Willow Avalon Talks Gettin' Rich, Goin' Broke, Diss Tracks, and Classic Country

Willow Avalon is the kind of girl people write songs about. Why? A quick journey through the singer/songwriter and self-proclaimed southern belle’s social media answers that question. I watched all 102 of Willow’s TikToks before speaking with her. Her feed is an amalgamation of little “ditties" that just came to her, boho-chic ‘fit checks, and fan cams of her late pet possum, Bowie. Many of the comments under her videos share the same adoring sentiment. “I want to be her and I want her,” one reads. Somebody named Chloe writes, “I’m in love with you,” to the tune of 28,900 likes. Her debut EP, Stranger, was released February 29th to much anticipation – thanks, in part, to the virality of one of the aforementioned ditties, “Gettin’ Rich, Goin’ Broke.”

I spoke with Willow on a bright Friday afternoon in mid-February, two weeks before the release of Stranger, and one week before she left for tour with fellow southerner and rising star, Briston Maroney. “It’s been a strange series of events,” Willow says when asked how she got here – “here” being 25 years old, living in New York City and signed with Atlantic Records. She released her first single, “Drivin’,” while living in Los Angeles. Unmixed, unmastered, and featuring a cover photo taken on an iPhone 5, the track garnered unexpected attention. When a song of hers was featured on hit TV series Riverdale, the managers started calling. Willow, understandably, was hesitant – “I was like, y’all probably live in your mom’s basement, I don’t know what you smell like. But I let them fly me out to New York.”