Ethan Burdick moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 2025 to pursue a career in country music, but singing and performing are nothing new to the rising artist. The talented singer-songwriter from Vancouver, Washington, has been honing his craft for years, drawing inspiration from his family’s love of music and the songs he grew up listening to.
“I always grew up singing. My dad sings a little bit, and so does my uncle, and we used to all sing as a family growing up,” Burdick shared in an interview with Music Mayhem. “So I sang with them and sang karaoke with my dad, and he showed me all his songs, all of his favorite songs, all that stuff. And he used to sing a bunch of oldies and soul and all that stuff. So that’s kind of what I grew up on.”
Burdick also played drums and participated in theater during high school before eventually auditioning for American Idol while attending Grand Canyon University in Arizona.
“I thought that was it. I thought that was going to be the start of my music career,” the 21-year-old singer-songwriter recalled of the audition.
However, his journey on the show came to an end after judges Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie told him no. Rather than allowing the rejection to discourage him, Burdick used the experience as motivation to pursue music even more passionately.
“I went back home to my dorm, and I essentially had a fire in my heart that I had never felt before. I think God, he kind of gave me that fire, and I think he knew exactly what he was doing, giving me a no because that’s exactly what I needed to kickstart it, essentially for me,” Burdick explained.
Following the experience, Burdick turned to TikTok, where he began posting cover songs every day while teaching himself to play guitar. Eventually, he took time away from college after feeling that he had received a sign from above to pursue music full time.
After building an audience and generating revenue through social media, he caught the attention of Back Blocks Music Founder and CEO Rakiyah Marshall, setting the next chapter of his career in motion.
Now, Burdick is preparing to introduce listeners to his debut EP, The Treehouse, arriving Nov. 13 via Back Blocks Music. The nine-track collection explores faith, love, heartbreak, family, and growing up, marking an important new chapter for the emerging artist.
For Burdick, The Treehouse represents a safe, welcoming space where listeners can feel at home and know that nothing is off limits. The title serves as a metaphor for the world he created throughout the project, one rooted in nostalgia while leaving room to explore the highs and lows of navigating life.
He shared, “This EP is very important to me…I’ve worked very hard on this EP, and obviously this is my first time ever having to pick songs and put them in a queue and put stories behind all of them, and how do I want this one to be produced and this one to be produced? I’m very new to it, and it was very fun. I, from the very beginning, have always been a storyteller and writer. I love stories. I love being able to close my eyes and think about the story that’s being told to me. I think that we did a very good job in this EP portraying that.”
His ultimate hope is that the songs connect with listeners on an emotional level, encouraging them to embrace their feelings and find comfort in knowing they aren’t alone.
“My ultimate goal is that people listen to my songs and my music, and they feel something from it that they haven’t felt in a long time,” he said. “They feel the vulnerability in my lyrics, they feel the vulnerability in the choices that I make in my music, and knowing that it’s okay to try things, it’s okay to feel these feelings, it’s okay to be sad, be upset, be angry, be happy, be extra joyful. It’s okay for all these things, and God gives us these feelings for a reason. I think that’s my ultimate goal. If one person comes back to me and they’re like, “Dude, this song helped me process my emotion of me breaking up with my girlfriend,” I’ve been like, “Okay, I did my job.””
One song that has already helped introduce Burdick to a growing audience is his debut single, “I Get The Picture.” Written alongside Nick Bailey and Ricky Manning, the track generated more than five million views on TikTok before its April 2026 release. The momentum helped propel the song onto SiriusXM Hits 1’s playlist, earned Burdick recognition as one of the channel’s coveted Hits 1 to Watch artists, and landed him on a billboard in Times Square.
He followed up “I Get The Picture” with his second single, “Hold You,” a song that captures the feeling of wanting to freeze time when standing face-to-face with the person you’re meant to be with. Then, in October, Burdick offered another preview of The Treehouse with the release of “Ditches,” which he co-wrote with Manning and Mike Robinson.
The song came together in an unexpected way, beginning with a melody Manning had been holding onto for years.
“It was actually a funny story. We were writing one day, and we were kind of stuck at first. We don’t know what we want this to be. What do we want this song to be? Questioning everything. Ricky hops on the piano, and he starts playing this song… I thought it was a song put out by another artist. I thought he was singing the cover of a song. I was like, “Who wrote that? What artist sang that?” And he was like, “Oh dude, that’s just me. That was a start that I had back in 2020.” I was like, “What?” And he was like, “Yeah, I haven’t found the right artist to sing it with. I just haven’t found the inspiration to write it.” I was like, “Dude, that is so good. That sounds like a hit.” I was like, “Also, I thought you were playing somebody else’s song.”
