In each piece of music she shares with the world, Los Angeles-based artist ROYAL & THE SERPENT reveals the wild duality at the heart of her artistry. A Gemini to the core, she’s passionate but pensive, sensitive but self-possessed, enigmatic but an open book when it comes to exposing what’s inside her mind. With the arrival of get a grip - her debut project for Atlantic Records - the singer/songwriter otherwise known as Ryan Santiago speaks to the incredible power of embracing your true nature, in all its outrageous complexity.

In September 2017, Santiago made her debut as Royal & the Serpent with “Temperance,” a spellbinding self-released track she wrote “a cappella by myself, walking to the bus stop one day.” As she continued turning out singles—and earning buzz with songs like 2019’s “Weddings & Funerals” and “Salvador Dali”—Santiago began making her name as a performer, taking her electrifying live show to venues across L.A. Her relentless dedication paid off in summer 2019, when a show at Hollywood dive bar Good Times at Davey Wayne’s caught the attention of Atlantic Records, who signed Royal & the Serpent by the end of the year.

Her sophomore release, searching for nirvana named meant to portray her journey through self-exploration and mental stability while  taking inspiration taken from Kurt Cobain and grunge/alternative roots unfolds with a kaleidoscopic breed of alt-rock and alt-pop informed by Santiago’s eclectic sensibilities (a voracious music obsessive, she lists everything from David Bowie to alt-R&B artist Allan Rayman to ’50s doo wop among her influences). In bringing the project’s gorgeously detailed sound to life, Santiago handled production duties with her frequent collaborator Marky Style, dreaming up a sonic aesthetic that’s frenetic and feverish one moment, elegantly composed the next - a fitting backdrop to Royal & the Serpent’s tempestuous lyrics.

On the dizzying lead single to get a grip - an EP exploring her darker and more mercurial tendencies - Royal & the Serpent lets her strangest impulses shine, gracefully interlacing jagged textures and off-kilter beats and dubstep-inspired drops. Threaded with sometimes-ominous samples of vocal chatter, “Overwhelmed” spotlights the sheer magnetism of Santiago’s voice as she cycles through countless tones and moods with impossible ease. “When I wrote ‘Overwhelmed’ I was in a place of feeling really neurotic and overstimulated,” she says. “The song is sort of me explaining what my life was like at that moment—this feeling of needing to be in control of everything, and experiencing a constant sensory overload.” 

With searching for nirvana due out later this year, Santiago points to a profound period of growth she experienced in the making of the two EPs. “The first EP represents who I was a couple years ago, when I was a bit out of my mind—the bad Gemini, so to speak,” she says. “I’ve grown up a lot since then and my perspective has changed, so the second EP is much more like, ‘This is who I am now. I’m gonna be okay.’” And though she welcomes that transformation, Santiago hopes her music might inspire others to celebrate their messiest emotions. “When people hear these songs, I want them to have fun with them, and know that it’s okay to feel however they feel,” she says. “We all feel all a little out of control or crazy sometimes—that’s all just part of being human.”