Ryan Cassata Photo credit: Andy Casillas
In his debut LP with Kill Rock Stars, Greetings from Echo Park, Ryan Cassata (he/him), a genre-defying powerhouse musician and activist, constructs a raw collection of folk punk, blues, and pop punk songs that soundtrack stories of anxiety, escapism, illness, and transphobia. The album is due out June 6th, 2025.
In Greetings from Echo Park, Cassata has seemingly spent the past few years swallowing down all the feelings of isolation and anxiety he could hold. Now he’s spitting it back up like bile. The result is a rich mosaic of influences and voices, bringing in collaborators such as Jason Hiller, David Scott Stone (Melvins, LCD Soundsystem), Mark Pelli (MAGIC!), and utilizing styles from emo pop-punk to *Springsteen*-style guitar. The album art even plays homage to Bruce Springsteen’s iconic Greetings from Asbury Park.
Partially written and recorded while battling an autoimmune illness and Lyme Disease coinfections, the album serves as both a cathartic release and a deeply personal chronicle of survival. Songs like “a Knack for Overthinking” capture the relentless grip of anxiety, blending emo pop-punk with confessional lyricism. “I’ve got a knack for overthinking, tip me over so you can stop the shout,” Cassata sings, embodying the push-and-pull of intrusive thoughts and self-doubt. Elsewhere, tracks like “i feel like throwing up” reflect on the isolation of sickness, featuring trans youth actors in its accompanying music video to highlight the systemic loneliness queer people often endure.
In “QUEER american DREAM,” a blues song, Cassata pays sneering homage to U.S. society’s bullying of trans and queer people, and details escapism and substance abuse as a symptom of the systemic isolation. Still, he offers hope and perseverance amid the angst—on love songs “He’s My Man” & “Bad Things” the searing anxiety cools, and he details “Queer love songs are protest songs. Whenever we’re loud about it, it’s a protest to me.”
In Greetings from Echo Park, Ryan Cassata doesn’t just tell his story—he screams it, whispers it, and lets it unravel in raw, unfiltered emotion.
Cassata talked with The Big Takeover about the record:
“I was driven to write this collection of songs about my experience living as a transgender American and a chronically ill person. The outer and inner chaos that both of these experiences bring are invisible to most and that has led to dark feelings of isolation. I wrote many of these songs from my living room floor, while battling a long sickness that rages on. IV after IV, and transphobic executive order after executive order, my lust for life hasn’t died, my urge to write songs only gets stronger, my rallying cry only gets louder, and hope always remains.
“Many of the songs are protest songs, songs that I can’t help writing. My experiences have lit a fire in me and I’m grateful for the songs that have come from the hard times. Trans folks are living under an extremely depressing and dangerous political climate. I believe music is part of the revolution: a place where we can find ourselves, find our community, reset, and remember that we’re not alone. Music connects us in powerful ways and helps us crawl out of isolation. Music connects us in powerful ways that help us crawl out of isolation.
“Protest songs are just as vital as songs that celebrate trans and queer joy. There are many moments of joy woven into these songs. While I still feel driven to write protest songs, I write love songs too and I hope listeners will feel that love and joy while listening.”
Ryan Cassata’s music has long been intertwined with activism; he is an award-winning singer-songwriter, actor, performer, published writer, LGBTQ+ activist, and transgender motivational speaker. With over 650 performances nationwide and internationally and seven original and critically-acclaimed musical albums, Cassata is proud to be recognized as the first openly-trans performer at the Vans Warped Tour, in addition to featured performances at Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Green Show, Global Pride, and SXSW. He has been praised by The Advocate Magazine as a “Transgender singing sensation.” Paper Magazine included Cassata on their “50 LGBTQ Musicians You Should Prioritize” list, and LOGO’s New Now Next included him on the “9 Trans Musicians You Need To Get Into” list. Billboard Magazine has referred to him as a “true force in the industry,” honoring him as one of the esteemed “11 Transgender & Non-Binary Musicians You Need to Know”.
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