Interview With the Band Phoneboy - Heartbreak Designer

Phoneboy Interview

Posted on July 8, 2025
by Aimee

Recently, I was excited to get on a call with the band Phoneboy, which is singer/guitarists Wyn Barnum and Ricky Dana, bassist James Fusco, and singer/keyboardist Jordan Torres. They seem like the kind of band who are nice enough to hang with you but you are also intimidated by because they are just so inherently funny and cool. Not to mention – they are putting out great music at such a rapid rate that they are quickly becoming one of my most-spinned bands. I appreciate the time they took from their busy schedule to hang for a bit.

Cover photo by Rahil Ashruff.

Interview With Phoneboy

Aimee:
So, give me a quick history of the band. It seems like you’ve done a lot in a short time.

Ricky:
We started in 2018 during college. James and Wyn have known each other since they were kids. I met Wyn in college, and then Jordan joined the following year. We started playing shows and released our first album in 2021. Our latest and third album just came out in April.

Aimee:
Nice! And where are you based now?

Ricky:
We’re in Brooklyn now, but we call ourselves a Jersey band. James and I are from California, and Wyn and Jordan are from New Jersey. So, we’re a Jersey band living in Brooklyn.

Aimee:
Love it. I’m sure you get asked this a lot, but where did the name “Phoneboy” come from?

Ricky:
We used to hang out in Wyn’s dorm. I’d be zoned out on my phone, and one day Wyn told me, “Get off your phone, you phone boy.” Our friends in the room joined in, and it just stuck. When we were brainstorming band names, someone suggested “Phoneboy,” and it was an instant yes.

Wyn:
We debated things like “Phone Boy” with a space or a different spelling, but we landed on just “Phoneboy.” The name is actually carved into a roof in Hoboken, at my old apartment.

Aimee:
That’s amazing. Someday people will go on a pilgrimage to find it. My blog is called Greeblehaus – it turns 20 this year. “Greeble” was the nickname for my kid before he was born. I didn’t love the name, but it stuck.

Ricky:
Congrats on 20 years! That’s so cool.

Aimee:
Thanks! Okay, let’s talk about Heartbreak Designer. Tell me about the new album.

Ricky:
It’s the first time we’ve had four songwriters in the room. We leaned into the pop-punk influences we grew up with Blink-182, Weezer, Green Day, Third Eye Blind. It was really fun.

Wyn:
It’s our second album with producer Ayad Al-Adhamy, and I think we all stepped it up – Ayad included. He really nailed it.

Aimee:
I’ve listened to it – it’s great.

James:
Thanks so much!

Aimee:
You were just in Denver in February, and you came back to headline in May. Have you played here before that?

James:
Yeah, we played Larimer Lounge in 2023 on our Moving Out tour. We’ve also played the Fox Theatre in Boulder.

Wyn:
Our first Denver show was in 2022 at Summit, opening for The Happy Fits.

Aimee:
Wait – I might have photographed that! Daisy the Great was also on that tour, right?

Wyn:
Yes! We became friends with them. Their drummer, Mati, played on Heartbreak Designer.

Aimee:
That’s awesome. Your Instagram makes tour life look fun – do you enjoy being on the road?

Ricky:
Definitely. We’re lucky to have a group that loves touring. Some bands burn out, but we treat it like a vacation. This tour’s been especially wild – Atlanta was packed with crowd-surfing and mosh pits.

Aimee:
I loved that video of you running in the hail. Is that a new thing?

Wyn:
It started as a random idea. One day it started pouring during a sun shower in New York, and Ricky and I just looked at each other and ran outside. It’s fun and cinematic.

Aimee:
You should make it a series – running in weather! So, Jordan, what’s it like being on tour with a bunch of guys?

Jordan:
Honestly, it’s great. This is our sixth or seventh tour. We all live together in Brooklyn, so we’re used to each other. I try to chat with as many girls as I can at shows for balance, but these guys are like big brothers. It feels like family.

Wyn:
Jordan does a fantastic job putting up with us.

Jordan:
And everyone’s doing a great job keeping the van clean!

Aimee:
Are you all doing music full-time now?

Ricky:
Yeah, for now. But leading up to the album, we were still working part-time. Jordan was at Trader Joe’s, James was bartending, I was a barista, Wyn was a server. It’s been a mix.

James:
It’s a cycle – quit jobs to record, go on tour, come back and get new jobs. It’s not always glamorous, but it’s real.

Aimee:
Totally. Most musicians I know do the same. I do web design in between photography gigs. Do you have any great fan stories?

Ricky:
Our fans are super creative and generous. We’ve gotten a ceramic phone, tons of art. But the wildest was a huge 8×8 rug that a fan named Skylar made of our first album cover.

Aimee:
That’s amazing!

Wyn:
Yeah, it’s too nice to walk on. We hung it in Ricky’s parents’ house.

Aimee:
Shout out to Skylar!

Ricky:
There’s also a fan in North Carolina who always hands us shots of whiskey – whether we want them or not.

James:
On this tour, kids are going extra hard. Like we said, in Atlanta, there was so much crowd-surfing, and one kid did standing crowd-surfing. Like, upright. It was wild.

Aimee:
That’s next-level gymnastics. Okay, what’s next after this tour?

Ricky:
We want to get back in the studio and write more – fast.

Jordan:
We have some big summer plans and hope to tour into the fall.

James:
We’re also playing Summerfest in Milwaukee. Our first big festival.

Aimee:
All the good things!