LUBBOCK, Texas – Governor Gregg Abott issued a ban on TikTok from government issued technology over cybersecurity risks. However, one Lubbock artist has made his career off of the platform.
Phix grew up in Lubbock and has reached over 1 million followers on TikTok and has spanned over 9 million streams on Spotify across 180 countries.
“We’ve accrued 1.7 million followers over just about 14 months and it’s changed my life big time,” said Phix.
Some of his musical content has picked up traction, but it was one video in particular that launched his career, bringing in over 3 million views.
“We would do the open verse challenges and stuff and a lot of those popped off extremely last year, and that just propelled my audience to a whole new level,” Phix said. “And then one in particular was the Deer Alcohol challenge with DAX, and it just catapulted my audience in a big way,” said Phix.
Despite the backlash the app receives, Phix credits the platform for his stardom.
“TikTok is everything and not just for artists, singers, songwriters, dancers, whatever. I mean, it is just where you need to put your face in front of people if you want your business or your artistry to succeed and have magnitude, because there’s so many eyes and anybody can go viral,” said Phix.
Phix has dipped into multiple music genres throughout his career, playing various string instruments for almost ten years but says it’s all about navigating the app to really know an audience.
“A lot of that just has to do with thinking of that really engaging content. You have to give these people a reason to want to go listen to your stuff and you can’t just say, ‘Hey, I have a new song, go listen to it,’ you need a reason, you got to sell yourself,” said Phix.
Phix is now working on hitting new milestones through his music and content into the new year.
“I would like to see some sold out shows just all over the place. There’s a couple of people that I would like to work with, make records with, make music with, sit in the studio with and, you know, just to be able to look back at the very end of 2023 and just go, ‘Wow, look at all of those things we did,’” said Phix.
Phix has a new song coming out January 6 called ‘Lead You On.’
You can find his TikTok here.
You can find his Spotify here.
