Emerging from Los Angeles, singer-songwriter Ryan Santiago shapes the assertive alt-electro-pop of Royal & the Serpent. The project first displayed her distinctive girlish yet bluesy vocals on the 2017 single “Temperance.” Her debut EP Get a Grip yielded “Overwhelmed,” which climbed to number 20 on the Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart in 2020. The following year she appeared on the Knocks’ “Sound the Alarm” alongside Rivers Cuomo, placing the track inside the Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs chart. Atlantic issued her third EP, IF I DIED WOULD ANYONE CARE, in 2022.
After relocating from New Jersey to Los Angeles to refine her style, Santiago drew on influences that range from big band and early rock & roll to the work of Janis Joplin and Stevie Nicks. She cut her first release, “Temperance,” with producer Ken Nana of MIKNNA. In 2018 she co-wrote and sang on Tommee Profitt’s theatrical “Wicked,” a track placed in the trailer for the crime film The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Early the next year she issued “Together,” then signed with Suicide Squeeze, which released “Weddings & Funerals” in April; she also teamed with Marky Style for the singles “Salvador Dali” and “IDK.”
Atlantic introduced Royal & the Serpent in June 2020 with “Overwhelmed,” which reached number 20 on the Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, followed by the full Get a Grip EP that October. Searching for Nirvana arrived in June 2021, and the next month she joined Rivers Cuomo on the Knocks’ “Sound the Alarm,” which entered the Top 30 of the Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs chart. Early 2022 brought the confrontational single “PHUCKBOI REJECTS” and the EP IF I DIED WOULD ANYONE CARE, both on Atlantic; “Better” appeared as a follow-up from the same project. Later that year she collaborated with GG Magree on the raw, punk-infused “Bitch.”
