Not relying on support from a music label, Shauna Dean Cokeland has taken a different road to pop stardom, which she maps out for Bohema.

Shauna Dean Cokeland, also known as SDC, is a 20 year old US-singer and songwriter from Maryland. Even though she is as of right now not signed to any label, she managed to get herself a following on social media, especially on TikTok, where she has 480 K Followers. With the support of her fans she was able to release three singles in the course of one year and even went on her first US-tour. In our interview she reflects on how the age of social media influences the music industry.

Bohema: Your first music-related post on TikTok was a short clip of your vocal warm up with Adele´s When We Were Young in 2020. Since then you started sharing more clips of you covering songs from artists like Lana Del Rey, Toby Keith and Nicole Dollanganger. What inspired you to start posting videos of you singing on this platform?

Shauna Dean Cokeland: TikTok was a way I could show my music to lots of people, even without a mic or a computer to actually make recordings. I got serious about making a TikTok every day in 2020 because I was grounded for a while, and that made me really think about ways I could start a music career at home.

B: Only a few months later you posted your own work for the first time – some lyrics from the song Fade you wrote and later on even released on streaming services alongside two others, Child Star and Party People. How would you say has your songwriting style changed since then?

SDC: I was so conscious of the other artists I wanted to sound like when I wrote those first demos. I wanted Child Star to sound like Lana, and Party People to sound like The Mountain Goats. I was still learning about how to mix and match qualities you like from different artists when you’re making a song. The songs I’m writing now have a more distinct ,,Shauna Dean Cokeland-Sound“, but it’s still influenced by all sorts of things.

B: A year ago you released your single Moving in Place that got popular on TikTok before its release. This summer your second single Last Best Popstars came out, which you also shared on this platform before. In the released versions you‘ve also added some background vocals and harmonies. How do the fans react to the changes in these higher quality versions?

SDC: Some people like the fully released versions more, some people like the TikToks I make more. I’m just recording and producing these songs in my bedroom right now, so it’s my job to make something that is at least as enjoyable, to me, as listening to the TikTok versions. It’s a learning curve for sure, but the newest single I’m working on called Electric Blue definitely is worlds away from the TikToks I’ve made of it, which is super exciting.

Diverse Influences

SDC‘s main influences are her own diverse musical experiences. She did traditional irish dance, was in a mariachi band and studied opera in highschool. Cokeland started singing in a church choir when she was only three years old. She also takes inspiration from her favourite artists and various genres.

B: Your work is heavily influenced by 90‘s hip hop, emo and pop-punk, country, and pop icons like Britney Spears. Did you notice, if some of these styles are favoured by the online audience more than others?

SDC: TikTok likes when I write rap-influenced stuff. Instagram hates it, though. IG is generally way more of a critic about everything than TikTok. If they don’t like how I sound, what I’m wearing, etc., people on IG are gonna let me know. Anything I make with a more polished sound does better on there. TikTok is way more accepting of unfinished ideas, bedroom quality sound, and things like 90’s rap, which are inherently going to be a little corny sometimes.

B: Reaccuring themes in your songs are nostalgia, love, and partying. But you also touch on more serious topics like mental health or toxic relationships. Your newest single Andrew is about an age-inappropriate relationship. What is it like to talk about these subjects online?

SDC: Usually it’s really cool and an honor to get to sing about a hard topic, and make people feel seen. I wrote a song inspired by the trans community and their beauty and their struggle, because I grew up with a lot of incredible trans people going through things they didn’t deserve. I wanted trans kids at my shows to have a little extra strength to take with them for the road, but I wasn’t sure I had the right to sing about somebody else’s struggle like that. When I was on tour though, I got to hear what that song means to real people in all these new cities. I think, „that’s a person that goes home and has my songs to come back to whenever they need, and it actually helps.“ That’s why I write about big „unfairnesses“ (transphobia, violence, womanhood, etc.) so often; because writing a song feels like I’m helping.

Sometimes though, especially with that song Andrew, it does get kind of intense to do a lot of promotion and advertising for a song that’s about something like grooming. It’s just heavy. That doesn’t translate well to something simple like a TikTok-Ad, and I worry the meaning gets cheapened a little in an attempt to get people to stream it. I’m glad that song is out and I don’t feel like I have to make TikToks about it anymore.

Pros and cons of social media

Even though she misses the ,,aesthetics“ of the success stories from 20 years ago, SDC acknowledges the many advantages of the modern age, that are helping newcomer artists like her to succeed in the music industry. She even managed to go on her first tour, despite not being signed to any label company.

B: This summer you went on your first US-tour. How do unsigned artists like you manage to put something like that together, without a record label and a team behind them?

SDC: My friend Mallory helped me. She has a lot of experience booking and managing tours. I met her because she’s a photographer too, and reached out to do a shoot with me. For the tour, she called the venues and booked the shows, and sold merch for me too. Then we crashed with some friend of hers in each town. It even worked out so we each made some money!

B: How does it feel to perform live compared to performing in front of your phone camera?

SDC: I just love to play, but seeing an entire crowd connect with a song as I play it is completely indescribable. This is a cliche, but I do have to remind myself that it’s actually happening, and even then I usually don’t believe it.

The creative process vs. TikTok

While working on her new songs, SDC tries not to think about what TikTok will think about them. But of course she wants her music to do well, so just before the release, she catches herself wondering, which parts of the songs will translate to the best TikToks.

B: Many artists before got recognition thanks to TikTok and became mainstream, for example Gayle with her major-label debut single abcdefu that blew up on this platform. What does TikTok have, that other social media don´t, that makes it so attractive for newcomer singers?

SDC: I think part of it is the idea of the „For You“ Page, where the amount of people seeing your video isn’t just determined by how many followers you have. You see so much more new content each day on TikTok, from people you didn’t choose to see, than you do on, say, Instagram.

B: Aside from music you also post fashion related content, make-up, hair or nail tutorials and hauls. Do newcomer artists feel, in your opinion, pressured to post non-music related content to draw more attention to their pages?

SDC: Some artists probably do, that would make sense. I don’t really feel pressure to make style and beauty content, just because it doesn’t seem to direct people to my music like just making videos of my songs does. I’m really obsessed with 2000s style, so designing this cohesive image with details like nail art and fashion content is something I’d be doing anyway.

B: If you could choose one decade, in which you could be starting your music career, which one would it be?

SDC: I wanna say the 2000s, because I’m obsessed with that era, but I’ve gotta say the 2020s. Just because like 3 record companies ruled music distribution up until recently, and I think it would be way harder to do what I’m doing in any decade before.