Robyn Ottolini has had an incredible year – her single F-150 went viral on TikTok, she released a new EP and signed a deal with Warner Music Nashville. Here, we interview Robyn Ottolini about her viral success and the importance of the track.
Hi Robyn, how are you?
I’m good. Are you?
Yeah, not too bad. The past year for you has definitely been a lot more productive year than most people’s!
Yeah, it’s been great. Life’s been good – just writing music everyday and doing my thing.
I wanted to kind of go back to the beginning of your story. I know you grew up in Canada, so I guess when did you know that this was going to be what you did – you’ve been writing songs since you’re about 13 – so can you talk about how that evolved?
Yeah, so I’ve been writing since I was 13 and I picked up a guitar at 14. I’ve been doing open mics and stuff like that around my town for forever. It’s a very musical town, so there’s always an open mic to go to and then I traveled for a bit. When I came home, I was like, 19, or 20 and I said, I think I’m just gonna do music. So I had service industry jobs to put every ounce of money I could towards the music and I hustled for a couple years. Then I released my first EP in 2019 and then my second in 2020, with F-150.
Did you fathom the success that that track got, just blowing up on TikTok? Has its journey completely taken you by surprise?
I mean, I’ve always loved the song. I thought it was a hit, you know?I thought if I could just show it to people, I think they’d like it, but I had no marketing budget. I just did the long haul, like constantly posting about it, finding ways to talk about it and say ‘check out my song.’ I just tried to keep reminding them.
It’s a bit of a thankless game sometimes, but you have to do it. You have to keep pushing and it’s that persistence that ultimately paid off amazingly.
Exactly, trying to find new ways to talk about the song – why did I write it? What was it about? Then it just kind of snowballed to be honest. It was my best single as an independent artist, before it went viral. When it got picked up by TikTok and the trends, it was like a really big snowball that just turned into an avalanche all of a sudden.
I mean even without it blowing up, it was such a strong track and something that you can be so proud of. Can you talk a bit about the writing of it and the evolution of it as a song?
So I’m from a small town, and my ex is from the same small town and everybody has the same kind of truck as my ex – so I see F-150s everywhere. One day, I just kind of pulled over and I did a voice note. Then I went home and wrote it that day. Six months later, when I had moved on more, the producers were like ‘let’s change the last chorus.’ So yeah, we changed the last chorus and then it is what it is now and that’s kind of the journey. We recorded it in November of 2019 and then 2020, we released it January 31st – and then 2020 happened.
It must be cool, because you released it but then really took advantage of being locked indoors to promote it.
Yeah, I’m usually working 30 plus hours a week or 40 plus hours at a coffee shop. So, I didn’t have the time to promote the music, I didn’t really have it. So, when quarantine hit, it was the first time in my life that I was being paid to stay home. So I was like, wow, I’m being paid to do music. I just buckled down and started making content.
Obviously since then you’ve signed with Warner Music Nashville. What does that mean to you? It’s the dream for every artist and obviously you’ve been working so many years independently and grinding….
It’s crazy. It’s still surreal to me, because I haven’t even met Warner yet because of the pandemic. The song blew up in September, and then I was signed in October so it’s been crazy. I haven’t met them. They’re great. It’s been weird, especially with more followers and everything and more comments – there’s always the weird one in there – and they’ve been great at just saying you’re doing great kid. We’re really happy with you. It’s been wild.
It must be exciting to have those people in your corner.
Especially going to radio to have a major label behind you, it feels really nice.
Particularly as radio is so different over in the US to how it is in the UK – it’s the key.
Yeah, going to country radio in the US is a lot of money. I didn’t even think I’d go to country radio in Canada for a long time because of the money, but now I’m top 16 in Canada, which is crazy. We just started in the US and the US is a whole different beast than Canada.
I’m excited to see that journey! In terms of what’s next, obviously, you’ve just released this EP, but having been signed with Warner – do you know yet what the next year is going to look like in terms of the evolution of your music?
We’re still discussing it. I want to do an album because I feel I’m ready to put an album together, so we’re just discussing what songs would be good. We already have a single now, so it’s a bunch of numbers that I’m trying to understand and a bunch of formulas that makes sense to the radio people and the streaming people and this person and that person. I’m just doing what I know I can do, which is write music and choose my favourite songs and then when I get a green light from one person or another, then I’ll do something.
And do you think when things return to normal, a UK trip might be on the horizon?
I love traveling, but whenever I go to travel, I’d go somewhere hot. So, I’ve never even been to Europe, which astounds me because now I really want to go to Europe.
I mean, the love of country music is very real over here.
My family’s from the UK. I don’t know where though, my mom always tells me but I’ve got family out there so I’ve got to come!
Well, I’m just excited to hear new music from you. I think that you’ve got such a bright future, so I’m excited to see what happens next. Thanks for chatting with me.
Thank you so much for having me – have a good day.
