How does some dude from a small Midwestern town capture the hearts of millions with his laptop-conjured pop? If you want to find out you better come and see
Owl City live on the
19th of September at Ramdall, Madrid, or on the
22nd at La [2] de Apolo in Barcelona
Young has come a long way since his days posting his musical experiments on MySpace and YouTube, launching both an online savvy and radio-friendly career that the New York Times called “a textbook illustration of how the music business needs new and old forms of media to make an artist a star.” Before becoming an Internet sensation (racking up more than 98 million total plays on MySpace and more than 18.5 million channel views on
Owl City’s Vevo/YouTube channel to date). He began creating melodies and beats on his laptop as a way to combat insomnia and eventually self-released an EP in 2007.
Owl City’s new album, All Things Bright and Beautiful, also finds Young expanding his sonic palette, playing around with a harder-edged vocal delivery on “Kamikaze,” majestic strings on “Dreams Don’t Turn To Dust,” euphoric dancefloor tempo on “The Yacht Club” (featuring guest vocals by Canadian singer Lights), and straight-up piano pop on “Plant Life” (which Young wrote with Relient K’s Matthew Thiessen). The experimentation comes from Young’s evolving confidence as a songwriter, musician, producer, and engineer. As with Ocean Eyes, Young produced and engineered the album himself (before mixing it together with veteran mixer Jack Joseph Puig). “For the actual production of the album, tonality and texture played a larger part,” Young says. “I knew I wanted it sound bigger and be more dynamic than Ocean Eyes, so I put more time into trying to figure out how to do my job better from a technical standpoint. I had to polish up my knowledge so I could bring the sounds I heard in my head to life.”
Unicorn Kid will open both shows.
www.owlcitymusic.com