From Open Verse Challenge to Sold Out Stages – Interview With Stacey Ryan

Last December, Stacey Ryan shared a video on TikTok inviting users to add a verse to a song she hadn’t finished writing with her now-famous open verse challenge. What Ryan didn’t know was that that video would become one of the biggest TikTok videos of the year, with over 17 million views. The video was duetted by a number of creators, including @zai1k _ and Jimmy Fallon, and earned Stacey the attention of Island Records. In a matter of months, Ryan signed a record deal and released the final version of ‘Don’t Text Me When You’re Drunk’ featuring Zai1k, which has garnered over 25 million streams.

Ryan quickly built on the momentum of ‘Don’t Text Me When You’re Drunk’ with a stream of successful releases, including ‘Deep End’ and three versions of her wildly popular ‘Fall In Love Alone.’ Stacey also found herself opening for one of her favorite bands Lawrence, playing on festival stages, and another tour in support of Joshua Bassett.

Road Trip Playlists had the opportunity to talk with Stacey Ryan before she opened for Lawrence at their sold-out ‘Staycation’ festival at Brooklyn Steel. Stacey chants could be heard over the New York crowd in preparation for soul-pop’s rising star to take the stage. Ryan played an incredible set with beautiful jazz runs as she stood at the keyboard. We talked with Stacey about the last year from her viral TikTok, signing her record deal, to playing sold-out shows. Read the full interview below or listen on our Road Trip Playlists Podcast.

Interview with Stacey Ryan

Thank you for joining us at Road Trip Playlists. I like to start out by asking what’s on your road trip playlist? What are you listening to?

Stacey Ryan: Um, so it’s funny, I am really bad with like playlists and stuff. I just like songs. And then when I want to, when I go on Spotify to listen to music, I just shuffle all my life songs. And then I’m like, I’m not in that mood. And I’ll skip Skip, skip, skip, skip. So I’m kind of terrible. But I did start making, I think I made like a chill, like hip hop, not hip hop, but like r&b playlist, which if I was going on a road trip, I probably play that. Okay, it’s like a chill, but it’s also like movement. So it’s keeping me like awake.

So, you’re opening for Lawrence tonight. You’ve toured with them before. It’s an incredible fit with your music. What is it like for you to open for them?

SR: I think I mean, it feels like a really full circle moment. Because I remember listening to their stuff. Like when I was in, like University, and I would drive to school and I put their album on and I would listen to it. And then back like flash forward to now that I’m opening and um, we’re all friends, we all know each other. And like, we know, I feel like we kind of go beyond just like the opener and the main act like I feel like we’re legitimately friends and I could always call them up. If I ever like needed them for like a project or vice versa or even just like hang out if we’re ever in the same spot. You know, it’s I feel like I just gained a group of like, really awesome friends at the same time.

What cool people to be friends with too.

SR: Literally they’re like the most nice, cool, awesome people.

Have you played Settlers of Catan with them? I had them on the podcast and learned about Clyde’s Settlers of Catan obsession and it’s been my dream to play with Lawrence.

SR: No, I want to go to that. I’m on the West Coast, it’s hard. But I remember one night, the night of my show in New York on my birthday, Clyde came. And then we all went out afterwards. And then he invited me to I think it was Johnny’s birthday. That was like happening in New York City. And I had a show the next day in Times Square. And by the time we got back to the hotel, or it was already over with like an early party thing. So I got invited to that.

Okay, playing int Times Square is a good reason to miss it. That’s a pretty cool moment in a year of cool moments. What for you has been one of the coolest moments of the last year?

SR: I mean, time squares probably literally the coolest thing because how many people can say that they’ve played their own music? Yeah. In literally the middle of Times Square with cars going by and people walking people stopping. Times Square was super cool. Playing a festival in Hyde Park in London. It wasn’t my first festival. Oh my God, there’s so many moments. That one that was my first solo festival performance. I also played the Jazz Fest in Montreal. Because it was like I had played the Jazz Fest before 2016. But I did it in like a blues like a summer camp a week long summer camp. And it was about like blues music. So we like all these bunch of kids auditioned and we got put into bands. And then we practiced with like teachers alongside us for a week and then at the end of the week, we all performed on the big stage. And it was fire and I actually what’s really funny is that the one of the guitarist in my band back in 2016 was the guitarist in my band this year it was super like that’s where we met for the first time then we went to school together after so that was full circle. There’s there’s too many to name but those are like some of the really cool, cool.

You mentioned school, you’ve gone to music school, like it was you went to high school music that was a jazz music high school?

