For Riley Burke, music started with piano lessons at age four, but it wasn’t until she began singing in grade school theater that she fell in love with it.

Now 23 and on tour across Ohio, Burke has transformed that childhood love into a rising indie pop project. Her debut album “First Night at the Drive-In” came out in October 2024, and she’s been performing all summer at venues from Cedar Point to Columbus to her hometown of Youngstown.

Burke said she grew up in a home full of music, although not necessarily musicians.

“My parents listened to a lot of different music, and it taught me how to have good music taste,” she said. “I grew up in a family that appreciated music, which was great, but neither of my parents were musical.”

During the early months of the pandemic, Burke turned to songwriting for the first time. She was a senior in high school, navigating her first breakup and a world that had shut down. With theater, speech and debate club on hold, she finally had time to write.

“I was going through a pretty rough time,” she said. “I just wanted to try out something new.”

That songwriting eventually became the foundation for “First Night at the Drive-In,” a collection of tracks written between the ages of 18 and 22.

“I would say that album is just a collection of songs about my coming-of-age. I have stuff about my first breakup on there, I have stuff about growing out of old friendships,” Burke said. “It’s really just an album about my experiences and learning things.”

The album’s opener, “Love Me Too,” was written during the early weeks of her first semester at Kent State, which had shifted online due to COVID-19.

Burke majored in speech pathology and audiology at Kent with a minor in voice performance. With her minor, she was able to take music classes and voice private lessons.

“Kent was a very formative experience and undergrad for me, and the community was great,” she said. “I would not be the singer that I am today without it.”

As she continued her undergraduate studies, she built up a catalog of original songs and eventually began recording with a band. Her band has allowed her to grow as an artist and evolve her sound.

“I still write about my feelings, but they’ve inspired me to write songs that are more rock-driven rather than ballads,” she said. “I’ve really developed musicality-wise, and now it’s more than just the same four chords.”

That evolution shows up on tracks like “Change My Mind,” which she calls her favorite from a production standpoint, and “I Go With You,” which she said holds a special place in her heart for its lyricism.

Though Burke now attends the Northeast Ohio AuD Consortium, a joint doctoral program between Kent State and the University of Akron, she still spends much of her time writing and performing. 

Burke says her “Midwest Mini-Tour” this summer has been amazing, and she and the band have gotten stronger every show. She’s played shows all across Ohio and said the experience of performing live has been surreal.

In Columbus, a group of fans drove an hour down from Ashland to see her. At Cedar Point, a family came back multiple nights after seeing her the year before.

“I feel like I’m so lucky,” she said. “It means that this is paying off and things that I’m doing are sticking and that’s just awesome.”

Burke said touring hasn’t been a walk in the park, though. As a small, independent artist, Burke handles all of her own business while working through grad school.

“You are the booker, the social media manager, the band manager,” she said. “There’s so much planning that goes into it, but seeing it all finally happen has been so rewarding.”

As the tour is coming to a close in early September, she said she’s already thinking about her next project.

“I’ll take the time to start writing again,” Burke said. “I want to keep growing as a songwriter, do another album and keep playing shows.”

Rachel McKean is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].