Getting to Know Kennedy Ryon
Atlanta’s Kennedy Ryon may not yet be a household name, but she undoubtedly will be soon. With well over 100,000 followers on Instagram and tens of thousands of streams of her original music and covers, she’s clearly got a sound that resonates with people.
Twenty-eight-year-old Ryon, whose singing recalls the phrasing of Amy Winehouse and the texture of Nina Simone, describes her music as a combination of R & B, neo-soul, pop, and hip-hop. She draws on her life experiences to write emancipatory declarations that refute the negative expectations placed upon herself and others. It’s not a surprise that she considers Bob Marley to be one of her biggest influences.
This confidence has been a long time coming. In fact, it was only a few years ago that Ryon reaffirmed her musical aspirations after abandoning them when a partner discouraged her from developing her talent. Completely self-taught, she developed her musical and singing skills by listening closely to the music she loved and by watching videos.
Her tattoos of butterflies, lyrics from Marley’s Redemption Song, and a tiny “Diva” seem to exemplify the flight, freedom, and hard-won belief in herself that characterizes her body of work. In this interview, she talks about her growth as an individual and musician, what she is currently up to, and her future aspirations.
Shannon Marie: What was it like to see your covers and originals go viral?
Ryon: It happened a year ago, but It’s still just crazy. It reminded me that I'm capable of doing this, and it was just confirmation again that I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing - exactly what I set out to do. I'm still understanding that I went viral off of my own song, and that that's a big deal. I'm just being me, and I'm just doing what I enjoy. I'm just doing what I love, but sometimes I don't see the positive feedback that comes from that fully for what it is, because I'm still in a space of believing in my power and who I am.
Shannon Marie: How did you get into music?
Ryon: I grew up in Columbus, Georgia, and I was really obsessed with MTV and the music awards. It really was just studying other artists and how they did their stage performances, just listening to music that evokes or invokes a certain type of emotion and trying to understand just how they got their message or their emotions across. I also have to give my dad kudos. He was the first person to introduce me to music and introduced me to real artists like Prince, Bob Marley, Michael Jackson, and Amy Winehouse. And he helped me to understand Bob Marley. He'd always turn a song down, and he would explain it. So, I feel like he helped me to understand emotion and music and writing something real. As far as playing, I basically can play anything, because I play by ear, but I also watched videos on Youtube University.
Shannon Marie: On your webpage you mentioned that you’d only begun playing music again in the last few years after a ten-year hiatus. What happened?
Ryon: Before getting into [a particular] relationship I was singing a lot. I was doing music, but he would
be like, shut the fuck up, why are you singing? Like, I don't want to hear all that. That was stuff that I would hear sometimes in my childhood. So I thought, well, I'm just going to shut up now, basically no more music. It was kind of, just what's the point anymore? I don't have anyone rooting for me. When you have no self love, no self-worth, you don't know who you are.
Shannon Marie: How did you get out of that mind set?
I just woke up, and I was like, there's something more out here. I can only give that credit to God - just not having my own power basically and just having God's power and God's confidence. And that's what brought me here to Atlanta, and, unfortunate as it was, I'm glad that is what happened. There's plenty of opportunity here. The environment is different. The atmosphere is different. The crowd is different.
Shannon Marie: Your music isn’t in Marley’s style, but the theme of most of your music seems to invoke his idea of internal liberation as a way of manifesting external liberation.
Ryon: It’s just crazy you say that, because this is the first tattoo that I ever got, and it's his lyrics that say, “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.” There aren’t many artists today, where I actually feel real emotion or inspiration. I feel like most people are not talking about real shit anymore, but I resonated with that song. I understood it. I feel like he was the first artist who was writing and singing about revolutions and racism and police brutality, but also speaking about living a better life and having a positive mind, and being yourself.
Shannon Marie: Is there a connection between internal and external struggles and good song-writing?
Ryon: I think that's where the best music comes from - pain and negative experience. If you were someone, no matter your age, no matter your skin color, your demographic, whatever, if you had a life where everything was given to you and you didn't have to work for anything, what would you be able to write about, and would it be fully authentic? What place are you drawing from? That's how that's how I view it. I hope that view doesn't seem small or disrespectful. The majority of people gravitate to the majority of music today because they want to be distracted. And then there are those who are ready to be self-aware, and they're going to be someone that's willing to lean into something like Bob Marley music. I feel like it just also depends on the listener what they're ready for. I'm hoping to change that in the best way possible.
