Bryn Ryan-VanDyke “Strange Dream (Special Edition)” video premiere
20 h
Newsdesk
Music News is proud to host the exclusive world premiere of “Strange Dream (Special Edition)” by Bryn Ryan-VanDyke.
Bryn Ryan-VanDyke kept returning to the same place in her childhood dreams: a mansion where every door opened onto another dream. The Southern California native, now a Honolulu-based singer-songwriter, draws on that recurring experience for “Strange Dream (Special Edition)".
Ryan-VanDyke’s path into music began with a different kind of choice. On New Year’s Eve in Australia, standing beneath the Southern Cross, she promised herself she would live without regrets and not let fear decide what she could do. Music was what moved her most. She began believing she could sing, found a love for songwriting, and taught herself guitar while writing at night and on weekends. She went from coffeehouses and open mics to Hollywood’s Rainbow Room. Her influences include Alanis Morissette, Stevie Nicks, Amy Lee of Evanescence, Haley Williams of Paramore, and the ballads of Elton John, artists whose willingness to confront complicated feelings In their lyrics with a unique edge speaks to what she aspires to in her own approach. She's long admired Dolly Parton's songwriting talent and her unapologetic but witty and kind personality. Rather than tidying up an experience for the sake of a song, Ryan-VanDyke allows its contradictions to remain.
The dream behind “Strange Dream” began with hundreds of children walking uphill toward a mansion. Inside, each child was on their own, faced with a choice of doors. Behind every one waited a dream. Some were good, most were scary, all were strange. The uncertainty wasn't only about what might happen next; it was also about having to make the choice alone after climbing as part of a crowd.
That eeriness runs through the lyrics. It's early morning, yet the clock reads noon. The moon appears when the sun should be out. The narrator tries to fly and falls instead, then finds herself breathing underwater as fear closes in. “Am I awake? Am I asleep?” she asks. Dream state or alive? A voice later calls to her through the waves; she invites it to reach out a hand and be brave together. But the line “Such a sweet dream, I wish I believed” makes even that moment of reassurance feel fragile. The refrain returns to the same question, “What does it mean?”, allowing the doubt to linger rather than providing an explanation.
Ryan-VanDyke previously released the song as “Strange Dream.” For the “Special Edition,” she re-recorded the vocals as her live performances with her band brought out a more dramatic delivery that changed the song from the gentler reflections of the original and better captured the emotions. The unsettling images and unanswered questions remain central to the song. Live footage from the Composer Showcase Las Vegas on November 5, 2025, provides another view of the performance. Co-Founder and Musical Director, Keith Thompson, produced and directed the performance and composed charts for the showcase orchestra, while Michael Heart produced the audio recording. In revisiting “Strange Dream,” Ryan-VanDyke brings an old memory into her present work, leaving its mystery intact as she continues to write from the experiences that have shaped her.
