Inside Music with Katie Hasty

Exclusive: Will Taylor Swift be on the next Owl City record?

Published on Friday, Jul 16, 2010 5:40 PM Katie Hasty

Exclusive: Will Taylor Swift be on the next Owl City record?

Owl City's Adam Young

Adam Young, the mastermind behind Owl City, says he's only "knee-deep" -- five or six songs -- into his sophomore set, but already has some idea of who may be on it: namely, Taylor Swift.

In an interview with HitFix, Young said he has a track in mind for the county-pop superstar to sing on.

"I have talked to her. She's so busy, but she said if there’s time, she said it’d be lot of fun," Young explains. "There’s this weird hybrid country song I'm working on. There's no title 'cause I haven't made any lyrics yet. But that would be the one."

The pairing isn't firm, though Owl City's management said there's definitely "talking among themselves" for a collaboration. A rep for Swift said the singer is on the road and unavailable for comment.

On its face, the idea wasn't inconceivable to begin with. Swift has been known to Tweet to her pal, and even showed up in the VIP section of his show in New York last year. And Young has said that her "Love Story" is the best love song he's known (and, no, the two have never dated).

Young also has John Mayer on his collaborator wish-list for the follow-up to his 2009 debut "Ocean Eyes," a possibility he hopes to present to the veteran songwriter as they tour together this fall. Coincidentally, Swift and Mayer are close friends as well.

But writing a new album and prepping for that cross-country stint isn't all that's on Adam Young's plate at the moment. There's another release and another high-profile tour to attend to.

Young just released a new set "An Airplane Carried Me to Bed" under the moniker Sky Sailing on Tuesday (July 13). It's a collection of songs written before Young's Owl City project, with emphasis on acoustic instruments rather than synthesizers and keyboards. It's still undeniably Young's voice, but he wanted his two releases to be heard as totally separate projects.

"These came from two different eras," Young says. Sky Sailing's 12 tracks were written three-and-a-half years ago. "I just started writing music, and whatever came out went down on of two different avenues. It's been pretty intuitive. I think it's pretty interesting multiple views from the same guy."
 
He presented the idea to "pretty much" release "An Airplane" as-is to his label Universal Republic and "they were all for it." He essentially took his original recordings, spruced up a couple vocal tracks, added some tambourine and mastered it.
 
"The timing's worked out perfectly," he says.

Timing has also allowed Owl City to serve as tour support for Maroon 5 (along with V.V. Brown) in August. He says he's going to perform Owl City material, rather than Sky Sailing songs, throughout the fall.

"I think it's best to stick to what [fans] might know," he says.

Young says a new Owl City album can be expected late this year or early next.

Here are Owl City's tour dates with Maroon 5 and John Mayer:

Aug.     5th        DTE Energy Music Theatre w/ Maroon 5                    Clarkston, MI
            6th        Verizon Wireless Music Center w/ Maroon 5             Noblesville, IN
            7th        Constellation Performing Arts Center w/ Maroon 5   Canandaigua, NY
            10th      Comcast Center w/ Maroon 5                                     Mansfield, MA
            11th      Nikon at Jones Beach Theater w/ Maroon 5              Wantagh, NY
            13th      Jiffy Lube Live w/ Maroon 5                                        Bristow, VA
            14th      Susquehanna Bank Center w/ Maroon 5                    Camden, NJ
            15th      PNC Bank Arts Center w/ Maroon 5                           Holmdel, NJ
            18th      Cricket Pavilion w/ John Mayer                                  Phoenix, AZ
            20th      Shoreline Amphitheatre w/ John Mayer                     San Francisco, CA
            21st      Sleep Train Amphitheatre w/ John Mayer                  Wheatland, CA
            22nd      Hollywood Bowl w/ John Mayer                                 Los Angeles, CA
            24th      Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre w/ John Mayer         Irvine, CA
            25th      Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre w/ John Mayer          Chula Vista, CA
            28th      Pipeline Café (Headlining)                                          Honolulu, HI
            31st      USANA Amphitheater w/ John Mayer                         Salt Lake City, UT
Sep.     1st        Red Rocks Amphitheatre w/ John Mayer                    Morrison, CO
            4th        Superpages.com Center w/ John Mayer                     Dallas, TX
            5th        Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion w/ John Mayer       Houston, TX
            6th        Amphitheatre at The Wharf w/ John Mayer               Orange Beach, AL
            8th        Aarons Amphitheatre at Lakewood w/ John Mayer    Atlanta, GA
            10th      Ford Amphitheatre w/ John Mayer                             Tampa, FL
            11th      Cruzan Amphitheatre w/ John Mayer                         West Palm Beach, FL
 

 

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About Immaculate Noise

  • Katie Hasty is HitFix's New York outpost for movies and music. She served as a web editor and columnist for Billboard Magazine for nearly five years, and has freelanced since 1999 -- as a writer, editor, music supervisor, A&R consultant, radio correspondent, recording artist and concert promoter. She plays in her band Numbers And Letters, and loves Christmas songs, dark beer, Tom Waits and serial sentences.

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