“Love is dramatic, you know”: Ryan Beatty on Sweet Fortune, working with Beyoncé and his Grammy
After a Grammy-winning turn on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter and the quiet triumph of Calico, Ryan Beatty returns with his fourth album, Sweet Fortune, his warmest and most romantic record yet.
Ryan Beatty has already lived multiple musical lives. As a teenager the 30-year-old Californian was being moulded into the new Justin Bieber – purple hoodie and swept fringe firmly in place – before he realised it wasn’t what he wanted. In 2018 he released his debut album, the soft-R&B of Boy in Jeans, before pivoting to electronic textures on 2020’s Dreaming of David. In-between, he became one music’s most in-demand vocalists, working with the likes of Brockhampton, Tyler, the Creator and Benny Blanco.
But it was on 2023’s Calico, a slow-burn break-up classic steeped in vintage singer-songwriter textures, that Beatty really stepped into his own. The album led to him co-writing four songs on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, earning him a Grammy in the process.
Now he’s back with the more loved-up, Sweet Fortune, a bigger and (mainly) brighter opus that touches on love, separation (his boyfriend lives in a different state) and the joys of reconciliation. We spoke via the medium of Zoom while one of us slowly melted in the heat.
SWEET FORTUNE ALBUM ARTWORK @RYANBEATTY
We’re in a heatwave here in the UK, so things are falling apart. Do you enjoy the summer?
Well, that’s actually when I prefer London. When the sun’s out and it’s super hot. I get that it’s uncomfortable but in a weird way I enjoy that feeling. I live for summer. As I was making the new album I knew I wanted it to come out in summertime. When I hear an album that I love I always associate it with the time that I first heard it. Something that comes to mind is when [Frank Ocean’s] Blonde came out, 10 years ago now, it was August, and so it feels like such an end of summer record to me.
Wasn’t some of the album written in freezing New York?
It was, yeah. It really shocked the system, which I think I really needed at that time. Just writing music while it was snowing. I know it sounds simple, but I’ve never done that before.
Do you like New York in general? You seem more of an open spaces kind of guy.
I do. But here’s the thing, my car is my comfort place. Even just this morning, I literally sat in my car for an hour before we got on this call, just listening to music and having coffee. I need that space. But I can’t imagine having a car in New York. I know people do it, but it just seems so scary to me. In New York you can’t avoid the chaos in a way, and I think sometimes it’s really nice that I can get into a flow. Although the last time I was there, I felt like I had been moving all day, which can be just super overwhelming.
Was it strange to write outside of California? How did it affect some of the songs?
I feel like the record itself is about distance in some ways. So being away from a sense of immediate comfort was an interesting play in terms of how I was making the album. It kind of put me in that headspace. There’s this idea of having something, yet not always having access to it. But the distance away from it still brings this tension and this joy because being away from it almost helps me actualise the feeling a little bit more. It helps me really understand the passion of it in a way.
This is your fourth album – has creating each album taught you something new, and if so what did you learn from making this new one?
I really learned to let go a lot more with this album, and be less critical in the making of it. I’m not saying that I always acted on that, because it’s hard for me. I can be really critical of myself. At times that’s led me to a really cool place creatively, because it allows me to push myself, but I’ve learned that if I’m not enjoying doing this then I shouldn’t be doing it. With this album, although at first it was uncomfortable to write from this place of romance, it also reminded me that I can go there and become comfortable with it.
Is it quite scary to write an album from a place of happiness?
It’s definitely harder. It’s a different perspective on vulnerability, because when you’re the heartbroken one you know that people, when they relate to it, there’s a lot of empathy for that feeling. People relate to it in a way of ‘I know how that feels, and it hurts and I’m with you’. When you write from a place of bliss, maybe people aren’t ready to take that on. But the truth is the truth, and I couldn’t put on an act for this record. I couldn’t make it a sequel to the last one. It also comes from a place of shattering that idea of what people think about me, or how people perceive me as an artist.
When you write from a place of bliss, maybe people aren’t ready to take that on. But the truth is the truth, and I couldn’t put on an act for this record
RYAN BEATTY
How do they perceive you?
