Ricky Montgomery | |
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![]() Montgomery in 2024. | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Richard Owen Holmes Montgomery |
Born | Los Angeles, California, U.S. | April 3, 1993
Origin | St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
Genres | |
Years active | 2014–present |
Labels | Warner |
Website | rickymontgomery |
Richard Owen Holmes Montgomery (born April 3, 1993) is an American singer-songwriter. In 2020, his songs went viral on TikTok, leading to being signed with Warner Records later that year.
Richard Owen Holmes Montgomery[1] was born in Los Angeles[2] on April 3, 1993.[3] His mother was a teacher,[4][better source needed] and his father was a gaffer.[5] When Montgomery was young, his parents got a divorce,[6] and in 2005, he and his mother moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he lived from ages 12–21,[2] and where he also attended college.[7] At the age of 14, he began to play in various bands.[8] In 2014, he gained a following on Vine, a short-form video service, posting comical original songs.[9] He found the site the day after the app had launched from a CNN news article. He saw the site as a potential "springboard for a possible music career."[6] After finding success with Vine, Montgomery released his first EP, Caught on the Moon.[9] Soon after, he dropped out of college and returned to Los Angeles to pursue a musical career.[8]
In 2009, Montgomery's father died in Mexico. His father's passing was initially thought to be a scuba-diving accident until Ricky found hand-written letters.[10] In regards to this experience, Montgomery said he initially "didn't talk about it a lot", but in 2023 he released the song Black Fins, about his father's death.[11]
In LA, he released his first studio album Montgomery Ricky on April 1, 2016.[8][13] Montgomery founded indie band The Honeysticks with a childhood friend of his[14] to experiment musically.[when?][8][9] The band name was derived from a snack Montgomery ate every Saturday morning when he was a kid, made of sticks of honey.[6] In 2018, he took the year off from making music.[8] He has started social media marketing companies to earn more money.[15] By 2020, he considered quitting making music entirely.[8][9] However, in mid-2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, his two singles—"Mr Loverman" and "Line Without A Hook"—went viral on TikTok.[8] With his explosion in popularity, he was contacted by "virtually every single major label A&R in a matter of months."[9] In December 2020,[9] after a large bidding war, Montgomery signed with Warner Records.[8][16]
I think because we had a really traumatizing year, these songs kind of found a moment, because they're all, in their own way, about traumas in my life.
— Ricky Montgomery[14]
Since then, he has remixed two songs in 2021 from his debut album with fellow artists Chloe Moriondo and mxmtoon respectively.[9][14] Montgomery came in contact with mxmtoon after finding her perform one of his songs on the streaming platform Twitch, learning that she had been a fan of his Vine content before it shut down.[9] He found Moriondo from a song cover of "Out Like A Light".[17]
On going viral leading to a record deal, he told Vox that despite virality in songs or a record deal, artists get stuck on a perpetual treadmill of self-promotion: "Next thing you know, it’s been three years and you’ve spent almost no time on your art. You’re getting worse at it, but you’re becoming a great marketer for a product which is less and less good."[18]