A fanbase can be generated anywhere, and for one-to-watch artist Warren Zeiders, it was posting song covers on TikTok that led to millions of listeners craving his full-bodied gritty sound.
Zieders has answered the call for more original music with his debut EP, 717 Tapes, and trust us when we say this — its worth multiple listens.
With a passion you can hear, Zeiders may strike you as someone who has been at it in the industry forever. But the Pennsylvania native came into making music organically.
In an exclusive interview with Celeb Secrets Country, Zeiders told us that pursuing his passion for this craft wasn’t always the plan.
“This whole year has been many firsts, but to put a long story short, TikTok was not a planned thing,” Zeiders explained. “This music industry thing was not planned whatsoever. I was simply a junior in college going into my senior year, was putting videos on TikTok for merely fun cause I love to sing and play guitar and fast forward through the months – I started taking it a little bit more serious, as I had some friends and family kind of tell me, ‘You know, maybe you should try to take it a little more serious and see what happens.’ So I did, I took their advice and continued to post stuff. I started to see that I had an engaging fan base.”
Photo Credit: Warner Records
That very own engaging fanbase began the push for Zeiders to come into his own as an artist. The songwriter shared that within the blink of an eye the trajectory of his life changed.
“I had people who wanted to hear my voice, wanted to hear my side of the story and wanted to hear music from me when I was just posting covers,” Zeiders said. “To really, to put it this way, my manager had found me and kind of came into my life and had told me ‘You can do this.’ I had no one really in my life to sit me down and say you can make this a career path. I was in college for marketing and planned on going to school for medical sales and before I knew it, I blinked and here I am a couple months later in the heart of the music industry. I’m making music and just trying to figure out my path and see where I fit in this all.”
Having millions of views on TikTok, it’s no surprise that Zeiders’ original music has racked up millions of streams on various platforms. With the release of his ever-popular tracks such as “Ride the Lightning,” and “Dirt Road Don’t,” the budding artist has earned over 33.5 global audio streams to date!
Like a tidal wave ready to claim what is meant for him, Zieders’ 717 Tapes EP sports these fan favorites and a few more songs you won’t want to miss.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CU_JGwCgq70/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
As far as what the man-behind-the-music thinks of this five-song collection, Zeiders told us that the response has simply blown him away.
“The EP, the brilliance behind it and the beauty behind it, the way it has connected with a fan base and has kind of charted and competed with these top performers in the country music industry has blown my mind away.”
Zeiders shared that the songs he has put out paint a picture not only of his talent, but of who he is beyond an artist.
“Songs like, ‘Ride the Lightning,’ the staple song that has kind of put my name in the hat and songs like ‘Dirt Road Don’t’ kind of give a background to who I am as a person and you know, a family man. ‘Boys for Life,’ it’s just kind of about my buddies who’ve been with me for a long time and that’s something that I’m never gonna forget.”
Celeb Secrets Country sat down with Warren Zeiders (virtually) to learn more about his distinct sound, his unique start in the industry and his plans for the future.
Not only does he tells us more about the journey that has created Warren Zeiders the one-to-watch artist, Zeiders shares some behind-the-scenes secrets from making this EP.
Check out the full interview below! Don’t forget to let us know what you think of 717 Tapes by leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sending us a tweet @CS_Country.
You can connect with Warren by giving him a follow on both Instagram and TikTok at @warrenzeiders.
Celeb Secrets Country: Tell me about how you first started putting your music on TikTok and what that mass response has been like!
Warren Zeiders: “This whole year has been many firsts, but to put a long story short, TikTok was not a planned thing. This music industry thing was not planned whatsoever. I was simply a junior in college going into my senior year, was putting videos on TikTok for merely fun cause I love to sing and play guitar and fast forward through the months I started taking it a little bit more serious, as I had some friends and family kind of tell me, ‘You know, maybe you should try to take it a little more serious and see what happens.’ So I did, I took their advice and continued to post stuff. I started to see that I had an engaging fan base. I had people who wanted to hear my voice, wanted to hear my side of the story and wanted to hear music from me when I was just posting covers. To really, to put it this way, my manager had found me and kind of came into my life and had told me ‘You can do this.’ I had no one really in my life to sit me down and say you can make this a career path. I was in college for marketing and planned on going to school for medical sales and before I knew it, I blinked and here I am a couple months later in the heart of the music industry. I’m making music and just trying to figure out my path and see where I fit in this all.”