Manning and Burdick eventually reworked the song, keeping its original melody while changing the verses and developing its heartbreaking storyline.
“It’s that good.” He was like, “Shoot, bro. Well, let’s write it.” I was like, “Please, let’s write it.” So we pulled it out, and we changed the verses around. And we changed the whole thing around, but the melody’s the same and stuff,” he added.
At its core, “Ditches” explores the devastation of losing someone who once promised forever.
“This song was about you having someone who you think is forever and you promise forever with, and they promise forever with, and most devastatingly, they leave; they break that promise,” Burdick explained. “And you said that you were going to love me until we died. And this huge, vast emotion down to this simple fact of I wish that I didn’t listen to you. I just wish I didn’t. That’s all it is. It’s just that simple.”
The emotional weight of the song is also reflected in its detailed storytelling and stripped-down production. Burdick explained that he wanted the listener to feel as though they were experiencing the story firsthand.
“I think the juxtaposition between the two is so… It’s heart-wrenching because you get very detailed in the verses of hair in the bathroom and lips on a bottle of red. It’s just like you get very, very, very down to the T of the verses,” he said. “And again, you can close your eyes, and you can hear the story, and you can also feel the emotion. And this is a song that is a whole vocal take. So I sang it all the way through, I think three times, and then we were finished with the vocals. I didn’t piece these together vocally, piece by piece. It was just a piano, strings, and my voice and me just singing the whole thing. And it turned out, I mean, I think it’s just absolutely beautiful.”
Beyond the music itself, the EP’s title and cover artwork carry special meaning for Burdick. The treehouse represents a place where everyone is welcome and where vulnerability, honesty and self-expression are encouraged.
“I want [listeners] to be transported to the tree house. The tree house in and of itself is… I picked this title because… Well, it’s the first line of the song ‘Fine,’ and it just means that you can put anyone in the treehouse, and anyone can come into your treehouse. You can bring your friends, you can bring your parents, your mom, whatever it is,” Burdick said. “You can bring whoever you want into your treehouse, but your treehouse is a vulnerable place. It’s a place where it’s like you can be truthful, you can be honest, you can be sad, you can talk about fun things and heartbreak and all this stuff. And that’s why I named it this, because it’s a jumble of music that’s just those feelings.”
Elsewhere on the project, songs like “Humpty Dumpty” and “Forever Never Ended” offer fairytale-inspired imagery, while “White Flags” draws inspiration from childhood pirate adventures, using the image of a white flag as a symbol of surrender. For Burdick, those nostalgic elements also connect to the deeper themes of faith and personal growth woven throughout the EP.
“It’s all of that stuff,” Burdick acknowledged when discussing the faith that guided him throughout the project. “But they’re mature songs, if that makes sense. They’re still mature, but it feels like they’re forever songs, if that makes sense. It’s like nostalgia, but it’s also like a treehouse stays forever, and it stays at the very beginning and goes till the very end, and it doesn’t fall, it doesn’t break, it doesn’t crack. And one of my favorite Bible verses is John 15: two, the vine and the branch, and I just feel like all these things connected to it, and I want people to get all these things from it. I want people to feel free and just love the music ultimately.”
“White Flags” and “Maybe” draw inspiration from Burdick’s relationship with his girlfriend, Lucia.
“The whole premise of ‘White Flags’ is that we’re not giving up, and it’s made me and Lucia’s relationship just so much stronger. I just think the premise is us just not giving up on each other and working through things when things are hard versus just giving it up. So ‘White Flags’ says, essentially, we never learned how to give up. And that’s one of my favorite ones because it’s very true to us and it’s very true to our relationship,” he shared. “And going from thinking we’re going to break up to no, we’re not because we love each other and we’re not going to give up on each other.”
Meanwhile, “Maybe” captures a particularly vulnerable period in their relationship, written during a two-week break when Burdick was uncertain about their future.
“‘Maybe’ is actually about my girlfriend and me too. It was when we had a two-week break, and I walked into the writers’ room, and I was just like, “Hey, boys, this is what’s happening right now. My girlfriend and I are on a two-week break, and my mind is jumbled right now, and I’m broken, and all I know is that maybe it’s this, maybe it’s this, maybe we’re not meant to be together, maybe it’s too much. Maybe we’re doing something wrong, but all I know is that I love her,” he said. “And they took that, and they were like, ‘That’s the song. Let’s just call it ‘Maybe,’ and it’s just a bunch of questions and specifics and details, but maybe we’re still in love.” I was like, “That’s it.” So ‘Maybe’ is very personal to me.”