I really don’t know. But it’s actually also about becoming comfortable with that.
Each of your albums feels different to the one before – what do you put that down to?
There’s maybe that invisible pendulum that swings. I feel like I’ve explored that part of it, of myself, because I know that I have tons of sounds and ideas and artists that I’m pulled towards. And I know that they don’t all exist in the same place. I actually love listening back sometimes and hearing how different they all are, because I think it shows that I’ve allowed myself to go and exist in all these different places. I always want to do that. I never want to do things that don’t excite me. So, yeah, who knows what the next one will sound like?
You scrubbed your Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/ryanbeatty] for this new era. Do you quite like each album living as a distinct world?
It’s fun to see it as sort of a gallery of what I’m currently showing. It’s not to say that the rest of the history won’t come back, but when I have a focussed idea I like to just display that in a way.
And there’s a sort of secret Instagram too [https://www.instagram.com/cheap_pink]?
Yeah, that’s just my little side account. When we were shooting the video [for Secret Language], I just had so many great photos that I wanted to share, but I felt like they needed to exist in a separate space. It reminds me of when Instagram used to be fun.
@RYANBEATTY
Before you had to do reels.
Well, exactly. I think people need to bring back just posting photos of their food at dinner, and the filters with the borders and everything.
Come on Lorde, get that onion rings account back up!
Exactly.
Let’s talk about the video for first single Secret Language, because for some reason you decided to do a lot of running in it. While wearing cowboy boots. Why?
Love is dramatic, you know. As I was making this record, those boots were my boots, like that was what I was wearing on stage, that’s what I was wearing literally as my everyday shoe. So in a way I wanted to carry them with me in the video, because it felt like this emblem for that time when I was writing this song. I know people will be like, ‘Okay, why didn’t you just wear some running shoes?’ But those little emblems and ingredients are what make this fun for me. But, yeah, it was incredibly painful. I didn’t take them off one time, for any take, even when we were shooting from the chest up. I did do theatre as a kid, so I feel like maybe it’s something in that.
Lyrically Secret Language seems to be about not being able to communicate the biggest emotions, and yet the actual song sounds huge.
Yeah that’s kind of the point of the song; not saying it all, but also saying it in the biggest way. Music is the vessel of the purest part of my emotions. It’s the easiest way for me to communicate them. So it just felt like a fun thing to play with; how big it was versus how maybe shy the lyrics pose as.
Are you quite shy about sharing the music with your partner?
I get excited, but I think that early on maybe it’s a little more uncomfortable, especially because it’s no secret what you’re talking about.
Are you ready for fans to just be like, ‘why don’t you just live together?’
Well, it’s none of their fucking business.
There’s a country lilt to some of the songs on the record, which some may connect to your work on Cowboy Carter. Did that process have an influence on the record?
Yes, but everything I make, whether it be for me or for somebody else, has my DNA in it. I always have to find the bridge between what I’m connected to and maybe what they’re connected to.
What are your overriding memories of working with Beyoncé?
I will say that it helped me grow a lot as a songwriter. And it gave me this quiet confidence because at the time I didn’t tell anybody I was working on it. I kept it so quiet because I really respected the process, and I wanted to honour that. So the whole thing felt really sacred. I’m just so appreciative to have been involved. It still feels like a dream to me. Being included in it and being respected in it, just reminded me that I’m great at what I do.
Did winning a Grammy also feel like a dream?
Absolutely. It’s hard to explain, because that’s one of those things that when you’re really young, you dream about. If I can do that someday, then I’ve “made it”. And when it happened, it was a beautiful night. One of my sisters was there, my brother was there with me. They came last minute. I don’t even know how to explain, it just felt like the best night of my life. I’ll be watching TV, and then my eyes will glance over at [the Grammy], and I’ll start laughing because I’m just, like, how is that real?
It’s hard to explain, because that’s one of those things that when you’re really young, you dream about. If I can do that someday, then I’ve “made it”…I’ll be watching TV, and then my eyes will glance over at [my Grammy], and I’ll start laughing because I’m just, like, how is that real?
RYAN BEATTY
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