Nathan Evans: TikTok star's panic attacks before viral sea shanty

Nathan with Holly and newborn son Hunter

Nathan Evans became an overnight star when a sea shanty he posted on social media went viral.

But he has told a new BBC documentary of the hard times he endured before his 60-second clip became an international sensation.

The 28-year-old shot to fame in late 2020 when a TikTok video of the 19th Century shanty Wellerman led to a record deal and a Number 1 single in several countries, including the UK.

Nathan, from Airdrie, was a postman at the time but he had only been in the job a few months after recovering from mental health problems.

In What Next for the Wellerman? he tells how he had to quit his building trade job as a steel erector after having panic attacks.

"Having to get up at 5.30 and do 12 hours on shift and it was always hard graft as well," Nathan says.

"When it's cold, it's dreadful. When you are outside and dealing with the cold it's quite miserable."

Nathan tells the documentary that before he left the job he was struggling with his mental health.

"There was one day I was on site - my chest went, my breathing went and I started getting sweaty and I thought 'I am going to start crying here'.

"I started having a panic attack in the cherry picker and I was like 'I'm not doing this any more'."

Nathan was off work for a couple of months and started putting more effort into his music, uploading videos to Facebook and Instagram and also TikTok, at the insistence of his niece and nephew.

In response to one of his songs, a follower asked him to do a sea shanty called Leave Her Johnny.

Nathan admits that he knew nothing about the song or the genre of music but it became his most popular video, with fans suggesting dozens of others for him to perform.

Wellerman was on the list but it took Nathan months to get around to it.

However when he uploaded it in December 2020, the clip immediately took off.

Nathan is trying to have success as a singer-songwriter

Nathan recalls that before his success he and wife Holly, who he met at school, were having a tough time.

Holly tells the programme: "We were always under pressure thinking 'is the next wage going to be enough to cover everything?'"

But suddenly everything changed.

"It was like the flick of a switch," Nathan says.

"Life just flipped upside down. I went from all that struggling with all this debt and then the next minute I was signed to a record company, I had a manager.

"I paid the debt off and managed to buy myself a house that we'd been dreaming of."

Holly admits that his success came so quickly and he was so busy that she feared she might be losing him.

"It messed with us a wee bit," she says.

"We had a really hard year. I honestly didn't think we'd still be together."

Nathan grew up in Airdrie in Lanarkshire

Nathan says he knew he had to use the chance to establish his music career and took every opportunity available.

"I could see where I wanted to go and thought there was nothing going to stop me from getting to there," he says.

Holly says: "He's destined for great things and you have to let Nathan do what he wants to do and see where it takes him."

However, making a career in music when you are known as the sea-shanty guy has not been easy.

He has been spending a lot of time in Germany where they have been keen to promote his new songs, which are more pop music orientated.

"Back home, because I don't get the exposure I do in Germany, even family members will ask me 'are you still doing music?"

"They don't see the TV shows I am doing in Germany, and the gigs and the festivals."

Nathan and Holly met at school

At the end of April, Nathan was in Germany making a music video when Holly went into labour four weeks early.

Nathan dashed back home to Lanarkshire where their first child Hunter had a complicated birth which included time in intensive care.

"It was really scary," Nathan says.

"But now he's healthy and his lungs work perfectly fine."

Nathan says the BBC documentary is trying to show people he is not just The Wellerman and the guy from TikTok.

"Hopefully we can steer away from that TikTok star and become Nathan Evans the artist," he says.

What Next for the Wellerman? Is on BBC Scotland on Thursday 6 July at 22:30.