P&P Spotlight: Ivory Layne
- Francesca Dieguez
- May 26
- 9 min read
Ivory Layne doesn't just write, produce and sing her own music - she's finally tapping into animation, a medium that’s piqued her interest since middle school. The North Carolina-born, Nashville and London-shaped singer-songwriter has been perfecting her sound since the age of six, teaching herself music production as a teenager. The music video to her newest single, “Roam,” combines more than 2,000 frames featuring Ivory Layne - every single one printed and hand-illustrated by her. A culturally and socially relevant rock anthem, “Roam” speaks out against corporations trying to steal human attention, inspired by festival performances from her idols such as Florence + The Machine. Her follow-up single “Skim” rounds out her artistry with a contrasting vibe, a happy accident born in a co-writing session that turned into one of her most vulnerable tracks yet.
Playlists & Polaroids is extremely honored and excited to dive deeper into her creative process, inspirations, beginnings, and what's next for Ivory in this new chapter. Continue reading for our full conversation with her!
YOU'LL LOVE IVORY LAYNE IF YOU LISTEN TO: Florence + The Machine, MARINA, The Killers, YUNGBLUD, Phoebe Bridgers, Paramore
How do your two latest singles, "Skim" and "Roam," differ from each other? Do you see them as building on one another?
They're definitely different, both in theme and in how they came to life. With "Roam," I knew from the start I was writing it for my artist project — it came from a very intentional place of wanting to write about social media and my experience with doomscrolling. I was thinking about a Florence and the Machine kind of world, what a song would feel like if I got to play it at Glastonbury.
"Skim" had a completely different origin. I started writing it in the room with my friend Dead Covenants — who worked on both songs with me — but we were writing it for sync, for television and movies, just to see if we could do something in the indie rock space. Then we finished it and I thought, I kind of love this. I want to release this regardless of whether it gets placed in a show or not. So the inception stories are very different, and I think that's what inspired the stylistic choices too. The similarity is that they both feel like me — so it's been a really fun exploration of genre across the two of them.
"Skim" is about staying on the surface and not diving back in. What does that image represent for you personally?
To me, the song is really about vulnerability — through the lens of a romantic relationship, though I can relate to it in multiple areas of my life. It's about being burned in the past, having shared so much of yourself with someone only to have them hurt you or disrespect you, and deciding you're just never going to dive in like that again. Staying on the surface becomes a self-preservation tactic.
I can relate to that in romantic relationships, but also in my personal and professional life as an indie artist. I've gone through experiences where I've felt deeply betrayed or disappointed after sharing the full scope of my dreams or my work with someone. So in a way, I hope this song is also a way of encouraging myself to get back into the habit of diving deep with certain people — of remembering that people can be trusted.
"Roam" is a critique of how corporations are turning people's time and attention into fuel for their machine. Where did that frustration come from?
I love this question. Broadcasting yourself online is already the norm across so many industries, so I'm not going to say music has it the worst — but having been in the music industry for over a decade now, I will say that social media and the pressure to constantly be online has genuinely changed the way the industry runs. It affects how talent is discovered, how partnerships are made, how people and corporations choose to invest in artists. And I've felt that pressure personally: the idea that if I'm serious about my career, I need to be online.
What I find really challenging about that is that the job I'm doing now, and aspire to do more of, requires me to be creative, to be in touch with myself, to protect my attention span and my time. And the more I've been on multiple platforms, the way they're designed to run like a slot machine and keep you engaged, the more I've felt my addiction to my phone increasing. I'm angry about it. I'm not online trying to build a brand for the sake of it. I'm online to connect with my fans and hopefully move my career forward. But instead of the advances I was promised for all the social media I do, I've just felt addicted and isolated.
There's also this growing pressure for artists to really know their fans, and I don't think social media is a good indicator of who a person truly is. I had to write about it because I'm living in it every single day — waking up and checking my phone, going to sleep checking my phone, wondering if I missed a comment, trying to come up with more content ideas. It's my everyday, and it affects my job and my dreams. That's why it had to become a song.
"Roam" was inspired by iconic festival performances from Florence + The Machine, The Killers, and more. What was it about those performances that made you want to write something built for that kind of stage?
Those artists have been my favorites since middle and high school, so I already draw a lot of intrinsic inspiration from them. But what really stood out to me about a festival song — especially from those artists — is movement. A hook that can be yelled by everyone, that makes the whole crowd want to jump. That sense of collective energy was what I was chasing. The pre-chorus of "Roam" was the most exciting part to build, especially working with my friend Dead Covenants, who has a band background that I don't have. He was able to take it to that next level sonically and bring it to the kind of stage you'd picture at Glastonbury or Coachella. That collaboration really made the song what it is.
You printed and individually illustrated almost 3,000 frames for the "Roam" music video. Why was stop motion the right medium for this song?
