Article: Ricky Montgomery
By Sophie Minello
We were able to speak to TikTok popular Ricky montgomery after his show at Wonderstruck Festival in Cleveland, OH about the multitude of exciting progressions that have taken place in his career.
If you frequent social media, specifically TikTok, you probably know of Ricky Montgomery. The 27 year-old, Saint Louis born artist has been climbing the ranks through various platforms for years. Beginning his career on Vine, he carried his audience onto TikTok where during quarantine of 2020, his songs such as “Line Without A Hook” and “Mr. Loverman” became viral sounds.
We chatted about his first single since his 2016 debut album. Released in June, “Talk To You” is a personal tune about Montgomery’s grief in losing a parent. Even after the 5 year gap between releases, Montgomery is ready to present vulnerability and loss once again. This gap also put pressure and an extra degree of scariness to the premier, but in the end, Ricky tells us it felt really good.
The pairing music video is a silly, personal take on the classic Frankenstein and which mixes crisp and Tim Burton-esque visuals. He wanted to do something elevated to justify the time it had taken to create new media. The process in creating the masterpiece went along the lines of him writing the treatment and outline for his idea, then handing it over to the director to help flesh out a more complete version. The end result is a humorous yet tragic story.
This release is just a taste of the creations that Montgomery is cooking up. Over the summer and beyond, he has been hard at work in the studio collaborating with well established producers. The process for this is intimidating, as Montgomery bluntly puts it: “walking into rooms with people who have Grammy’s and trying to be like here’s my song, please make it yours too.” It’s a vulnerable, exhausting experience to pour out your heart for 10+ hours a day for 5 days a week. But the process will be well worth it as Montgomery teases the release of his newest single, “Sorry for Me.”
The record will come out with Warner Records which he signed to in December of 2020. Joining the label was a slow roll, even though once “Line Without A Hook” went viral all the labels seemed to come at once. Zoom call after Zoom call, the whole time period was a huge learning process for the young artist. From all the choices, he ultimately decided to go with Warner. The label is in its start-up phase, which appealed to Montgomery. “This is evolving with me, it’s not just an old legacy label that I’m coming into and trying to beat people up to pay attention to me,” he says fondly.
To add to all the exciting things happening in Ricky’s career, he’s also completely sold out his U.S. tour starting in November 2021. The prospect of touring after so long is exciting, “I’m trying to catch up to where the project is at streaming levels,” he says. This tour will mark his first proper national tour, and that couldn’t be more enthralling. These are surely shows that you don’t want to miss!
Overall, social media has been a leading factor in Montgomery’s success. “It’s made every single thing possible,” he insists. “The only reason why I’ve had any success is because I had a Vine following that became a TikTok following… I think it’s the only thing, especially during a pandemic, that any artist who’s independent can really do to facilitate an organic following.”
His influencer instincts kick in as he avidly talks about the importance of social media for small artists. In 2014, Montgomery was able to chart with his first EP because of his following on Vine. He thinks back to trying to break out in the Saint Louis scene, considering the lack of a local scene and appreciating how social media was able to give him a platform even without the local scene backing him up. To Montgomery, community has been able to raise him up to the place he is now, and he will continue interacting and giving back to it as he moves forward in his career.
