Emerging Punk Rock Music Star Bailey Spinn is Putting a New Twist on Building a Career in the TikTok Era

Bailey Spinn is an artist that knows what she wants, and is determined to get it by any means necessary. A punk rock rising star in the music industry, Spinn just released her newest single "Happy Ending," towards the end of 2023, which was her busiest and most successful year yet. A little bit of Avril Lavigne and Hayley Williams but still very much Bailey Spinn in her sound, looks, and presentation—it hasn't taken long for the artist to develop some serious traction on the world wide internet. Having amassed over 20 million followers on social media (15 million of which are on TikTok), Spinn is a burgeoning superstar providing exactly what's been missing in the music industry over these past several years.

2023 also saw Spinn embark on her first east and west coast tour, and release a successful EP entitled My Worst Enemy that produced the popular singles "Romance is Dead" and "Runner Up."

With plans to release more material in 2024 and hit the road again this year, we caught up with Spinn to talk about the trajectory of her career thus far.

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"I love everything about rock music and the way it makes me feel," Spinn tells ONE37pm as she kicks off the conversation. She continues: "I've always been heavily inspired by the likes of Avril Lavigne and Paramore, and it's amazing to make such strong powerful music that people can relate to."

It's safe to say the general public has done a more than just "relating" when it comes to Bailey's music when you look at the numbers (which we'll get into later). Bringing back that 1990s/2000s nostalgic feel with modern twists like theatrical visuals and gut-punching beats, Spinn has already made an impressive impact on the music industry as an independent solo artist in her short time on the music scene.

Before we get into Spinn's successful 2023, we decide to rewind all the way back to the very beginning—when she was a teenage artist discovering a love and passion for music. "I was always really into instruments as a kid," she recalls adding: "I played the flute, trombone, ukulele, and now I play the electric guitar. I was too shy to sing in chorus, so I wound up doing karaoke in my basement every single day. Music was something that brought me so much joy as a kid—I even did a school project where I turned 'Hallelujah' into a song about women's rights."

While Spinn is very much an artist who has capitalized on using social media to the best of her abilities, her approach is still an old school one that has involved organically growing her fanbase. "I had to start off really slowly and ease the followers that I already had on TikTok into my singing—I started off by doing covers of songs each week and grew from there."

Knowing that she wanted to create her own original pieces, Bailey began dabbling in what she calls "little recording sessions," and after roughly six months of doing covers, the artist bit the bullet by releasing her first original material—"It was really scary dropping a single with such little experience in the music industry," she tells me.

As it turns out, Spinn had nothing to be concerned about as that first drop paved the way for a phenomenal 2023, which saw the release of her debut EP My Worst Enemy. "This EP was really fun to put together—there's definitely some really dark songs on there," Spinn explains. "It all started with 'Runner Up'—that was the first song I ever approved. I had previously recorded a bunch of songs that I ended up scrapping, and I met my now-producer Joey Khodanian, aka Kodeblooded, that came up with the track. That's what started it all. From there we added 'Romance Is Dead' and the other three tracks 'Told You So,' 'Passenger,' and 'My Worst Enemy'—it just felt right."

Entering the punk rock genre was confirmation that Bailey was exactly where she needed to be when it came to her musicality as a whole, noting she's been her "own top artist on Spotify" this past year. "I genuinely enjoy these tracks as a lover of the rock genre, and I'm glad that it's been received so well by my audience," she says happily. "A lot of people thought I only had one song, so I think I surprised them a bit with the My Worst Enemy EP. I really dove myself into rock and alternative—I didn't just want to make a pop album. It's a lot more dark and way more 'screaming' than anything I've ever done for sure."

Amassing millions of views and streams across YouTube and all the major music platforms, what stands out about Spinn's music is her storytelling abilities—a talent she's strengthened through her experience from writing out short-form content for social media. Transforming her thoughts of self-doubt, alienation, mental health struggles and romantic disappointments through powerful songwriting alongside her producer and songwriters—like Tiffany Stringer, LOLO, and others—has been one of Bailey's strongest talents and relatable attributes. With all her fans on social and literally billions of views on YouTube alone, Spinn took the next step of her career by hitting the road for the first time at the end of 2023.

"It was a really small tour," Spinn reminisces about the experience. "It was supposed to be four shows and I knocked it down to three because it was really scary and I didn't have any experience performing. We started with a lot of preparation for these three shows—I did San Francisco, Anaheim, and New York—it was really cool to see the audience because there was a huge mix of ages. There were some kids who were super young and there with their parents, then you had some teenagers in the mix, and then there were fully grown adults—it was cool to see such a mixture of people enjoying the songs!"

The venues Spinn performed at for her first tour were roughly 250 to 300 in capacity size, and her goal is to expand that with more dates in the year 2024. Personally, we feel Bailey is underestimating her pull, but humility has certainly been one of the biggest factors of her success thus far. Whatever the artist ends up deciding, 2023 was filled with a successful debut EP and tour, meaning that the logical next step is a full-length album... right? While Spinn is setting the wheels in motion, she's also taking her time with the process. The same is true with her performance schedule for the upcoming year. By far, one of the coolest things about Bailey's tour was the fact that she used an all-female band—a theme she would like to continue in the future. "For the tour, I hired an amazing guitarist and drummer that I would love to continue working with," she says. "I wanted an all-girl band—we're still building up the team, but I love them and would love to continue working with them."

For Bailey Spinn, 2024 is going to be all about building upon the groundwork she laid next year. "I want to do a little bit of a bigger tour—I want to be up there and feel a little bit more comfortable—especially since this is only going to be my second tour. I'm also really excited to drop some more music because my audience has been very excited about the stuff I've been previewing off my second EP. We're still on the fence about a full album, because I'm still in the process of figuring out what I want my sound to be."

"You want to start out small as an emerging artist because I've heard from other people in the industry that when you're starting out people can lose interest in a full-length album about halfway through. You want to begin small, figure out your sound, and what kind of music you're going to be making. Since I'm still starting out, I don't want people to overlook the songs at the end of my record."

Fair enough. My final question to Bailey is a nerdy punk rock lover one—how she's developing her "rock growl."

"I want to scream so bad, but I sound a little too girly when I do it," she says adding: "I've found my big belting voice from listening to Paramore a lot. I also took a couple of vocal lessons to make sure my singing was coming from the right place and not straining my throat. It's really hard to get that huge powerful sound out correctly—especially since you can do it incorrectly and get vocal fry. I always try to make sure I breathing and pushing from the right place. Eventually there will be a scream!"

You can continue to keep up with Bailey on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

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