Toronto singer-songwriter Hayden Ryann cuts through the noise by writing pure truth. Blending high-octane country-rock with intimate acoustic storytelling, she has become a compelling new voice in Ontario. From childhood poetry notebooks to raw tracks like “Burning Rubber” and “Walk Through Fire”, her music is an open invitation to the listener. Today, we step past the production and look directly into her heart.
ROB AGUIAR – You carried a lyric notebook at age eight to process your world. Looking at raw, reflective tracks like “Mindless Words” today, how much does that intuitive kid still guide your pen?
HAYDEN RYANN – Honestly, I think that kid is still guiding almost everything I write. The biggest difference is that the notebook has turned into notes on my phone and voice memos, but the reason I write hasn’t really changed. Even when I was eight years old, I used songwriting as a way to make sense of things I was feeling or observing, and that’s still at the heart of my process today.
Songs like Mindless Words are a good example of that because they’re very raw and reflective. When I sit down to write, I’m usually not thinking about trends or what people want to hear—I’m trying to understand something, process an emotion, or capture a moment honestly. That’s exactly what I was doing as a kid, just with a lot less life experience.
I think as I’ve grown, my writing has become more refined, but the instinct behind it is still the same. That notebook-carrying kid was curious, observant, and constantly trying to put feelings into words, and I still approach songwriting in much the same way. If anything, I’ve learned to trust that instinct more as I’ve gotten older.