Following the success of his viral TikTok becoming a number one hit in the UK, Carrot Magazine was lucky enough to sit down virtually with Nathan Evans.

You don’t have to be on social media to have heard of the new music craze, sea shanties, ignited by breakout star, Nathan Evans. After a fan suggested he sing Wellerman, music stars Billen Ted and 220 Kid remixed the song, sent it to Nathan and the rest is history.

Before a whole version of the song was even released, Nathan’ video was being shared across social media platforms. It quickly generated popularity from TikTok users, including some famous faces such as Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ronan Keating and Gary Barlow. Nathan’s TikTok presence has reached colossal heights, with over 1.3 million followers and 8.7 million likes across all his videos. The hashtag #seashanty now has 5.7 billion views across the videos featured with that hashtag, all as a result of Nathan’s video singing Wellerman.

In the midst of his busy press schedule, I was lucky to sit down with Nathan for fifteen minutes and catch a glimpse of a breakout social-media-star-turned-musician. Ahead of his album release, due at the end of the year after signing a contract with Polydor Records, Nathan spoke to us about life before fame, his biggest “pinch me” moment and what’s next for him.

Firstly, I hear congratulations are in order because you got to number one with Wellerman, which is amazing! So how does it feel to be a number one artist in the UK?

It’s incredible. It literally is a dream come true and the fact that it’s all happened so quickly has left me speechless. And I think I will be for a while.

And obviously, you did this song with Billen Ted and 220 Kid, who has worked with the likes of Mabel and Little Mix. What does it feel like to be in that kind of category, collaborating with people who have been working with artists in the industry for a while? How is that for you?

It’s surreal, it’s insane. The fact that we’re doing this music video together, this song together, and doing all this publicity stuff together, I can’t believe that this is all happening and how fast it’s all happened. It’s just amazing. It’s like a dream come true, literally.

You were a postman first and then you started posting a lot on TikTok, and obviously, you had done covers before but Wellerman was the one that went massive and has turned into a viral craze. So, I’m curious to know why you decided to sing sea shanties on TikTok? Why was that the genre of music you chose? Because it’s not a popular genre of music at the moment. There’s a lot of tough competition in the charts, but you went straight to number one with that.

It’s not exciting… it’s very not exciting at all. I had been doing TikToks since last January, and someone left a comment. I had been doing covers and people had been leaving comments of different songs, and I was making a list of songs I was going to sing in the future. Someone left a comment in July saying “could you do Leave Her Johnny? It’s a sea shanty, I think you would be good at it. If you could do that, that would be amazing”.

So, I went away, gave it a listen and stuff, came back and I uploaded it to TikTok and the reception from that was amazing – everybody loved it. And comments started coming in like, “could you do The Drunken Sailor?”, “could you do the Wellerman?”, “could you do the Scotsman?” and just all these suggestions. I took them on, and I wrote them all down, and it just so happens I got to do the Wellerman in December.

Wow. And obviously, you had the number one with the other artists you worked with, and then you did your own independent one. So you had two songs in the chart at the same time. Was there a day you woke up and thought, “this is bigger than I thought it was going to be”? Was it an overnight thing or was it gradual? How did that process happen?

Once I began TikTok, it was about three or four days later that it went past a million views, and it just kept going, it kept going and kept getting bigger – there were more viewers. Every day I was waking up, my phone was going nuts. And I just kept refreshing TikTok, my followers were jumping up and I was like, this is absolutely bigger than I could ever, ever imagine.

As I mentioned before, it is a unique genre of music that not many people are focusing on at the moment, but you brought a lot of attention to it with all the remixes that have happened, TikTok trends, and the big artists that are now focusing on this. You’ve signed with Polydor Records, do you feel like you’re going to be focusing on this kind of music now in your upcoming work? Do you know what avenue you’re going down?

I have been singing since I was six, playing guitar since I was eight and songwriting for two years now. I take lots of influence from my idols, like Ed Sheeran, Dermot Kennedy, Lewis Capaldi, Anne Marie, Jess Glynne, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan. All these people are singer-songwriters that make songs that connect with their listeners. When I start to bring out my own stuff, that’s the kind of road I want to go down. It’s good because sea shanties are their own genre, but they’re very much like a folksong and they fit very well in that. They’re acoustic-y, very raw, so I think they fit well with the kind of music I write anyway, so it won’t all be sea shanties that I bring out in the future. There might be one or two in there.

There’s a lot of competition on TikTok at the moment and we’re in quite different circumstances than possibly other artists who have got their fame from TikTok. So for you, have you enjoyed the fact we’ve been in lockdown, and you’ve had a measured response to going into the music industry? Has it been easier for you, or has it been harder? Obviously, because everyone’s at home, you’ve not been able to go out much and promote, so how has that been for you as an artist?

I’m not too sure because I don’t have anything to compare it to, so it’s quite hard. For me, it’s been better. It’s probably been better for me to keep me grounded and to keep me a bit more sane I think because I’ve just been doing Zoom calls and interviews over the phone, and things like that. It’s been good, I’ve done a couple of TV bits and bobs, but I think it’s been good to do it over Zoom like this as well.

You’ve been making music since you were young, as you said, and you’ve been an aspiring music artist. For anyone out there right now who is in the same position you were a few years or months ago, what would you say to them? For people who are trying to get music on TikTok or YouTube, what advice would you give to them now in your position?

They’ve probably heard it a million times if they’re doing what I’m doing: just be consistent. That is honestly the best advice anybody could give you because it wasn’t until I was consistent that I started to notice a difference in following and fans and followers. Just keep going – don’t give up. There was a time that I was actually very close to deleting TikTok and making a new one. I did make a new one, and then I was like, actually I’ll just stick to the old one. Obviously, luckily now I did but it just goes to show, don’t give up and something big could be right around that corner. You just need to keep going. Be consistent and keep going.

That’s great advice. And obviously the remix is massive at the moment, how has that collaboration come about? Were you approached? Did they see the TikTok and go from there?

Yep, I put the TikTok up and then Will (220 Kid) saw it a couple of days later and it was at his house, I think he was recording with Billen Ted at the time because they were working on a project that they’ve actually had to push back because of this song. They had seen that song and then they were like, “we should remix that, with just a Tiktok we should remix that”. They thought it would be quite fun to put it on their TikTok and their Instagram and stuff.

So that’s what they did. They took the TikTok, just remixed it and sent it over and I was like, “oh my God, somebody verified is actually talking to me. This is insane”.  They sent it over and once I listened to it, I said, “this is absolutely amazing. It’s wild and I think people will like that”. And he was like, “I’m whipping it on my social media is that okay?” and I was like, “that’s fine”. It was literally that night I think he put it on his Instagram and stuff and then MistaJam, Chris Stark and Scott Mills from Radio 1 and Capital had seen it. And they were like, “we need that”.

They took the TikTok version and played it on the radio and they were like, “we need a full version of that as soon as possible because that is amazing”. Then Will came to me and was like, “right what do you think about trying to do a full version of this as soon as possible? Because apparently everybody loves it”. So, I was like, “let’s do it then! Let’s go”. It went so quick, and it was over the space of four or five days that it went from a TikTok video to a remixed version that was on the radio. It was crazy.

It’s pretty crazy that it is the first proper song you’ve ever released, and it’s gone huge on the radio, everyone is streaming it. I was interested as a new breakthrough artist, what has been the biggest “pinch me” moment? Has it been someone famous who has been playing it or referenced it? What to you has made you think: “I cannot believe that this is my life?”

There’s been a couple of them… there’s been a few. Getting to number one was definitely a “what is going on?” moment. Then there were also the times like Andrew Lloyd Webber doing a duet with me on TikTok and I just thought, “oh my God”. Then just the other day Brian May mentioned me, and then he did a guitar solo. I was just absolutely speechless. I was stuck for words just staring at my phone, I think I watched that about three times before I realised what was actually happening.

Now you are in this space where you can use what you’ve done on TikTok and build on that. I wanted to know how many albums you’re signed on for at Polydor and how do you see yourself emerging in your own right? Separate from social media, you want to establish yourself as an independent creative. Do you think you have a plan? Is there a process you’ve started figuring out yet? Or is it still kind of early days?

It’s still kind of early days and I’m still just rolling with the punches and taking it day by day. It’s a multi-release with Polydor, so I know that I’ve got a single, maybe even two soon, and then hopefully an album by the end of the year. So, it’s all just about finding a direction that I want to go. I don’t know whether it will be sea shanties. Maybe sea shanty-esque? Is it sheer songwriting and nothing else? Is it about both? It’s all about just recording and writing as much as I can at the minute. And then going from there.

From a human side of it compared to the music side, how are you feeling overall? I imagine for someone to take this all on right now must be quite overwhelming. Are you nervous to go into this industry? Or is it something you feel like you’re prepared for?

If that was a question asked ten years ago, when I was 17/18/19 and growing up, I would be in a completely different situation. I would be shaking and sweating like, “oh my God, I cannot do this”. Now I’m older, a bit more mature – well, I like to say mature – my life experiences so far have put me in good stead for all of this. So, I’m just excited. I’m really excited and I feel good. And it’s probably the best I’ve ever felt in my life. It’s incredible.

For how many years before this were you a postman? What was the plan at that point when you were a key worker, during lockdown? How has it been adapting to a whole different kind of lifestyle now?

Last year and up until August, I was in construction; I did steel erecting. I used to put up steel structures for new buildings and I quit that to focus on music more. And then that’s when I became a postman, three months after quitting in end of October/November time. That’s when I became a postman, just for some extra money. I knew that would finish at an earlier time so I could get my music done and get more focused on that.

Well, all that’s left to say is congratulations, because what you’ve accomplished in such a short time is amazing. I want to say thank you as well for introducing me to the sea shanty genre. I think you’ve really brought a light to it that wasn’t there before. It’s perked people up in lockdown, having folk community music, so congratulations! Very well deserved.

Thank you so much.

Thank you to Nathan Evans for taking the time to sit down for this interview.

Wellerman is available to buy and stream now.