Everyone's favorite pop punk disruptor, Ray Hawthorne, is back! After ending 2025 with the unbridled chaos of his sophomore album, "Ray Hawthorne Isn't Real" the Los Angeles-based firebrand returns today, with his first release of 2026: an unapologetically anthemic new single, "Sidelines". Fans can listen to the new single Below.
Caught between motion and paralysis, "Sidelines" captures the feeling of being stuck on the edge of your own life, shouting at stoplights, and cursing the street signs in a city that doesn't feel like home anymore. Hawthorne pushes his signature mix of heartbreak, sarcasm, and emotional volatility into darker territory as he trades punchlines to let his guard down in a way that feels both unnerving and strangely hopeful.
Never one to miss a chance for a little chaos and nostalgia, Ray Hawthorne shares:
"When I was a kid my mom wouldn’t let me buy CD’s with parental advisory labels on them. No cursing music for me. But I NEEDED it in my life. The forbidden fruit. The rebellion. Fred Durst and such. So this lead to some interesting work arounds. For those of you that don’t know (or weren’t born yet), Offspring’s Americana CD didn’t have a parental advisory sticker on it. Which was pretty fly. So I was able to trick my mom into buying it for me. I made it through about two weeks listening to Americana in secret before I got ballsy. One fateful day I played the album for my cousin while my mom was getting ready for work in the next room. Bad move. The Offspring left my life that afternoon, and Americana was almost immediately given to one of my mom’s coworkers. Sometimes I like to wonder where that CD is today. Does she still have it? Did it become a family heirloom? Is it gathering dust at a goodwill store in New Jersey? Did it get passed down and inspire some other kid to fight the system with three chords and a dream? We’ll never know. But what I do know is that I just put out a new song. It’s called Sidelines. I hope some kid breaks his parent’s rules to listen to it. That’s the dream.”
Renowned for his work in North Kingsley, the acclaimed project alongside Shavo Odadjian of System of a Down, Hawthorne initially captured hearts as the Heartbreak Hero with his inaugural solo release "Heartbreak Feels Good in a Place Like This". Building on his solo work, his debut record "Ray Hawthorne Sucks" further cemented his status as a bold new voice in pop punk, quickly amassing a devoted following and over 18 million streams across all streaming platforms for his magnetic charm and razor-sharp wit.
Blending heartbreak, sarcasm, and just the right amount of emotional stability, Ray Hawthorne leads with a messy kind of hope, turning emotional freefall into something you can scream along to. Where debut album and his firstborn, "Ray Hawthorne Sucks", leaned into an earnest DIY vulnerability, his latest record, "Ray Hawthorne Isn't Real", took a turn and tapped into the restless defiance of a secondborn. The 15 tracks helped embrace the chaos, laugh at the pain, and maybe, just maybe, allow us all to find a little redemption along the way.
Starting from the very real possibility that Ray Hawthorne is just a guy screaming into the ether (and somehow making it sound catchy), his catalog has become a refuge for anyone who's ever felt too loud, too sensitive, or too much. Loud, petty, and deeply cathartic, Ray Hawthorne is proudly one of the most unapologetically honest voices modern pop-punk.
Be sure to stay tuned for more Ray Hawthorne news coming very soon.
ABOUT RAY HAWTHORNE
Do you remember that episode of Degrassi where Ashley really wants Craig to tell her he loves her, but Craig gets all panicked and can’t tell her that he does? It causes so much drama in their relationship. She begins to question her feelings for him and because of that, he becomes seemingly unsure of his feelings for her. So, in an effort to quell the bad vibes, Craig writes a song that includes lyrics IMPLICITLY AND EXPLICITLY stating that he loves her. (Total banger by the way, the only song of his I like better is the one he sings at the battle of the bands after the two inevitably break up, it’s also about Ashley. I believe it’s called ‘What I Know’) Anyway, Craig was only able to admit he loved Ashley in song form, but you as the viewer are left wondering ‘Does he really love her, or was this just his solution to end the drama?’ Or, ’Is this truly the only way he can express himself because he’s kind of nervous about speaking his true feelings outside of the structured environment of a song?’. I tend to believe it’s a mixture of both. So what I’m trying to say is, this collection of songs is kind of like that. I always feel like I have so much to say but often feel a bit too vulnerable when discussing my actual feelings. So for the majority of my life, I’ve just written them into songs instead. These songs can be quite vulnerable even if they seem silly at times. So now you’re left to wonder... am I telling the truth or just trying to get rid of Ashley’s bad vibes?