Fast forward to 2024 and Russell is making waves and no longer needs to fool people into thinking that he’s a star. His 2023 single, “Lil Boo Thang,” emerged in the summer, but kept us dancing throughout the seasons, all the way into the new year. Racking up over 145 million Spotify streams and over 300 million globally, the feel-good anthem, built around an interpolation of The Emotions’ “Best of My Love,” proved a smash, entering the top 20 in the US, UK, Australia, and top 5 in Canada. In the meantime, while “Lil Boo Thang” continues to reach new heights, Russell has kept the momentum going by dropping another happy banger, “Say Cheese.” 

Fresh from a Graham Norton Show performance and interview, we talk to Russell about his first-ever visit to the UK, the global success of “Lil Boo Thang,” his upcoming album, and how he is reflecting on his early material.

Jacket Palace by Fashion Library / Jeans Zara / Shoes Timberland / Chain and Vest Artist’s Own

Is this your first time in the UK? How are you finding it so far?

It’s my first time ever. It’s been cool. I mean, honestly, the weather’s been really nice, but I need to explore. That’s the goal for the next few days.

Did you have any expectations for London?

I expected it to be colder than it was. I think I’ve watched a lot of Love Island in my day [laughs]. I think I expected to see Love Island people everywhere.

Your single “Lil Boo Thang” has been doing big things globally. You originally teased it online last June and released it in August. How long before teasing it did you have it ready to go?

Initially, I wrote just that little snippet that I posted. But at the time, there was no full song and I didn’t even think I’d be able to release it just because knowing that it’s often difficult to get stuff cleared, it was just like, “Oh, here’s a fun piece of content.” I wasn’t thinking, “Let me see if I can release it.” I just put it out and thought it would just maybe be a sound that lived on TikTok alone. But then yeah, people liked it, and so it was like, “Okay, now I need to finish this song.” 

I ended up finishing the song a couple of weeks after I first made the first post about it. But still, then I didn’t know if we’d get it cleared, but it happened, which was amazing. It was very organic. It took a long time, it was like two months or so since when I first posted it and when it actually came out. And so in that time I was very nervous, thinking, “Is this gonna be a thing or something that could have been?”

Jumper AGR / Trousers Issey Miyake / Shoes Converse / Accessories Vitaly

So when it did get released, did the huge commercial success take you by surprise at all?

Well, it’s weird. I felt like it was gonna do well just because at that point, it had already been a really popular sound on social media. I once had a song that wasn’t nearly as big as “Lil Boo Thang,” but it did pretty well on social media. But then when I released it, nothing really happened. It’s hard to guess that things are gonna translate over because people have to care about something to go, “I’m gonna hear the little sound on TikTok and then go and actually search what the song is.” There are a lot of steps to that and so you never know. I felt confident that it would do well, but it’s done way better than I could have ever imagined.

TikTok typically has a young audience, but the song is appealing to multiple generations. What has that been like to witness?

It’s cool. It’s so funny. I’ll go places and I think at first I would always get someone my age coming up to me saying, “My mum loves your song!” [laughs] I think that’s because on Instagram reels it did really well, which I think has an older demographic. It was on a show in the US called The Golden Bachelor where these people in their seventies are trying to find love. I feel like the audience of watching that ended up being older people. Now over time, I think it’s kind of lived on social media longer and it’s just become more ubiquitous in general now. People will come to me and it’s older people being like, “My kid loves your song!” It’s cool that it appeals to a lot of different people, which I think is fun because, obviously, that makes something grow even more. I remember there was a weekend where I did an Atlanta club show one night, and then the next day I was performing at some event where everybody was like 50. It was some corporate event. There are not many artists who can do both of those things and have fans in both of those places.

Jumper Ami Paris / Trousers Issey Miyake / Shoes Zara / Rings Artist’s Own

They say that sometimes all it takes is one song for everything to change in your life. Have you noticed any major changes yet from this one song?

Definitely. I was working a desk job a week before the song came out. I signed a record label deal and that changed my life in that now I can be a full-time musician. Now people will recognise me sometimes when I’m walking outside. I don’t know, things like that are really interesting. I hear my music in a bunch of different places, whether I’m riding in an Uber or taxi and the radio’s playing and I hear my song and I’m like, “What?!” My friends will be like, “That’s his song!” That kind of stuff is cool and now I’m travelling a lot and I get to be here in the UK. 

Your latest release, “Say Cheese,” is the song you decided to follow “Lil Boo Thang” up with. What was it about that track that felt right to follow up on a huge hit?

I think it has a similar nostalgia aspect to it. I think what a lot of people liked about “Lil Boo Thang,” obviously is the sample in it, but there are the horns in it and the instrumental is very seventies. “Say Cheese” kind of tapped into that. It’s just a happy song and I wrote the song on my birthday three weeks after “Lil Boo Thang” had come out. I was feeling so happy and excited that my life had just changed, you know? I think the energy in the room was something celebratory. It felt like that would make sense as the next thing because that’s how I’m feeling in life. I think people so far have enjoyed it and seen kind of the connections.

