- My sea shanties from TikTok got me a record deal.
And this is that story.
My name's Nathan Evans.
I'm from a small place just outside Glasgow in Scotland.
It's called Airdrie.
It's not that exciting,
there's not much to talk about.
One of the best things in here
is the train that takes you out.
It all started back in January 2020.
I was a postman
and I was just going about my day-to-day job.
I started my job about eight o'clock in the morning.
I was finished at about three o'clock in the afternoon
which meant I had all day after that
and all night to think of new ideas for songs,
think of new TikTok ideas.
I've been singing since I was six years old.
I don't think there's been a minute
where I don't think of music,
I'm not singing, I'm not playing guitar.
So, my views from TikTok,
when I first started,
I was getting maybe a couple of hundred
and it was slow for a while.
Then in July, someone decided to leave a comment
saying, "Could you sing a sea shanty
"called 'Leave Her Johnny'?
"I think you would be really good at it."
So I went away, I done some research.
The purpose of sea shanties
back when they were sang was,
they were sang on sailing ships and whaling ships
and they were used to keep the sailor's morale high,
to keep them all happy,
to get them all joining in.
If they were hoisting the sails
or whatever they were doing,
it was to keep them in time.
I don't do well on boats.
I get seasick, so.
I went and I listened to a whole load of sea shanties
and I came back and uploaded the video
and the reception was amazing.
♪ Leave her Johnny leave her ♪
Comments started coming in.
"Could you do the 'Drunken Sailor,'
"could you do 'The Scotsman,'
"could you do 'The Wellerman?'"
And so I got ready to do "The Wellerman"
on the 27th of December.
And it blew up.
♪ There once was a ship that put to sea ♪
♪ The name of the ship was the Billy of Tea ♪
♪ The winds blew up her bow dipped down ♪
♪ O blow my bully boys blow ♪
The duets are probably one of my favorite parts
of the whole process.
One person joins in and then two people joins in
and then before you know it,
there's 15 people on this one video.
There's somebody playing a violin,
there's somebody playing a harp and it's just,
all together, it's just amazing.
It was about three days later
when I surpassed a million views.
There was emails coming in
about radio show interviews
and TV shows.
Managers, there was booking agents.
So I spoke to a few people
and sorted a lawyer and a manager.
Once I'd got them sorted,
220 KID and Billen Ted,
they had then went and made the remix
and radio stations loved it.
And that is then when record labels started to get in touch.
Now it's sitting at one and two in the UK charts,
the original and then the remix is sitting there.
There is a music video in the works
and you'll hopefully get to see that
in the next couple of weeks.
You'll hopefully hear a couple of singles
in the coming months
and an album within the year
so keep your ears peeled.
(upbeat jazzy music)