BiB: Wesko – From Blue Collar to Breakout Star: The TikTok Gamble That Launched His Career

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What is going on? It is Adam. Welcome back to Bringing It Backwards, a podcast

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where both legendary and rising artists tell their own personal stories

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of how they achieve stardom. On this episode, we had a chance to

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hang out with Wesko over Zoom Video. Wesko was born and

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raised in North Carolina, small town in eastern North

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Carolina. And he really didn't get into music as far as playing or writing

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goes until much later. Until he was 19 years old. He grew up

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listening to a lot of music, a lot of 90s and a of lot lot

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of grunge in early country. But it wasn't until he was 19 years

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old that he decided he wanted to start to try to learn how to play

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music and write songs. He said he had a lot going on. He was going

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to use it as. A way to kind of deal with. What was going on

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at that time. So he started watching YouTube videos, learned

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guitar, and after about a year he started to

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write his own songs. Wesko talks about how he got discovered,

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getting signed to Warner Records, some viral moments he's had on Tik

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Tok. And we hear all about the first EP he released

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called Lost Boys. And Wesko really dives into this new ep.

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Hold on. You can watch the interview with Wesko and myself on our

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Facebook page and YouTube channel at bringing it backwards. It'd be amazing if you

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subscribe to our channel like us on Facebook, follow us on

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Wherever you listen to podcasts, we're bringing. It backwards

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with Wesko.

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Bringing it backwards.

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Bringing it backwards. Bringing it backwards.

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Bringing it backwards. Bringing it backwards.

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Bringing it backwards. What's going on?

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Hey, what's up, man? How are you? Pretty good, pretty good.

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I appreciate you doing this. Thank you so much. Of course, man. Of course

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I appreciate you having me on. Of course. I'm Adam and

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this is about you and your journey in music and we'll talk about

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the EP as well. They have coming up. Sounds good, man.

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Awesome. I always kind of start with your origin story a bit

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like, born and raised North Carolina. Is that what I saw? Yep. Born

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and raised, eastern North Carolina, small town of like 600 people,

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so. Oh my gosh. Yeah, man. About as small

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as you can get. So was your school like, I don't know,

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like, what was your graduating class? I'm just curious. 600 people is half the people

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that graduated from my. My senior class of high school.

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My, my high school is actually like, it was the

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main feeder school for, you know, four of the

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towns in the county. So my graduation class was,

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you know, maybe 200, a thousand people in the school in total.

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Okay. Oh, yeah, but it was four. Four counties all fit

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into one school. It wasn't like. Yeah, yeah, four towns.

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You're, you're, you're. One town wasn't at one school. It's like you have four towns

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all in one school. That's wild. Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Do

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you come from, like, a creative household or musical family at all? Absolutely

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not, man. I'm the only one in my family that does music. Yeah.

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Oh, my gosh. Yeah. So I would, I would

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say it's lonely, but it's not really. You know, my whole family supports me,

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even though, you know, they're not the most. They don't understand

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it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's cool. Well,

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like, like how do you get into music? Or is it something that you've always

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fell in love with? Did you grow up listening to music? Like, how did it

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kind of spill over into this? So growing up,

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my mom and my dad were both products of the grunge era, so,

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you know, music was very central to them. And growing

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up in the early 2000s, it's what me and my mom would do on the

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long drives to, you know, she would take me to school, she would take me

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to see my dad. He was, he's a gang warden, so he was.

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His, his patrol areas were like, all over the

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state. So we would see him, you know, a lot of the

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times, and we would always listen to music. And, you know, it could go

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from Pearl Jam to Green Day, right on to George

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Strait, you know, in the earlier church stuff. So I was all

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over the place, you know, raised to love music. And

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I was 19, working a blue collar job straight out

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of high school, traveling all over the state for this

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job and in college. So I had a lot going on, a lot

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to process. So one day I just

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decided to pick up a guitar and, you

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know, just watch some YouTube guitar lessons.

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And at 19. So you're 19 years old, you haven't played, like, music?

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Yeah, this is all, like, very recent then. Ish. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Never played any instrument, never sang a note, never wrote

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a song, and just decided one day

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that that was what I wanted to do. So I picked it up, played

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for about a. Played for about a year, and Then started writing my own

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songs. Oh, my. So you. So you got. Okay, do

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you remember, like, was there something that kind of sparked you to be like, I

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want to pick up a guitar, or just. There was just so much going on

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that you're like, maybe this would be a good outlet. It was that, really,

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honestly, it was basically just my therapy for myself,

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you know, because, I mean, at 19, you know, I was working

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40 hours a week and still commuting to college.

