In the vast expanse of new and exciting music, there are some artist’s stories which defy convention and stick out more than others. MyKey’s journey is one such tale – a narrative of resilience, creativity, and unyielding love for music which has brought the California-based independent musician from the humble beginnings in his bedroom to the electrifying bustle of Los Angeles.
“I’ve had my artist project for almost 10 years now,”, MyKey, aka Mikey Ambrosino, reflects on his beginnings as an artist and the video ‘12 vs 1: Speed Dating 12 Musicians Without Seeing Them’ by the popular YouTube channel Jubilee that catapulted him into the global limelight. “The video brought this huge wave of people who wanted to hear my music. My friend David Marinelli, who is also an artist, met this guy Phil, who was a director for Jubilee and looking for a few people for an episode, so he got us in and so many weird things happened. The girl who was originally casted dropped out an hour before filming, so they got another in who was just driving her brother to the shoot. They told her to eliminate him immediately to make it not weird, but she forgot and did it in the second round. It was hilarious.”
Soon after, Warner Music knocked on Ambrosino’s door and it all went steadily ahead from there. Drawing inspiration from his musical upbringing, Ambrosino has since then been paving his path with his own unique soundscape: “There are some upbeat songs and there’s some stomping and clapping. I’ve been calling it ‘Big Hat Music’. Like, it makes you want to put a big hat on. Like The Lumineers, they’re always wearing big hats.” And just like his music, it’s also his artist name that comes with its own amusing quirks: “When you search my artist name, a Ford Fiesta is the first thing to come up, because there’s a technology in those cars called ‘MyKey’. My new album ‘Auto Repair’ is the hardest thing to Google. Anyone who’s having car troubles will have my songs sprinkled along their Google path and I think that’s really fun.”
One of his most infectious tracks, the dreamy ‘Was It Something I Said’ further exemplifies Ambrosino’s playful approach to music-making. “That song was just me and my friend trying to make the most obnoxious pop song,”, he recalls. “We heard bedroom pop and we were like, cool, let’s pack the entire genre into one song.” But it isn’t just Ambrosino’s friends but also his family – and specifically his mother – who have always had a permanent spot in his music. “My mum is in every song I’ve ever made,”, the singer-songwriter reveals. “I’ve got a recording of her shouting my name from another room, and I messed with the audio and made it sound like a snare. I’ve since put it in every single song.”
Despite all the enormous support he is surrounded with, navigating the music industry hasn’t been without its challenges for Ambrosino, from grappling with burnout to parting ways with his record label. And still, he always keeps coming back to the obsession for his craft and creative ambitions, whether that is making music, building a car on the side, animating his own music videos or designing album covers and tattoos. Through it all, the rising multi-talent has remained grounded, embracing the unpredictability of his journey while finding peace in who he is: “I think the harder you try to set yourself apart, the lesser you are actually going to stand out. As corny as it sounds, you’ve just got to do your own thing.”
Written by Laura Weingrill // photography by Jade Sadler
GEM Magazine 