The music created by Ry Cumming (aka RY X) has been gracing our ears since the release of his first EP ‘Berlin’ in 2013, which garnered immense success worldwide.
Nearly a decade later and Ry continues to produce emotive and thought-provoking folktronica music with his albums Dawn, Unfurl and fronting the band The Acid.
Nothing short of an intimate insight into his life, his new album Blood Moon provides music to transcend you through the various stages of your life, and everything that comes with it. Much like his earlier work, the songs on this album are emotive and sensual, however there is a vulnerability that we haven’t felt yet from previous albums.
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Whilst the world faced a global pandemic, Ry was able to find a place of introspection and calmness that allowed him the space to create his new album.
“Once past the fear and the struggle, I actually found it beautiful,” he told us. “It was the first time I’ve been still in almost 10 years for that long.
“I was nestled up in the mountains in nature, and I had the ocean down the road and an outlet for my creativity, so it was actually quite a beautiful period. This was obviously within the challenges of everything else. My own personal journey through it felt like a reconnecting to deeper self.”
Growing up on the outskirts of Byron Bay and later settling in California, Ry has always had a deep connection to mother earth and nature, in particular the ocean. You can feel the calmness and sensuality that the ocean offers throughout his music, as well as the healing and ferocity that can come too.
He explains the importance of nature and his work; “I think I tend towards shadow if I don’t have immersing in nature and movement in my body, so growing up around Byron, I got to surf and be in the water every day, and I was born on a very small island, so my whole being feels much more peaceful when I am in the ocean.”
A deeply personal and emotional body of work, Blood Moon gives you the space for inward reflection and healing, much like that of the auspicious astrological phenomenon.
“The title was finding something that had as much gravity as the body of work,” he continues.
“I really felt like the resonance, the emblem, the auspicious gravity that it holds, really felt like a match. I think I was really trying to not communicate with other people, but with myself, that’s usually how I make my work.
“I try to have a very resonate and honest conversation with myself and then it’s almost like you’re sharing these letters to yourself, you’re sharing your morning diary.”
Throughout the journey of creating this album, Ry has been able to make music that has been consciously thought-out, to encourage the listener to curate their own sense of self. When looking through the song names of the album, you seem to feel as though you are reading chapters of a novel, like you are flicking the pages of a journal;
“There are chapters in the album,” he explains, “but really it wasn’t intentional to think about the linear flow, what was important was how it felt.
“How the songs felt, how you opened. Did the last song prepare you and are you ready to listen to the next one. Does it take you somewhere and expand your thought process rather than just being the same thing?”
The vulnerability of this album is undeniable, as is the spiritual connection felt throughout. You wave through a sense of understanding of love and grief, whilst it also holds you accountable for your own growth and inward reflection.
Having collaborated with a slew of different artists from ODESZA, Duke Dumont and more recently co-producing Drake’s song ‘Sticky’, Ry’s creativity is flourishing as he weaves his unique sound throughout the music scene, yet it never gets easy releasing music out into the world;
“It’s very raw and honest,” he says. “I’ve played every instrument, I wrote it all, I engineered it, I produced it. It’s like very much a little thing that you’re hiding, a little baby and then you open it to the world, and everyone gets to look at it and feel it – that is very humbling, but what I think is beautiful is the response to it has been really genuine and that means a lot.”
Currently touring through the US and Canada, Ry has plans to come back to Australia hopefully early next year, where he will headline some shows, as well as potentially collaborate with other artists.
His live gigs are an extension of himself in every way – vulnerable, intimate and embodying a deep sense of connection and love.
Track those dates and his latest releases at his website here.
This article was made in partnership with RY X.