Another particularly meaningful track is “Calico,” which Burdick initially wasn’t sure would make the project because of its country influences.
“‘Calico,’ I didn’t think it was ever going to see the light of day because it’s kind of too country for me because I’m more singer-songwriter than country, and I wrote it and it’s really cool because it’s a little bit,” he says. “But I was like, ‘I don’t know if it fits anywhere and whatever.” The song is essentially about just letting your light burn and shine across the whole world and to your neighbor and to your friend, and essentially that’s what it is.”
The song also allowed him to bring his family into the recording process. Burdick invited his father and uncle to sing harmonies on the track, creating a full-circle moment that connects directly to his earliest musical memories.
“So one of my favorites, and I actually called my dad, and I called my uncle, and I was like, ‘Hey, do you guys want to put harmonies on the song and sing with me on the song?” So they’re actually singing harmonies in the background of ‘Calico’ with me, although it doesn’t stand out enough to really hear it, but it’s more for me than anybody else,” he said. “Knowing that my dad and my uncle are singing with me on “Calico,’ it’s just something I’ve always wanted, and we brought it to life.”
Burdick’s career has also picked up considerable momentum outside the recording studio. In 2026, he opened for Jelly Roll, an opportunity that arrived with just two days’ notice and presented a major challenge for an artist who had never performed a full live show.
“When it came to opening for Jelly Roll, we got the news two days before the first show that he wanted me to open for him. So it was just a little old me about five months ago who had never played a show in his entire life, and then I got the call that Jelly Roll wanted me to open, and I don’t even have a guitar player. I don’t even know half of my songs on guitar yet. We don’t even have a set list, nothing. I’ve never played a single show,” he recalled.
Despite his initial doubts, Burdick’s team encouraged him to take the opportunity, and he quickly assembled a band and prepared for the shows.
“At that time I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m going to be able to go on tour. And Rakiyah’s like, “No, you’re doing it. We’re going to figure it out.” And I was like, ” How can I go play in front of 15,000 people when I have two days? I have two days to prepare. This doesn’t make sense to me. How’s that going to work?” And the next day we had a rehearsal, and I called my friend, and he was like, “Dude, I’m there. Let’s do it.” So we worked it all out, got a set done, hopped on the plane, boom, we were in Florida ready for the show.”
The experience was nerve-racking, but Burdick said the adrenaline of stepping onto the stage helped him embrace the unexpected opportunity.
“The first show was just straight adrenaline for me,” he acknowledged. “It was like, “All right, Lord, I’m here. You’re throwing me in the fire. I am now currently in the fire because I have zero room to just think about this. This is just like you wanted this to happen and you wanted it to happen this way, and here I am.” And I think that I’ve just had to deal with the nervousness…”
Burdick is now continuing to build his live performance experience on the road with Hudson Westbrook’s headlining Hits Me Tour, which kicked off Oct. 1 at Cowtown Event Center in El Paso, Texas. The tour marks another milestone for the rising artist as he brings The Treehouse and his growing catalog of emotionally charged songs to audiences across the country.
“Performing with Hudson has been absolutely amazing so far, although we’ve only done a couple of shows so far, his fans are so attentive to what’s going on, and I can really feel it up on stage,” Burdick said. “It brings me joy, honestly, seeing people sing and seeing people dance and hug and laugh and cry, and that’s my goal. That’s why I want people to feel my music, and when I get to see that in person, that brings me joy.”
The singer/songwriter, who is destined to make waves in Country music next and earn a spot on Music Mayhem’s Artist to Watch list in 2027, also looks forward to a few special moments in the set, including performing a popular cover and sharing his faith with audiences.
“So I sing a cover of ‘Choosin’ Texas,’ and people go nuts for that. It’s just a moment that I look forward to every single night because everyone knows that song by heart,” he said. “Another part of that show I love is that I get to shout out Jesus to thousands of people every single night. And they scream. It’s right before I sing ‘Fine’ because I tell them how I struggle with anxiety and that’s how I met Jesus because he saved me at 14 years old…I tell that story a little bit, and I’m just like, three things got me through my anxiety: it was music, my family, and Jesus….I’m just so glad that they feel impacted by it.”
With a growing audience, new music on the way, and opportunities that continue to push him beyond his comfort zone, Ethan Burdick is embracing everything that comes with this next chapter.
“It feels like just a huge dream, just my dreams coming true,” he gushed. “And now my responsibility is to steward it well and to write good songs and tell people about Jesus and make good friends and yeah, have fun.”