SR: So it’s yeah, it’s pretty complicated because in Quebec, where I grew up, you do high school and then when you leave high school instead of going right to like college to get your bachelor’s degree, you go to the school, like completely different school, including different campus called CGF. So you do that, and you kind of you get the equivalent of an associate’s degree in the US. But in Canada, we call it a college degree. So I like I have a college degree in jazz interpretation. Oh, and then I went on to university to get my bachelor’s. Okay, which for us, it’s three years instead of four interest. So it’s kind of it’s kind of all the same thing. Yeah, the date? Not really. But like, I feel like I have almost the same education as someone who did music school in the US. Totally. And but I didn’t finish my bachelor’s degree because I dropped out to do music full time. And I think I think it’s going pretty well.

I’d say you made a good choice. Did you always know like, how long have you known that you wanted to do music?

SR: Forever. It was always like, when I was a kid, like, obviously, when I was a kid, I wasn’t really thinking about, like, what my job would be. But it’s hard. The song is so good. When I got older, as I got older, my parents were like, hey, like, Do you maybe want to take this is the way that I remember this. But in high school in grade 10, I took like, Advanced Math. My parents were like, it’s good to have, you know, like, if ever you want to do something else, and I’m like, okay, so I took it past it, but it was really hard. And then when I went to grade a lot, because we graduate grade 11. We don’t have grade 12. Okay, so it’s all different. It’s all messed up. But I went to regular math. So I was like, I don’t need advanced. I’m gonna be a musician. Yeah, there was no plan B ever. Interesting. Like never ever. I was just kind of like, hopefully it works out.

Were you writing music? When did you start writing?

SR: Yeah, I wrote, I only started writing music when I was like, 18-19. Because I didn’t write before then. Because I was like, I’ve never lived through anything impactful to write about, which kind of looking back on it now is kind of dumb, because I could have like, wrote, like, written about experience, like other people, like an experience in someone else’s shoes. Like, it doesn’t have to necessarily be what I have been through. That’s obviously what most people write their songs about. And then I kind of got out of that and was like, let me write some music. And then I started and the rest is history.

Now that you are writing and sharing these experiences in song, what has it been like sharing these personal thoughts and experiences? Has it been hard at all?

SR: Honestly, it really depends on the subject matter. Because, like, there’s stuff that I’ve went through that I’m going through that like I don’t think I would ever write about because it’s just too personal. Yeah, it’s just like that thing that I wouldn’t want to say, you know, because like, I’m allowed to have some privacy and like my song matter and what I write about, but when you it’s like because it’s really different when you write a song using something that you’re going through the song sometimes just writes itself because the emotions are so there, there’s no present. But on the other hand, when you’re writing about maybe a situation that you’re not going through and you’re just kind of doing it as like a more like a songwriting exercise by trying to put yourself in like someone else’s shoes and write a song it’s also a different like it’s it’s a different kind of cool because you’re you’re you’re trying to live an experience that you’re not going through so it’s like a brain workout, but at the end of the day, the song will could be just as good no and the song that you wrote going through personal experience might not be that good. You know, it’s a given that it’s going to be amazing just because you’re living through it might just be easier to write

Well, your most recent song ‘Fall In Love Alone,’ I really love and you released the original version but then did a sped up and stripped version to go along with it. How did that come to be?

SR: I mean, this original song was released in May, and that was that the plan was just to keep it that way, and just have the original song out and that’s great. And then it has this big moment on TikTok, especially over in Southeast Asia. And sped up songs are a very thing of the moment everyone’s doing it. And it’s trending very heavily, like on TikTok and stuff. So someone made a sped up sound. And then it just started like, going absolutely crazy. I think it has, like, one of the sounds has like 750,000 videos using it, and another one has 300,000. So like, at least over a million people, or a million videos, have used the sped up version. So we thought, why not just put it out? You know, maybe people want to listen to that. Instead of just like the 22nd clip on TikTok, and people really liked it. And then we thought why not release the the third? Yeah, the third installment, you know, the strict version, because we also got asked like, maybe not, like, a million times, but we got to ask, like I saw enough comments saying, hey, please release this on Spotify, like the stripped down version. And so I think it’s kind of cool to have that succession of the three coming out and now like, because you know, you have the OG Yeah. And then you just have like, it’s to like little counterpart.

You talked about ‘Fall In Love Alone’ blowing up on TikTok. The last year has been kind of insane for you since you blew up on TikTok. You shared an original song on TikTok and then a comment said they want to write a verse for it and you shared a new open verse challenge that quickly became the one of the most viral videos on TikTok. You put your phone down and it blows up, were you expecting that at all?

SR: I wasn’t expecting anything to be honest. Like, I remember writing the song. And I think when I put the open verse out, it wasn’t even fully written. Yeah, I think I only had like, the chorus and like the pre chorus and like verse one. Because I wrote it in a practice room at my university. Oh my gosh, and the first video that I ever posted was in our practice room when I first wrote it was like November 30. And then I don’t know if you know Sadie Jean. She did. She was going super viral, like around the end of December for her open verse challenge for her. So what are you doing now? And I remember Mills, my manager, he was like, hey, like, have you ever thought of doing an open verse? I was like, I don’t know which song I could do it with? Because I didn’t really have any original music. Yeah, like that. I could do it with me. Like, what about that don’t text when you’re drunk? And I’m like, Yeah, but I’m like, I don’t like I don’t have like, because career version, you could tell that the song was finished and ready to be put out. And they just kind of like muted her vocals and put it out because it sounded really well produced and stuff. And he’s like, Oh, just like, put something together. And I’m like, okay, so then I went on my computer on logic, and I put the little drums in the keyboard, and then Bill myself dancing along to it, and uploaded it on December 29. Like, honestly, these dates will be like, in like, imprinted on my brain forever. And then on the third of January is I do Edit, and then his video just went like stupidly viral. And then the official version with him came out 13 days after that.

I was looking at the timeline for everything and it was crazy!

SR: That was like, and I was also like, during that time, more near the end, we were on Zoom calls, with Nils and like every major label, because they were seeing what was going on and they were sending emails to like my inbox, because in my like bio of all my social media at that time, nothing was really happening. Yeah. And then it’s like, Hey, this is so and so from Republic records. And I’m like, that’s crazy. Let me forward you to my manager. Yeah. And then we were doing zoom calls. And I was also because my producers are we’re in LA and I was in Montreal, so I was sending them my vocals. I was cutting them like in my Room sending them and then they’d be like feeling like, we didn’t love the energy, can you redo it all? And I was like, because they didn’t have them there to, like vocal produce me while I was doing it. And so I was like, okay, and it was like 10pm. And I’m like, everyone’s sleeping in my house and I’m like, you need to do it, you need to do it. It’s so important. Now, you know what? You’re right. So it was just the process was It was strange. And I don’t think I’d love to do it again. Maybe not that quickly, because we were on a line. But I do like being in the moment for the actual recording. But that’s it. It was so quick.

I hate saying it all blew up so quickly because it hides the work that went in before all of that. You were posting a lot of TikTok’s prior to that. There was a lot of work that happened prior to the ‘Don’t Text Me When You’re Drunk’ video, But how much did your life change after what, December 29?

SR: Early like, I was able to I mean, I signed a record deal on February 7. So that’s like literally barely two months or that’s like a month after almost given totally. I signed a record label then only March, April, May for like, three months after that. I moved to LA. Three months. That is no time at all. I was literally in LA more than more than I know. I mean, it all just worked out. That’s my roommate was looking for a roommate and a place so he was in LA like looking at places I was home. Like, wow, if you would have told me a year ago, like I was funny, my dad brought me to the airport yesterday, because I flew from here to here. And he’s like a year ago today you were driving this car to school. And I was like scary riots. So weird, right? It’s so weird. Sitting at Brooklyn steel doing a podcast interview before a sold out show.

It’s insane. It feels like so long ago, but it was just last year.

SR: So far away. It feels like it happened. ages ago. I feel like I have lived and gone through so much since Yeah, just because like it’s been nonstop. It’s literally been nonstop.

Well you had a manager. But how prepared do you think you were for everything that came after that video?

SR: I mean, prepared. Fine, expecting it. Like everything that kept coming. I was like, Oh, cool. Awesome. But like it just like it just kept coming. And like it’s what I always wanted. Yeah. So every time it came, I like accepted it with open arms. But it’s definitely like wanting it and dreaming about it is so much different than like actually doing it and you realize that it’s not like always roses and nice flowers. And so it’s definitely taken like a you know, to adjust to, from like going to school and being at home all the time. Especially because quarantine was a super weird animal just kind of hanging out to like being on the road a lot and not you know, like never. I mean, not seeing my family as much you know, because like no one none of my family lives in LA. Everyone knows I have some family in like Calgary, which is in Alberta.

*the interview had some technical difficulties, but Stacey also discussed everything that is next for her including exciting new music as well as a Mall tour in Indonesia.

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