As he gears up to release "Ray Hawthorne Can't Be Trusted", Ray Hawthorne is once again sharing how a few bad decisions, too much self-awareness, and an inability to leave well enough alone somehow became a full-length record:
"If you or someone you know has been personally effected by the lyrics of Ray Hawthorne Can’t Be Trusted, don’t @ me. This is the first of my albums that was made intentionally. Prior to this I would release a lot of singles, see what people liked the best, then try to retroactively fit the top performers and some unreleased material into a functional album with coherent themes. NOT THIS TIME MOTHERFUCKERS. THIS IS 13 TRACKS OF UNADULTERATED RAGE MEANT TO RIP YOUR HEART OUT WITH NO REGARD FOR YOUR PERSONAL SAFETY. (I read that in the voice of a monster truck rally commercial by the way.) But on a serious note, it was fun getting together with Pete and really thinking through the album as a whole. How it should ebb and flow, where we should push heavier or pull back, things like that. So I hope that level of cohesion is more present than my previous albums when you listen through the record.”
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 20 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 previous 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.