| Everyone’s favorite pop punk disruptor, Ray Hawthorne, is back! After ending 2025 with the unbridled chaos of his sophomore album, “Ray Hawthorne Isn’t Real” the Los Angeles-based firebrand returns today, with his first release of 2026: an unapologetically anthemic new single, “Sidelines”. Fans can listen to the new single HERE.
Caught between motion and paralysis, “Sidelines” captures the feeling of being stuck on the edge of your own life, shouting at stoplights, and cursing the street signs in a city that doesn’t feel like home anymore. Hawthorne pushes his signature mix of heartbreak, sarcasm, and emotional volatility into darker territory as he trades punchlines to let his guard down in a way that feels both unnerving and strangely hopeful. Never one to miss a chance for a little chaos and nostalgia, Ray Hawthorne shares: “When I was a kid my mom wouldn’t let me buy CD’s with parental advisory labels on them. No cursing music for me. But I NEEDED it in my life. The forbidden fruit. The rebellion. Fred Durst and such. So this lead to some interesting work arounds. For those of you that don’t know (or weren’t born yet), Offspring’s Americana CD didn’t have a parental advisory sticker on it. Which was pretty fly. So I was able to trick my mom into buying it for me. I made it through about two weeks listening to Americana in secret before I got ballsy. One fateful day I played the album for my cousin while my mom was getting ready for work in the next room. Bad move. The Offspring left my life that afternoon, and Americana was almost immediately given to one of my mom’s coworkers. Sometimes I like to wonder where that CD is today. Does she still have it? Did it become a family heirloom? Is it gathering dust at a goodwill store in New Jersey? Did it get passed down and inspire some other kid to fight the system with three chords and a dream? We’ll never know. But what I do know is that I just put out a new song. It’s called Sidelines. I hope some kid breaks his parent’s rules to listen to it. That’s the dream.” Renowned for his work in North Kingsley, the acclaimed project alongside Shavo Odadjian of System of a Down, Hawthorne initially captured hearts as the Heartbreak Hero with his inaugural solo release “Heartbreak Feels Good in a Place Like This”. Building on his solo work, his debut record “Ray Hawthorne Sucks” further cemented his status as a bold new voice in pop punk, quickly amassing a devoted following and over 18 million streams across all streaming platforms for his magnetic charm and razor-sharp wit. Blending heartbreak, sarcasm, and just the right amount of emotional stability, Ray Hawthorne leads with a messy kind of hope, turning emotional freefall into something you can scream along to. Where debut album and his firstborn, “Ray Hawthorne Sucks”, leaned into an earnest DIY vulnerability, his latest record, “Ray Hawthorne Isn’t Real”, took a turn and tapped into the restless defiance of a secondborn. The 15 tracks helped embrace the chaos, laugh at the pain, and maybe, just maybe, allow us all to find a little redemption along the way. Starting from the very real possibility that Ray Hawthorne is just a guy screaming into the ether (and somehow making it sound catchy), his catalog has become a refuge for anyone who’s ever felt too loud, too sensitive, or too much. Loud, petty, and deeply cathartic, Ray Hawthorne is proudly one of the most unapologetically honest voices modern pop-punk. Be sure to stay tuned for more Ray Hawthorne news coming very soon. |
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Eter Matsiashvili
