Struggling Florida musicians must hate Mike Diaz. He's the young man otherwise known as Millionyoung, a palm-trees-and-sunshine-bred electronica artist who's been getting lipstick-kissed love letters from indie blogs around the country for his radiant, downtempo electronica.
And he wasn't even trying.
Diaz owes his success to a Tumblr account. The social networking site allows users to post pictures, YouTube clips, and in the case of musicians, embedded audio and video of their music, like Myspace but with less aggravation. In July of 2009, he posted an EP he produced in his spare time, his intended audience his girlfriend and some friends. But several stalwart taste-making indie music sites caught wind of the release and his prominence snowballed.
Gorilla vs. Bear praised his "blissed-out" sound, while Pitchfork.com doted on his "soft pulsing rhythms, dream-washed melodies, and nostalgia-inducing electronic patterns," all hallmarks of the genre Millionyoung inhabits that's been dubbed (with much debate) as "chillwave." Chillwave derives its name from the overcast mood it evokes and the sonic similarities to '80s New Wave.
Whether or not Millionyoung actually belongs in the category is up for discussion. Perhaps his sound does owe more to his gloomier influences — The Album Leaf, Radiohead, Panda Bear — and his choice of blood pressure-lowering tempos, in particular, may be informed by these doleful electro rockers. However, the more buoyant elements of his music can be traced back to his recent '60s rock and doo-wop kick. When I spoke with him by phone a few weeks back, he told me he'd been listening to lots of Phil Spector-produced recordings by artists like The Ronettes and Diana Ross, and that he's intrigued by the lyrical and instrumental contradictions of that era's music. "A lot of the time, the words are really sad, but the song seems really hopeful."
This combination of sad and uplifting defines his own happy-go-glummy sound, which is paradoxically calming as a sedative and bubbly as your average pop song. "The music seems to inhabit this in-between where you can just observe and listen to it, but also dance to it if it's loud enough," he explained. His lyrics reveal infectiously upbeat romanticism, as on the appropriately titled "Hammocks," where he sings, "Oh, there once was an island, lost in the sea / once there two lovers who smiled up at me / Oh, we made out in heaven, sun in our hearts / I told her I loved her and we'd survive."
Diaz has been playing music since the age of 15 and counts his experiences performing on drums, guitar and bass for various go-nowhere groups as being crucial to his understanding of the nature of song craft. He begins his own process by figuring out the overall focus of a song's mood. "I usually start with something simple on a drum to keep the beat, and layer and layer, and then I'll just keep adding things and taking things out for a few hours until the pieces begin to fit together."
For a few hours. I guess that's a good lesson for any struggling young musicians out there: just keep trying and maybe you'll get lucky and find something that works for you. And it doesn't hurt to know your social media options.
Pick up a free copy of Millionyoung's Sunndreamm EP at millionyoung.tumblr.com.
This article appears in Aug 19-25, 2010.