CSC: Speaker 1: Is there one specific moment that you can remember where you thought, “Oh, I’ve kind of made it on the internet?”
WZ: “I wouldn’t say there’s one specific moment where I said ‘I’ve made it.’ There was a moment in time where something triggered in my brain where I realized I had something and that was actually probably a year ago and some change back in October when I posted a cover of Tyler Childers’ ‘Nose on the Grindstone,’ a song that I dearly love. That didn’t even get millions. That kind of just blew up from my platform at the time and people were craving music from me. At that point I realized that people want original music from me. They were like, ‘Okay, we love the covers, but like share your voice with us, share what you want to put on a paper.’ So I ran with it and I think that really, I wouldn’t say I made it, I think the biggest thing is having a mindset that you never make it and just kind of continue to grow and keep my nose down and just keep doing what I do. But a cool moment for me was when I just recently got verified on TikTok and that was something that I never in a million years would ever thought that would happen in my life.”
CSC: What can you tell me about the 717 Tapes EP?
WZ: “The EP, the brilliance behind it and the beauty behind it, the way it has connected with a fan base and has kind of charted and competed with these top performers in the country music industry has blown my mind away. Songs like, ‘Ride the Lightning,’ the staple song that has kind of put my name in the hat and songs like ‘Dirt Road Don’t’ kind of give a background to who I am as a person and you know, a family man. ‘Boys for Life,’ it’s just kind of about my buddies who’ve been with me for a long time and that’s something that I’m never gonna forget.”
CSC: I want to talk about “Boys for life.” It’s so clear that the song is inspired by some true ride or die friendships. Tell me about the boys in your life that inspired the song.
WZ: “I still have my one best friend and I made another one along this journey. You know, life comes along and people come and go, you know, support you, not support you, but I still have one ride or die who’s been along for the long haul and I owe him a lot. It was in my senior year of college in the fall and my best friend had FaceTimed me one evening after classes. He doesn’t play guitar , he kind of just got a guitar for Christmas and we’re just messing around, having some fun. He’s like, ‘I know you’re more of the writer, but I kind of have a start here and I would love for you to take a look at it and see if you could work with it and run with it.’ So he sent me some lyrics over and I was building a melody with it and kind of listening to it and I was like, ‘Dude, this is kind of a vibe like this would be a fun song to write.’ So long story short, I ended up taking it and finishing the song and the cool story behind it is you actually can find his name on the Spotify for artists. So as a gift for him, he actually kind of teared up a little bit and he’ll kill me for saying this, but when I came home and I told him I was gonna release it on my EP, he teared up and said, ‘You’re going to make me famous,’ and I was like, ‘Well, I don’t know about all that,’ but he just loved the sentimental side of it. I said, ‘Hey, buddy, I want to put your name on this and kind of share the story with the world that, you know, a guy who’s not in music, kind of just likes having fun, playing guitar and playing drums, he kind of just sent me something over and I made something of it.'”
CSC: I’ve read that you also want to kind of merge over into rock and pop. Do you have plans for the near future to dabble in those genres?
WZ: “I think the best way to put it, if I could say anything, I’m 22 years old, I’ve been doing this for a year now and everything for me has just been living in the moment and every day is new for me. I think so many people have this conception of like, ‘Oh, he’s got it figured it out.’ I’m like, ‘No, I just have done a good job of keeping up with myself and just figuring out in the moment what I think.’ I’m making game time decisions almost every day and that’s the beauty behind it. Growing up, I had many different musical backgrounds. I love Christian music, rock music, pop, rap, country. Like I loved all of them. So I’m not one way. I specifically love country. There’s a reason why I’m in the country genre. I would say through the years of developing as an artist, I could see myself dabbling in many genres of music. Seeing as what I think is best for me and what I love in my artistry. There’s no one way I sway, but if you listen to my music, I’m sure you can tell that there’s a rock influence and I think a lot of fans are drawn to it.”
CSC: Since we are Celebs Secrets, is there any behind-the-scenes secret from curating this album that we wouldn’t know just from listening?
WZ: “I’ll give you the first go ahead on it for the EP. Specifically talking about ‘Ride the Lightning,’ a fun fact behind it is coming to Nashville, my first time meeting my manager, ‘Ride the Lightning’ was the first time I ever wrote in Nashville and I actually had done it from my manager’s guest bedroom on a Zoom call. That song has been the one that’s kind of single-handedly put me on the map as a contender. So that’s kind of a cool story behind the curtain.”