Jacket and Trousers Casablanca / Jumper Palace by Fashion Library / Loafers Zara / Jewellery Artist’s Own

Are these two songs leading towards a bigger project?

Yeah. That’s the goal. I’m thinking probably the summer I’ll be going into a full project, which I’m super excited about. When you have one or two songs that people know, there’s so much context that I wanna provide, like, “Here’s who I am, here’s how I think.” It’s been exciting crafting that and kind of figuring out how to tell my story to people.

I was listening to your 2019 album, Once in a Dry Season, which takes on a more raw, experimental approach sonically compared to the recent stuff. What made you want to kind of tap into the commercial radio-friendly stuff?

I think where I live has a big impact on the music that I make. I remember at that time I was in college, I was living in upstate New York. It’s very cold, you go on hikes a lot. There’s kind of a more alternative sort of vibe there and so I think the headspace that I was in, the music that I made very much reflected that place. I moved to LA there is sunshine outside. I’m by the beach. Because of that, the sort of music that I made just organically became the kind of driving with the windows down sort of thing. I think that a lot of that is just who I am. I think I’m a pretty optimistic person so making sunny, happy music is something that feels it connects and as if I am giving people a piece of myself, which is always the goal. I think I will have some more experimental stuff in the future. I think it’s about weaving it all together.

Jacket Live Fast Die Young / Jeans Zara / Shoes Nike / Sunglasses Balenciaga

Can we expect any surprises?

There might be some surprises. I think a lot of it has that nostalgia or at least kind of like seventies-esque type of feel to a lot of the songs. There are also some things where I break from that. I would say I think it fits together in that I’ve figured out that there are parts of my sound that I really like. I like making music that feels, I use the word cookout music a lot. It’s something that feels like when you hear it, you can imagine yourself with a group of people you love, singing along to it. I think about that setting a lot when I’m writing music. I think a lot of the music does lend itself well to that even though there is a range of moods and things in it. I think it’s cohesive in that sense. But the goal is to have some variety there as well. There are some slow songs. There are some more experimental ones.

Because a lot of people have been praising the new music for being so uplifting and happy, I was just wondering what your personal favorite happy, upbeat songs are.

Ooh, wow. Gosh, a lot. I mean, “Hotel Room Service” by Pitbull always gets me so hyped. For some reason, if I’m sitting in the car with turned that on, that is gonna put a smile on my face. Also, OutKast, I’m a huge fan. Stuff like “Ms. Jackson” and “Roses,” they’re classics but there’s also an interesting story happening there. I think Andre 3000 is just one of my favourite artists of all time.

Jacket Palace by Fashion Library / Jeans Zara / Shoes Timberland / Chain and Vest Artist’s Own

Because you’ve been releasing music for several years now, I just wondered what your advice would be for those who don’t find instant success.

I definitely think that there are a few milestones when you’re making music. I think when you start out making stuff, you have to learn how to make the sort of stuff that sounds good to you, which is its own process. Sometimes things don’t work out in the beginning just because you haven’t figured out how exactly to make stuff that sounds professional and good. I think then after that, there’s the period of figuring out how to make things that connect with how your audience feels or what the general zeitgeist is at the time. There are a lot of artists who, and even I think myself included, with my early music, it’s like stuff that I felt was good music. I like what I’ve made and I think there are probably other people out there who like what I’ve made, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to be something that someone is gonna turn to and go, I really want to go listen to this song because there’s so much music that comes out. I think finding the right niche and figuring out, “Okay, there isn’t a lot of happy music that’s being made right now,” and then realising the happy music that I hear being made feels like it no depth to it or nothing is interesting happening in it. And so figuring out that this is a space for me, and making stuff that fills that void was a whole process. And so I think if you’re a new artist, you can make great stuff, but I think the next step is figuring out where it fits. And sometimes that takes time and that’s okay because that’s what the journey is.

Lastly, where do you hope to see your career in a year from now?

At that point, I will have had an album out. I’m right now starting to truly build a fan base that’s more than just a small little community of people. I’m excited to have that be a thing. I want to one day be at a point where you’ll meet someone and you’ll go, “They’re probably a fan of Paul.” I think some artists have created such a culture around what they’re doing that you can tell that they’re a fan of someone like Tyler, The Creator. I wanna be an artist like that. I think in a year, the hope is that through events and through releasing music, through fashion, through whatever little things I get involved with, I’m able to create a culture around what I make. I think that’s what makes music interesting. It’s something that sounds good to listen to but when you’re able to make something that attaches people into a whole community of other people and it feels like it’s a movement, that’s super powerful.

Jacket and Trousers Casablanca / Jumper Palace by Fashion Library / Loafers Zara / Jewellery Artist’s Own

Follow Paul