Four months ago, a musician from Dallas, TX set up a camera, hit record, and started talking about his new music that went viral on Tik Tok. Today, Badly has over 4 million streams on the title track ‘I’m Okay Now,’ and a strong following of 167k. With that, he soon became one of the hottest underground artists on Tik Tok.
When I got the opportunity to catch up with Badly it was the day before the release of his new EP "Feelings". He was sitting in the room that he wrote and produced all his songs, and the anticipation and excitement for the launch were evident.
The Power of the Internet
Badly did not plan on having a video that reached millions of people and effectively launched his career. In fact, it almost didn’t happen at all.
“I honestly didn’t want to [make the Tik Tok] because it feels semi-gimmicky, but people receive it well and I’d hate myself if I don’t at least try it,” Badly said about releasing his first viral video. “So, I tried it and posted it...and then on Spotify for Artists, I can see how many people are listening at once, and at that stage, it was anywhere from 2 to 15. Then I saw it was at 20… then it went from 40 to 200 to 1,600… and I was like I guess the videos were doing well!”
Badly attributes his current success to the following he gained and curated on Tik Tok. That following is what took him to LA to pave his own way in the music industry. However, as a self-taught musician, with a sound he created through years of trial and error, Badly realized how much he valued being in charge of his own creative direction.
“Going [to LA] and going through the hoops of the industry for a little bit… showed me at least that I actually really liked what I was doing,” Badly said about his experience. “I really liked just making songs in my bedroom, and learning production and not necessarily being in a big studio where someone else takes the wheel.”
Learning is a Process
Writing music and producing a unique sound is something that Badly takes seriously. He learned the ins and outs of songwriting and music production himself, so it is no surprise that you can hear his songs evolve with each release.
“When I first started learning music production I was like, ‘I want to make sure I learn it in the most specific way… I kept all my notes that I ever took on videos I watched in a binder,” he said about the beginning of his journey. “And then I had this moment where I was like ‘It’s supposed to be art’... I want to be just in [the music]. I try to just go.”
Trying not to overthink and letting the creativity run free is the essence of his songwriting process. You can see it from the scribbles on his whiteboard to the clusters of paper throughout the room. Badly said it’s not uncommon to see him and his cousin pacing back and forth humming different tunes to different lines until they find the right words.
“It might take me three times as long to do something that someone else could do in two minutes, but the process for me is the part of it that I enjoy,” he said. “I came back [from LA] and realized I just want to finish the album and really make the songs myself and go from there.”
When you think of musicians, you think that they must have known their musical talents from the beginning, but that was not the case for Badly.
“I kind of fell into [making music],” he said. “I didn’t choose music in a way- it wasn’t like I woke up when I was little and thought music is what I wanna do-I just love listening to music. It was a natural progression to go from listening to it, to learning guitar, to writing my own songs… to being like ‘oh I want to do this as a career’ and now being lucky enough to maybe do it.”
Caught Up in Our Feelings
His new EP "Feelings" is the first release following the success of “I’m Okay Now” and “Roses”. The EP adds an additional three songs to the story that began four months ago.
“I released ‘I’m Okay Now’ and ‘Roses’ [first, then] I just figured why not continue the story and the sound palette that I had in my head,” he said. “I started 'Feelings' when I was in LA, and I brought it back [to Dallas]. It started with a drum loop that I made with a guy in the studio… and I ended up finishing it in two weeks.”
Two weeks. That’s how long Badly says he goes from the first chord, all the way to the finished product. He does not think that creating music is a linear process. He explains how it can start with a chord, or a random lyric can pop into your head that inspires a whole new song. This is what happened with “Roses” during his first release.
“I was downstairs making coffee… and I started [singing] ‘where there were roses’,” he remembers. “I ran upstairs, grabbed my guitar- I knew exactly what chords it was going to be- I don’t know why. I had ‘where there are roses there should’ve been love’ and I was like ugh now there’s gonna be two songs.”
These flashes of inspiration are not uncommon to Badly. He likes to keep his creative space free and open to anything.