I knew immediately that I didn't want to do anything AI-related. I feel like AI is so integrated into editing now that sometimes I'll use it without even realizing it — just to remove a background or something. So I thought, this is the perfect moment to fulfill a middle school dream of mine, which was to make a stop motion film. I've been bookmarking stop motion videos for years. I love to draw, I love to doodle, and art is a really big part of my life. I just thought — why not try it? I stupidly assumed it would take two or three days. In total, it took about a full work week of time. But it was worth it, because it meant standing next to what the song was actually about. Making things by hand. Touching grass, artistically. I had so much fun — my family thought I was going a little crazy because every time they'd see me, I'd be laughing while putting things together. But that's what "Roam" is about: having experiences for yourself, off the screen. And from a purely selfish artistic perspective, I just wanted to see if I could do it.
Does the finished stop motion video live up to what you imagined as a kid? What surprised you most about the process?
I think middle school me would have been genuinely impressed watching it. There are things I'd do differently — I really wanted to do a mixed media element, where I cut out my silhouette and placed it in different stop motion locations, but I ran out of time. I was about to get on a cruise and perform a bunch of shows, and I had to scale back a lot of my original ideas to get it finished in time.
But one of the things I'm most proud of came out of that process: we saved all of the frames, my family helped me cut them out, and now you can actually buy an original frame from the video. Each one is numbered out of 2,000, signed, and comes in a protective clear keychain so you can carry it with you. It's been an amazing way to connect with fans and preserve the work — and honestly, it made the whole effort feel even more worth it. When people order online, I pick the frame for them. A lot of my fans have been around for years, so I try to pick one I think they'll love. And at shows, watching people hold the frames up to the video to find their exact moment — it's really, really special.
You filmed in the same field your dad used for his own album cover photo. What did it mean to carry on that connection?
It was actually a happy accident. We needed a field, and my dad knew the man who owned it — and mentioned almost in passing that his band had shot their album cover there years ago. He was in a Southern gospel band with my grandpa, and possibly one of my uncles too. It was a really special moment to be able to do it there.
I feel like so much of my career has been following in my dad's footsteps. He's an incredibly talented musician — he plays guitar and piano by ear, has an amazing voice, incredible range, classical training. He could have had his own career if he'd wanted to. But more than anything, he's always been in my corner. When things get hard in the music industry — and they do — he actually refuses to let me quit. A lot of my artist friends have parents telling them to get a real job. My dad says if you quit, I'll be so disappointed. That kind of support means everything. And now I find myself wanting to scout for more locations with some kind of family connection for future videos. This one started something.
How have Nashville and London each shaped your sound and artistry?
Nashville probably shaped me the most fundamentally. I moved there at 18, but I started working out of there when I was 16 or 17, and those were my first real experiences collaborating with other people. I'd only ever worked on things by myself before, so it taught me how to show up in a room with other writers. I had the privilege of working with Grammy Award-winning songwriters, and you absorb a lot from watching how they approach a song. The biggest thing I took away was that songwriting in a collaborative setting is about 25 percent talent and 75 percent people skills. You have to be present, you have to be open, you can't shut yourself off. There's a warmup period with every new collaborator, and you have to be willing to be vulnerable and dig into your story. That storytelling approach — viewing a song almost like a narrative structure — is very much a Nashville thing, and even though I think I was already a natural storyteller as a kid, Nashville really ingrained it in me.
London is just so freaking cool. Having public transportation and being able to come up with an idea on the train ride to the studio was genuinely a game changer for my creative process. The producers I worked with there were so out there in the best way — they really challenged me. It was one of the first times I walked into sessions and nobody was pulling up a Spotify playlist and saying, "let's aim for this sound." There was real creative freedom. I think my style choices naturally lean more UK anyway, because of the music I grew up loving — Marina and the Diamonds was a huge reason I wanted to go to London in the first place. I felt very seen and understood there in a way I hadn't quite felt in Nashville. Both cities shaped how I approach collaboration and creativity, but in very different ways: Nashville taught me structure and connection, and London gave me permission to go further.
And finally, the P&P classic! What's a lyric from "Skim" or "Roam" that stands out to you? Walk us through writing it.
For "Roam," I love "we're human energy fueling the dumb machines." I think it's really honest and says exactly what I wanted to say. When I can tell you precisely what's on my mind and still have fun with the words, that's a great day. I love singing it live, and I love watching people sing it back: I've already gotten to play some shows with that song and those moments stay with me. I believe it deeply. Humans have so much value, so much power in our consciousness and in where we choose to invest our time. Remembering that makes me feel less powerless and hopeless about a lot of things.
For "Skim," the line that stands out is "swimming on the surface and I won't dive in." It was actually kind of a throwaway suggestion, we had written most of the song and just wanted something hooky and chanty for the end. But I loved it because it gives the song total clarity while also being almost like a nursery rhyme melodically, which makes it really easy for a crowd to sing along. We actually debuted "Skim" on the cruise I was on, and by the third night, people were already yelling it with us. That moment is kind of ingrained in my memory now. Both lines are simple, but sometimes the plainest line is the one that says the most.
Together, “Skim” and “Roam” capture a fearless and adventurous talent, establishing her ability to push past boundaries and prove something new with every release. We’re deeply inspired by the profound message and deliberate artistic choices within each song, and can’t wait to see what she does next. Here’s a playlist we’ve curated to capture her vibe!
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