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And, you know, I. I was overloaded with a lot of stress, and I had

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a lot of things I needed to get out, but I

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had to have, like, a good creative outlet to get things,

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you know, off of my chest that all my work buddies wouldn't make fun of

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me for. So.

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Songwriting. Yeah. So writing your own

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songs, that's being. That's vulnerable enough to where they might

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make fun of you, too, though, right? Yeah. Yeah. But if you're right,

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if you write. Good songs, then, okay, it's true.

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Oh, wow. Okay. So 19, and you said it took you about a

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year to start writing your own songs. You're just, what? Yeah, get off work or

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get off school, and you just go home and watch YouTube and try to learn

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how to play? Yeah, I would basically just get off work, you know, covered

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in dust and dirt. I'd grab my guitar and go out to. You

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know, I was living with my parents at the time. For the small amount of

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time I was home every week, I'd grab my guitar and go sit out in

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the building where nobody could hear me, you know, so. And I

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would just pick a song, just a random song that I'd heard on the

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radio, and I'd sit there and I'd try to learn it. And that was basically.

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That was it. And, you know, listening to all those country guys,

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that really got me started writing. You know, I was able to take some

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inspiration from some of my favorite artists and start writing my own stuff.

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And what was that like? Like, once you write your own, you. Okay, a year

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into this, you're 20ish, and you're like, I'm gonna write. Write a song.

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And do you. Is the. Are the first ones good

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enough to be like, I'm gonna show people? Or like, how do you then,

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you know, get the courage to. What, did you put it online? Are you going

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the TikTok route? Like, how do you start letting people know or

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showing people your music? Yeah, so I didn't show

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anybody my songs for at least a year.

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So, you know, in my notes there. There are songs back from like

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2020 that I refuse to show people because they are

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like hot garbage. That's okay.

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Sure. I was 21. My parents took me to Nashville for my

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21st birthday, as, you know, weird as that sounds. And me and my dad

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were bar hopping down Broadway, and somehow or another

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I got caught up on stage to sing a song at a big

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machine right off Broadway here and

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got up there and, you know, people came down. You know, people were doing a

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little tour or whatever and came down to watch me and, like, line the stairwell,

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which was really cool. So I kind of figured, like, hey, you know, I might

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have something here and book some shows

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on the way on the drive back home. Little dive bar shows

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close to home, you know, maybe 10 people in the place.

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But that was where it. That was where it started. And I really got the.

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The want to. To promote myself after an audition

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for American Idol didn't go too well. And I was like, you know,

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stick it to the man. I'm gonna do anyway, so.

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Oh, you did an American Idol audition? Yeah, yeah, I did.

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In 2021. Six months. Six months after

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I, like, publicly started playing and singing music,

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did American Idol. And, you know, it didn't go

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very well, but, you know, that's. That's in the past.

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I used it as some determination and sure, here we

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are. Dang. So once you get back and. And you've got

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songs, how are you trying to just build

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around North Carolina area? You coming back to Nashville a lot to play? How do

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you really start to build your, Your, Your. Your, you

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know, brand and everything? Yeah, so I started

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heavy on Tick tock right after the American Idol thing. And I think

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it was like two weeks later, I had my first video go viral.

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And I was covering. I was covering a Zach Brian song,

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you know, and that gave me all the vindication I needed. I was like,

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I knew it. And then I

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started booking shows around Greenville, North Carolina, which

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is where the ECU campus is. So, you know,

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shout Out Dirty Dan's and Pantana Bobs in Greenville, North Carolina. That's

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where, you know, I really started cutting my teeth and honing my

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skills at, you know, doing an acoustic set and getting that,

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getting that worked out right. And that was it. And

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just kept posting on TikTok on the days that I.

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On the days I wasn't working. I think back then, I was posting once a

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week or something like that. And eventually

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over time, I built up a little audience, like 40,000 people. And,

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you know, my manager now found me, you know,

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signed me to Sign me to a record deal and here we are, you know,

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a few hundred thousand followers. Yeah. Through Tik Tok. That's.

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Yeah. That's so wild. Yeah, man. Yeah. And, you know, that

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was a great tool for me, you know, working, you know, 40, 50 hours a

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week still in college, playing shows on the weekend night. You're.

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The amount of time you have to promote yourself is very

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limited. Oh, sure. So, you know, TikTok has been

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extremely beneficial to me. What was it like

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being able to go in and stop doing that 40 hour week job

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and be like, I'm doing this with music? I was really

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stubborn about it, man. I worked a blue

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collar job up until about six

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months ago. Oh, really? Yeah. I've heard this before with people though,

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or somebody like that was the greatest day of my life, being able to go

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and quit or whatever. But yeah, man, I've. I've done it so

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long, you know, I was. Honestly, from the time I was basically born, I've been

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working in a body shop with my grandpa, you know, so. Wow.