“I think when you start a song there are things like okay, I want the emotion to go this direction- but then once you start it I think as an artist it’s like the battle of you really want to let the music do the work,” he said about creating the latest tracks on his EP. “So often you’re missing out on a great idea if you’re being strict about ‘oh it’s not how I exactly want it’.”
Badly says he gives himself the room to mess up and experiment with different sounds. Any one genre does not bind him, in fact, he believes that genres are so fluid now that no artist really belongs in any one category.
“The magic is in scrolling through presets on an instrument in Logic… putting a plug in and distorting it and bending it and eventually ending up either with the exact sound you had in your head or a sound you never thought was even possible that’s now there,” Badly said.
He allows the music to evolve within the feelings the lyrics hold rather than forcing the emotion. His lyrics capture, in the most simple way, how when you’re going through heartbreak those mundane things, like deleting text messages and pictures, is actually a huge deal.
“['Central Expressway'] is probably one of my favorite songs ever written and I wrote that one with my cousin,” he explains. “We’re just walking around [in my room] with the music playing. And we were like okay let’s just pull out the most detailed things from our past relationships and create the most imagery we possibly can in the verses.”
Taking inspiration from classics, in the middle of the song you hear a conversation between Badly and his cousin talking about an ex. This intimate moment gives a deeper meaning and complexity to the lyrics expressed throughout the song.
“It’s called ‘Central Expressway’ and that’s us talking on the side of the highway, and you can hear [it] in the back,” he said. “I felt like it added such emotion going into the second verse in a simple way.”
This song was the most reminiscent of 'I’m Okay Now' and 'Roses'. The acoustics tied in with a more synth/electro sound in the chorus was a brilliant bridge between his older sound and the new sound of 'Listen To This When You’re Anxious'.
“['Listen To This When You’re Anxious' was on the same day that me and my cousin were making Central Expressway and for some reason… he was really into slowed down versions of songs,” Badly said. “It kind of acts as an interlude between 'Feelings' and 'Central Expressway' on the EP. I took just the main synth and the beat from 'Feelings' from the chorus and I dragged them into a separate Logic project and slowed it down by like 50%.”
LTTWYA is one of those songs that never feel long enough. With each listen, you hear a new instrumental, chord, or lyric that you missed before. It forces you to pay attention- which, Badly explains, is the whole point.
Not A Viral Singer
If you get anything out of this article, it should be one thing: there is no such thing as an overnight success- and Badly is not an exception. His song catalog goes back to 2019, long before that video was even a thought. With the always-changing music industry, especially in its current state, artists have to adapt in order to grow, and Badly did just that.
“More than ever now, especially with no live shows... I literally have to produce content as much as I can,” he said. “I honestly love making Tik Tok videos, but it takes a lot out of me. It’s a lot of work… but the only way that I can promote things now is through Tik Tok.”
This release was just the first of a three-part installment that will end in March this year.
“I’m releasing three more songs in February, and then two in March to end it to be a ten-song album.”
The release of the album will mark the end of a story Badly spent over half a year creating. What can you expect? According to Badly, the music will go further into the new sound he created with Feelings and LTTWYA.
“For my first album, I’m really excited to give a palette of a lot of stuff,” he said. “If I wanted to, I could sit down and write another ‘I’m okay now’ and ‘Roses’, but if you do that it’s a scary place to be in as an artist because now everybody is expecting that and anytime you do anything else it's a disappointment.”
For now, Badly is focusing on his growth as an artist rather than obsessing over the number of streams he gets.
“A year ago... I got 190 streams [in a] day, and this year I got 35,000,” he said. “It just made me be like ‘alright Marshall, even if these next releases flop, you need to just chill out and realize how lucky you are and how many people wish they were in your position. That’s when you start to have fun.”
“I’m trying to keep things into this simple perspective of [how] I define success… [I define it] as if I can do music for a living… I’m getting to do that right now- I’m living the dream so everything else is a bonus.”
Badly’s EP 'Feelings' is out now, listen here.