Pop punk's most lovable liability, Ray Hawthorne, unravels on his latest single, "Hang Up", where self-awareness stops being productive and starts eating you alive. Trapped between the truth and or self-preservation, "Hang Up" follows the instinct to lie just enough to get through the day, wrapping Ray Hawthorne's ugliest thoughts into something undeniably catchy. Listen to the new single, "Hang Up" Below:
Turning the lens sharply inward, "Hang Up" abandons easy catharsis in favor of something more restless and unresolved. The track wrestles with identity, the comfort of self-sabotage, and the strange safety in never fully meaning what you say. Without a resolution, you're faced with the worst things you believe about yourself on repeat, the dial tone, and the growing suspicion that the line's been dead the whole time.
In an effort to provide insight into the track "Hang Up", Ray Hawthorne took a moment to make things significantly worse:
"When I was recording this song it became abundantly clear to me that it needed to start with a shit talking voicemail. I called a friend of mine that I met at the school bus stop when I was like nine years old and we’ve been inseparable ever since. This girl officiated my wedding, that’s how close we are. So anyway, I call her and I go “Yo pimp, can you shit talk me on a voice note real quick?” She laughed and said she’s literally always ready to talk shit on me. Thats a real friend right there. Like two minutes later I get hit with no less than four voice notes tearing me apart as a person. Shit that cuts deep in a way only your closest friends know how to get to you. It was awesome. We couldn’t even use everything because there was so much shit talk and not enough instrumental intro. But maybe one day I’ll drop the deleted scenes on a Hang Up DVD. Until then, I think the song is worth listening to just for Kristi’s performance alone.”
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 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?