LA-based singer and songwriter Royal & the Serpent (Ryan Santiago) channels the energy of Batman’s Joker in the evocative video for “IM NOT SORRY,” out today. “IM NOT SORRY” follows Royal’s “CHIPS,” an emotional song about intimacy and friendship, featuring her friend/collaborator American Teeth.
Ryan Santiago made her debut as Royal & the Serpent made her debut in 2017, and after earning acclaim over the last few years for a series of self-released singles such as “MMXX,” “Salvador Dali,” and “Bad Bad Blood,” she made her Atlantic Records debut in 2020 with “overwhelmed.” On the live front, Royal made her 2nd-ever festival appearance at Delaware’s Firefly festival and played EMO NITE Vegas Vacation Festival last month. She also recently wrapped her first ever cross-America tour supporting PVRIS and played LA’s The Roxy with DEATHBYROMY.
In each piece of music she shares with the world, Royal reveals the wild duality at the heart of her artistry and speaks to the incredible power of embracing your true nature, in all its outrageous complexity. 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. She equally identifies as a “sweet sunshine angel” (i.e., the Royal persona) and a “freaky devil maniac” (the Serpent), which is especially poignant in her latest release, “IM NOT SORRY.”
In the new track, Ryan divulges the feelings of being “over it” with everything around her, and everyone around her. Rather than falling under peer pressure and hiding her feelings, she chooses to express them instead; and in it formulates the unapologetic nature of the song itself.
The music video paired with the release of “IM NOT SORRY” showcases Ryan’s darker side of her persona’s split personality. The freaky-devil-maniac is out to play and take down everyone who gets in her way. As she parades around the city decked out as a rendition of the Joker, she embraces the inner voice of insanity for just a little bit to offer catharsis to anyone who watches and feels similarly as her.
Stream the new single, available now on all platforms:
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