INTERVIEW: Mickey Darling by Jackie Greenberg
Jackie:
What are your names and where are you from?
Skyler:
My name is Skyler and I'm from San Antonio, Texas.
Austin:
My name is Austin. I'm also from San Antonio, Texas.
Jackie:
Do you still live there? Like are you based out of there?
Skyler:
We are based out of there. Yeah, we're there like a few months out of the year now at this point.
Jackie:
What brought you guys together as a band?
Skyler:
We met in high school. And we both knew that we played music together. Or we both knew that we played music, but never together. I knew he played guitar. He knew I play guitar. And we jammed a few times, sporadically. Super randomly—three or four times, like over the course of years—we jammed a few times. That's it. He was in the last year of college, and I wanted to start some sort of like indie pop music thing. He was the only producer and coincidentally, the best producer I knew. Luckily, we just happened to be cool and friends and so then I just asked him to make some music together, or potentially help me make music for like a solo project. And then we started working on stuff. He sent songs back to me and they were amazing. And we just had so much fun together that we ended up being a band instead of it just being like a secret producer behind the curtain kind of thing.
Austin:
It was sort of like “I want to jam with you.”
Skyler:
And it worked out great, but I wouldn't have wanted to do this by myself technically on this soul journey. It was like our curiosity for exploring new things and trying to find some sort of sanity in this world kind of thing.
Jackie:
What's the inspiration behind your newest single “SAY THAT YOU MISS ME”?
Skyler:
Well, musically, we just thought to kind of try to go more aggressive. Just for fun, like we had done all the pretty bubbly pop and less distorted guitars.
Austin:
Like feeling a little heavy and like getting a little rock in there.
Skyler:
Yeah, but there's no reason really for the distortion or the grittiness of it; it just sounds really cool and aggressive. He listened to a lot of that kind of stuff, and I just naturally write very aggressive, blunt lyrics. So, it kind of works out with that sound in a sense. I obviously don't ever want to do that too much where we're like pigeonholed into this aggressive sound where we're kind of like put into this like rock category or anything like that. But it's super fun to just sort of like experiment. But lyrically I don't know, honestly. Yeah, I've never really thought about it. Like most people that write lyrics, I pull from my life and stuff like that. When we wrote that, we were in Mexico for a month. And I did a lot of just like, deep diving into my past and stuff like that. I think I just really wanted to write something very aggressive. Like, circled back to that I could have just said at the beginning, but I think it was just fun to write something very aggressive. And obviously, like, we do that frequently. But “SAY THAT YOU MISS ME” feels different. Like it feels very aggressive in a weird way.
Jackie:
Which of your releases is your all-time favorite? And why?
Austin:
I'm going to say We’ll Always Have Summer just because it was such an experience between me and him. I was staying with him for about a year. But this is over the summer; we were just seeing each other every single day. It was just us two all day just trying to chisel out what became We’ll Always Have Summer and I’ll just never forget that because it was an experience that we had.
Skyler:
Yeah, and it turned into a great metaphor of like, we took the whole summer to finish that four-song EP, and it really was like, wow, we have that now, like we will always have, We'll Always Have Summer. So, it kind of played out really well like that. I would probably honestly say “RIGHT WHEN YOU LEFT.” I just love that song so much. Like, I’m very peculiar and insecure about listening to our stuff after we put it out—like I almost never do. That song though, I don't know what it was. I was just like, “I love this song.” Like I haven't listened to “SAY THAT YOU MISS ME,” or “FIND OUT THE HARD WAY” since we put it out. But right when we put out “RIGHT WHEN YOU LEFT,” I just couldn't stop, it was so good.
Jackie:
And then does your favorite song to perform differ?
Skyler:
I probably honestly say “VROOM VROOM” is my favorite song to perform. Like playing these last few shows. I don't even think we understood—because we always know that when “Reverse [Cowgirl]” comes on, everyone loses it, right? Everybody knows the words. It's so awesome. But when “VROOM VROOM” comes on, it's like a different energy, and like at least in the past two shows, there's something about it that’s just so crazy.
