{"id":2728,"date":"2026-06-22T22:36:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T22:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2728"},"modified":"2026-06-22T22:36:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T22:36:13","slug":"ryan-beatty-on-how-finding-happiness-in-love-shaped-his-new-album-sweet-fortune-this-record-has-a-really-big-heart-to-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2728","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Beatty on How Finding Happiness in Love Shaped His New Album \u2018Sweet Fortune\u2019: \u2018This Record Has a Really Big Heart to It\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nRyan Beatty was about to embark on the final leg of his \u201cCalico\u201d tour in 2024 when he cut the song \u201cPhantom\u201d with frequent collaborator Ethan Gruska. He was in Los Angeles, the city he calls home, when they worked on the tune, a lilting, slow-burning track that gradually blooms like a flower. At the time, he knew there was something there; perhaps it could be a bridge away from his critically acclaimed third album \u201cCalico,\u201d a gorgeous record that grappled with the end of a relationship by examining its finer details, as if to grasp at them one last time before they slipped away.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201c\u2018Phantom\u2019 felt like it was this last breath of \u2018Calico\u2019 and this new life into whatever was next,\u201d Beatty tells Variety<\/em> of the first song on his fourth record \u201cSweet Fortune,\u201d out this Friday. \u201cIt feels like a farewell and a hello at the same time. I love that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIndeed, \u201cSweet Fortune\u201d isn\u2019t decidedly different for Beatty, but rather an elevation, or perhaps evolution, of the Americana sound that he probed on its predecessor. Across the album\u2019s 10 tracks, Beatty sings of the joys and challenges of a long-distance relationship, opening himself up to the listener in a way that feels plainly confessional, as though he\u2019s drawing a direct line to his lived experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSweet Fortune\u201d is, says Beatty, a record borne out of happiness and the vulnerability that comes with centering that emotion and sharing it openly. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m really handing it to the listener rather than asking people to come in and listen,\u201d he explains. Beatty, 30, is seated at a picnic bench in Los Angeles\u2019 Griffith Park as he discusses the record, the hood of his sweatshirt pulled over his baseball cap. \u201cIt\u2019s like I\u2019m telling them what it is. I felt like I really wanted to stand up with this record. The last tour I played, I was sitting down, curled up in a ball basically the whole time. Approaching music from a place of happiness felt really new for me. And in a weird way, it brought me a lot of anxiety. I\u2019m like, \u2018Why does this feel uncomfortable?\u2019 Making peace with that uncomfortability was really important because it allowed me to make this album.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBeatty produced \u201cSweet Fortune\u201d with Gruska, who worked on \u201cCalico\u201d and has previously collaborated with Phoebe Bridgers and Olivia Rodrigo. The record is tender yet assured, tracing the feelings of falling in love and learning how to navigate them. On lead single \u201cSecret Language,\u201d Beatty gives way to surrender: \u201cFell asleep with our bodies undressed \/ It\u2019s so hard to let go, it\u2019s so hard to let in \/ But you seduce what I always suppress.\u201d Elsewhere, on the sauntering \u201cWhite Lightning,\u201d he teases that notion further, singing, \u201cLet\u2019s not make this hard, sometimes I shy away so I don\u2019t fall apart \/ But now I wish on every star that you don\u2019t walk away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe also paints with broader musical strokes than on \u201cCalico,\u201d incorporating wind and brass instruments and traipsing from ballads to dust-ups. The album recalls the fleshy yet sensitive songs that he wrote for Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s \u201cCowboy Carter,\u201d which earned him a Grammy for album of the year, the type of intimate odes that make his music so specifically his own. \u201cI knew that this record had a really big heart to it, so it was more about building what felt emotionally connected to me, which is why this one is a lot more lush,\u201d he says, citing artists like Lucinda Williams and Little Feat as inspiration. \u201cI feel like the music tells the love story sometimes more than the words.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSessions for the album began in early 2025 when Beatty decamped to New York City, looking for a change of pace to jolt him out of the familiarity of Los Angeles. He worked with various songwriters, including Amy Allen and Leon Michaels, and called his friend Clairo to collaborate on some ideas. She ended up co-writing the title track and \u201cDelancey,\u201d as well as contributing vocals to \u201cWhite Lightning\u201d and \u201cToo Many Ways,\u201d and helped coax Beatty into a more confessional space.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cI think [Claire and Ethan] reminded me that I could go there, you know?\u201d he says. \u201cOvercoming that fear of what people expect from you versus what actually feels right for you or true to you. That\u2019s something artists constantly have to overcome. I never want to be trapped in that space, but working with them, they both really reminded me to just go there and push it even further. I trust them both musically and personally so much that I felt really safe with everybody who worked on this record.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBeatty does, understandably, shy away from discussing the relationship that inspired the album beyond the music itself. He\u2019s private in a way that his online presence suggests \u2014\u00a0he isn\u2019t on X, and posts sparingly on Instagram. (On his burner account, he\u2019s a bit more liberal.) He explains that he\u2019d prefer to take a write-what-you-know approach, pouring his emotions into the songwriting and letting it speak for itself. \u201cI think with my records, I always know that there\u2019s no avoiding the truth,\u201d he says. \u201cSo I really wanted to lean into it. But it is hard when you\u2019re sitting across from another person and you\u2019re like, okay, I wrote something about this thing and it has to do with you, but also you\u2019re a real person with a real life. And so it\u2019s vulnerable in a different way, but it can be really beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSweet Fortune\u201d is Beatty at his most realized, leaps beyond his 2018 full-length debut, \u201cBoy in Jeans,\u201d and its follow-up, 2020\u2019s \u201cDreaming of David,\u201d both of which positioned him as a bubbling pop star who was moonlighting as an alt-R&B crooner. When he released \u201cCalico\u201d in 2023, it felt like a sudden tonal shift for Beatty, who not long ago had been slinging hooks for rap collective Brockhampton. He\u2019s very aware of how he\u2019s matured as an artist over the years, particularly in his approach to singing.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYour voice will take on like so many different shapes throughout your life. It\u2019s just a matter of growth and consistently finding your voice as an artist,\u201d he says. \u201cI listened to my first record, and I listened to some of the words I even sing, and I\u2019m like, oh, why was I singing it that way? You just have to keep whittling down and really find your voice and stop emulating other artists\u2019 voices. But I think that every artist goes through that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIf \u201cSweet Fortune\u201d is about forging connections, then Beatty plans to manifest it on the road this fall as part of his upcoming \u201cArms Over Armor\u201d tour, which takes him across North America and Europe. He seems invigorated by the precedent that \u201cCalico\u201d set, and is clearly eager to meet the moment head-on. \u201cI knew people were fans of my music, but didn\u2019t feel like there was this big expectation,\u201d he says. \u201cPost-\u2018Calico,\u2019 I reached a personal artistic bar that I knew I had to rise to in some weird way, even though that\u2019s an invisible thing. Certainly, I want people to love it, but I love it, and that\u2019s the most important thing. I know that it\u2019s going to connect to who it needs to connect to, and I believe in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Singer-songwriter Ryan Beatty discusses how finding happiness in love influenced how he approached his fourth album ‘Sweet Fortune.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2327],"class_list":["post-2728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-ryan-beatty"],"yoast_head":"\nRyan Beatty on How Finding Happiness in Love Shaped His New Album \u2018Sweet Fortune\u2019: \u2018This Record Has a Really Big Heart to It\u2019 - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2728\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ryan Beatty on How Finding Happiness in Love Shaped His New Album \u2018Sweet Fortune\u2019: \u2018This Record Has a Really Big Heart to It\u2019 - 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