Ryan Cabrera Says His New Music Is 'All Over the Place'

Ryan Cabrera has come a long way from the soulful guitar and earnest vocals that defined his 2004 breakout hit “On the Way Down.” He’s putting all of his creative growth on display with the release of his new single, “Prescription of You.”

Nearly 20 years after making his mainstream debut, the pop-rock musician has grown up in the public eye. In 2022, he married WWE star Alexa Bliss, and the couple are expecting their first child later this year.

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Amid all of these exciting personal developments, he’s been working on new music, with plans for an EP to arrive in the near future. But first, there’s “Prescription of You” — a seductive and playful track heavy on Cabrera’s beguiling falsetto.

Below, Cabrera tells PopCrush about his new EP, his favorite songs to perform live, working with Avril Lavigne on her song “Tell Me It’s Over” and more.

“Prescription of You” feels like a departure from what you were doing before. Is the rest of the EP going to sound like this?

No, it's really eclectic. It's all over the place. I started to realize during the writing process. I was putting in the batches, and one batch was like, “Here's what I would listen to when I'm getting ready to go out, then here's what I would listen to in the car.” So there's that vibe, which is “Prescription of You.” The first batch is kind of like, all right, now it's time to have some fun, get a little cheeky and have a good time.

And then the next batch is … some more like the after party kind of vibe. And then there's the ones that, when you get home, you just want to relax. Take a bath and just put on some nice acoustic, more chill, romantic kind of vibes.

But at the end of the day, as a songwriter I like to grow and evolve and get better. But at the same time, when you're writing the music, you can't help what you write. So there still is the underlying… there's a little bit of old-school Ryan Cabrera with the new school.

Do you think you'll get to play more of the new music on the road before your daughter arrives?

A little bit. We’re going to be promoting “Prescription of You” for a while, so I'll be out in New York … doing all that kind of stuff, and figuring out the best way to do it acoustic since it's such a track-driven song. My goal is to perform an acoustic … for some shows. So that'll be the next little venture: promoting that and figuring out that part.

What would you say is your favorite song to perform live?

After doing “Prescription of You” for the first time, it kind of got me a little itch to perform it more because it's so new. We didn’t even rehearse it; we just popped it off and did it for the first time. That, to me, was really exciting. But other than that, there's a song called “Whatever Whatever,” which I think is really fun. It's like an island kind of vibe — beachy fun vibe.

And then, obviously, “True” is still a staple. It's the fun part of the show, right? You break it down and just play with an acoustic guitar and get the lighters up and all that kind of fun stuff. And then “On the Way Down” is still a blast. Even though I've played it a million times, I've never been that person that's ever gotten tired of playing that song. So it's fun now to see a bunch of people who are coming out to the shows who are like, “Oh my God, I love that song.” So that's always fun; cute.

You mentioned doing an acoustic of “Prescription of You.” Have you ever considered doing more of a dance version of any of your earlier music? Rearranging and putting a “Prescription of You”-spin on “On the Way Down” or “True?”

No, that's a really good idea. I mean, “True” came out as a dance single, actually. But not in this new modern kind of style. I might steal your idea and actually try that. I think it's a cool concept.

You know, you still have the ones that you do kind of the way they were because there's always going to be people who want to hear it how it is on the record. But then in certain songs, you can be like, “Oh, let me do like a little update.”

You worked with Avril Lavigne on “Tell Me It's Over,” and it was kind of a departure for both of you. What was it like working on that one together?

I think it was special just because it was so different. We had spent a lot of time just kind of sitting around the piano and many random nights playing music and getting a vibe. It started kind of where we would be sitting around the piano, and she would sing things that I've never heard her voice do. I was like, “Holy crap! Let's write something that showcases the soul and how big your voice is.” People know it because she has a huge range and stuff, but … the genre flipped into this huge power ballad that showcased a different side. Just to show people like, “Oh my God, she's not just a punk-pop princess; she's a f—ing powerhouse singer.”

What's something that you haven't really gotten to do yet creatively that you’d still like to tackle?

Jimmy Fallon has been on my list ever since he first came out. I love his show, I love him. My wife's been on his show but I'm like, “Oh, he's on the list.” That's like… of all the things that I've done or haven't done, I think that would be one of them.

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