Everyone's favorite pop punk disruptor, Ray Hawthorne, is back in his feelings and out of his body. Following the anthemic chaos of his recent single, "Sidelines" and his sophomore album, "Ray Hawthorne Isn't Real" the Los Angeles-based firebrand returns with "Somewhere Else," a dizzy, late night confessional about being physically present but emotionally checked out. Fans can listen to the new single Below.
Kicking off like a movie, "Somewhere Else" starts with a messy walk home and only gets more unhinged from there, zooming in on bloody knuckles, bad habits, and the way shame makes you want to disappear even when someone is standing right in front of you. Ray Hawthorne leans into that split-screen feeling of watching yourself from the outside, trying to be the person someone believes in while secretly falling apart in real time.
With his signature mix of chaos, humor, and heart still fully intact, Ray Hawthorne shares:
"Yo have you guys seen Britney Spears’ instagram lately? I’m supposed to write a quote for the song I just dropped but I literally can’t look away from Britney Spears’ instagram. Admittedly I was super out of the loop for the whole ‘Free Britney’ thing, I only got a basic overview from some friends and never really looked further into it. But yo, a reel she just posted popped up on my instagram feed and it’s wild. Don’t scroll through Britney Spears’ reels tab if you have anything else planned for the day. You won’t be able to look away. But the comments are turned off, so you can’t even get a feel for what people are thinking about these reels. You’d have to look up some YouTube think-piece about it, and I don’t have time for that. Alright, actually I had to look it up. I just did a basic YouTube search for “Britney Spears Instagram”. A video popped up with a thumbnail that says “Is it her sister with AI of her face? Is she alive?”. I gotta watch this shit, will report back.
Oh my god. That’s 30 minutes of my life I’ll never get back. Let me save you some time, this video is bullshit, Britney Spears is still alive, she is NOT just Zoey 101 with an AI face no matter what “Ready to Glare” on YouTube might suggest. Just leave Britney alone and listen to my new song instead. It’s called Somewhere Else.”
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?