Ryn Weaver is spending the summer the way most 22 year olds dream of: touring the country to play music from her debut album, ‘The Fool.’ After dropping out of NYU in 2013, Weaver moved back to California where she connected with Benny Blanco, a producer who has worked with such pop luminaries as Katy Perry, Kesha and Maroon 5 in the past. After the success of the resulting EP, she hit the festival circuit, with stops at Coachella, SXSW and Bonnaroo. This summer, she’s loving connecting with fans on her first solo tour. Her first tour
“It’s been really freaking wild.” Weaver says. “The first show I played was this sold out show in a town where I have a lot of family and friends, and L.A. was sold out too. I think when you’re playing at festivals it’s really fun, but it’s a lot about winning new fans and having people listen to your music because they wandered over.” Weaver is currently in the middle of a tour spanning the US and Canada. She says the connection she makes with fans at solo shows has been very meaningful. “Every single person at these shows is there because they care about my lyrics and what I’m saying and they all know all the words and they relate. So it’s a very comforting experience. It’s been very fun for me.” Concept albums
Weaver, who was involved in theater growing up, might have been inspired by her experiences there — she created the album to be listened to all in one sitting, like a play. “I believe in concept albums,” she says. “There’s something beautiful to be said about pop stars, and the breadth of catchy music that sometimes doesn’t even go together but is such a good time anyway. As much as I love that and respect people who can achieve that, I think that I’m naturally a bit more of a storyteller.” That can mean spending a little more time with what she’s working on. “A lot of my favorite artists took their time to make different records. They would fall off the map a bit and come back. So a lot of the music I was listening to always felt like it was coming from a very specific world.” Music videos
To date, Weaver has put out two videos: one for her breakout hit “OctaHate” and one for her album’s namesake, “The Fool.” Both are aesthetic and evocative, featuring unusual, vivid settings (an old house, a gorgeous field), which serves to immerse the viewer in her world. “I always have ideas [for videos] in my head as I write songs. I kind of see the theater of it.” For these videos, Weaver found inspiration close by. “In ‘OctaHate,’ that’s my best friend Hayley, and we actually came together as friends because of the person the song was written about. To me, it represented way more than us having a food fight at the table. It was about overcoming the journey of the mourning process. There’s a final hug at the end. It’s about how you wrestle with grief and mourning.” Starring roles
Although Weaver is achieving serious success as a musician, she once attended NYU as an acting student. “Every single form of art is beneficial to another one. In acting, you get to study characters and you get to understand. It’s an empathetic art form. It’s almost anthropological. I love it.” Ultimately, she moved back to California to pursue music, finding that the west coast suits her a little better. “I love the east coast, but a number of the [acting] methods break people down to bring them back up. I kind of believe in nurturing the natural side of you that has those qualities. Sometimes I think technique can crush creativity a bit.”
Ryn Weaver is loving the solo tour life
