Creativity, togetherness and music are not dead even during lockdown. So a group of Swiss Music Bloggers got together and decided to create a series that showcases new up and coming artists. Every Sunday at 6pm you get to discover 2 new artists and here’s is one of mine:
Nathan Evans – From postman to popstar
That’s the story of Nathan Evans. Only a few weeks ago the citizens of Airdire, Scotland were blessed with a singing postman delivering their mail everyday. But these days the world is small thanks to social media. Nathan uploaded a tik tok video of himself singing a very old sea shanty called “Wellerman” – and the rest is history as they say.
The 30 sec “Wellerman” video went viral and was watched by 12 million people on tik tok. Nathan Evans drums on his guitar to create a beat and his incredible voice with the very charming accent does the rest. Loads of other tik tokers started to duet with him. It literally took off like a rocket! Of course this couldn’t go unnoticed by the big music labels and here you go – Nathan is now a signed artist at a major label Polydor Records and is now in the midst of Billie Eilish or Selena Gomez.
Have a look at this cool compilation YouTube video:
“Wellerman” – the background
The 26 year old has obviously hit a nerve with the sea shanty that orgininated in New Zealand. The “Wellerman” was a supply ship between 1830 to 1840 that was part of the whale hunting company “The Weller Bros.” The whale hunting origin of the song can be seen in the word “tonguin” which describes the tiresome work of cutting a whale into pieces. A bit gruesome I know but the song is about longing and hoping – which to be fair we all do at the moment.
“Wellerman 2021”
The hopeful longing for the arrival of the Wellerman and for us right now the hopeful longing of a normal world. Is that why the this song hit a nerve? I don’t know. But what I know is that the song is an inspiration: Hard work and the pay off will come. So we just have to wait a little while longer. For Nathan the hard work has definitely paid off.
I honestly cannot wait for him to be able to perform this song live. I can feel the goosebumps already of thousands of people singing our lockdown tik tok anthem.
The original Tik Tok video is great but of course it needed a little make over to be played in clubs – haha I know there are no clubs at the moment, but there will be. “Wellerman 2021” has great dance beat and didn’t loose it shanty character! I am currently listening to both songs on replay.
And yes – I’m so proud to say that the radios are starting to play the song as well! 🙂 Kekoas Korner is also super stocked that I got to interview Nathan Evans! Read more here.
Nathan Evans has a brilliant unique voice and I can’t wait to hear more songs! But what I love most is his story from postman to popstar within a few weeks thanks to tik tok. I wish him all the success in the world and hopefully we’ll get to see him live soon!
Follow Nathan Evans’ career
Tik Tok: Nathan Evans
Instagram: Nathan Evans
Spotify: Nathan Evans
About the Lockdown Artist Discovery Series
Make sure to go check out the other blogs that are participating in this series. There will always be 2 new articles each week:
Music and Events published: Marius Bear and Tim Freitag
Loads of Music published: Jake Isaac
Erenblogs published: Daniel Donskoy
Planet Sarah published: Wild Youth
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