Owl City Tickets

Short Biography
When it came time to record Adam Young's third album as Owl City, the Minnesota native set himself the following challenge: "Over the past several years I'd become fascinated with trying to capture magic in a jar through simple, concise pop songs," he says. "I saw it as a great challenge to try to come up with catchy, unique, and memorable songs because it was a new method of songwriting I'd never approached before. I believe artists should never look back or repeat themselves and this was a new frontier for me."

To create the instantly memorable, feel-good moments he envisioned (like first single "Shooting Star"), Young sought out co-writers and outside producers for the first time, enlisting his friend Matt Thiessen (Relient K), Stargate (Rihanna, Wiz Khalifa), and the team of Josh Crosby, Nate Campany, and Emily Wright (the latter known for her work with Dr. Luke). "I made my first two records on my own without any outside help and learned that it's easy to overthink what you do by allowing yourself to become too emotionally invested in what you're doing," Young says. "Initially, I was anxious about letting other people co-pilot the solo endeavor I'd always played close to the chest, but it was exhilarating not having 100 percent control over what happened. In the end for me, it's all about trying new things as an artist. Working with other writers taught me to care about a song as a piece of art created to reach people versus worrying about getting the final say or having my own way. Collaborating kills off a lot of ego and pride issues and that's a really healthy thing." 

The process enabled Young to tap into collective human experiences in his lyrics and connect on a larger scale. "I'm known for creating music based on whimsical ideas and concepts from my own headspace, and another set of parameters I set for myself was to write about things people might relate to better," he says. "Dementia" documents the "crazy, schizophrenic thoughts and feelings" Young dealt with in the wake of the success of his chart-topping 2009 platinum debut album Ocean Eyes, while songs like "Shooting Star" pulsates with euphoric dance beats that will appeal to fans of house, trance, dub-step, and other styles of EDM. "I grew up listening to dance music and I've always wanted to make a dance record," Young says. "European dance music has so much influence over pop right now, so it made sense to me. I admire a lot of the great trance DJs of the past ten years, guys like Armin van Buuren, ATB, Above & Beyond, Tiësto, and Ferry Corsten." Other tracks follow on the more rock-inspired sounds that Young began to explore on his second album, 2011's All Things Bright and Beautiful. "Dementia" even features guest vocals by one of Young's heroes, blink-182's Mark Hoppus.

In-depth Biography
Owl City is the musical brainchild of Adam Young, who launched the project in 2007 while living at his parents' home in Owatonna, Minnesota. Troubled by insomnia, Young began spending his evenings in the household basement, where a computer and several instruments provided a diversion from his sleeping patterns. He eventually combined those diversions into a blend of electronica and emo-pop, using little more than his computer and various keyboards to record the material. Songs were uploaded to MySpace upon completion, and Young began attracting a surprising amount of attention on the networking site. Of particular note was "Hello Seattle," a fabricated ode to the Emerald City whose viral popularity earned Young a record contract with Universal Republic.

Ocean Eyes, his first album for the label, was released in 2009, coinciding with the launch of Owl City's first national tour. While on the road, Young watched as "Fireflies" became one of the year's most popular singles, eventually topping the charts in several countries (including the U.S.) and selling more than three million copies. A deluxe edition of the album appeared in 2010, featuring seven bonus tracks as well as the original track list, and Universal Records capitalized on the buzz by also reissuing Maybe I'm Dreaming and Of June, both of which had been self-released several years earlier. An Airplane Carried Me to Bed, an album of acoustic pop songs that predated the Owl City project, followed in 2010. Technically a side project, the album was released under a different moniker, Sky Sailing. Young returned to Owl City in 2011 with All Things Bright and Beautiful, his first collection of new material in years. ~ Andrew Leahey, Rovi