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Hard work is like literally just who I am. And it was, it

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was tough for me. It was like an addiction. Like I just

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couldn't step away from it because then I felt like I was being idle.

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So about six months ago, I finally quit my day.

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I quit my, you know, blue collar job and just

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this past week we moved to Nashville, so. Oh, wow. I'm

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taking things really slow. Yeah,

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you're in that. I live in Nashville or South Nashville. South of Nashville.

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Yeah, same. Yeah. Southwest. Yeah. Cool, man. That's awesome.

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Yeah. You like it? I'm sure you'd love it so far. Yeah, man.

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I've spent so much time here in the last two years that, you know,

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this place feels just as much like home as, you know,

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Keenansville, North Carolina did. So. Yeah. Yeah, it's

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cool to. It's cool to, you know, finally be up to par with

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what everybody else is doing. I feel like I should have. Feel like I

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should have moved a long time ago, but hey, yeah, it's what it is,

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man. Exactly. And North Carolina isn't very far if

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you're coming here to, to track and stuff. Anyway. Yeah, no, it

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wasn't too bad. Little cool. Little nine hour drive. Yeah.

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Right on. So you. Okay. So you get the manager reaches out to you, you

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sign with. With Warner, which is huge.

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Absolutely. Yeah. And what was like. Tell me about what that was like. And then

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from there it. Do you have the Lost Boys EP

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done before you signed with them or how

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did that all work. Because I know. Didn't they put out the first EP for

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you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I had

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released some. I had released some songs. None of

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them were very good. I had released some songs,

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you know, through the time. And I signed with.

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With Warner, and I believe it was

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September of 22. I signed with

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Warner Records. Or 23. 22 or 23. And

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I was still working a blue collar job in a factory and actually just

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got into a workplace accident and almost cut my

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fingers off. Like, these two fingers. Oh, my

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gosh. Yes. I went to my record label sign,

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you know, up here in Nashville, met the. The vp,

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or I think he might be the CEO of Warner Records now. Aaron

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Bayshuk, with my hand in a cast, you know, so.

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And in all the press pictures, I'm like, hiding my hand behind my back so

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nobody can see that I'm, like, crippled myself up. Sure. He's like, are you

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still gonna be able to play or what are we doing here? Yeah. He was

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like. He was like, are you good? And I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

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yeah. I'll be. I'll be good in a week. Don't worry about it. Yeah,

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I. I, in fact, was not good in a week,

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but I had all these songs written, man, and, you know, all

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that we basically had to do was get in there and

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start tracking them. And I tracked them back home in a little shack behind my

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buddy Kalin's house and threw them out there. Yeah,

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man. So. And eventually, you know, we.

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We've kind of kept that format for a lot of stuff, and

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we're now starting to. To evolve into newer

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sounds, you know, kind of getting the whole fully produced thing, which

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is something I've been looking forward to since I did the acoustic stuff.

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Yeah. So. Okay. Wow. So the.

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That first CP you put out was all stuff that you had recording with your

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friend behind the house? Yeah, dude. It was like a little shack

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as big as your. Like a master bedroom, maybe. Oh, my

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God. All the computers and all that stuff up there. Yeah. And

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that was it. I mean, it literally is a backyard recording

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studio. So I drove 10 minutes from

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my house and tracked that EP and put it out. When

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you put it out, do you go on, like, with signing a record deal and

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all that stuff? Are you out on the road? I'm sure you got to do

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some tours right away on that and everything. Yes. So I haven't been

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able to do like a. Like a full grounded tour. I've done one. I went

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over overseas to Europe with Warren Zyders, which honestly was the

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coolest ever. Oh, wow. He's great. I've had him on my show before

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a couple times. Yeah. This past summer

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I was able to go and like, I was able to go play like six

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or seven shows with Warren and 49 Winchester. So

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we've had some really cool opportunities, basically just bounding

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off that ep. And it's also cool, you know, for

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the fan to come out and hear, you know, what this. What

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this song sounds like in my brain. And not just in an acoustic.

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An acoustic. Right. Because you have a full band with you when you're touring and

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everything, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Except for the. The European thing when it

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was just me and, you know, my guitar player just out there, you know,

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swinging Coldplay covers.

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Wow. Well, okay, so talk to me about this, the.

