Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles - 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)
A2 BuzzFeed sea tiktok sorted remix sailor My Viral TikTok Sea Shanty Got Me A Record Deal 18 0 林宜悉 posted on 2021/02/13 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary