Aubory Bugg: Finding Her Voice, Her Place & Her Sound

Music Matters with Darrell Craig Harris

Aubrey Bug, a Nashville-based indie singer-songwriter originally from Illinois, shares her journey of finding her voice and place in the mus

Key takeaways

TikTok has become a powerful platform for emerging artists to gain visibility and connect with audiences beyond niche communities.
Moving from a small Illinois town to Nashville provided Aubrey Bug with a vibrant, collaborative music scene that fuels her creativity.

Main topics

Aubrey Bug's journey from Illinois to Nashville
The role of TikTok in her rise as a viral artist

Notable quotes

TikTok algorithm is really good at finding viewers and putting them in a niche of people.

I learn more about songwriting when I'm not songwriting with other people, but when I'm just around creative people.

Conclusion

Aubrey Bug's story highlights how personal growth, digital platforms, and community support

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:02) Today on Music Matters Podcast, we have fantastic indie singer-songwriter, TikTok star as well, Aubrey Bug, who's Nashville-based from Illinois originally, has such a unique voice. You can hear her influences in her voice, which would be Joni Mitchell and some folks in that classic singer-songwriter era. But really wonderful musician, very excited to talk with her, and she's just beginning her journey. She has a new single out. She has a new album. which is going to be your debut album coming out soon. Actually, September 18th. So, yeah. So let's get the show on the road. Welcome to Music Matters Podcast with Daryl Craig Harris, talking about all things music with celebrities, artists, music business insiders, and more. Speaker 2 (0:58) Aubrey Bug, how are you doing today? Speaker 1 (1:00) Doing really well. Happy to be here. Thank you for having me. Speaker 2 (1:03) Oh, you're very welcome. Your publicist sent me your information. I was checking out your songs. You have a new single out today, actually. That is killer. The single is The One You Want to Lose. You have a debut album coming out. I think I had something once. That's going to be out September 18th on Dual Tone Records. So it sounds like you're very, very busy these days. Speaker 1 (1:21) Yes, definitely. I wasn't expecting to be, but every... It's kind of the crunch time is what I've been told. So it's like I'll look at my calendar a week ahead and I'll be like, wow, I have like very little. And then like a day or two before my manager will call me and be like, hey, so you have six things tomorrow. Did you know that? And I'm like, whoa. I think I'm handling it relatively decently. Speaker 2 (1:45) Yeah. And it's I mean, you know, it's it can be overwhelming, but also it's awesome because everything's popping at the same time. A lot of people know you from TikTok because you've become a very viral TikTok star. You did a series of cover songs that were very, very popular. Tummy Hurts, I think, is one of the biggest. That was actually the first one, right? Speaker 1 (2:02) I think it was like day like 12, maybe 12 or 13. But Speaker 2 (2:06) that's one of the ones that first really popped off for you. Speaker 1 (2:09) Oh, yeah, definitely. The first the first viral video I ever had. Speaker 2 (2:12) Right. It Speaker 1 (2:13) was. freaking insane. Yeah, Speaker 2 (2:16) and I love the idea. I mean, we were just talking before we started, TikTok has become a really great place for singers, songwriters, and just a great forum for that, right? Speaker 1 (2:24) Oh, a million percent. I think that the TikTok algorithm is really, really good at, you know, kind of finding viewers and putting them in a niche of people. So like, if you are on TikTok, and you want to hear any musicians, you just have really, really good musicians thrown at you, you know, 24 seven. And then, you know, if you If you have a song as a musician and you put it out and it reaches people that aren't your niche, you kind of also have a good gauge of like, oh, that's what people want to hear because it escaped containment. It escaped this small community that I've kind of forged. But yeah, it's been life changing. Speaker 2 (2:58) Yeah, that's awesome. And I think especially for young artists, it's such a great option because the traditional record route has kind of changed so much. And I know you, you're on Dual Tone Records, which has, and they actually have a 25th anniversary coming up too, which we're going to talk about. America Fest Bash, I think they have. But tell me about you. So you came out, you were originally from Illinois, then you came to Nashville. Tell me that story. Speaker 1 (3:21) Yeah, so I grew up in Granite City, Illinois, which is like a stone's throw from St. Louis. But even though it's fairly close to St. Louis, it's very like tight knit. It's very small, like farm town, like there's a mill there that was like the whole economic backbone. Speaker 2 (3:35) But Speaker 1 (3:35) my parents still live there. I visit often. I love it now that I've left it. But when I was in it, it was like, oh, this is the most isolating experience. Like you Speaker 2 (3:46) get Speaker 1 (3:46) so far and you just like, you don't call, you can't collaborate with anybody there because nobody's doing what you want to be doing. And so last year I packed it all up and I moved to Nashville because I had this just robust. network of friends and now the team that I've built is here. And I just I love the community that this place this place gives you, you know, you go into like a party or a function and you have like four folk singer songwriters to like alt rock people like a bunch of shoegaze people like indie, indie everything. It's like it's so incredible. It's such a tight knit community and everybody's just down to be you know, around each other and to learn from each other. Speaker 2 (4:19) Yeah, and it's interesting because, I mean, people have that, you know, Nashville country, which of course still exists, but there's so much other stuff going on there. There's rockers, there's all sorts of, and a lot of people I'm interviewing now are based in Nashville. Tell me about that scene in terms of songwriting, which