Owl City is the name of a project formed in early 2007 consisting of one member, Adam Young. Young started out making music in his parents' basement, which he claims is a result of his insomnia. Among Young's influences are disco and European electronic music. 1980s synthpop and New Wave music is also heard in Owl City's sound.

Owl City found early popularity through its own MySpace profile, which has received more than 5 million plays on tracks, such as "Hello Seattle". Young is joined by Breanne Duren on several tracks; the most noted of which being "The Saltwater Room." She is often mistaken for, but is not, the singer Lights; however, Adam Young is also friends with Lights, and is often musically compared as her stylistical male equivalent.

Relient K vocalist Matt Thiessen has also collaborated with Owl City on several tracks.

Owl City's first two records were released while Young was unsigned. In early 2009, Owl City was signed to record label Universal Republic with the help of entertainment attorney Ken Abdo.

Musical style

Owl City breaks away from the mold of 2000s music in that his music is happy and "G-rated" and not depressing, manic or obscene.

He sings about unconventional topics such as urban design, the elements, travel, and also more conventional topics such as romance and love.

Like new urban contemporaries Lights and Ben Gibbard, Young's music is primarily synth based, dreamy and atmospheric.

Owl City has been said to sound like the The Postal Service.

Despite being a devoted Christian, Adam does not consider his music Christian music, though he does say his faith is "his main inspiration" in his music.

Discography info

Prior to the July 14, 2009 internet release of Ocean Eyes, and the "Fireflies" single, Steve Hoover was hired as a director for a Music Video for "Fireflies". The video had an exclusive premier on MySpace, but was leaked onto Dailymotion and Youtube hours early.

Owl City has released three albums, with the latest entitled Ocean Eyes released at iTunes on July 14, 2009 and a physical release on July 28, 2009. In 2007, Owl City released an EP titled Of June.

In 2008, the album Maybe I'm Dreaming was released. Of June reached #20 on the Billboard Electronic Albums chart, and Maybe I'm Dreaming peaked on the same chart at #16. In 2009, Ocean Eyes debuted at #27 on the Billboard 200.

Ocean Eyes Went On To Reach #2 on The Top Albums Section of iTunes on The iTunes Week of July 14th.

After merely 2 weeks the album Ocean Eyes had received over 2600 ratings on itunes with an average score of five stars.

Owl City has also released three singles, "Hot Air Balloon", "Strawberry Avalanche", and "Fireflies", leading up to the release of Ocean Eyes.

Young maintains two side projects, Swimming With Dolphins with Austin Tofte and sometimes Breanne Duren and Port Blue. Young has been a part of two other side projects that created original music similar to Owl City; Windsor Airlift and Insect Airport.