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The new ep, then the upcoming. I know you've released what, four or five songs

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already. Yes. Yeah. So I put out a

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pretend use from Carolina, Mr. Tennessee, and hard Times.

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The newest one, right? Yep. And this new one,

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the EP is like all of that stuff combined, plus two new

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ones called hold on and It Can Wait. And

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this stuff, I'm, you know, I'm excited about putting out all of my music.

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I'm excited about every song I write, but these

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songs I wrote with, you know, some of the guys I really look

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up to in the music business. It. I wrote hold

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on and Hard Times with Randy Montana and Nick

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Walsh, which are honestly two geniuses of a

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songwriters. And Ross Copperman did the production on, you

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know, Hard Times, hold on and It Can Wait. So

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it's everything I have wanted my music to sound like. You know, I was

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really able to sit down with Ross for and. And just discuss

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what I want the sound to be. And this,

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this EP is exactly what I have wanted my music to

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sound like since I. Since I started. And the

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songs themselves, they're not your run of the

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mill, you know, country. Country music, it's.

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Right. Not at all. At least before I've heard. Yeah, yeah. And

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Ross calls it grown man music, which is

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the best description ever. So, yeah, it talks about

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heavy topics, you know, it talks about

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sacrificing. It talks about, you know,

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finding something to hold on to when you feel like the world is just

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caving in on top of you. And it talks about

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just being frustrated with the world, you know, and when you feel like,

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you know, everything is going your way and you see all these things happening

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around you, you know, so they talk about really heavy topics

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and. Which is what I've used my music to do the entire.

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The entirety of my career is I want to make music that

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means something to me and, you know, to the people that might hear it.

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Yeah, it's just my attempt to. To make a difference.

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I love that. And that's even, like you said earlier, kind of how you started

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into it. You wanted an outlet for all the stuff that was

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going on. So you tried to learn how to play guitar. You started to learn

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how to play guitar. Right, Right. Yeah, yeah. It's just, you

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know, music's been a saving grace to me. So, you know, if I can return

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that favor for somebody, like just one person, and then

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I'm good, you know, I could retire right now. So.

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I love it. When. So did you record. Where did you record this? In

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Nashville or you didn't? Yeah, I did. I recorded it with. With

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Ross and his studio here in Nashville. So that was the first

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time I'd worked with my buddy Micah Carpenter before.

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But, yeah, so I'm. I'm slowly moving my operations

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out here to Nashville, which is, you know, such a great thing. It might be

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disconcerting to some of my fans that just really

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like acoustic stuff, but, you know, this is where we're

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going. This is the direction we're taking it now. I love it. Yeah.

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Was it different? I mean, you. You recorded in your friends. You said it's like

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a little shack and behind his house. And then this must have been a totally.

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Was this the first experience you've ever had, like, in a bigger mate,

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like a proper studio with all the bells and whistles?

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Yeah. So, you know, a lot of the. The technology and

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stuff is a little more updated and, you know, it's Nashville. You know,

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you got. You got all the bells and whistles here in Nashville, but

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I have, you know, really founded a lot of my recording

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situations and studios or whatever with people I can

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relate to. You know, you can form this. This little bond over

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creating this sound, you know, so that's really what I have

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strived to do. I have just formulated really good

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relationships with all the guys I work with. So, yeah, so

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it's a little different, but it's all the same feelings in the. In the studio.

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Yeah. Awesome. Well, EP comes out a

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couple weeks, right? Or next year, 17th? Yeah, man. Yeah, a couple weeks.

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That's exciting. Yeah. Yeah, man. Are you doing anything big for

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the release? Are you doing. I know you have some shows coming up, but are

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you gonna do a tour, do you think? No,

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I think I'm actually going to take a couple months off, really sit in

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and sit down with some of my guys and write

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what might be an album in the future sometime, so. Oh, damn.

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Okay. Yeah, getting. Getting geared up to just

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write some really good music, man. That. That's what I'm in it for. I

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love the music, love making music, love writing and recording

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it. So, you know, that that's what I'm really excited for, is what I'm looking

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forward to right now. So, yeah, love it. I love it. Well, I appreciate

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your time. Thank you so much for doing this. Yeah, man, of course. I appreciate

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you guys having me. Of course. I do have one more question. I want to

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know if you have any advice for aspiring artists.

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Keep going. Don't give up. You know, this business

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separates the people that want it and the people that don't want it.

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And if you want it bad enough, you just stay determined. Keep

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doing it, keep posting, keep playing shows, keep writing songs.

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Never give up. And eventually you'll get somewhere.

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Bring it backwards,

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bring it backward, bring it backward,

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bring it backward, bring it backwards,

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bring it backwards.