Pop punk's most lovable liability, Ray Hawthorne, takes the blame on his latest single, "Wrong", and somehow manages to make his guilty conscience a good time. A window into the ongoing reflection of his sobriety, "Wrong" sees Ray Hawthorne reckon with the ghosts of everyone caught in the crossfire of his addiction. Listen to the new single, "Wrong", BELOW.
Shifting his gaze outward, "Wrong" tackles the collateral damage of addiction, the people hurt along the way, and the guilt that sobriety forces you to finally sit with. A song only possible from the other side,"Wrong" is Ray Hawthorne holding himself accountable in the only way he knows how, loudly.
Rather than address the themes of guilt, accountability, and personal reckoning on "Wrong", Ray Hawthorne would like to provide everyone with a much needed travel update:
"Right now, like right now, I am driving from coast to coast contemplating who I actually am and how I got here. I’ll spare you the theatrics but I have been chased out of Los Angeles by a pack of human-presenting-reptilians driving cyber trucks. I made it out by the skin of my teeth, but not without scars, tears, and one hell of a comeback story. As the reptilian elite inch closer and closer to my rental car’s rear bumper I find myself excited for you to hear the song I just dropped. It opens with me being all emo like “I’m seeing reflections in a brake light, get the fuck out of this year, like running away from a state line is gonna help me disappear” and that couldn’t be more apt for this exact moment. It’s weird how life works.”
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?
