Getting new music is always a plus; so when Mikey Wax handed me the first copy of the new Holiday/Christmas album, And a Happy New Year, after his show with Graham Colton in Philadelphia, I was pretty excited to go listen. The album features six new tracks, three of which are written by Mikey, and will be released on November 6th.
Mikey and I sat down at his show with Graham to chat about his music and plans for the rest of the year.
Arin: What got you interested in music and got everything started for you?
Mikey: I was like eight and my dad was a piano player, and so he used to rock out in our living room on the piano we had and I remember I used to sit under the piano while he played. I really enjoyed it. It’s probably the reason I’m hard of hearing in one ear already, but he taught me my first piece of classical music and I was never forced to take lessons, I was just really into it. I grew up listening to the Beatles and I wrote my first song when I was like nine or ten. So I don’t know, it’s always just been something I like to do.
A: Once you decided to make music into a career, how did the progression work for you since it’s different for everyone?
M: I went to school at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and I had… I wrote a bunch of songs there and I always knew that I wanted to do music, but I never thought that I was good or anything like that and then I finally had a couple songs where my friends were like, ‘Those are actually good songs, you should try and record them.’ So I went home right after I graduated and just recorded the whole first album and, lucky enough, one of the songs called ‘In Case I Go Again’ got featured on the homepage on YouTube and that got like half a million hits overnight and that just started everything.
A: In a similar sense, you had ‘Counting On You’ featured on So You Think You Can Dance as the vote-off song for the whole season, so did you notice a change in the fan base again once that happened?
M: Yeah, I mean that show reaches so many people and, through twitter and everything, you see people are like, ‘Heard your song’ or something, so it’s a great way for people to hear your music that you would have otherwise never reached.
A: What has this tour with Graham been like so far?
M: Graham… We hate each other, it’s just terrible… [laughs] No, it’s been amazing. Graham and I, we’re just having a lot of fun. We did four shows on the east coast and then we’re going to the west coast and doing LA and San Diego in a couple weeks, and we’re very similar in our way of touring. We both love Starbucks [points to starbucks cup], we both fancy frequent stops, and it’s just been fun. The crowds have been great; we’ve done like 100-200 people a night which has been fun.
A: What’s next for you after this tour and the holidays?
M: Well, I actually am releasing a holiday record/christmas record. I finally just got it; it’s in the car. I got sent the physical thing and so that’s going to be coming out November 6th, and I’m doing a couple music videos for that. I’m going to be doing a couple of the private house concert things that I got started with on the west coast; and then after the holidays I’ll spend some time at home, relax, maybe write some new music; and [then] January, we’ll see where it takes me.
A: Who are some people you would love to tour with?
M: Can I say Dave Matthews Band? John Mayer? As far as musicians that right now in my career I could realistically see myself with, I really like bands like Steven Kellogg [and] Green River Ordinance. I mean Graham was a guy I always wanted to tour with for a while. I just toured with Jon McLaughlin which was somebody I always wanted to tour with; Jon’s amazing. Some of those guys… I love a lot of the acts coming out of Nashville, as well as LA, so I mean there’s probably just too many to list. There’s so many good ones, I just wanna tour with people that love music and wanna play every night, and have good vibes, and everything like that and that’s Graham. We’re having fun.
A: Do you have any specific end goals with music?
M: I wanna write one great song. Seriously, I want one song that just lives on forever, that is my goal. If I can do that – well if anybody can do that – there is definitely success. I always said my dream ever since I was a little kid was to sell out The Garden – sell out Madison Square Garden in New York.