking better care of my mental health. I went back to therapy, I got myself on medication, and I spent a lot of time in nature.

I don’t know if or when I would have done that had this not happened in the world.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Some know me as a professional hot dog eater.

Most know me as a music artist. My name is RYN, in all caps so you don’t forget it. For the last time, it’s not pronounced like Ryan. It is pronounced like the end of my name, Kathryn. I go by Katie to all my friends but I felt my music deserved a bit of an alter ego.

Time and time again, people stumble across my music and struggle to accept that someone with my image and personality made it. My music is a tangible silver screen moment of my heart, which cannot be seen by the human eye.

My style varies when I write. I was a singer before I was a writer, but I was a writer before I became an artist. In more recent years, I’ve gravitated greatly toward R&B and Soul. I grew up listening to Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys, and Hall and Oates so that style was always ingrained in me.

I also greatly flock to Electronic/Dance music. My goal is to popularize what I call R&E (Rhythm & Electronics). I like the flow and vibe of R&B but I love the production and trance-like state Electronic/Dance music can put you in. I think it would be dope to combine the two.

For my shameless plug of the week, I recently dropped a new single R.O.L. so I encourage you to check that out. I’m also coming out with 2 new collaborations in July and August and another new single very soon.

There are lots to listen to so jump in while the water’s warm!

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Nashville has been my home for about 12 years now.

My family and I moved to Hendersonville back in 2010 just a few months after the historic May flood (Nashville natives know what I’m talking about). When I was a youngster, everything everywhere seemed so vast to me, like an astronaut looking down at Earth for the first time and feeling utterly disarmed.

Nashville never felt that way to me though. It always had a small-town feel with big lights. You’d meet a Mary-Ann and she knew John who went way back with Rick who was best friends with blah blah blahhhhh. Everyone knows everyone here, which can be a double-edged sword in the music industry.

Nashville, by the day, is giving me less and less of that small-town feel. I’ll wake up, head into the city, and there are 2 new buildings that are popping up. The old mom-and-pop café I used to frequent is probably going to end up being replaced by a goat yoga studio at some point.

My friends and family are torn on all this. Half of my circle likes the expansion and thinks it will help put this city on the map. The other half thinks gentrification is cultural devastation and Nashville is slowly but surely shedding the skin that made it so special in the first place.

I’m the person stuck in the middle of this Hatfields and McCoy’s standoff. I like Nashville for what it is and what it has the potential to be. We just gotta get rid of the nash-elorette’s and party buses, that’s all. I don’t ask for much.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4Z1RL5c3neZ79fXid7PyHB
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rynsmusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rynsmusics
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBoq6rVHO8EIUEbXWbrDOZg
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/rynsmusics
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@rynsmusics?lang=en

Image Credits:
Cecilia Pitchford, Reed Herring, and Bob Welch