Singled Out: Sky Sailing (Adam Young - Owl City)

It was 2AM and I was sitting on the floor in my parent's basement with a MicroKorg on my lap. I built this synthy legato, "ping" sound routed through a lowpass filter and ran it through a bunch of guitar pedals. I come up with a little cascading part that wound up as the intro and verses of a song called "Fireflies."

I have insomnia and I've always had a tough time falling asleep for as long as I can remember. I wanted to sing about my inability to sleep in a whimsical way that portrayed the condition as lighthearted and almost more of a "blessing" than a curse. It's ironic that when sleep and I cannot bring ourselves to meet are is often when inspiration strikes hardest. I'd just been on vacation to Iowa the week before I wrote the song and was amazed at home many fireflies came out at dusk. I didn't really have to think about making a connection between insomnia and lighting bugs, it just sort of happened and the song basically wrote itself. It was a lot of fun.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen to selected tracks from the album, watch the Sky Sailing videos and learn more about the album - right here!

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