Julia Ryan Rediscovers Why She Loves Music in Soulful New Song, 'To the Top': Premiere

If anyone knows how hard it is to combine career with passion, it's Julia Ryan. The up-and-coming singer and songwriter has been working on her forthcoming debut EP for years, and she's finally ready to shed the self-doubt in her new single, "To the Top."

She began to write the jazzy-rock track back when she was a student at USC's Thornton School of Music, where each peer she met was more talented and more driven than the one before. As the competition and fear of failure consumed her, "To the Top" was born as a need to start fresh with a clear mind--because above all, music at its core is about how it makes you feel.

"The song stands as an analogy of going back to the top of a song, to the beginning," Ryan said in a statement. "The lyrics are meant to remind people of where they're from and to get in touch with what fills their soul, while bringing that back to their current reality."

The lyrics mirror the mentality. "Take me down to the edge/Let me fall to learn to fly/So I can find my soul and peace of mind," Ryan muses with smokey vocals reminiscent of a sultry songstress you'd hear in a 1950s soul bar on an evening in Chicago. Wild guitar riffs add a unique edge to an otherwise smooth song. 

Listen to "To the Top" below.