RY X Opens His Studio for GAP’s Global Music Experience Series

RY X has spent a decade guarding the closed-door intimacy of his process. That changes with a new partnership with GAP, built around opening his studio on a 40-acre organic farm on the American west coast. The project pairs music and film with live shows in Australia, Berlin, and London.

The Australian songwriter, born Ry Cumming, frames the collaboration as an extension of his working relationships rather than a commercial pivot. “The intentions became really clear,” he says. “It felt like such a nice thing to be able to partner up and tell stories of making art, mentorship, community, and collaboration.”

The timing is deliberate. RY X is close to finishing his first album in four years, a record he describes as human, intimate, and entirely played—no samples, no loops. “There’s a level of honesty and rawness and vulnerability that I feel like I haven’t touched in a while,” he says.

That vulnerability carries into the GAP series itself. Inviting audiences into the physical space where the album took shape marks a shift for an artist who has “traditionally been quite closed doors.” A decade on from breakout record Dawn, the project positions his isolation as something to witness rather than protect.