Meet Covey, the folk-punk artist building an audience (and a twisted fantasy world) on TikTok
TikTok fame is invaluable these days—it might just get you a role in the new She’s All That remake—and being a really, really good dancer isn’t the only game to conquer its algorithms. Just ask Tom Freeman, the British-born, Brooklyn-based artist behind folk-punk outfit Covey. After the release of his muscular debut, Class Of Cardinal Sin, was delayed by the pandemic, he barreled through the boredom by embarking on his Tour To Nobody, a trek through the Northeast that found him filming solo acoustic shows at weird dinosaur parks, quirky roadside stores, and even the famed Bread and Puppet Theater. He shared snippets of his journey to TikTok and posted the actual performances over on his YouTube.)
@coveysux DAY 6 – The Bread And Puppet Theater #WhatsPoppin #ThrowbackSongs #QuickRecipes #boostyourmood #fyp #fypシ #adventure #roadtrip #iamamusician
His bite-sized travelogues soon found an audience, one that’s since grown to more than a million since the account was first created in September. On Halloween, he sought to sustain their interest by reigniting one of his old hobbies: creating characters from hand-painted figurines. Throughout a series of TikToks, Freeman introduced the adorably monstrous characters as the students of his Class Of Cardinal Sin, unpacking their backstories in such a way that an entire subreddit was started to further explore their lore.
@coveysux NEW SERIES Character – Tevin Thompson #FamilyImpression #viral #tiktokart #homeoffice #miniatures #fyp #fypシ #tiktokcreatives #artok #storytime
It all culminated with the music video for “Cut On The Crease,” a twisted clip with an offbeat emotional edge that vividly brings to life Freeman’s figurines as it provides a striking canvas for the song’s piercing lyrics and stirring melodies.
“I’m excited for fans to see the stories told in this totally different medium and couldn’t be happier with how it turned out,” he wrote in a statement accompanying the video. “[T]he personalities definitely come across in the video how I intended them to and how fans have come to know them. Through all the lore, fan theories, cosplay and fan art, the character identities have only gotten more and more vivid, so much so that they began to transcend their small toy bodies even before this video.”
Check it out below.