For the past few days, Tre Mutava’s cell phone hasn’t stopped buzzing.

A TikTok video from the Lenexa musician and SM Northwest 2020 grad went viral last weekend, and the NFL even used his audio for a post during a nationally-televised game. Mutava’s clip reached 1 million views in one day. To date, it has more than 2.6 million views.

The TikTok shows Mutava experimenting with a homegrown mix that overlaid his voice multiple times to create the sound of a choir to the tune of “Belong” by the X Ambassadors. He took inspiration from a similar clip he saw on Instagram by the band’s lead artist.

“I watched that and thought, oh my gosh, I’ve done stuff like this before, this is awesome,” Mutava said. “I love the way he did it, manipulating his voice to sound like multiple people. I’ve been doing stuff like that forever, but I never made videos about it.”

‘Like shooting a squirt gun into an ocean’

The constant stream of likes, comments, personal messages and reactions to his work has pushed the artist through an array of emotions, from shock to excitement to stress. And, at times, he also felt overwhelmed. He had to start putting his phone in another room before going to bed.

“All of a sudden, I’m not able to refresh my TikTok notifications because there’s so much coming in at once,” said Mutava of that moment Saturday morning when his video took off. “And when I did start to see some comments, people were like everybody get your viral ticket now before this gets viral, and I’m like does this mean they think it’s going to be a really big video?

“In the initial moment, obviously, it’s amazing, but then I started getting super stressed. There’s a lot of fear that comes out of a bunch of people knowing of you all of a sudden. So immediately I start telling myself, don’t forget where you started and how much you worked. People see that one video and now I’m TikTok famous.”

At first, he tried keeping up with the comments and engaging with everyone, but since then, he’s lost track.

“It’s like shooting a squirt gun into an ocean; you just lose it,” he said. “I just tell myself it’s how it is right now.”

Mutava has been making and producing his own music – writing, singing, guitar and other music instruments — for six years. He has joined multiple music projects and published “Basic Summer Album” last year with his old high school band, Pretty Running People (fellow band members are Austin Bachert and Zhanarden Vil).

His latest projects include a solo single titled “Facebook Friends,” and contributions to “Proud,” an album from Astro and Friends, a Texas-based band.

“I want my work to be famous; I want people to utilize it in a way that helps them grow and definitely have something to hold onto,” Mutava said. “I want my music to be inspiring and to give people curiosity about who I am, enough to where maybe they reach out to me.”

NFL uses audio for Raiders-Jets game TikTok clip

And reach out they have. Mutava said all the attention puts pressure on him, but he thinks it will strengthen him for the next big thing.

“I’ve been working for six years for this moment, for something like this to happen, and now that it’s actually happened, I’m like no, I’m not ready,” he laughed.

On Sunday, the NFL used the audio for a 13-second TikTok video clip from the Raiders-Jets game.

“My heart stopped, not literally, but I was choked up, I could not breathe, I was shaking,” he said. “It was THE NFL TIKTOK. I thought that’s it, I’ve peaked, I’m done, there’s nothing after that. It makes no sense that they did that, but I’m not complaining.”

The past few days, he’s received dozens of messages from other artists interested in collaborating or taking inspiration from him. Some of his followers are requesting more posts.

“The hard thing is to stay true to what I had planned before anybody cared,” he said. “I just like encouraging people and showing them that hey, I’m no different than you. I’m just pushing and pushing and pushing, and I’m not stopping till I get there. And you can do the same thing. It’s just a great opportunity that I’ve been given.”

As an independent artist, Mutava is taking business and recording arts classes at Johnson County Community College. In the meantime, he said he hopes not to let the instant fame get to his head. He doesn’t want to lose sight of what’s important to him.

“I can’t forget about the people that have looked at me like a celebrity before I had gotten a million views on TikTok,” he said. “I can’t forget about my church family, my friends, and the people who always believed in me.”

Click here to see Mutava’s work. He’s dropping his next single this month.