Meet Montreal Musician Ryan Playground and Hear Her Infectious New Single

Today, the Montreal musician Genevieve Ryan Martel, known professionally as Ryan Playground, drops her infectious new single, “I Won’t Sleep On You,” exclusively on Vogue.com. “It’s one of the most optimistic songs I’ve done,” says Martel, who explains that it’s about building mutual trust with somebody you like. The song was written at the beginning of summer, when it was just “getting to be beautiful outside, so it has this kind of dancehall vibe, because I was very happy,” Martel says. And it sounds happy, too, being a perfect showcase for the singer’s high, dreamy, yet pure voice. Though she occasionally raps (and has even laid Kendrick Lamar’s lyric “Bitch don’t kill my vibe” over her ethereal music), “I Won’t Sleep On You,” like most of Martel’s output, falls within the modern electronic category.

The child of classical musicians (and granddaughter of the well-known Canadian politician Claude Ryan), Martel received her first drum kit at age 5—the same year she asked for a skateboard. “I had, like, atypical tastes,” explains Martel, who still skates. “I got really good at around 10 to 12 years old . . . but I am waaay less good than before because I’m too tall!”

Height works to Martel’s advantage in one of her other careers, however: modeling. (She’s known professionally as Ryan to distinguish her from her agency’s other Genevieves.) Discovered on the street at 13, a pale, dark-haired beauty with Blythe doll blue eyes and a flirty dimple, Martel has range. While she can do soignée French girl and Supreme-wearing hipster, the latter is more her speed. Her style, she says, “is definitely very inspired by skate styling because I [wore] those brands when I was a teenager. Then when I got more into modeling I got to wear more neat stuff. [Recently] I just got back to my old ‘me’ style, which is more skateboardish.” Last year, she and her girlfriend modeled for the cool Paris streetwear brand Premier Amour. Her current obsession is the skate brand Spitfire.

Rarely seen without a baseball cap or beanie, in the music video for her song “Ascension,” Martel sports a long T-shirt emblazoned with Jeune pour toujour. This is from her own brand, Terrain de Jeux (“playground” in French), created in collaboration with local designer Travis Taddeo, who designed the shape of the T-shirt. “Actually, I had a great response; it sold out fast,” says Martel.

Martel is signed to producer Ryan Hemsworth’s Secret Songs label, and she did a mini tour this summer with Hemsworth and the producer Harrison. How did it feel to be the only female performer in the group? “It’s a position that I like, and I hope it can inspire other girls for sure,” Martel says. “I often say that when I was a kid I wanted to be better than boys . . . and then it just got deeper and deeper inside of me that I wanted to prove that as a girl I could do as much as a boy could do.”

This multitasking Montrealer is currently working on a new album that she says will be more “organic,” and she’s also been thinking about how she can become involved in fashion as a musician, but venue is less important to Martel than message. “Everything in my music is very personal,” she explains. “I think that when you say something that is very important to you there are definitely people out there who will relate to what you say. I think music is meant to make people feel good about themselves, so that’s what I’m trying to do with my music for me and for the other people who listen to it.”