In the video for Ryan Beatty’s new single, “Secret Language”—released today as the first single off his fourth album, Sweet Fortune, arriving later this month—the musician stands against a Hockney blue California sky, throwing a paper plane into the air. We follow him running in a sun-bleached pink tee and jeans down Hollywood Boulevard all the way to the glittering lights of Las Vegas, then out into the pristine white sands of the New Mexico desert. Next, he’s in the Texas plains, as the heavens open with a biblical thunderstorm and a rainbow streaks through the sky; right after, he’s running through the bar-lined streets of Nashville and down a road shadowed by Spanish moss in Louisiana.
Finally, Beatty runs through the streets of downtown Manhattan, catching the paper plane just as it lands along the Charles River Esplanade in Boston, where he collapses onto a bench to catch his breath. (Following that Forrest Gump-worthy odyssey, it’s no wonder he needs a moment.)
“The experience of making this video was by far my favorite experience of making a music video, ever,” Beatty says over Zoom from his home in Los Angeles, a few days before its release. “What I’m most proud of is that when I watch it back, I see myself. Nothing felt put on. It was a very small crew, but we were all so passionate while making it that it truly felt freeing. And I think that shows.” His only qualm? “I was running in cowboy boots the entire time, and my shins certainly paid for it,” he says, laughing. “But it was important to me that I kept the spirit of the video. It’s about seeing the distance your heart can take you. I know that sounds corny, but that’s what I really wanted it to feel like.”
If there’s one thing that Beatty is known for, after all, it’s how to take those big, sweeping feelings—first love, heartbreak, loneliness—and reveal them in an entirely new light. That piercing wisdom can be chalked up, at least in part, to the fact that he’s already lived a few different lives as an artist. He first broke out as a teenager posting covers on YouTube, before leaving his management and label at 18 after they tried to market him as the next Justin Bieber. In 2018, he released his debut album, the intimate, alt-R&B-influenced Boy in Jeans; two years later came the more experimental, electronic-tinged Dreaming of David. (Along the way, Beatty’s profile was also raised by his collaborations with the buzzy hip-hop collective Brockhampton and his work with Tyler, the Creator on 2019’s Igor.)
In 2023, he released the masterful Calico, an exquisite, heartrending whirlpool of folk-inspired guitars and swirling strings, charting the turbulent emotional aftermath of a breakup. His knack for sophisticated, cinematic songwriting also caught the attention of Beyoncé, who recruited him to co-write four songs on Cowboy Carter—you can detect his ear for tender, sensorially-loaded lyrics on “Protector” and “Bodyguard,” the latter of which he also provided backing vocals for. (His contributions led to him winning a Grammy for album of the year.)
