An open conversation on consent: Brye explores her recent singles, ‘Body Back’ and ‘Saying “No”’
On July 8th, the Nashville-based singer-songwriter Brye released her single, Saying “No”, marking the conclusion to a chapter opened by it’s predecessor, Body Back.
A promise of hope and healing for all who listen and relate, these two songs explore themes of consent, heartbreak and the importance of putting yourself first. Vulnerable, gut-wrenching and assured in their message, both Body Back and Saying “No” have earned their vital place within Brye’s discography, as well as her the continued status as one of the best lyricists of our generation.
In an exclusive interview, we talked to Brye in-depth about her recent releases, discussing everything from sonic inspirations and star signs to her hopes for the future and plans for upcoming projects.
Since releasing your debut single in 2019, we’re sure it's been quite a journey through the world of music! How do you feel that you’ve honed your craft over the last six years?
“That single in 2019 was kind of a college project for a friend of mine - it wasn’t even really for me. She was supposed to manage an artist and had been a camp counsellor of mine. She knew that I wrote things and had a friend who knew how to work logic, so we all hung out. Part of her project was that she had to upload a song to Spotify, so she learned how to use Distrokid and that was the whole thing!
At the time, I had Garageband on my iPad given to me by my high school (and that’s later what I made my debut single LEMONS - Demo on) but at the time, I started out how a lot of artists do when someone else is producing for you. After LEMONS blew up, I was like oh it’s interesting that the song I did everything on was really resonating with people. It really took off, and I’ve found since the songs that do well numbers-wise are always ones that I self-produce and happen to have no other co-writers on.
We try to predict what’s going to do well, but we never know! My single Saying No! was co-produced and I’m obsessed with that song. I was convinced it’d go viral and it didn’t, but I’ll post something one-off and it’ll blow up. I’ve learned that my instincts with regards to what I want to do sonically and lyrically are usually right, and even if they’re not you just keep it moving. The fact that it’s been six years is crazy, and I produce for other artists now, too, which I didn’t expect to be part of the gig until my 30s!”
Following on from that, who are you producing for right now?
"I’m producing a chunk of Tessa Violet’s next project - I love her. We put out a feature together last year and were like: what if we kept going?
For Leanna Firestone, I’m doing a couple songs for her next project! Everything else is kind of tentative, working co-writes and being in sessions as the producer. We’ve got publishing on the brain because I’m organically in so many cowrites as the engineer, which again, I never anticipated. That was my back-up plan as I figured if the artist thing didn’t work out, I’d do that but now I’m doing both. I didn’t know if I’d be able to manage it, but its been great so far and I’m figuring it out.”
Congrats on your recent single, Saying “No”! How would you describe the song to those who haven’t heard it yet?
“For that song, part of the reason that its harder to market as well is that its kind of a sequel to the single that came out before, Body Back. It’s a song about consent, and about how within people pleasing, I discovered the idea that ‘people pleasers are actually manipulative’ - which is an awful idea - but a little true for me at least. I was like oh, I’m ruining my relationships because I don’t want to have a conflict? That’s so not adult of me, because I want to protect my own feelings more than my own relationships?
And then, that came out in the worst way possible with a partner who took advantage of that. I was like oh, I’ve really got to get this together because it really could’ve affected the rest of my life unless I figured out how to be firm, and also know to leave when I encounter people who don’t respect my ‘no’. I was running into that when I first started, because there were people who’d been in my life for a long time who weren’t used to me being like, I’m sorry but I’m not going to do that. I realised that it was up to me to leave, get up myself and practice this hard thing. Body Back kind of explains the reality of the realisation that oh my god, I was really taken advantage of, and Saying “No” was what I’m going to do about it.”
In the cover art for Saying “No”, you’re surrounded by trophies. Where did the idea for that visual come from, and how do you feel it adds layers to the song’s meaning?