Jackie:
Do you have an all-time favorite moment from touring?
Skyler:
I'm going to say this interview (<3). Seriously, though. No, it's all been really fun. I mean, every show.
Austin:
I mean, we're just not used to it. And so, every show is just so unique in its own way.
Skyler:
Yeah, the crowds are so different. Obviously. I'm sure like in every touring band, and every crowd is different and stuff, but especially like, we try to live by this sort of mantra of “let's be ourselves that we portray online, in person.” So, it's fun, because we never feel like we're faking anything. You know, it's like I never feel like I'm being someone else. And I'm sure you feel the same way. And it's like, it's a very liberating, freeing feeling. So, to even be on stage, it feels so comfy. Because it's like, we don't put on these like rockstar personas like everyone else, which is just so weird. Like it makes sense if you're Ed Sheeran, and you're selling out a stadium. It makes sense to have a little ego to that, right? But it's like, just dudes being dudes playing music together. That's my favorite part—as far as the whole journey of this whole thing in general—it's just that.
Jackie:
If anything, what does your band name mean?
Skyler:
I used to work probably like a little over four years ago at a wing place in Texas called Pluckers which is a pretty well-known delicious wing joint in Texas. I was only there for a few weeks. Working there, I met a coworker of mine. She came up to me one day and she was like, “I don't think we've met before. My name is Mickey.” And I was like…Woah…Mickey. In that moment, I was like, I really love that name. I was like, “Mickey, I'm going to use that as a stage name one day.” Fast forward, maybe a week or two—I'm also at Pluckers. There's like some orientation thing going on and there’s a PowerPoint. And one of like the CEO's names on it was Taylor Darling. And at that moment, I remember just being awestruck at the fact that I had never thought of the idea of a term of endearment as a last name. I thought it was awesome. I was like, “Woah.” So I wrote that down in my notes and wrote Mickey down as well. Fast forward a few weeks later, we had our first single ready finally, “Shia Labeouf,” and we needed a name for the band, so we could post the song to streaming platforms. I text him and I'm like, “Okay, here's the list of names in my notes that I have for potential names.” And I remember it being like Mickey… Late Night Jog… random other stuff…Taylor Darling. The first text back just said, “What about Mickey Darling?” I'm a very skeptical little boy, and I would never usually just go “that’s it.” Because it's kind of like who gets on Netflix and just presses the first thing, right? You just like to see your other options. So, when he said that normally I would be like, let's just think about the other options, right? But it blew my mind. I was like, “Why would he say that? Why would he put two different things together?” I was like, “Why would you see that and put that together?” And it was the only thing that I've ever been like, “That's it.” Like I don't care about any other options. So that was a very follow-your-gut kind of feeling that I never usually do which felt great.
Jackie:
What do you wish you were asked about in interviews?
Skyler:
As artists, it’s like we're sort of like boxed into these, like personas or like characters, right? So, then it's like we're only our art. So, like, in “VROOM VROOM,” it’s like are we just a song? Or are we actual people to you too kind of thing? And even though all interview questions are like, awesome and fine, and like, great, you know, I think as people we have so much more depth than just the art. But it makes sense because we're here because of the art. It makes sense to get asked that, and there's nothing wrong with that. And I would never think like, “God, I wish they asked this.” But at least for me, like thinking about it, I stand for so many other things. Like physical health, and like mental health and random stuff, like reading books and like touching grass and like random stuff that a lot of kids need to hear and could really benefit from. And like chase your dreams, you know, and like, literally, you're going to die one day. That sucks. And that's scary. But it should motivate you to like to try and like everything's scary. Like everyone's scared. You should do stuff, you should try, right? Like, get off your phone. Stuff like that. I think like, you know if somebody was like, “Hey, what advice would you give to the younger generation?” I want to talk about that because I care about that. At the end of all this, like the whole Mickey Darling journey, I just want to be able to say like, we helped people. Aside from just escapism in the music. Someone in Chicago came up to us after the show, and they were like, “Dude, in one of y’alls Q and A's, somebody asked how to get started on music. And y'all said, ‘Just play guitar for 10 minutes a day. Every day, though.’” And I'm such an advocate for that. Like, people go to the gym, and they go for two hours the first time, but just go for five minutes. Like you don't need to go for two hours, right? You just need to build that habit. I'm so passionate about stuff like that because people don't have the knowledge or take the time to read the books or watch the right YouTube videos or whatever. Because there's just so much saturation with all the media and all this stuff, right? I could go on about this forever. And this is what I mean, I get so passionate about it because I never get to talk about it. Because we're just this entity of like music and all these things. But when that fan came up to us, and she was like, “Y'all said, ‘Play 10 minutes a day,’ and I've just been playing 10 minutes a day. And I'm just so much better at guitar.” And we're like, “Yeah!” That's all we want.
