Riley Pearce

A singer/songwriter who got his start busking on the streets of Perth, Riley Pearce’s songs are rooted in introspection and often-weary reflection. He released his first EP, We Are Fools, before going viral with his 2015 single, “Brave,” from the next year’s Outside the Lines. He toured internationally thereafter, meanwhile delivering a string of EPs, including 2021′s Love and All That Stuff.
As a child, Pearce learned to play the guitar lefthanded as a result of mirroring his idols off the television. He later started busking at locales like farmers markets in between open mic shows around Perth. The positive reception of his debut EP, 2013′s We Are Fools, led to touring opportunities across Australia.
Following a six-month stay abroad in Montana, Pearce returned with the single “Brave” in mid-2015. The yearning ballad went viral, amassing millions of streams, and was included on the travel-inspired Outside the Lines in early 2016. His songs were featured on American TV series like Shameless and Shadowhunters, and he released the EP Eastbound in mid-2018, the same year his cover of “Blue Christmas” appeared on the Rhino compilation Christmas Covered. Another EP, The Landing Songs, arrived in April 2019, and that July, Pearce signed with Nettwerk Records.
Following months of international touring, Pearce relocated to his early childhood home of Melbourne. Inspired by the change of scenery, he reworked five of his songs for the Acoustic EP, issued in early 2020. Later in the year, the studio EP Maybe I Can Sleep It Off featured production by Andy Lawson and a special-edition Fender Jaguar Pearce borrowed from Lawson for the recording sessions. A relocation back to Perth preceded the promotion of his seventh EP, Love and All That Stuff. It arrived on Nettwerk in March of 2021. ~ Marcy Donelson