Shannon Marie: How is this reflected in your own music?
Ryon: I always want to have a level of authenticity in my music.I'm still understanding that as hard as the experiences that I've been through have been, I wouldn't create the music that I'm creating now and will continue to make if I didn't have those experiences. If I wasn't in an abusive relationship, I wouldn't have written a song like Sunny Days. If I wasn't an abusive relationship, I wouldn't have written a song like Baby Mama Drama.
Shannon Marie: Is that why your music resonates with people, do you think?
Ryon: The music that I create is for me first, and I feel like you can go through those things and really feel like you're alone and the only one that's gone through this. So then when people tell me things like they’ve been in the same situations, that little bit just makes me want to blast the song. There could be a person that listens to Sunny Days and be like, damn, I really got to get out of this relationship. Like I can't do this anymore, and if she can do it, and she's talking about it, then I can do it, too. I feel like the emotion just comes from experience and like pain, but also just like a love for music and really trying to tap into it. I always want to be intentional about what I'm saying and what I'm writing and the instruments that I'm using.
Shannon Marie: Do you think music makes a difference?
Ryon: Absolutely, I know it. I know it made a difference in my life. I don't know if music on its own has the power to restructure the shit that's going on in the world right now, like people not having jobs and homeless people on the streets, but I feel like music has the power to give people more self-awareness and wake people up to their own trauma and the things that they're going through.
Shannon Marie: How are you growing as a musician?
I feel like I’m always in a space of, what can I do better? I guess I'm still just getting acquainted with who I am as an artist. I can just be such a perfectionist when it comes to my music. And
just meeting more people, putting myself out there, and just building a bigger team.
I believe in myself, and I believe in my craft, and I believe in myself is artist, but I'm still very much in a space currently where I'm learning and trying to let go of things people have said or wished on me. That's the process, that's the journey. I'm becoming more self-aware and more comfortable with having freedom of expression and being intentional about what I'm writing and what I'm putting in my music, even, even if people don't agree with the word play, or the words that I'm using, It's really about if you are authentic and if what you said really what matters.
Shannon Marie: I was blown away by your performance at Eddie’s Attic open mic. The audience seemed spellbound. Were you surprised by that?
Ryon: I was feeling vulnerable there, because the majority of shows that I've done, they're very diverse. So going into Eddie's Attic, the atmosphere, it was predominantly white. I automatically thought, what are these people going to think when I sing these songs, and I'm mentioning all of these things? But I’ve found that people of all kinds come up to me and tell me what my music means to them, and I’m getting more comfortable with putting myself out there in that way.
Shannon Marie: What is happening with you currently? Do you have an album or any shows coming up?
Ryon: I do. Instead of dropping a full album at once we intend to do “Twelve Months of Kennedy Ryon”. Every month you drop a song off the album, and you promote that song all month in content and ads. As far as live performances, we just do a livestream show right now. We are really just scouting different venues that don't have harsh terms and too much of a harsh price tag and finding something where all the fans that I have in Atlanta will be able to actually come out and see a show. That’s the bump in the road that I'm dealing with right now.
Shannon Marie: Where’s it all going? What are your future aspirations?
Ryon: I have a story to tell and it's not just going to be through this first album or these first couple of songs. It's just going to be throughout the entirety of my career with my music and and having opportunities like this to sit down with people like you and just express myself and allow other people to know.
Shannon Marie: What means the most to you as an artist?
Ryon: When someone comes up to me or they send me a message and say that a song really resonates with them, they're going through this right now, that it really opened their eyes, and they are turning over a new leaf. I'm still in a space of understanding and recognizing and fully believing in that power, not only I possess as a person, but as an artist, as a musician, and as a songwriter. Even If only one person connects with my song, that's all I need. I'm happy. I'm good. I've done what I'm supposed to do.
To find out more about Ryon, visit her music on Spotify and Youtube and check out her electronic press kit at https://www.canva.com/design/DAFpr463JoE/yuUDmxaEQgdyrodOwY-NlQ/view?utm_content=DAFpr463JoE&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink
