Adam Young of Owl City is out with behind the scenes footage from the ‘When Can I See You Again?’ music video for the track featured in the Disney movie ‘Wreck-It Ralph’. The clip features commentary from Young and the arcade game themed video’s director Matt Stawski.

“The concept of the video is sort of based around me as a 3-D physical humanoid in a 2-D world,” Young explained. “Usually when I’ve done music videos before, it’s been me in front of the camera, so it’s cool to have the other energy to work off of. You look around and there’s all sorts of people in costume having fun and enjoying it. You could hear them laughing in the background. It was a blast. The funnest thing has been actually standing in front of the arcade game controls, putting the quarter in. I feel like I’m 12 years old again in the arcade. Just being around this great set design and the whole thing - great production, great folks - they made it easy for me.”

“We do this cool effect when we shoot from the front, it looks flat like in a video game, and we shoot the camera from the side where we reveal the world and see all these workers hiding behind props and pulling ropes and pushing clouds and pushing cars. It’s actually this 3-D world that’s working, but when you see it from the front with the camera, it actually looks flat in 2-D. We took the lyrics to the song we’re playing off, when he talks about flying we’re gonna cut to (an airplane shot). A lot of the dance heads and a lot of the dance interprets some of the lyrics as well, so reading lyrics, hearing the song, it’s kind of what popped up in my head when I was picturing it.”

Watch the commentary via YouTube below the cut. (more…)

Owl City’s Adam Young recently stopped by to chat with JJ on Z100 in New York City to talk about what he’s been up to since the release of his hit single ‘Fireflies’, his game plan for making an album, how his duet with Carly Rae Jepsen happened, if he would date the Canadian pop star and more.

Asked about where he’s been since ‘Fireflies’, Adam said, “Just kind of stayed off the radar. I’m an introverted guy so I kind of have to close the door and recharge. I kind of kept the door closed for a long time. Now that I’m back I feel fully charged and it feels good.”

As for adjusting to his fast success, he admitted, “It was really new and it was really fast, so yeah, I was chasing after this roller coaster and I didn’t know where it was going. It was hard to kind of keep up with, but I’m grateful.”

On his thought process for making a new album he said, “Doing what I do. I think it’s important as an artist to never look back at what you’ve done and never repeat yourself. For me it’s all about trying new things and experimenting and keeping the gears going and trying to stay inspired. If you do the same thing it’s like anything. If you keep doing the same thing over and over, it becomes mundane. It’s all about taking it to the next level for me.”

As for the ‘Good Time’ collaboration, he said, “Our managers grew up together… They put us together on e-mail and I introduced myself to Carly and said, ‘Hey I’m Adam. I make this music called Owl City and I have this track called ‘Good Time’ and it would be great to have you down to do it.’ She wrote back and said, ‘Yeah, I know who you are and what you do and you’ve played twice in Vancouver and I was there.’ I had now idea, so they put us together and it’s one of those things where so rarely does the final product exceed the expectation and I just dreamed as big as I could and was like, yeah it will never work out with Carly. But it happened and there it is.”

As for chances he and Carly Rae could be dating, he said, “She has a boyfriend, so no.” If she didn’t have the boyfriend, would he go out with her? “Yeah, totally.” As for getting that thought out of his mind working with the ‘Call Me Maybe’ singer on a professional relationship, he said, “Yeah, actually. That’s kind of the way I roll with every attractive female. Oh, hang on a second. I’ve got to take a deep breath.”

Watch it via Z100.com below.

Adam Young of Owl City sat down with Chris K of The End 107.9 in Sacramento, backstage at Endfest 2012 to talk about teaming up with Carly Rae Jepsen on ‘Good Time’, how his new album ‘The Midsummer Station’ is a departure from what he delivered on previous LPs, and his experience listening to his breakout hit ‘Fireflies’ on the radio for the first time.

On the Carly Rae Jepsen collaboration:

I love the song and long story short, my manager grew up with her manager. Her manager is also Justin Bieber’s manager. They grew up in Connecticut. So they kind of put us together. I remember writing an email to Carly saying, “My name is Adam. I do this thing called Owl City. Here’s this track called ‘Good Time’ that I’d be honored if you wanted to sing on it if you’re feeling it.” She wrote back saying, “I’m a huge fan. I’ve been to a couple of your shows” in Vancouver I think, and I had no idea at the time. It was kind of this worlds collide thing and it’s one of those things where if you let yourself dream too big, sometimes it can be a setup for disappointment, but this track I dreamt as big as I could and it just happened. It’s great.

