This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
True or false: Owl City is the name of a new attraction at Salt Lake City's Tracy Aviary inside Liberty Park.
False, of course, as the aviary's new attraction is called Owl Forest, while Owl City is the stage name of 25-year-old Adam Young, a successful synth-pop musician from Minnesota whose 2009 hit "Fireflies" became an unlikely No. 1 hit.
Owl City's sophomore album, "All Things Bright and Beautiful," released last month, debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard albums chart. What interesting about Young is that while he's bold enough to entertain thousands of people on a concert stage, he has a phobia of talking on the phone. Instead, the young singer from Owatonna answered email questions about his hometown, the musical advances on his new album, and explained more about his fear of the telephone.
How did growing up in Owatonna affect you and your music?Owatonna is a quaint place, but it's quite a comfortable nest and I love the small town atmosphere. I'm not much for big cities (ironically) so my place is definitely in a small town. The music thing truly originated completely online and Owl City never had much relation to Owatonna in the way some musicians begin playing in local coffee shops and small venues in their hometowns and working their way up the ladder that way. For me, Owatonna has always been headquarters but it never specifically had an impact on the musician in me.It did however impact me as an average Midwesterner who'd never flown on an airplane or seen the ocean until I went on my first tour. After literally seeing the world, I'm still a homebody at heart.
Your new album moves away from electronica by introducing more guitar and piano. Why did you feel the need to tinker with your sound?
I'm a firm believer that an artist should never repeat him/herself and I wanted "All Things Bright and Beautiful" to feel a little more diverse in terms of the arsenal of instruments featured therein. Playing music live on tour for the past 12 months nonstop influenced its way into the new album by way of electric guitars. When you play a show, you gotta have an electric guitar SOMEWHERE in the show. I just started tinkering with new sounds and textures and it was so much fun, I couldn't stop. Ultimately, however, I believe the new album sounds a bit "older and wiser" in a way that allows the listener to feel a bit more resolved after playing the record down from start to finish.
Your new song "Lonely Lullaby" refers to your ex-girlfriend Ann Marie many times. Did you consider changing her name in the song? Ann Marie was, and certainly still is, such a beautiful person to me, and I'd never written such a personal song before. I knew I had to include her name in the lyrics because the song is truly what I wish I could say to her now that's she's gone. A lot of my songs are written purely from the imagination and some have no representation of my personal life, but "Lonely Lullaby" was the first song I wrote almost ENTIRELY about something as personal as a romantic relationship. Ann had blue eyes, her favorite flowers were pink star-lilies, and I used to literally sing her to sleep over the phone while she was home and I was on tour. The song is, in fact, so personal, it almost hurts to listen to it now that such a perfect relationship has come to an end. I wasn't sure if I had something as "genuine and pure" inside of me but the song basically wrote itself and I'm proud of it.
What is your pre-show and post-show routine?Usually there are lots of jokes made between myself and the rest of the band/crew. There are fifteen of us total and we're a pretty light-hearted gang. Everyone hangs out pre-show and we usually go onstage laughing to ourselves over the jokes that were made minutes before. I'm an only child and these people are so close to me — they're like the brothers and sisters I never had. I'm so grateful to be part of such a wonderful family of people.After the show, I must sheepishly admit that spirits are usually so high, a bit of food gets thrown around backstage in the green room(all in good fun of course).
Why do you prefer answering questions via email? I'm a terribly shy person and telephones have always been frightening to me, almost to the point of anxiety. I'm not sure why it is but whenever I'm supposed to talk on the phone with someone and my phone rings, it happens exactly like a scene out of an old Alfred Hitchcock movie where the phone rings like a gun shot and the dramatic music goes DUN DUN DUN.Owl CityWhen • Wednesday, July 13 at 7 p.m.Where • In The Venue, 579 W. 200 South, Salt Lake CityTickets • $28 at SmithsTix