Puppets, Pop-Punk & Burning New Jersey Down: An Interview With Ray Hawthorne PLUS his TOP8 orders at The Cheesecake Factory.
- TOP8 Scene
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
Photo by: Toby Shapiro
Let us re-introduce you to Ray Hawthorne –– Equal parts: Pop-punker, New Jerseyan-turned-Californian, and… Cheesecake Factory’s number one fan? (we’ll fill you in)
In Ray’s own words: “My name is Ray Hawthorne. I’m the best Yu-Gi-Oh player in my house, and I also make pop punk adjacent sad boi music.”
When we think of Ray Hawthorne, we think of one thing: fun. He isn’t afraid to be himself, he releases bangers, and has a cool aesthetic to go with it. If you’ve seen the artwork he drops alongside the tunes, you’ll know what we’re talking about; each release is cohesive with the others, with puppets covering the tracks. “I just love Muppets so much. Oddly enough, having puppets on the artwork is just a way to keep the music honest. Making sure the artwork is something I like just feels more authentic than trying to be cool.”
Beneath Ray’s Pop-Punk vibe and self-aware humour, you’ll notice that there is this constant theme Ray's tunes wrestle with about wanting connection, but also rejecting it at the same time. “Honestly, that’s a really astute description of how I feel on almost a daily basis. Those themes showing up in my music is just a natural thing; it comes with being vulnerable.” His goal? Emotional recklessness that can’t be held back. “I want to put out songs that make me afraid that my friends will never talk to me again. I want to put out songs that scare my parents. I want to put out songs that feel like I might actually die if I don’t release those feelings.” If you’re not picking up what he’s putting down, maybe this will clarify it for you: “I want to put out songs that taste better than a meatball sub in a Wawa parking lot while you’re skipping school.” It really can’t get better than that.
When you listen to what Ray writes about, you’re instantly met with something familiar, like you can compare his experiences with your own. “This is gonna be the most cliche thing I've ever said, and damn, I struggle not to be cliche out here. It feels so fucking good when people tell me my lyrics resonate with them, help them through a breakup, or help them get sober, or whatever. Sometimes I screenshot DMs and send them to my mom. I get such deeply personal messages on a daily basis from people who have found some type of connection in my music.” Ray’s music is more than just releasing songs; it’s about that very connection mentioned and feeling like someone out there gets you. “If you think back on any song you’ve ever truly loved, it’s because it held a mirror up to you and made you feel less alone. Feelings that you never even knew you had just being put on display, fucking loud, by some complete stranger. So for me it’s all about being understood. Anyone that loves music has that story, and that song.”
The singer's latest drop, 'Burn New Jersey Down,' featuring PETEXZEN hit speakers at the end of April. The track sounds almost nostalgic at first spin, but listen closely; there’s an anger underneath, and he compares the concept to a breakup. “Nostalgia can TOTALLY cover bad memories. Have you ever seen that episode of How I Met Your Mother where Ted writes himself a letter after every breakup? The point of the letter is to put in writing all the terrible things about the relationship, so, inevitably, when he starts feeling like he should call that girl again, he can remind himself not to just focus on the good memories. ‘Burn New Jersey Down’ is basically my breakup letter. Something to remind myself not to send New Jersey a late-night ‘u up?’ text.”
Even with all that resentment, Ray admits his relationship with New Jersey is way more complicated than just wanting to escape the place. Nostalgia works differently for him entirely. “I think the lessons I learned and the mistakes that I made when I was young stick with me for sure. It’s weird, actually, like how earlier I was talking about how nostalgia inherently hides bad memories, but I’m realizing right now it’s the total opposite for myself reflecting on New Jersey. I think I actually have more of a tendency to focus on all the negative things, but I had so much fun growing up there. There’s this weird piece of pride when I tell people I’m from New Jersey, and they’re like, “I can tell”. This is me realizing in real time that I don’t fucking understand myself. “
Just because Ray broke up with his hometown doesn’t mean he doesn’t still think about the love he has for it. “I think I’m always going to be trapped in New Jersey on some level. So much of who I am comes from that place, and that’s sort of what me and Pete were talking about that made us want to write the song. We’re both just two dudes who grew up in New Jersey and moved to California, and we were having this long talk about all the things we loved about New Jersey, but there was this undertone that we could just never fucking go back there. It was weird, like how can we love this place so much but also hate it? Once we started writing about that, it just flooded out. It’s like we have a toxic relationship with a fucking piece of land.”