Austin:
You know, we started from the bottom now we're here. I just want to show people that this is attainable. We’re both self-taught producers and writers.
Skyler:
The whole idea of like, the DIY thing too—I’m really passionate about that. As you get bigger, labels start coming to you, and like all this stuff, and we just want to be this beacon of light. To be like, dude, you don't need any of that, right? Like, we live in this crazy world where it's $20 a year to unlimitedly post to Spotify. Like, it's insane. Like you get a computer or like Steve Lacy makes music on his iPhone. Like, that's insane. So just this idea of like, anybody can do what we're doing. We're just two boys that got lucky and worked hard. But like, anybody could do it. And that's why we don't want to like go with any labels or like, try to do any of that stuff. Potentially down the line. Who knows, right? But we want to be as relatable as possible. Go back to the idea of like, we're not rockstars and we don't want to seem like it. We're just dudes. We're just two dudes from Texas, rocking out on stage and making music in our bedroom.
Jackie:
Where do you guys see yourselves in five years?
Austin:
I think just doing what we’re doing!
Skyler:
I think that’s the goal, right? Like your whole entire life is what your days consist of. We’re doing what we like to do within the confines of our days and it’s awesome. We get to make music for a living and we’re super honored and humbled. I want to be doing this in five years. Ideally, have some land, potentially. Maybe by that point, I’ve taught myself to garden and be self-sufficient in that way. Still be fit… hopefully. Still be on those daily rituals. Little stuff. I hope I have the same mentality, if not better, and wiser.
Austin:
Well put. We’re enjoying what is here now. We’re satisfied. If it were to end tomorrow, I would still just be like, “Dude, what a fucking riot.” I’m just honored to be here! So yeah, hopefully doing the same thing: producing more songs for other people and developing my career further. But where we are, is great. I would love to keep doing this.
Skyler:
A piece of advice I’d like to give to everybody is that once you can finally be content with where you are at all times. That’s when you start finding happiness and joy. That’s what I loved about us. And that summer working on the EP, when nobody knew our name, we had no money or streams or any followers. We felt just as giddy about all of this. And now we feel the exact same, we’re just better now. As musicians and people. We’re just sharpening our tools. I don’t think about “I wish I were better,” I know I’m going to get better over time. It’s a patience game. I feel like everybody gets so caught up in all those streams and numbers and where they are or where they’re not and it’s so important, at least to us especially, to just be cozy with where you’re at.
Jackie:
What advice would you give to your fans?
Skyler:
Obviously, everybody has a different situation. It’s easy and hard to just blanket statement “You should do this.” But I think just general things people can do, whether you’re an artist or not, I think it’s very important to get off your phone so much. I have a lock box where I literally lock my phone away for 16-24 hours at a time. I don’t trust myself and nobody should.
Getting sunlight is very important to me if you’re lucky enough to be somewhere that’s sunny. Finding balance. Don’t get too lost in the work, and don’t get too lost in the party. Find the balance.