Interview by: Gemma Marshall
This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Mikey of Wasted Space over FaceTime. I got to pick their brain about new and old music and through it they gained a new fan. Mikey was super fun to chat with and I think I got a good amount of behind the scenes information. Here’s how it went:
To start off can you tell me a little about yourself? Like, where are you from? How old you are? Etc.
My name’s Mikey, I’m from New York but right now I’m in Pittsburgh for school, I’m 18. I am nonbinary; I use they/them pronouns and I make music.
You came out with your first album “Like Summer, But Colder” in April with 3 singles leading up to the release (“Poison Ivy”, ”St. Bartholomew’s Self-Massacre of 1567”, and “The Sickest Jumpshot This Side of New Hampshire”), what was the inspiration behind the album and why did you choose those three singles to prelude it?
It kind of happened differently than most people because I was writing the singles as I was releasing them. It wasn’t going to be an album, at least I didn’t think it was going to be. I had been working on “Poison Ivy” for a month and I thought, “This is the one; I love this song,” I put it out and I didn’t really think much of it and I just rode the local wave that it got me. I started trying to put a band together, I thought maybe I’d put out an EP or something and that never really came together so I started writing [and] I came up with “St. Bart.” I thought it was a cool idea and I worked on it a lot with my music teacher, so that’s the only song that I didn’t fully do myself. “Jumpshot” came later, after I knew I was making an album. I had a bit of an epiphany the week after “St. Bartholomew” was released and I was like, “I’m gonna write an album; I’m gonna make this a band and I’m gonna do this.” I was also going through some rewrites, so, by the time “Jumpshot” was finished I put it in; it took a while to release because there were some sampling issues. The distributor I was using was total s***; so, I had a huge issue with that, it was a nightmare. During that time, I recorded the entire rest of the album, it just came naturally at that point. Then, quarantine happened and I was able to finish the production, there was [really] no better time to release it.
What is your favorite track off of your debut record? Any specific reason?
My favorite[s] [are] the two least favorites. I like “Joining the Mile High Club” and I really, really like “laundry” but everyone hates them and nobody listens to them. I think there’s one other person who listens to “Laundry” other than me and it has easily a tenth of the Spotify streams of my least favorite song on the record. The people want what they want so, I’ll just keep writing.
I also noticed you recently released the single “Calendar Year.”, does that mean there’s more in the works for new music, a new album planned maybe?
Right now, I don’t have plans, like, I’ve been tweeting about an album like an a****** for the past month. There are about 6 songs right now that are Weezer [inspired] and I’m not gonna release any of them because they’re kinda bad. There is a lot of new music floating around and I’m hoping to distill it into some kind of project. “Calendar Year” is probably gonna be staying alone, if it isn’t, it’ll be a miracle. There’s definitely more [coming], though. I’m working on a bunch of songs for comps that I’m on right now, so that’s the big focus.
What was the band or artist or even just a person in your life, if there is one, that helped define you as a singer/songwriter? If not a person was there any specific event that made you want to start making music?
I started making music a long time before I started Wasted Space and I just did that because this boy asked me to and I didn’t realize I was [bisexual] at the time, but I definitely was, like “You want me to learn bass? Okay!” It was sixth grade, it was a mess, but that fizzled out and I just kept making music because I didn’t have any better outlet. Things definitely changed once I heard Prince Daddy and the Hyena, that band was really big for finding my voice. Everything I do is, at least in part, is from that band.
How would you describe yourself and your music to those who may not have heard of you? Is there anything that you think people should know?
I write punk rock cause it’s not really emo but it’s trying to be and I smoke cigarettes so my voice sounds like s***. I’d [describe it] as sad punk rock for losers who like Wes Anderson and are a little bit gay.
How have you personally been lately with things like Covid and the political movements happening across our country and even globally? Have you been able to use your platform in any way? Are there any charities or organizations that you’re passionate about?
We did a tape run of “Like Summer, But Colder” and we donated all of the proceeds from that tape run to the ACLU (https://www.aclu.org) and it was really fortunate timing, as sad as it is, that we were putting out the tape run at the time the protests happened because we had been planning to get it out for awhile but we had some delays from Covid. We were really glad to be able to put that money towards a cause that everyone on our end felt really passionate about. Since then, I’ve been doing my best to go to protests and stay active. In my hometown, we had a week-long protest where we protested racism in our school district and I was a big part of that. I’ve been trying to stay as active as I can and push queer people of color’s voices into focal points and do my part to contribute to the scene in as diverse and sustainable way as possible.
I know it’s hard to plan the future with the current state we’re living in, but, is there anything you have in store or would like to do in 2021?
So 2021, assuming that we get our s*** together, I am still hard at work trying to find a full band and that’s coming together so hopefully we’ll be able to play some shows, if it’s safe. Obviously, if that’s not the case, I’m going to do my best to find as many ways to play for people as much as possible, whether it be in the form of live streams or shows returning. I definitely wanna have a record out next year. I fully plan on putting out LP2 by 2021, other than that, who knows.
Lastly, what’s the most important thing to you as an artist? What is the biggest takeaway you want others to get when they listen to your music?
I think the most important thing for me as an artist is integrity. I want to be as honest and upfront as I can be because I know I look up to a lot of people who have been very upfront and honest in their art and I want to embody that. The biggest takeaway I want people to have from my art is that there’s always somebody who you can open up to, even if they’re a total stranger. You’re not always as alone as you think you are, there’s always gonna be someone who gets it and maybe you just haven’t met them, but they’re around. I just want to be the voice that I’ve had in the past for other people.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Keep your eyes out for some of these comps that are coming your way, there’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes. Other than that, stay safe.
You can follow Mikey on Twitter @wastedspace____ and @wasted.space.band on Instagram. You can also stream their music on Spotify and Apple Music. Be sure to stay tuned for what’s to come from them the rest of this year as well as 2021!