The emotional honesty that runs through Hawthorne's music is what makes it hit naturally. Even when the meaning feels heavy, there’s still his classic light-hearted energy that ties it all together. “All I can hope is that someone somewhere feels less alone because of some shit I said. Or they just like, have some fun punk music to twerk to. Either of those things would make me equally happy.” The contrast between fun and feeling is something we personally think Ray has nailed.
The positive response to the tunes actually saved Ray’s Pop-Punk career from turning down a Country path, “[It] definitely keeps me from just cashing in on a country career. One time, a guy in a Yu-Gi-Oh hat at an Atlantic Records party told me he’d give me $20k to make a country record for him. It was a real devil on my shoulder type moment. So thank you to the people who care so deeply about my music, ya’ll are the reason I’m not working up an accent right now.” If Ray never does music again, just know we think that he could start a second career as a comedian. Despite being serious, Ray has yet to fail to put a smile on our faces. “I’ve never told a joke in my life. Jeff Probst is a vampire. Lizard people live under the Denver airport. We can breathe in space, and Britney Spears ' Instagram is actually fucking captivating. Humor is for little babies.” We respect it.
Now onto what everyone has been waiting for:
Here are Ray Hawthorne’s TOP8 items he would order from the Cheesecake Factory.
“These are the top 8 things I would order from the Cheesecake Factory right now if I was at a Cheesecake Factory and also could eat 8 things.”
*All photos from Cheesecake Factory's Website
FRIED MACARONI AND CHEESE: Nuff said. I tried this when I moved to California and went to Cheesecake Factory for the first time; it changed my life.
PRETZEL BITES WITH CHEDDAR CHEESE FONDUE: I like pretzels, I like cheese. This sounds like a good choice.
BUFFALO CHICKEN STRIPS: You can’t go wrong with a classic.
SOUP OF THE DAY: I like to live dangerously.
COBB SALAD: My favorite meal, possibly on earth.
VEGAN COBB SALAD: My wife is vegan, and we’ve never been able to eat Cobb Salad together. She can have this one while I have the normal Cobb salad. I had no idea they had a vegan Cobb salad when I started this bit. We might actually go to Cheesecake Factory soon.
OREO DREAM EXTREME CHEESECAKE: Oreo cheesecake is my favorite kind of cheesecake. The kind my mom makes is the best, but this one will have to do.
TOASTED MARSHMALLOW S'MORES GALORE: WHAT THE F**K, THERE'S A S’MORES CHEESECAKE?????
With that being said, what’s next for Ray Hawthorne? Making his cheesecake dreams come true. Listeners can expect me to go to a f**king Cheesecake Factory and try this s’mores cheesecake. Why has no one told me about this?”
TOP8’s Take?
From Wawa to cheesecake, safe to say we’re hungry now, too... and wondering why we haven’t paid attention to half of these Cheesecake Factory options sooner. Our lives are now forever changed, and our wallets are soon to be empty from ordering all these delicious recs (we‘ve been influenced).
We are being fed literally and figuratively. Ray Hawthorne performs at a Cheesecake Factory when? What’s better than food and pop punk at the same time? Exactly.
You already know we dig his music. He's real, he's fun, and everything the scene needs. Go spin ‘Burn New Jersey Down’ and don’t forget to eat and stream responsibly.
.png)
