5 questions with lead singer of Riley Burke Band in Youngstown ahead of album debut

A Youngstown singer and songwriter is releasing new music and getting ready for the debut of her first album inspired by being herself and finding self-love in your twenties.

Meet Riley Burke, a Kent State University graduate currently studying for her doctorate in audiology at the Northeast Ohio Audiology Consortium. She’s the lead singer and songwriter of The Riley Burke Band.

The band first played at the Wickyards in Youngstown, which used to be a funeral home before being converted into a live music venue for local bands on Wick Avenue.

After spending the summer performing live at Cedar Point, the Riley Burke Band released Love Me Too on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.

The next single called Star Girl is coming out this Friday. Riley Burke Band’s full album, First Night at the Drive In, comes out on Oct. 18.

The band is hosting a show to celebrate the debut album Oct. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at Westside Bowl featuring headlining bands with all-female lead singers, including local musicians like Black Wolf & the Thief and Candace Campana.

“I am really proud of all these songs, and so excited to have it out in the world,” said Burke.

How did you get started producing original music?

“For Riley Burke band, the main goal has always been to do the originals and let them kind of take off. We love throwing in covers here and there, like we do just a girl by no doubt. And that’s like, one of my favorites to play, um, but, yeah, uh, big goal has always been to get an album out, which, finally we have one, which is great. I’m also in a full time cover band, full time cover band, like, you know, on the side, but I’m in a cover band, I don’t know words, yeah, called, here comes Tuesday, and we that’s that project has been a lot of fun, but I love getting able to do I love being able to do both, and being able to have, like, kind of, like a fun, not really stressful, like cover band project, and then also having the originals, which is really, like my heart and soul. But sometimes you need a cover to, like, you know, a cover band show, to just kind of get your mind off of the seriousness of all of it.”

What does the northeast Ohio music scene mean to you?

“Everybody is so creative and talented and also unique. There are so many great bands from this area, but not one of them sounds like each other. It’s Ohio, and the fact that there’s not really anything to do around here other than go to the park and see live music, that everybody is just really on the grind of writing stuff. Everybody’s also so supportive of each other, which is so great to have in a scene that has so many talented bands. Everybody just uplifts each other, and that’s so great. I feel very fortunate to have kind of dipped my toes into many of the communities within the greater area. I went to school at Kent State, so we’ve played out at Kent a lot, and we’re planning on branching out into Akron more. It’s just a great, supportive, talented community, and I feel very blessed to be in it.”

What is the message behind your new song, Love Me Too?

“we just put out a single called Love Me too, and it’s me with my arms up on the Magnum at Cedar Point. I wrote Love Me Too in my first or second week of undergrad, and all my classes were online because of COVID-19, and I had spent my whole high school experience just feeling very insecure and kind of bad about myself. I’ve always been a really hardcore perfectionist and very critical myself, um, and I just wanted to change that and kind of shift my mindset going into college and put myself out there and not be as shy and kind of try to meet new people. But then I was doing all my classes from home, so that was boring, and I just wrote Love Me too, from the lens of, like, if I had the confidence to and the ability to, you know that the state of the world right now if I could go meet people and, like, live on campus and interact with people. How would I want to be in my ideal, like, self even, like, fake it till you make it. So the opening lyrics are like, So tell me, where are you from? Do you believe in love, and are you trying to find some it’s like, very just, I’m just gonna full send like, you’re an attractive person, and I think we should be friends or more, or whatever. So I guess the the message of love me too is like, if you feel like you are, how I was in high school, where I was very closed off in my shell, like, uh, judgmental toward myself, um, fake it till you make it. And just, I guess, listen to the song and like, See, I don’t know what I’m saying, but, um, I guess I’m I wrote it from a very hopeful perspective of, like, where, where I want, how I wanted to be, and now I feel like, four years later, I’ve kind of embodied that person, and I’m not shy anymore, and I’m confident in who I am. And, yeah, I just, I just, that’s my my anthem to people who feel like they want to put themselves out there, and you will get there eventually, and you just gotta fake it till you make it.”

What was it like to play at Cedar Point this summer?

“I love roller coasters. I’ve been a huge Cedar Point fanatic since my sister made me ride everything with her. And I got over my fear of roller coasters, but that since I found out that they’ve been having bands there, I’ve wanted to get in and be able to do it, um, and there’s a bunch of bands that apply. It kind of proved to me that I am not going to get tired of my own music after playing it so much. We played every original song two or three times a day for a week straight. I did not get tired of it. I was like, ‘This makes me feel like I am meant to do this. I am meant to put my music out to people.’ We got a really good reception from the people who were there visiting, some people who were staying at our hotel came back to see us...There was this really cute little boy and little girl. They were brother and sister, and they saw us on Monday, and they came back, like, four days later and had made us all bracelets, and I still have mine on my guitar.”

What shows are you playing in the Mahoning Valley area this fall you’re most excited for?

“Oct. 19 at Westside Bowl will be our biggest show ever. Please, please be there. It’ll make me so happy. We have our album release show. The album comes out on Oct. 18. It’s called First Night at the Drive-In. The album release show starts at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $10 in advance or 12 at the door. For our special guests, we’re having an all-female front that night. It’s going to be Black Wolf and the Thief, Katie Robinson and the Wanderers, and they’re from Akron, and Candace Campana, which I look up to them so much.”

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This story was originally published September 24, 2024 at 6:00 AM.