On his new album ‘The Midsummer Station’:

It’s a little bit of a departure as far as the sound or genre I’m known for doing. A simplified version is, I think my mind as an artist as a creator tends to go a little bit left of center as far as lyric content. I knew when I sat down to write this record that I wanted to create something grounded in reality in a way that people could really relate to. In the past I’ve generally been known to sing about the weird, quirky things in my head, and on this record I wanted to come up with something very anthemic because at the end of the day I think music is designed to reach people. So I wanted to create something that I feel a lot of people at once from any walk of life could sing together and meet as this anthemic unified thing. That was the challenge.

On when he realized ‘Fireflies’ was going to be huge:

I still can’t really describe it. I think I was in the car driving somewhere and I turned on the radio on a whim, and it was playing. I remember seeing my name in the radio console. I think I was in Minnesota going to the mall. I turned it on and I couldn’t believe it because I wasn’t really sure the song was going to connect at radio. For a shy kid from nowhere, who was stuck in a world he couldn’t get out of. I was working for Coca Cola loading trucks. I was going to a little community school for nothing. I didn’t really have a plan, so suddenly this thing happened and it was like magic and sparks. That has never left me and I hope it never does. It’s such a dream come true.

Watch the interview via YouTube below.

Carlos from 91.5 The Beat interviewed Adam Young, aka Owl City. The artist talked about being from the city of Owatonna, Minnesota, teaming up with Carly Rae Jepsen on the track ‘Good Time’, doing burnouts in his Mustang GT and how he’s about to go out in front of thousands to perform when he’s introverted.

On what’s in Owatonna:

Not much. There’s 20,000 people there. There’s a lot of industrial (business). The city makes a lot of glass. It’s a small town and it’s been home forever. I love it still. I’ll be there for awhile I think.

On collaborating with Carly Rae Jepsen on ‘Good Time’:

Our managers actually called each other, and I didn’t know, she didn’t know, but my manager and her manager had grown up together, so they were mutual friends forever. I had just finished producing the instrumental track for the song ‘Good Time’, and I was thinking it would be great to get a strong female lead for verse two, and it threaded her vocals throughout. I thought I’m gonna dream big and see what happens and see if I can get Carly to sing on it. The timing just happened. She had gone to #1 and I thought there’s no way this is going to work, but I sent the track to her and it made its way to her and she heard it and was gracious enough to lend her talent to it.

On working with Carly:

She’s awesome. She’s so much fun to hang out with. She’s up for anything. Usually if you do work with another vocalist, if you send them a part they’ll say, “This is great but I have this list of things I’d like to change.” With her, she said, “I’m down, I’ll do whatever.” So that was great.

On doing burnouts in his Mustang GT:

Growing up we were kind of country kids, so it was about taking dad’s old hot rod in the back roads where no cops ever come, just a stretch of quarter mile nothing and just do burnouts and fooling around and getting into trouble.

On being a performer while being introverted:

The music, there’s this weird moment when I get out on stage. I get out there and the first song starts and it’s like all the butterflies just go away. It feels like suddenly it’s just me and the rest of the band and the music and just an empty room, even though it’s full of people. It’s like the music is a curtain I can hide behind in a way. Suddenly it feels like the music empowers me and suddenly all the shyness and all the introverted whatever goes away.

Watch the interview via YouTube below.

DJ/producer Paul van Dyk has released a new video for ‘Eternity’, the lead single from his forthcoming album, ‘Evolution’. The track features Adam Young of Owl City. The video is a post apocalyptic story that follows a group of humans on a journey to escape the now barren earth. Van Dyk’s fifth studio album, ‘Evolution’, will be available everywhere on April 3rd and can be preordered now on his official site.

Owl City is out with a live video for his song ‘Dreams Don’t Turn To Dust’, recorded at Adam Young’s concert from Club Nokia at LA LIVE. ‘Dreams Don’t Turn To Dust’ is featured on Owl City’s third studio album ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’, out now on Universal Republic. Watch the Mark Lucas directed footage below the cut. (more…)