Getting Candid with Aidan Bissett [Interview]

We sat down to interview Aidan Bissett who you may recognize his music from TikTok with songs like “More Than Friends” and “Tripping Over Air.”

He broke into the music world ​​with a series of self-produced singles in 2020 and signed to Capitol Records before he’d even finished high school.

We’re getting candid with Aidan about being among the first people to start promoting music on TikTok; the importance of distinguishing yourself as an artist in songwriting, performing and persona; and growing up in an environment that supported good mental health.

You can find a transcribed excerpt of our interview below.

Name 3 Songs: You found a lot of early success on TikTok and now have a few tours under your belt. You went from being on your phone to being in real life in front of these people. Was that a weird thing to get used to? 

Aidan Bissett: Your phone is so weird – you can put something out there and people will see it, but you never get to see how they’re seeing it. The next thing you know, you’re like, “oh, this has like 100,000 views, what the heck?”

You never really understand what an impact has on somebody. You’ll never be able to tell on the phone. And seeing that transition, especially on that first tour, was really impactful for me. And it solidified the drive and motivation that I had for music, because I didn’t feel like I could get that sort of response and connection anywhere else. 

You were doing all of this in 2020 when TikTok was the new frontier. No one knew what they were doing or how to utilize TikTok as a platform to grow yourself. What was your experience with that? Were you also just throwing darts in the dark?

Yeah, I recently looked back on some of my videos and I was like, “how did I not get bullied in high school?” Which, to be fair, I definitely did. They just didn’t bully me to my face. But I was looking back at some of the videos – I was straight up committing social suicide. But because we were in lockdown, I couldn’t see the kids in school. So it doesn’t matter, you know? So yeah, it was weird trying to figure it out because again, nobody knew what they were doing. Like now, we kind of understand how it works and TikTok is an instrument. 

So honestly, I was just copying this stuff that was working from other artists. And every once in a while it would kind of work. But it was definitely a way, way different landscape then than it is now. There was less music being put on it. So it was being able to break through the noise and be like, this is what I’m doing so it was a lot easier. 

Every artist now goes through the struggle of trying to break through anything on that app because there is so much happening all the time. There’s a new song, or there’s a bunch of these smaller songs doing their own thing and it’s hard to have a big one pop off, you know? So it’s really interesting. It’s cool to watch. I’m really fascinated by the whole market and business around that stuff.

We’re talking about how TikTok three years ago was so different. But if we think about musicians and social platforms like five years ago, even 10 years ago, with artists like The 1975. There was no TikTok for them And so the artist and social media landscape has changed a lot. With TikTok, it’s changed to this format where it feels like you need to be constantly accessible online. Do you feel like that aspect plays a role in all of this?

Trying to find the balance between using an app like TikTok to grow your platform and grow your music, but also not giving too much. The biggest superstars in the world, Matty Healy, Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo – in my opinion, one of the reasons they’re superstars is because there’s a level of mystery around them. 

You can’t know everything about them, but you want to know everything about them, right? Having that part of your artistry is so important because it keeps people searching your name and guessing and wanting to know what’s going on in you life. 

An artist like me who is developing, I can’t just leave TikTok. I’m nowhere near the level of success to be like, “you know, screw that app. I don’t need it anymore.” It’s just not true. I have to be able to utilize the things that are at my extent. 

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