Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with ayokay

Alex O’Neill a.k.a. ayokay is a Detroit-bred triple threat who took the music industry by storm with the release of his breakthrough single “Kings of Summer”. Featuring longtime collaborator and childhood friend Quinn XCII, the song went on to amass over 125 million streams on Spotify alone and was certified gold by the RIAA.

Since then, he’s continued to build on that momentum with the release of projects including Shape of a Dream and we come alive, and has performed in front of crowds all over the US.

This year, ayokay is giving fans a glimpse at the next stage of his evolution as an artist with the release of “I Still Need You“.

Pop Culturalist had the pleasure of speaking with ayokay about getting his start, “I Still Need You“, and the exciting new chapter in his career.

PC: How did you discover your passion for music?
ayokay: In high school, I was surrounded by music. My older brother had a drum set and guitar, so I learned GarageBand as a means of recording him and hanging out with him.

Then my childhood friend Quinn XCII started rapping, and I took my knowledge of GarageBand and recorded him. At the time, he was rapping under a different name. As he developed his project, I got more and more involved. We started to produce together and created a whole project which became Quinn XCII. Eventually, I released my first song featuring him. That was the start of the ayokay project.

PC: You’ve had a lot of success already in your career. When you look back is there a particular moment that stands out to you?
ayokay: This is fresh on my mind because it just happened. I recently played Red Rocks with Chelsea Cutler, Quinn XCII, and Jeremy Zucker. It was completely full. Ten thousand people fit into that venue. I remember looking up at that amphitheater and seeing it completely full. That was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. That show will forever be imprinted in my mind. That will shape me forever.

Another memorable moment that comes to mind is when my first song “Kings of Summer” was taking off. They used it as a walkup song for a Texas Rangers baseball player. That led the song to blow up in Texas. The player had us stop by during batting practice, and we performed the song after the ninth inning at Texas Ranger Stadium. It was such a unique situation. I feel like most people don’t get to experience something like that.

PC: What’s one thing you know now that you wish you knew when you started your career?
ayokay: Something that I’m realizing now is the importance of following your instinct. When I first started releasing music, I was only making stuff that I thought was cool. I didn’t know any better. At the time, electronic music was the “in” thing. It was what was on all the Spotify playlists. It seemed easier to do what was in vogue. It was easier.

But in the middle of my career, electronic music started to fall out of mainstream importance. I got a little bit lost as to what to do and what kind of music to make. Now I’m going with what feels natural and cool to me. During the middle part of my career, I was trying to really calculate a lot of what I was doing. Trusting my instinct and knowing what I find cool is what gave me a career. I started focusing on that more instead of trying to figure out what was cool in mainstream media. That’s been important to hone in on.

PC: Of all the music that you’ve released, if you had to pick one song that best encompasses who you are as an artist, which would it be and why?
ayokay: My song “Swing Swing” has always been my favorite. I love the story behind it. It has a lot of importance to me. It was the first song that I ever sang on. Now I only sing on my songs. The best creative decisions are born out of limitations. I look at that song as the perfect example of that.

I made a beat, an instrumental, and a little loop that I thought was super interesting. I was like, “I’m not going to send this out for some random feature.” I was like, “This is going to end up sitting in my SoundCloud forever. Nobody is ever going to hear it.”

When I moved to LA, I set up a vocal booth in my garage. I was like, “Fu-k it. I’m going to go into the vocal booth and try singing over it.” I was so bad at singing at the time that I had to put in a ton of vocal effects and get really creative with what I was doing to my voice. That song has this pitch-shifted thing going on with the vocals. That was one of the most creative things that I’ve ever done and one of the most creative things I’ve ever done. It was born out of my inability to sing. I figured out how to make it cool, even though my voice naturally at the time wasn’t very good. The song was this fusion of all these genres that I’ve always loved and the perfect package of what I think best exemplifies me.

It was also the first time that I was ever able to put my own lyrics to an instrumental. That’s the story behind the song and it’s a very personal story to me.

PC: You’ve got a new single out now. Tell us about “I Still Need You” and the inspiration behind the song.
ayokay: “I Still Need You” is one of my favorites from this upcoming album. It’s like how “Swing Swing” exemplified my sound at the time. “I Still Need You” exemplifies where I’m going and the sound that’s coming. Similar to “Swing Swing”, it’s a story that’s very personal to me, lyrically. I’m very excited for it to come out. It feels like the perfect fusion of the past and what I’m doing moving forward.

PC: What can you tease about this next body of work?
ayokay: A lot of the lyrics in this project are about relationship experiences that I’ve had over the past year and a half. But what I’m most excited about is that this whole project is paired with video accompaniment. There’s a music video for every single song. They all tell a story, almost like a mini-movie.

I was really inspired by Netflix shows like Maniac and movies like Inception where you go into this computerized world as a viewer and you get to explore. I thought it up as I was making the sonics for the album. I was very much thinking about what the visuals would be behind it.

I shot the whole thing with my roommate who is a director. We came up with a narrative and wrote out a script for the video portion. I’m very excited because the album will take you through a very immersive 360 creative world both as a listener and viewer. We’ll escape reality together.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: A band or artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
ayokay: Counting Crows were one of the first bands I got into. They always come back at different stages in my life. Right now, when I’m doing anything, like going to the gym, I’ll put on Counting Crows. They and Death Cab for Cutie have been so influential for me.

PC: First album you bought?
ayokay: Coldplay’s A Rush of Blood to the Head. Coldplay was my first concert too.

PC: An album that changed your life and why?
ayokay: In Return by Odesza. Hearing early Odesza is why I got into electronic music. I was coming from the world of a producer, producing for Quinn XCII. I was making rap beats for him. When I heard Odesza, it was the first time that I heard instrumental music with a hip-hop backbone. It spoke for itself. It didn’t really need a vocal. It was so complex and intricate. It had so much movement that it could live on its own.

As a producer, I can sometimes get antsy waiting on vocals and all these things. But with this album, I discovered that there’s an avenue for making instrumental music where the producer can do their own thing.

Something else that was influential to me about this album is the way that the vocals shined through the instrumentals they created. You’d hear one of their sounds and all of a sudden you’d be transformed. I thought that was the coolest thing in the world to paint landscapes with sonic instruments. That really shaped me.

PC: A venue on your bucket list to perform at?
ayokay: Headlining the Fonda would be amazing. Also, Terminal 5. I played that with Dj Griffin when I was performing a deejay set. It’s not quite the setup I have now.

PC: A must-have on the road?
ayokay: A remote-controlled helicopter that I could fly around in a venue and hotel.

Follow ayokay on Twitter, Instagram, Spotify, and Apple Music. Pick up or stream “I Still Need You” today.

Photo Credit: Angelina Golt