When Ryan LeVine’s life was upended near the end of 2018, he was at a loss for what to do next. His band of six years, Wildling, had decided to dissolve and, at the same time, his personal relationship had shattered. He turned to music to try and process everything he was feeling, taking a different approach than normal. “I usually demo super intensively and kind of put songs in a box before it’s time,” he said. “But on this go-around, I was really adamant to just write the songs with just me and the guitar and then let the production happen once I got into the studio.” The result of these sessions, inspired by feelings of uncertainty, heartbreak and much more, is LeVine’s EP, Good Things To Remember, set for release later this year. 

The five track EP is led by lead single “Signs,” a five-minute War On Drugs-esque opus that showcases LeVine’s vulnerability as a songwriter, musician and vocalist. LeVine’s resignation and hurt, both intimate and explosive, is evident throughout the track vocally and musically but is best summed up in the bridge when he sings, “And the truth is, I don’t feel angry. The truth is I feel tired.” “’Signs is really dear to my heart,” said LeVine. “I feel like it wraps up all of the emotions that I was mining for the EP. It feels like it was all contained within that song.” 

The next track off the project, released just last week, called “You Don’t Hold The Cards Anymore,” is a complete mood shift as he takes back his narrative after rekindling with an ex-lover: “You don’t get to kiss me, baby, and pretend you don’t mean it. You don’t hold the cards anymore, but I’ll make it easy. I love you, now take it or leave it.” 

“It’s revisiting an old relationship that I’m still in,” said LeVine, giving context to the ultimatum that plays out in the song. “It looks like it’s going to be different this time, but the first go-around was really bad. When we reconnected, I had done so much work on myself….so the song is just being honest, saying, ‘it is what it is’.”

LeVine lists some stellar acts as Nathaniel Rateliff and the Nightsweats, Big Thief and Vampire Weekend as his muses while creating the project. Those examples are almost telltale signs that, like with “Signs” and “You Don’t Hold The Cards Anymore,” each song on the project will be different from the one before it. “As a body of work, they all feel cohesive, but they all have their own signature sound,” said LeVine. “But, I think that the way they were recorded to tape and that everything exists in this super analog realm makes it all feel very cohesive.” LeVine’s fixation to record the project in that fashion came from not just the raw material, but the desire to try something new. “There’s so much greatness that is usually captured in that first moment,” said LeVine, referring to the typical demo process. “From a technical and production standpoint there are always things you want to improve on…but then it’s always so difficult to try and recreate that energy.” 

Both “Signs” and “You Don’t Hold The Cards Anymore” were written during the peak of COVID last year, while the rest were written prior to. However, despite many creatives spending their time in isolation writing more than ever, LeVine used that time to, mostly, finalize what had already been done. Then, he needed to escape. “I finished the EP and then I moved to Oaxaca, Mexico for three months,” he said. “I felt like I needed a break from Los Angeles and being a songwriter. I left everything I knew and moved to a city where I didn’t speak the language, and nobody knew me.” 

When things fall apart, LeVine, as an artist, translates his pain to music, but there is one other thing that allows him to begin to feel peace. “If there’s one thing I can really pinpoint when I feel the most loss, the thing that always works, is being in nature,” said LeVine. “Being in mountains, being in space that’s bigger than wherever I feel like I’m dealing with these things.” Nature, natural light and those quiet, serene spaces are the backdrop for much of LeVine’s stunning music video for “Signs,” which only emphasizes his immediate response to retreat into the tranquility of the outdoors when things get tough. “Being in your house, in your room, surrounded by walls….I think that is not a good place to be for very long when you’re in the depths of confusion and pain,” said LeVine. “So, I try and get out into open space, into nature, and it works.” Meditation and rock-climbing are also a part of the process, but then, he says, you have to face reality. “At some point, you have to mine that stuff,” he said. “You have to mine those feelings. You have to go into them and feel them, and songwriting has been my tool for doing that the most intensely. The more time you run away, the more time you have to spend working on it.” 

For the first time in over a decade, Levine is releasing a full project that bears his name and his alone. However, there are factors, like the love his music receives from his peers, that mean more to him than commercial success. “I want to keep having the opportunity to create music for a living,” he said. “It’s the best thing in the world. It’s the greatest gift that I’ve been able to get for so long. So I want to have success, but I’m at peace with whatever level that means for me.” 
You can listen to Levine’s stellar track, “Signs” and “You Don’t Hold The Cards Anymore,” here, and be on the lookout for the entirety of Good Things To Remember later this year: