Ryan Derek “Sonny” Robertson (born Ryan Powell), is an English singer and YouTuber. He was 1/5 of RoadTrip from 2019-2020. Following the band’s split in May 2020, he and Rye continued releasing content together. Their channel ‘Four Eyes and The Skyscraper’ was set up on May 10, 2020, their debut single “Say Your Grace” released on July 24.
Ryan Derek Powell was born on June 10, 1996 from Basildon, Essex, England. His surname was legally changed to Robertson. He has two younger sisters: Sharna Robertson-Bourke (born May 16, 2000) and Lolly Robertson-Bourke (born January 29, 2002).
He had various jobs, including working at a theme park in South End, a builder’s yard, one night working at the bar, and having an apprenticeship somewhere.
2013-2015: Overload and Young Kings
Sonny was 1/5 of the British boy band Overload, which consisted of members Jordi Whitworth, Joseph Devries, Ollie Garland, and Andy Fowler, who joined later in 2014. They performed on The X Factor during the show’s eleventh season. The group ended in the beginning of 2015, shortly after the departure of band members Joey and Jordi. In July 2015, he was the bassist for the band Young Kings for a short period of time.
2016-2020: RoadTrip
Some time after, he was involved in a company for promoting over social media, and then he got a job working at the railway, taking on night shifts. He spoke to manager Blair Dreelan about wanting to get back into music and being a part of a group. Eventually he was contacted and asked if he was interested in joining RoadTrip, to which he readily agreed. In May 2019, he was announced to be the new trialist after Mikey Cobban’s departure over the band’s vlogs, moving into the band house on May 6. He officially joined the lineup on June 14, 2019, and the group released their third EP, Dynamite. After two headlining tours, later that year, Jack Duff announced his departure from the group on December 8, 2019. In January 2020, Harper Dark became the newest member, and the band released their fifth EP White Label in February and headlined their show One Night Only on the first of March.
On May 12, 2020, he along with Rye released a video explaining the state of the band, addressing the financial difficulties, as well as no longer being happy in RoadTrip. He expressed that the band ended in good time, though not the right way, and together with Rye they will continue as content creators, releasing music on the side.
In 2020, he started publicly dating Hannah McGoldrick. She was shown in RoadTrip’s vlog, “He Lost a Dare!” and featured in his first TikTok on May 23. In a video, he clarified that he was already speaking to Hannah before RoadTrip, and had to pre-warn her, as he wasn’t allowed to go public with their relationship.
In April 2020, both of his grandparents passed away, and he went back home to attend their funeral. He mentioned later in a video posted in May that when he joined the band, he had a holiday booked to go to Greece, but couldn’t go, and missed the last time he could see his grandfather.