OWL CITY

Owl City is an American synthpop musical project by Adam Young. Young started out making music in his basement in his hometown of Owatonna, Minnesota, later developing a following through his MySpace profile before being signed to Universal Republic. Young's influences are disco and European electronic music. After two independent albums, Owl City gained mainstream popularity from the 2009 major label debut album Ocean Eyes, which spawned the hit single "Fireflies".

Early years (2007–08)

Owl City was started by Adam Young in his parents' basement while he worked at a Coca-Colawarehouse, turning to music as a result of his insomnia. Young received a lot of attention for songs he had uploaded to MySpace, the "viral popularity" of which would later result in his signing to Universal Republic. In 2007, Owl City released an EP titled Of June, followed by the 2008 release of the album Maybe I'm Dreaming. Of June reached #20 on the Billboard Electronic Albums chart, and Maybe I'm Dreaming peaked on the same chart at #16.^]Owl City's first two records were released while Young was unsigned. In early 2009, music industry website "Crazed Hits" leaked that Owl City signed with the major label Universal Republic.

Ocean Eyes (2009)

Owl City's third album Ocean Eyes was released on iTunes July 14, 2009, with the physical release following on July 28, 2009. The album debuted at #27 on the Billboard 200. Owl City has released three official singles, "Umbrella Beach", "Vanilla Twilight", and "Fireflies". "Fireflies" topped the US and Canadian charts and became the most-downloaded song on iTunes in the US. Ocean Eyes reached the top ten on the US album charts and topped the US electronic charts and also reached Amazon MP3's top 10 most downloaded album list. By December 2009, it was certified Gold in the United States. On 24 January 2010, Owl City reached the number 1 spot in the UK Top 40 Singles chart with "Fireflies".

Young is joined by Breanne Düren on several tracks; the most noted being "The Saltwater Room." Owl City's live band consists of: Breanne Duren (background vocals/keyboards), Matthew Decker (drums), Laura Musten (violin), and Hannah Schroeder (cello). He will likely collaborate with Lights in early 2010 on his new tour in the US, Asia, Australia and Europe.^[8][9]

Relient K vocalist Matt Thiessen has toured and collaborated with Owl City on several tracks including in the hit single "Fireflies", where Matt can be heard as the backup vocals. Young also produced Relient K's song "Terminals". Thiessen stated that it is very likely that he and Young will produce a side project called Goodbye Dubai in the future.

"Fireflies" was released as a free download on the iPod/iPhone game Tap Tap Revenge 3 by Tapulous. Prior to the July 14, 2009 internet release of Ocean Eyes, and the "Fireflies" single, Steve Hoover was hired as a director for a music video for "Fireflies". The video had an exclusive premiere on MySpace, but was leaked onto the video viewing websites, YouTube and Dailymotion hours earlier. "Fireflies" became a big sleeper hit, topping the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States for the week ending November 7, 2009.

Owl City is featured on Soundtrack 90210 with a song titled "Sunburn", which was released on October 13, 2009. Owl City has toured with The Scene Aesthetic and Brooke Waggoner. He was also guest featured in the soundtrack to Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland with a song that was already featured in his debut album, "The Technicolor Phase" . On Monday, December 7, 2009 Owl City was shortlisted as one of the 15 acts for the BBC Sound of 2010.

Owl City is currently touring with Lights and Deas Vail. He announced on March 31st that he would be supporting John Mayer starting on August 18th.

Musical styles and influences

Owl City has been stated to play within the musical genres of indietronica, emo-pop, and alternative. Young has stated that he is inspired by disco and European electronic music.

Other projects

Young also produces music under a wide variety of other projects, some of which contain only a single song:

• Port Blue
• Windsor Airlift
• Aquarium
• Basketball
• Blue Dallas
• Chester McWiggins and the Kowboy Kidz
• Dolphin Park
• El Uno Clarence
• The Grizzly
• Insect Airport
• Keehar
• Novel
• Nuclear Suplex
• Seagull Orchestra
• Sky Sailing
• Swimming with Dolphins

Most of these projects were started before Owl City propelled Young to fame. Some were formed alongside Adam's college friends as musical projects for a music course Young was studying at the time.