Alabama TikTok star’s singing debut mixes Lana Del Rey, Beatles vibes

Releasing an eight-minute, classic-rock-hued track as a debut single’s a gutsy move for a young TikTok star. Haley Sharpe’s song “Spotless Soul” evokes Lana Del Rey teleported back to The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” sessions. Phoned in, laptop pop this is not.

Although Sharpe had three other tracks ready that were shorter, simpler and in a more 2020s-accessible vein of dance, disco and pop, she picked “Spotless Soul” to release first. The track hit streaming platforms April 5.

“I wanted to do something unexpected,” Sharpe says on recent video call. “I like doing unexpected things and surprising people.”

This isn’t the first time the 21-year-old Huntsville native has surprised. In 2022, after amassing millions of followers and hundreds of millions of likes on TikTok with her comedy and dance videos, Sharpe stepped into the ring. Literally.

She fought in a high-profile event called Creator Clash pitting popular online content creators in boxing matches against each other. She lost that first bout in a hard-fought match.

But the next year, Haley returned for Creator Clash 2, winning that bout, held in a Tampa, Florida arena, winning thousands of dollars for her charity of choice, Huntsville’s Merrimack Hall, which provides special needs children and adults with visual and performing arts training and cultural activities.

Sharpe, who splits her time between Los Angeles and Huntsville, cut “Spotless Soul” with her dad Antony Sharpe on guitar and her uncle Andrew Sharpe on bass and keyboards.

The Sharpe brothers are local music icons for their band Toy Shop. Growing up, Antony would pick Haley up from school and play Beatles CDs in the car and each track have her guess which of the Fab Four was singing.

After Haley, Antony and Andrew did their tracks for “Spotless Soul” in Ant’s basement home studio, Toy Shop drummer Aaron Cox tracked his parts with producer/engineer Brandon Henegar at recording studio House of David in Nashville, where Haley cut additional vocals.

Antony says, “The most important thing, I don’t care if you’re Mariah Carey or Tom Waits, if I hear somebody sing all I care is that I believe them. And I believe it when Haley sings. Heavy to me doesn’t mean distorted guitars, and it’s a heavy song.”

Andrew wrote the music and words for “Spotless Soul.” Haley rearranged some of the vocal parts. Her younger sister Julia Sharpe and cousin Adrianne Onder, daughter of ‘80s bass guitar shredder turned singer/songwriter John Onder, were brought in to sing backing vocals. You can hear the family blood on the recording.

Haley is mum on the meaning behind the “Spotless Soul” lyrics. “I don’t want to reveal too much about what the song’s about,” she says. “I feel like it cheapens the work in some ways, not always. But the song is very near and dear close to everyone’s hearts making it.”

The Sharpes have been working on “Spotless Soul” since summer 2022. For someone who creates short-form videos for a living (she’s also social media influencer, having done branding deals for everything from Revlon to Frito Lay to “Stranger Things”), the long process was at times frustrating.

“I would sit in my car and listen to it and then something wouldn’t be right,” Haley says, “and then I’d tell me boyfriend Luke [Sadler, the fashion model], ‘See, listen to that. It sounds awful.’ But it got to a point where I just had to let it go.”

Haley has fond memories of watching her dad and uncle perform with Toy Shop onstage around Huntsville, including at now-defunct music festival Big Spring Jam.

Finally, a couple years ago Haley sent Antony a text saying she wanted in, too. Antony recalls, “It just said, ‘I want to do music. Can you and Uncle Andrew help?’ I remember getting that text and going, I thought you’d never ask. Let’s do it.”