Four years ago, Wryn’s world shifted. It rocked, it tumbled and it turned itself inside out as they looked inward, reassessed their trauma and began a new journey of self-discovery. What transpired was a moniker change to their last name, Wryn — a nod to their evolving sound but more pointedly their transformative relationship with gender. Wryn’s life began to embody a new shape. Their reinvention, in sound and spirit, became the ethos of their new album, aptly called ‘Shapes,’ which will be released March 28, 2025 on Righteous Babe Records.
On ‘Shapes,’ Wryn found themself using music as a way to process their feelings of complex PTSD and trauma. “My music got better, more personal because I was able to look at myself more clearly and see myself as separate from my trauma. Once I could see myself separate I could see a lot,” they said. “It’s not just about gender. That’s just one of the things that came from this process.”
The origin of ‘Shapes’ began just as the world was emerging from lockdown. In July 2021, Wryn had the urge to record a record and reached out to Bella Blasko (The National, Feist, Big Red Machine) to help them produce and mix the project. When the world began opening up again, Wryn connected with drummer JT Bates (Bonny Light Horseman, Big Red Machine) & bassist/saxophonist Mike Lewis (Bon Iver) to add instrumentation. Over a year later, Blasko mixed the record and Heba Kadry mastered it. Through Blasko, Wryn met Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records and signed to the label this year.
“I love Wryn’s music, and hope you do too” says DiFranco on Wryn joining the label, releasing their debut album and then opening the April run of the ‘Unpredecedented Sh!t’ Tour.
To introduce ‘Shapes,’ Wryn shared “Steady,” a stirring number penned during the pandemic in 2020 as they returned to therapy to untangle their past and were grappling with survival amid the chaos. The song serves as a sweeping hymnal — a prayer — to navigate that period of their life. “Being alive in this body is / Heavy, heavy / Fill up my lungs and wish me to breathe / Steady, steady,” they sing with a syrupy lilt before slinking into a stunning crescendo of strings and harmonies.
On the second single “Snake,” Wryn channels the raspy intimacy of Sharon Van Etten as they process their righteous anger and the intense political and social upheaval of that period — specifically the Black Lives Matter movement, anti-trans legislation and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. With “Multitudes,” they found inspiration in a prompt that featured Big Thief’s 2017 track “Pretty Things,” which turned into something akin to a love letter to themself.
At the center of the record is its title track, “Shapes,” where Wryn recognizes they were fragmented before they embraced their gender identity. “Open me up / Open the flood / I’ve split myself in two / For too long,” they croon. Wryn tackles all-consuming loneliness on the somber folk cut “Coiled.” The album’s lush closer “Sticky” tackles the way that trauma has lingered in their body and haunted them in flashbacks: “Deep in my body / Deep in my womb / Memory lingers / That I cannot move.”
With their first album under their name Wryn, ‘Shapes’ feels like a debut. And they hope listeners can find connection, process their own emotions and release them if need be. “My songs were always emotional, that never changed,” they said. “Now I’m confronting the roots of the emotions.”