In 2016, a broke twenty-two year old midwesterner set out to make his debut album, “Montgomery Ricky.” Although at the time of its release, the album had a nominal success, “Montgomery Ricky” gained the love it deserved five years after its initial release. Ten years, two platinum records, and over 2 billion streams later, many consider Montgomery an “overnight success” — while really it was years in the making.
Montgomery has been working on music since he was 14, using the medium as an escape while based in St. Louis, Missouri before he eventually moved back to Los Angeles. Upon moving to LA, he jumped on a new social media app, known as Vine, just a few days after its release in 2013. On Nov. 14, 2014 the singer released his first solo EP, “Caught On The Moon,” featuring three tracks (“Last Night,” “California,” “Get Used to It”) that later made their way onto his debut album, “Montgomery Ricky.” He started marketing “Caught On The Moon” through Vine, while also plugging his other social media to help spread his fan base. The then-novel strategy was successful, leading his videos onto the “popular now page” and gaining 200,000 followers before the app’s shut down a year after his debut album’s release.
Only eleven days after the EP’s release he announced what he called the “Rickstarter,” (a kickstarter campaign to help fund his album’s creation) on his youtube channel. The Rickstarter aimed to raise funds towards advertising, mixing and mastering the sound, creating music videos, and even manufacturing physical releases of the project. The success of the Rickstarter allowed the singer to launch the project with the help of his producer Jon Heisserer. Upon its release, the album garnered a positive reaction from his fans, yet the traction he gained from Vine quieted down, and the album never quite reached mainstream popularity.
That is until five years later, where two songs from Montgomery Ricky breached containment in 2020. In between 2016 and 2020 Montgomery had settled into writing and fronting the LA Based Indie band The Honeysticks. While working with The Honeysticks, Montgomery still was unable to pursue music full time, working on startups and marketing in the background. “Mr Loverman” was the first song off the album to gain traction, through a rhythm game named “OSU!” The album gained popularity on the game, with it getting big enough that the game company (Ppy Pty Ltd)reached out to gain licensing over the music. Ppy Pty Ltd offered Montgomery a featured artist role, along with what he called his first “big paycheck” associated with the album.
Shortly after, his song “Line Without A Hook” quickly gained traction on Tik Tok. Although multiple users used the song in their videos, the anime community, specifically fans of “Banana Fish,” began to create fan edits using “Line Without A Hook.” Montgomery quickly caught on, creating videos duetting with these users in order to help put a face to the sound. Later he uploaded a video announcing his decision to watch “Banana Fish” and react to it on his Instagram. Instantly, the song blew up, with “Mr Loverman” following right behind. This boom of success led to multiple record labels reaching out to Montgomery, who eventually signed with Warner Records. “Line without a Hook” and “Mr Loverman” gained almost 8 billion views on his TikTok, allowing Montgomery to suddenly focus on his solo career as an artist.
With the virality of these two songs and a newly signed label, Montgomery continued his quick marketing with the creation of two music videos for his viral hits. In the end credits of the “Mr Loverman” music video, he thanks TikTok, specifically the gay TikTok community, for allowing him to be able to revisit the album and create new work for it. The singer stated in an interview with The LUNA Collective that it was “surreal to put something out after the TikTok success.” Both videos gained 58,000 views collectively, and a whopping 282,000 views on their lyric videos. He stated his fan’s reaction to his music to be“the honor of a lifetime” and a “privilege” he takes very seriously. New fans gravitated towards the album’s vulnerability and indie pop sound. Previous fans got to bask in their favorite musician releasing new content after almost five years of inactivity.
Montgomery has since released multiple projects, including his first headline tour with many planned after, an EP named “Its 2016 Somewhere,” and even his sophomore album, “Rick” that continues his vulnerability with an alt-pop sound.
This year marks 10 years of “Montgomery Ricky,” with an anniversary tour kicking it into fruition, a full album commentary, and new music alongside it.
