Outside the privileged walls of American Idol, life in the music scene is not quite as shiny and quaint. In place of confetti and thunderous applause lay the sticky seat cushions of dive bars and ambivalent guests inhaling watered down drinks as they make polite conversation and await last call. Musicians are as fundamental in this world as the bar’s foot rail: noticeable only to those too intoxicated to need it by the end of the night. Navigating these harsh waters is young, contemporary musician Mikey Wax.
Wax, a native son to Syosset, New York, has vocals the likes of Van Morrison or John Mayer and sings just as wistfully about love. He has been playing piano and writing music since the age of 10 and began recording out of college.
“I really grew a lot when I started recording my music in a studio and playing shows for people,” Wax said. “In the studio I’m a perfectionist, so I will make myself do something as many times as it takes to get it just right.”
The pièce de résistance of his meticulous effort is his debut album, ‘Change Again,’ released November 2008. The album is fitted with gushing melodies and subject matter that is easy to grasp.
“I tend to write about love, the good and bad aspects” Wax said. “I try to have my music be as accessible as possible, and write lyrics that a majority of people can relate to. I want my music to have the ability to make you smile and cry in the same listening. I want it to fit all seasons.”
His heavy mellow style relates the dreamer soul of its creator, capturing “the hope and heartbreak of life and love.” ‘Change Again,’ in which the sonorous influences and uses of rhythm are commercial relatives to those of colleagues Coldplay and Keane, also carries in it a sensibility for use across platforms. Its friendliness and broad reach lends itself nicely for use in television and film, with single “In Case I Go Again” standing paramount in Wax’s promise of far reach.
Having finished his first major tour of the U.S, sponsored by shoe mogul KangaROOS, and signed under agents of change Supreme Entertainment, which represents for Eve 6, Fastball, Ryan Cabrera, and Brooke Hogan, Wax may reach the spurious glamour of idolatry after all.
“My goal right now is to keep touring and touring wherever I can,” Wax said. “I know for sure though that my next album is going to be a special one. I feel it!”
Featured with coffeehouse names like Josh Hoge and Andy David, the future is promising for Mr. Wax. As he sings, “We wonder who we are, we can’t be sure, when all we do is wonder because the future is insecure; just when I thought I discovered what we were and who I was…we change again.”
Jessica Hilo 