Videos

Owl City – Umbrella Beach

• 26th Apr 2010

It has been a fantastic start to the year for Owl City. His swift and staggering rise from the unknown into chart topping success saw his debut single 'Fireflies' top the charts in 18 countries, including the UK where it spent 3 weeks at the No.1 spot and is currently certified gold. His debut album 'Ocean Eyes' charted at No.7 and is currently certified silver. The UK has quite clearly joined the rest of the world in tumbling head over heels for Owl City.

Young, who counts fellow surrealist Tim Burton in his ever growing list of admirers — so much so that he included his track 'The Technicolor Phase' in the soundtrack to Alice in Wonderland — is modestly taking his latest chart topping success in his stride. “It hasn't quite sunk in yet and I suspect it never really will. It's surreal to think that a song I wrote in a basement in the middle of blustery Minnesota has made it as far as it has. Needless to say, I'm completely thrilled.”

As Owl City prepares to release 'Umbrella Beach', the second single taken from 'Ocean Eyes', he will be heading back to the UK to play two additional dates – Glasgow's Barrowlands and London's Shepherds Bush Empire on the 8th and 9th May respectively – that were booked as a result of the phenomenal demand for his first ever UK tour back in February and are both nearly sold out!

It's hard to imagine how much better things could get for Adam Young right now. When the shy 23-year-old first uploaded a few synth-pop songs on to his MySpace profile in 2007, his Owl City project was just one of thousands of unknown acts in the web’s worldwide hive of musical activity. Two-and-a-half years and over 50 million MySpace hits later, Owl City's 'Fireflies' single hit the No.1 spot on the U.S. Billboard charts in early November 2009. It is the fastest-selling electronic/alternative track of all-time. Its parent album, the self-produced 'Ocean Eyes', nestled happily in the U.S. Top Ten following its release last July, and, after confessing that playing his first shows left him with “white knuckles”, Adam is now confidently playing sold-out shows to a crowd who, as The NME observed, “impressively, know every single word to every single song” and that “squeals and shrieks with the kind of delight usually reserved for buffed-up boy bands”. The shy boy's dreamy DIY imaginings have become a bonafide pop phenomenon.

But even a cursory listen to the gorgeous synthetic gems on 'Ocean Eyes' reveals why Owl City has struck such a universal chord. Young has fashioned an elegant and seemingly effortless connection between fashionably arty, retro-nouveau electro-pop and fresh-faced, sweetly melancholic hit factory songwriting. Owl City pop has a purity of purpose — an innocence — that breathes fresh air into the electro-pop revival.

“I can't believe how fast things have taken off,” Young marvels. “It seems like it was only yesterday I put a few songs from my first EP online and watched things begin to happen on their own. I never thought music could spread like mine did through the internet. I do know one thing though: I just wanted to keep creating. It's a lot of fun and it's the only thing in the world I'm good at. So it'd be a real shame to stop.” That it would. And this would be the bit where we implore you to watch Owl City make like a bird and fly.

UK dates
8th May – Barrowlands – Glasgow
9th May – Shepherds Bush Empire – London