“There were a couple stages for it when I first hit up my videographer. I do most of my album covers myself, but we knew that we wanted upright content and video for it. I was like, I want to be boxing and punching things. It’s a cathartic thing that lowkey could hurt other people but that’s what Saying “No” feels like to me - it’s this thing that I need to do to take care of myself but also it feels so mean.
A mutual of mine had just done some promo with boxing, so I didn’t want to copy and suggested baseball with a rage room to my videographer. Both of those things included a bat, because baseball is very fun and then we’d also have plates breaking in the rage room. My main idea was just to look at all these trophies I got because I’m just so good at saying no. We went to the thrift store and bought a bunch of trophies, and it all felt like it tied together so well. I just liked the imagery and it was really fun!”
In the music video for Saying “No”, you’re standing in front of a washing line of sheets, whereas the cover photo for Body Back depicts you resting on the edge of a bed. Was this symbolism intentional, and how does it show the relationship between those two songs?
“I asked my videographer how we’d tie it in, and we decided to take the sheets from the music video for Body Back and thrift some more blue and cream looking ones to tie a line of them along the net of the baseball cage. Those were behind me, and we had the batting plate in front so that it wasn’t just baseball, but both things together.
I also washed the sheets which we thought was really symbolic, and one of the song’s lyrics is literally “New sheets, new me.” I wanted it to feel like I was resetting after this terrible experience with someone who made my bed feel unsafe, so it really made the point that I was done and airing it all out.”
On Instagram, you described Saying “No” as a “breath of fresh air” to be finally out, so are there any other everyday things that bring you hope and healing right now?
“I just went out of town and have been collecting matchbooks. Having a new thing to collect and look for has been really fun. I just moved into my new place after previously living with my parents, so this is my first time being on my own. Every night, my roommate and I watch movies together or a TV show with our cat on the couch which has been really sweet.
I’ve been making music just to make something cool and not for some larger project which is new for me right now, especially because my next album is basically done and the rest of it doesn’t come out until next year. Right now, I have all of this time to not be thinking about what’s coming out next so I think all of those things together have been really good for the brain.”
Have you been watching The Summer I Turned Pretty?
“I just started it! My 50-year-old dad was like you have to watch it, what do you mean you haven’t watched it? He’s been on that since it came out. He loves a rom-com or coming of age story. He and my mum are high school sweethearts, so I think anything about young love he has a soft spot for, but specifically the drama of that show he’s so locked in on. So far, I’m on episode three!
I’ve also been watching The Bear. I grew up in Chicago and it’s set there, so it’s very much a love letter to the city - that’s what my roommate and I watch every night. I just recently saw KPop Demon Hunters which is really good, and also Too Much by Lena Dunham that’s a great show set in London.”
We’d love to know how you get into the headspace for songwriting and if you have a particular routine. Do you use voice notes, physical journals or a notes app - and where or when do you most often write?
“It’s changed and evolved over time. I used to start with an instrumental and write over that which is called toplining, and was the only way I could write songs. Within the last year, its been that I have to write super late. Usually its one in the morning and I pick up my guitar to try some new tuning, but I’m literally like I have to touch the guitar before going to bed.
I’ll write something, and usually my songs start out as half of a song. They sit for a while, and then I’ll decide what to do with them. There’s this book called Big Magic that Leanna and I talked about and it says that all ideas are like magic. They pick you and you can either take them or they’ll go to someone else, which is really funny to me. Usually I’ll take ideas but I won’t always finish them. I have a lot of half-finished songs right now which is good for me because I have a lot of things that I can come back to!
Saying “No” was literally a verse and a chorus and then I took it to a co-write because I didn’t know what else to say. That’s usually what I’ll do if I get stuck, and it’s the great thing about collaboration because a lot of artists will get stuck in the idea that it has to be them alone in their bedroom writing songs in some kind of sacred practice but it’s like, go to LA queen: Go write with someone, learn something new, get a new perspective and get someone else’s ears on it! I’m always with myself so I want new perspectives and someone else’s creative inclinations to touch the song.”
What lyrics from any of your latest releases are you most proud of?
