Today we’d like to introduce you to Mikol Frachey.
Hi Mikol, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I came to Nashville for the first time when I was seventeen and I didn’t know anything about the music business and my parents don’t speak any English because we’re Italians. I went down the Music Row and knocked on every single door with my homemade demos, I was going into bars during the day asking to musicians and band any advices or a chance to play. I came back year after year each summer everytime with more background than before and a more solid dream project.
In the same year I’ve graduated from high school, they called me to represent Italy at the Texas International Country Music Awards (Jefferson, TX) and I came there with just my guitar, my first album and already satisfied of being able to play with a band in Texas. I couldn’t expect to even win an award for Rising Star Of The Year…so that night I became the first Italian artist to ever be awarded for country music in the USA and many doors started to open. I was nominated for 6 Josie Music Awards in 2018 and I walked the red carpet at Dollywood theatre. My fan base started to grow globally. Then with Covid and with the diagnosis of fibromyalgia I’ve had to stay in Italy for a couple of years and release my sophomore album “Untypical”. Nobody was caring about it at the beginning but after a couple of months fan after fan started to reach out to me on Instagram and telling me how much they related with “being Untypical”. In 2024 the album was at n. 39 of the UK Country Charts and after meeting some fans in LA (who thought I was Olivia Rodrigo at first) they’ve founded the Untypical Club and I started to have more fans from so many different part of the world that I couldn’t even imagine!
I’m not a 100% Nashville based artist yet because I’m doing all the legal bureaucracy in order to move to the States to continue my career but I feel like Nashville is my second home because I grew up a lot everytime I come there. It’s incredible to be able to feel so welcomed in a place on the other side of the world!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Obviously there’s no overnight success in this business. For how much someone can achieve some goals faster than others we all struggle with the life of an artist who doesn’t have a secure 9 to 5 job . Obviously my main struggle is that I was born in the wrong place for my southern personality who finds home in country music and it’s been thought to find side job from high school, convince my parents to cross the ocean to go stay in a place where they don’t speak their language and getting into a business we didn’t know. I’m the daughter of an hotel secretary and a blue-collar so I’ve been playing any gig possible, do any side job possible since I was fifteen in order to be able to come to Nashville and later Texas almost every year.
Then fibromyalgia stopped me for a while. I’ve had to learn how to manage my life and my career along with my physical pain and mental health.
Now I’m doing my best to totally move to Nashville because where I feel I wanna spend the rest of my life and well , I have to admit that filling all the bureaucracy it takes me a while but it the right path.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a country singer-songwriter from a small town in the North of Italy called Saint Vincent.
My hometown is small but my dreams have always been big.
Even if country music is one of the most unpopular genres in Italy, I’ve worked hard to be heard in the home of country music becoming the first Italian artist to be awarded for country music in the USA.
In 2021 I’ve self-released my sophomore album “Untypical” that has charted multiple times in the most streamed albums of Italy and has recently debuted at the #39 place the UK Charts of Country Albums.
In 2024 I’ve played on the main stage of Buckle and Boots Festival in the UK, which is the third biggest country festival in Europe along with some of the artists I’m such a fan of like Maggie Baugh, Canaan Cox, Taylor Moss.
Then I’ve finally found the perfect record deal with Delma Jag Records for one year that allowed to produce and publish my EP “Stories To Tell” that came with my first world tour.
“The Stories To Tell World Tour” saw me performing in the USA , UK, Germany, Switzerland , France, Italy and Austria. This overall experience gave the chance to collaborate with other amazing artists like Kate Malone (who produced my son “Miss Roulette” and she’s based in Nashville), Jack Galloway (who produced the song “Dream Back” from UK that later brought me 2 Boots Of Italy Awards). Alabama’s native artists Joseph Cullpepper, playing at Third Coast Theater with Nashville Broadway’s fiddle player Kayla Rose, be able to play with the amazing Texan artist Aaron Copeland and more. But the highlight of this tour wasn’t planned…I was attending at her show in Zurich with a small sign made on the bus to get there when Maren Morris noticed me and and came true my dream of singing “My Church” with her on stage.
Some other amazing goals have been to be on the cover of Thrive Times Los Angeles, being interviewed by New York Weekly, Hollywood Times, Shoutout LA, The West American and the famous British magazine Rock The Joint.
In January, I have been chosen to bring the Olympic Torch for Milano-Cortina: an experience that made me joined the small club of country artists who had that honor like Shania Twain and Loretta Lynn.
I think i love when American fans and friends tell me:” You’re the most non-American American Girl that I’ve ever met” because I was born with this personality but in a country where it doesn’t fit at all but I think that music it’s an international language and I’ve been able to break the barriers of “you should sing in Italian” and ” if you don’t sing in your native language they won’t understand your songs there” .
I’m basically an immigrant who, I don’t know how, was born with a stars and stripes heart and so I feel like my life is just my journey of finally coming to my real home.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Play as much as you can. Do it in your bedroom, go busking in the street, at the beginning accept any possible gig and also go to as many concerts as you can and take inspiration from artists who are following your same path.
Don’t focus on who’s already a celebrity but go and ask for advices to who’s playing in a bar where you wanna play. The best way is to fill the baggage of live experience as much as you can because that’s when the crowd got the chance to experience the real you. And never change from the real you.
Pricing:
- Bureaucracy for legally becoming a performing artist based in the us $ 10,000
- Monthly expenses for an indie artist to manage social media etc. $450
- Support artists by adding to your playlists, share their contents $0
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mikolfrachey.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikolfrachey/?hl=it
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikolfracheyofficialpage/?locale=it_IT
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikol_frachey
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@mikolfrachey
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mikolfrachey
