Singer-Songwriter Ryland James Reveals the Powerful True Story Behind ‘I Give Everything’
Canadian singer-songwriter Ryland James never misses, and his latest single, "I Give Everything," just might be his best yet.
The multi-platinum artist bares it all in the new track, which tells a true story in Ryland's own life of falling madly in love, and the sometimes scary process of the transformation that can bring, and the fear of losing your sense of self along the way. We can't get enough of the song's dancey sound and profound lyrics, and we got the chance to ask Ryland himself all about precisely what the song means to him in the following interview.
Sweety High: What was the songwriting process of "I Give Everything"? Was it inspired by a real relationship?
Ryland James: I wrote this song in September of 2020, a few weeks after my boyfriend moved long-distance from Toronto to live at home with his family during the pandemic. We'd been dating for two months when he left, and he was my first love and serious relationship, so you can imagine how heartbroken I felt at having to be separated. In the short amount of time that we'd known each other that summer, we just knew we were meant to be for the long run. The connection was so intense and felt so right, but all these outside circumstances felt like they were inhibiting it; the pandemic, for one, but also the fact that I hadn't come out to the world or most of my family yet.
I was undergoing a massive transformation at the time, and emotions were running high. It felt like all this buried hurt, anger and joy was coming to the surface to be seen and known for the first time that I hadn't realized was affecting me so much. During those first months of our long-distance relationship I wrote a lot of music that reflected the emotions I felt during my summer with him, "I Give Everything" being one of them. It was the first day of one of my trips to Toronto that it came to be (I was living in my hometown two and a half hours away at the time). I was in the studio with Mike Wise, Prince DCF and Geoff Warburton, and we just started writing a song about throwing yourself into a relationship, but feeling resistance in not wanting to lose yourself in it at the same time. I'm someone who often feels swallowed whole by my emotions, and with love being the most intense I've ever experienced, I absolutely felt swallowed whole by my relationship, mostly in the best way possible. At times, though, I felt like I was losing myself in a negative way. I was becoming an entirely different person, which I realize now was a great thing but at the time felt dangerous and scary. "I Give Everything" is a snapshot of all those feelings at once bundled into a song.
SH: How do you think the upbeat feeling of the song captures that experience?
RJ: The sonic landscape of the song is very upbeat and dancy in a way, but the actual content of the song is definitely more intense and serious. I always love a song that has that juxtaposition to it. They always trick you into thinking they're about one thing, but then on closer examination, they're actually about something completely different. I like that "I Give Everything" has that element to it. The production and sounds represent the intense, lovey, euphoric feelings, but the lyrics represent the more cerebral thought process of "What happens if this?" "What happens if that?" "What happens if I lose myself in it all?" But at the end of the day, I just dance in the feelings anyway and see where they take me.