Ep. 253: Nessa Barrett on Fame, Music, and Finding Herself in Public

Ep. 253: Nessa Barrett on Fame, Music, and Finding Herself in Public

From And The Writer Is...with Ross Golan by And The Writer Is

June 16, 2026 · 1h 25m

About this episode

Nessa Barrett discusses her journey to fame, the challenges of being in the public eye, and her music career.

Today's guest built an audience of millions before she was old enough to sign a record deal, turned a 30-minute crying freestyle into her debut single, and made one of Gen Z's defining breakup anthems out of a phrase that became its own internet language. But her real story isn't the viral fame or the streams. It's the part that plays like a runaway and teaches like a masterclass: how she left home at 17 to chase music, what it costs to become a person in public, and everything about the business nobody explains until you've already survived it. And The Writer Is... Nessa Barrett! In this episode of And The Writer Is, we go deep on: • Why she ran away from home at 17 — a 4AM ticket, six school bags, cops on her trail — to make music • The truth about "i hope ur miserable until ur dead": she didn't write it, it's not her favorite, and why she sang it anyway • "pain" — the 30-minute freestyle she cried through in the booth that became her first single • Why she can't record with Auto-Tune — and what she learned the first time someone handed her a finished song to cut • Signing to Warner Records on Zoom during Covid — and the messy contract she had to escape first • "All of my…

People in this episode

Host: Ross Golan

Guest: Nessa Barrett

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Warner Records

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