Singer-songwriter Ryan Beatty has opened up about his post-Beyoncé breakout and how he navigates writing love songs about his boyfriend, admitting the process feels "awkward at first" before it becomes second nature. Beatty, who co-wrote several tracks on Beyoncé's Grammy-winning Cowboy Carter, including fan favourite "Bodyguard", is now promoting his own fourth studio album, Sweet Fortune, released in June, and playing small underplay shows that helped draw Beyoncé's attention to his music in the first place.

Speaking ahead of a low-key gig at a Lower East Side venue in Manhattan, the 30-year-old, who turns 31 next month, explained that he wrote much of Sweet Fortune during a New York winter, deliberately stepping outside his usual Los Angeles surroundings to push his songwriting in new directions. He described the record as "California dressed up in New York clothes" and said its central theme is distance, while also noting that singing candidly about a current relationship, rather than heartbreak, marked a departure from his previous work.