“One of my favourite artists and friends Trella did a cowrite back in 2022 or 2023, and we wrote a song called Ageless which I love and is on my previous record. It’s about feeling so out of place because I was only 18 at the time and felt so ahead of my peers but also behind because I didn’t go to school, graduate from college or live in a dorm room. I didn’t have those things but I also had a consistent income and owned my car, so I was like I don’t know how to feel and was very torn so wanted to write about that.
The entire song is basically me venting and being like I don’t look like a teenage girl because I’m plus-sized and I don’t shave my legs… but I had all these people telling me that they couldn’t believe I was only 18, and every time it made me squint like, what do you mean I don’t seem 18? I feel so young and like I don’t know what I’m doing!
At the end of the cowrite, Trella was like: what now? We needed some kind of final, post-chorus and she was like, you’ve explained how you feel, how do you feel now that it’s all laid out? What’s your conclusion?”
“I’d never thought about a song that way in my entire life, which feels kind of obvious because I do it all the time now but oh my god, it changed everything. Apples is a good example because its a very heavy song about parents and eating disorders, and how I learned mine from them. I think that eating disorders are inherited and mostly learned - yes, they are partially genetically predisposed - but you pick up on things especially as children. In the song, I acknowledge that and don’t just end it on a cliffhanger.
My sister’s 17 right now. She’s confident, likes herself and we’re on the other side somehow. When I look up, I see all the progress. I see my mum eating more and caring less. Therapists, resilience, replanting - we’re doing the best that we can. If I listen to a song and they conclude the story, I cry every time. When I get to do that myself and feel like I’ve pulled it off, it’s a great feeling. That song, I always cry when listening to it, and Apples was written literally two years ago.”
We saw that you recently started a Substack! How have you found it so far being able to explore your thoughts in long-form essays rather than songs - do they feel less filtered or more freeing?
“After my breakup, I was like I need a hobby with no ability to make money, so I started a Substack. It’s a really nice place for me to be able to write without worrying about having to go viral. With the writing of the essays, I was like I have so many thoughts and was spinning over the breakup. I’d never even publicly posted about this partner ever which was kind of beautiful, but I think a part of me knew because I’d never done that before. There was an air of privacy there for his sake but also for me because I had the ability to talk about this experience without getting paragraphs threatening me to respect someone’s privacy - which I did, and I do but I’m going to talk about what I went through.
Substack was kind of a space to do that because most of it wasn’t even about the breakup. It was about how I needed to be single, because as soon as I broke up with him I was like I need to find another relationship right now, so I wanted to examine that urge within me.”
“The essay that I wrote about consent, I wrote as I was writing Body Back. I have an entire essay about Saying “No” and boundaries, which I pulled from pretty directly for the song. What ended up happening is that I would write these long-form essays and be like… wait that’d be a good song, so I’d turn them into songs and put them out. It ended up being a different way to ignite my writing sparks with regards to songwriting which was pretty new for me. I wrote a lot in high school from essays to blog posts but I never felt like I could be a writer because I hadn’t gone to school for writing. I thought because I hadn’t trained or studied and didn’t really understand it, people wouldn’t care about my work.
But then I was like, who cares? On Substack, I can post whatever I want and no one has to see or engage with it, but I can keep writing songs. As it turns out, the posts that do best are about the Substack. I’ll consistently get the most follower engagement on those posts. I realised that it’s the same as how I felt watching a Dodie vlog, it’s like, I know you more now - I understand who you are. It’s kind of a little parasocial in nature but obviously I have my own boundaries around it, so I feel really understood and it’s kind of addicting and awesome. I tried to do one a month until the New Year, but took a little bit of a break as I didn’t want to post too many at once, so now it’s one every other month!”
Then, we asked Brye what music she’s been listening to lately and made a playlist out of her favourites for fans to enjoy:
Next, it was time for some fun questions…
If you could live inside any album cover, which would you pick?
“Super Pedestrian by Annie DiRusso. The album cover for it, I want to go there. You’re going to see it and be like what the fuck, but its her as a horse in a field, and that’s where I want to be.”
