RIDE WITH ME: BREANNA BOX

BREANNA BOX'S LATEST SINGLE IS STEEPED IN LOVE AND SPONTANEITY.

By Libby Hsieh

Sitting by the Okinawan shoreline, Breanna Box catches her breath. This moment is a reward, a pause in a long year of heartbreak. Amid the upheaval around her, she radiates strength—almost daring life to throw more at her—and comes home to the form of creating that makes her feel most herself: music. Breanna is a restless spirit that refuses to calm. In her lyrics and melodies, she nurses her wounds.

Her forthcoming album Moonhead is a lighthouse across the water, guiding her across a tempest of grief. Her song “Ride With Me” is steeped in personal history, a cinematic ode to her late mother and grandfather. The lyrics are whispers from her family archive, an oath of loyalty for her kin, and a declaration of love from someone who’s seen enough to know what matters. For Breanna, love is not just an emotion but an act of endurance. In music, as in life, she rejects empty platitudes of infatuation and grounds her work in the messy truth of commitment. Her songs ache yet stand firm, reflecting her belief that love shows its strength not in ease, but in chaos.

For Beyond Noise, Breanna shares the music video for “Ride with Me”—a token from her actual wedding day. Embedded within the 16mm grain is a statement of her spontaneity, artistry, and refusal to separate life from creation.

LIBBY HSIEH: Where are you right now?

BREANNA BOX: I’m currently in Okinawa, in the cutest traditional place by the ocean. I’m loving life right now.

LH: What brings you out there?

BB: For our company Home in Heven, we did a design week in Seoul, which was really hectic and incredible. My treat afterwards was going to Japan. We’re going snorkeling tomorrow, where hopefully we will find some turtles. I’m just like, I deserve this. I’ve had a really insane year. This is the whole reason why I’ve even started making music again. It’s very much heartbreak music.

LH: What was the inception of your journey into music? Because you are multi-hyphenate in every sense of the word.

BB: ADHD at its finest. When I was coming up as an actor and wanted to do music, I felt like I needed to just pick one. I’ve always thought if I juggle balls, one of them is going to pop at the right time. Being able to focus on one thing just didn’t feel right. I’m from LA and I’ve wanted to do music my whole life, but being a young girl in the scene with men really showed me the ugly side of life. It actually made me not want to sing, which is very heartbreaking to look back on. It took away my joy. When I found acting, there was a new place to put my anger. It’s funny, because it’s not at all what I thought I was going to do—very camp pop-diva shit.

It all kind of happened organically. I was living in London for a bit, and I did Agent Provocateur’s first live show where I sang my track “Drink Me.” We slowed it down and made it really jazzy. That was one people kept talking about. And I’m like, People like this sad shit. I feel like I tapped into some Spaghetti Western stuff. I wanted to make music for this documentary about my grandfather’s life. He used to be a gangster, but he passed away. I didn’t get to finish filming, so I was like, You know what? My brain’s not here right now. I’m still grieving. Let me just make music. And “Ride With Me” came about as I watched the footage, which was of me and my grandpa in a Cadillac. I thought about him and my grandma’s relationship. She held him down for 15 years when he went to prison for something he didn’t do. I’m so picky with my friends—I’m a very protective big brother because I hate most of their boyfriends. The bar should be higher. Nobody brings their man around unless they’re really sure about him!

LH: Everyone needs that kind of friend.

BB: I had that fear with my grandpa. That’s why he only met my husband, because I knew no one [else] was good enough. It’s a respect thing, and I respect my friends so much. With the video, I had different ideas in my head. But fast forward a little bit, my mom passed away unexpectedly, which has been earth-shattering, life-changing, all of those big words—and the only comfort I found was music. I was like, Whoa, I have no control of my life anymore. Everybody I love is leaving. I completely shifted into a new place, which has made me feel selective with my time. Peter and I felt like it was an act of love to get married four months after she passed, but it also gave me something to take my mind off of things now that I’m the person who’s taking care of everyone.

The wedding was incredible. It was 40 of my closest people. We all wore white—kind of like a memorial to my mom and grandpa, because they couldn’t be there. And I was like, Wait a sec, everyone looks fly. We have a baby blue Cadillac. I’m gonna film.

LH: The song feels like this ode to closeness and the rituals around family. Do you always create from such a personal space?

BB: It’s not always where I’m operating from. If I’m making an object for Heven, it’s different. But with music, it is just my diary. I have no other agenda with it—I’m blessed in my life now, where there’s no desperation for it. And same with acting: I’m able to pick what I want to do. There’s nothing worse than somebody who makes a decision because they feel like they need to. But all my mom and grandpa wanted me to do was sing, so I know it’s them pushing the cart.

LH: How do you think your relationship to music has changed recently?

BB: I used to just write about sex. That was [when I was] very seize-the-moment young. Whereas this feels like it really is the only form of therapy. When I have to perform these songs, it’s going to be very difficult. I actually haven’t really imagined that for myself. Because I didn’t become a big pop star, I thought I was just going to be behind the scenes. I recently listened to Barbra Streisand’s audiobook and she’s the same way. The album’s called Moonhead, because that was my nickname from my mom and grandpa, and I’ve included them on a lot of the tracks. When I’m in the studio listening to it, I can’t help but start bawling.

LH: You must feel a unique sense of catharsis that might be hard to capture in the everyday rhythm of touring.

BB: Totally. I think the thing that would change my mindset about it is just being vocal about grief. Everybody goes through grief differently. My mom was a very boisterous person. She had a huge Instagram presence, so I have so much stuff to go through and repost. Obviously, I’m not an expert on this shit, but I’m starting to understand the feelings a little bit more, because I really thought, Okay, my life is over. I’m at the bottom of a pool. Unexpected things can really break you open in a way that is lonely and isolating—but also, every single person has to go through it.

LH: It really is day-by-day.

BB: Or literally minute-by-minute. I’m just accepting it.

LH: Because the album is so embedded with grief, how does it feel to tie it up? Do you feel like you’re in a different space than you were when you started?

BB: Yeah, I am. Moonhead definitely reminds me of being under the moon. At night, it’s really hard for me to be alone because I think about all these things. The moon and the sun were really big symbols for my mom and I. It’s not even about, Things get better. It’s like, You made me to be the strongest motherfucker. It’s very American to be like, Oh, you don’t have to take care of them. I do. It’s my duty. It’s who I am. It makes me proud to be able to do that. I also want to learn to write a perfect love song. Watching how my husband has handled all of this and how much of a knight in shining armor he is, I think I’ll be able to finally do that.

LH: From the lyrics and delivery of “Ride With Me,” you can feel that deep commitment.

BB: Yeah. I like that more, and that’s more real to me. People can sing all the empty love songs they want, but are you really going to be there when shit gets crazy?

LH: Love as an act, as opposed to a feeling. What were you hoping to get out of filming on your wedding day?

BB: There was no storyboard. This was not your normal planned thing. It was grabbing the 16 mm, jumping in the car, putting the track on, and mouthing the words. Thank god my friend Laura is an incredible DP. She knows what she’s doing. I’m blessed, in that way, to feel safe in that aspect. Everyone was still at the house but, of course, they were like, “Breanna would do this on her wedding day.”

LH: Is that spontaneity common for you?

BB: Yeah, definitely. And now [that day] is gonna last forever.

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