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In the video for Ryan Beatty\u2019s new single, \u201cSecret Language\u201d\u2014released today as the first single off his fourth album, Sweet Fortune<\/em>, arriving later this month\u2014the musician stands against a Hockney blue California sky, throwing a paper plane into the air. We follow him running in a sun-bleached pink tee and jeans down Hollywood Boulevard all the way to the glittering lights of Las Vegas, then out into the pristine white sands of the New Mexico desert. Next, he\u2019s in the Texas plains, as the heavens open with a biblical thunderstorm and a rainbow streaks through the sky; right after, he\u2019s running through the bar-lined streets of Nashville and down a road shadowed by Spanish moss in Louisiana.<\/p>\n Finally, Beatty runs through the streets of downtown Manhattan, catching the paper plane just as it lands along the Charles River Esplanade in Boston, where he collapses onto a bench to catch his breath. (Following that Forrest Gump-worthy odyssey, it\u2019s no wonder he needs a moment.)<\/p>\n \u201cThe experience of making this video was by far my favorite experience of making a music video, ever,\u201d Beatty says over Zoom from his home in Los Angeles, a few days before its release. \u201cWhat I\u2019m most proud of is that when I watch it back, I see myself. Nothing felt put on. It was a very small crew, but we were all so passionate while making it that it truly felt freeing. And I think that shows.\u201d His only qualm? \u201cI was running in cowboy boots the entire time, and my shins certainly paid for it,\u201d he says, laughing. \u201cBut it was important to me that I kept the spirit of the video. It\u2019s about seeing the distance your heart can take you. I know that sounds corny, but that\u2019s what I really wanted it to feel like.\u201d<\/p>\n If there\u2019s one thing that Beatty is known for, after all, it\u2019s how to take those big, sweeping feelings\u2014first love, heartbreak, loneliness\u2014and reveal them in an entirely new light. That piercing wisdom can be chalked up, at least in part, to the fact that he\u2019s already lived a few different lives as an artist. He first broke out as a teenager posting covers on YouTube, before leaving his management and label at 18 after they tried to market him as the next Justin Bieber. In 2018, he released his debut album, the intimate, alt-R&B-influenced Boy in Jeans<\/em>; two years later came the more experimental, electronic-tinged Dreaming of David<\/em>. (Along the way, Beatty\u2019s profile was also raised by his collaborations with the buzzy hip-hop collective Brockhampton and his work with Tyler, the Creator<\/a> on 2019\u2019s Igor.<\/em>)<\/p>\n In 2023, he released the masterful Calico<\/em>, an exquisite, heartrending whirlpool of folk-inspired guitars and swirling strings, charting the turbulent emotional aftermath of a breakup. His knack for sophisticated, cinematic songwriting also caught the attention of Beyonc\u00e9, who recruited him to co-write four songs on Cowboy Carter<\/em><\/a>\u2014you can detect his ear for tender, sensorially-loaded lyrics on \u201cProtector\u201d and \u201cBodyguard,\u201d the latter of which he also provided backing vocals for. (His contributions led to him winning a Grammy for album of the year.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n