We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michael VanWagoner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michael below.

Michael, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I started my music career as an unpaid intern for the team behind Imagine Dragons, The Killers, Benson Boone, etc. I learned a lot about the industry, but it was all about management and I yearned to be on the creative side of things. So I quit after about 6 months and pursued songwriting and music production. I released my first single “Never Be” in April 2020, and have been consistently dropping songs every month for the last 6 years, all self-produced. The journey has been more of a marathon than a sprint, but about 4 years ago, I finally was able to make the jump to doing music full-time, and I’m so grateful for that.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

My name’s Mykyl. I’m an independent pop artist with music similar to Lauv, Justin Bieber, and Ed Sheeran. I write and produce all of my own songs and I’ve been featured on New Music Friday, Soda, and other indie pop playlists. Friends of mine have described my music as “sugar-coated philosophy” (which I’m not sure if it’s an insult or compliment) but I think it’s a funny caricature of what I like to do: highly palatable modern electronic pop production paired with introspective lyrics ranging from existential crises to mental health, to evolving worldviews. Oh, occassionally a good old-fashioned love song, too. So I guess there’s a mix of originality with familiarity.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

If you want to support artists, care about the process. Refuse to consume slop. Look for artists who have an important story to tell, and examine the process behind how they make their art, because often art is found in the journey, not just the destination.

Support artists who do things the old-fashioned way, who play instruments, are experts in their DAW, and can put on a killer live show. Those are the artists who can give you something meaningful that you can’t find anywhere else. The art that comes from real musicians is the art that makes life worth living.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I’ve been posting regularly on social media for at least 6 years, and to be honest, I still don’t feel like I have anything figured out. But the one thing that’s consistently proven true is that authenticity sells. When I take the time to actually showcase my personality, tell the story behind the songs, show the process, that’s what has really connected with people. It’s easy for me to make lipsync videos to my music (and don’t get me wrong, I still do plenty of it) but that stuff never performs well. So I’ve done a lot more lately to invite the audience in to see who I am as a person and I’m not afraid to my quirky, awkward self. And that’s been working out for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/mykylmusic
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsmykyl
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/itsmykyl
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/mykylmusic

Image Credits

Jaycee VanWagoner, Israel Bonilla, James Isaac Jones