Ryan Beatty was set to be the next Bieber – then he realised he was living a lie
over 4 years in The guardian
After an epiphany on a plane, the LA singer-songwriter came out and found the freedom he needed
Ryan Beatty was flying home to LA after a gig when he had an epiphany. “I remember we were about to take off and I just told my manager: ‘I can’t do this any more,’” he says of that life-changing moment in 2013. Aged only 18, he had been primed to be the next Justin Bieber, complete with an EP full of saccharine love songs, a swept auburn fringe and a plethora of purple hoodies, but he could not tally his public persona with who he really was.
Six years later and he is splayed out on a sofa in his major label’s north London offices on the eve of the release of his second album, the densely layered alt-pop opus Dreaming of David. It follows 2018’s soulful, critically lauded Boy in Jeans, an album bookended by collaborations with maverick boyband Brockhampton, genre-bending upstart Tyler, the Creator and the super-producer Benny Blanco. Continue reading...
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