What’s your star sign, and what’s one trait of that sign that you feel makes you a better songwriter?
“I’m a Gemini sun - and we get a really bad rap - but I’m also a Cancer rising and I think that's what makes me a good songwriter because it allows me to be a little more emotional and in touch with myself. I think I’m also a Capricorn moon which I’ve heard makes you tend to overanalyse which I’m sure also contributes to the songwriting that I do!
My Gemini sun I’m working to love, and will say that I think the Gemini in me is very good at seeing multiple sides and being fair. I think I’m a pretty balanced person; there’s a duality to me, of both sides and also there’s a grey. I think Diet Culture is a good example as its a song of mine that was originally titled ‘an angry song about diet culture’. It’s very scathing, and also when people talk to me about their struggles with food I’m really open and listen.
The internet is so black and white sometimes and I think some people listen and think, oh, this song is how you feel all the time? But no, I'm literally a kaleidoscope girl my reality is always shifting and my perspective is always changing.”
If you could pitch your discography to someone in one line, what would you say?
“Maybe oversharing - maybe relatable.”
Do you have any recommendations for interesting books, films or albums that have changed the way you approach making music?
“Olivia Barton's new album, For Myself and For You is coming out soon on October 10th. I’ve had access to it for like a year and have been listening non-stop. Honestly, if I’m recommending her released music, just listen to her second record! It’s called This is A Good Sign. When I need to feel inspired, comforted or understood, I listen to that record. I don’t have a single note for it, it’s just perfect as well as her next one.
The books that I wrote in preparation for this record were Pete Walker’s Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving and Lindsay C. Gibson’s Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents. I love my parents and they’re great people, but they didn’t get their shit together until I was a teenager and that’s the crux of the next record. If you’re like me and had a hard upbringing in any capacity from neglect to feeling emotionally distant, it can be the smallest thing that helps. Those books are really helpful in terms of naming what’s going on or even just being like, what do I want to do about it? I’m a very solution-based person so enjoyed those books a lot.
I also read Mark Wolynn’s It Didn’t Start With You and - spoiler alert - there’s a song on my next album named after it. It’s about generational cycles because I became obsessed with the visual of them. You have the most in common genetically with your maternal grandmother, and the coincidences that they’ve uncovered genetically between generations are really fascinating. Also, it’s because these things are passed down and literally learned. Reading that book, I was like oh, it didn’t start with me but it better end with me!”
Your latest single, Apples officially released on August 7th. What’s the biggest thing you hope fans take away from listening to it?
“I think already the one post that’s popped off with the song as has the most feedback is already doing what I wanted it to do. People are like oh, I didn’t realise that was a thing for other people too, and that’s my main goal. Also, I just really wanted to start a conversation because I’ve talked so much about eating disorders and recovery, but I’ve never really talked about how they begin, and how they fester. I really want to have a larger conversation about that and I’m currently in talks with NEDA (the National Eating Disorder Association) to do something with this song.
When I wrote Apples, I hadn’t even posted the first clip of Diet Culture so it was just a chronicle of my life and my relationship with food. This song is really full circle for me because it was the first time I ever wrote about food and now it’s probably going to be one of the last songs that I release about my ED. We released an entire project about it, and it ties into the next one but it’s like my final thought and my conclusion.”
Finally, what are some big music-related goals you’d like to achieve in the foreseeable future - be that venues to play, places to visit on tour, instruments to learn or even plans for a future album?
“I really want to headline and open more on tour because I just love it. I also want to play some festivals because I’ve never done that, and I want to keep producing for other artists and make that a consistent thing, so we’ll see if that happens!”
Cycle Breaker, the first part of Brye’s first full length record, comes out October 10th and can be pre-saved here.
In the meantime, stay up-to-date with Brye’s work by following her on Instagram and streaming the rest of her discography on Spotify. For those who need recommendations, our favourite tracks are Grow Together, Jenna and - of course, Body Back & Saying “No”.
