Meet Lover Boy Mickey Blue
- thegiftedonline
- Aug 28, 2018
- 9 min read
Say his name three times and he just might appear in your dreams next. Toronto’s very own singer/songwriter Mickey Blue is the “heart on sleeves” vocalist that we all need to serenade us into eternal blissfulness for the next century and a half. His ability to paint the perfect love story in each of his emotionally driven melodies grants him the title “The King of Love.”
In his discography, It’s all feels and no gimmicks. After Facetiming Mickey last week, I can tell you that he’s one of the most charismatic human beings that I’ve ever (virtually) met. There’s no doubt that talented Mickey Blue will be at the top of the music charts one day soon, listed next to Toronto’s notable music stars.
Shakirah: What’s it like being a rising singer and songwriter in Toronto?
Mickey: It’s pretty normal to be honest. I just go to work everyday like everyone else and I just happen to make music.
Shakirah: Is music your full time job?
Mickey: No. It’s half. I treat it like a full-time job but until I can become completely financially stable from it, I have another gig on the side.
Shakirah: What else do you do if you don’t mind me asking?
Mickey: I work at a restaurant. We’re trying to make [music] a full time gig but until that day comes we always have to be bringing in the money, right?
Shakirah: Yes, keep working on your dreams. Your passion will make you money.
Mickey: 100 percent.
Shakirah: So tell me about your background in music? When did you get started and what made you want to finally pursue a music career?
Mickey: I went to school for theater, so I didn’t know I wanted to do music until after I graduated. My dad is a businessman. I came home from university with a theater degree and I said “hey, dad, I love you so much but I think I want to do music.” And you should have seen the look on his face then. And so we had no idea how we were going to do it but a good childhood friend of mine ended up going to school for engineering / producing. I figured he was the first person I should contact. I went to him, we made a song. And I guess I never really looked back from there.
Shakirah: And is this person that you are referring to Benstar?
Mickey: No. Benny came later. This person that I’m referring to is Devon. He still records us to this day.
Shakirah: What studio in Toronto do you record at?
Mickey: We record in our home studio in Markham actually.
Shakirah: Nice. So your newest single Be Your Fool, I completely love it, especially when you hit that high note ‘cinderella.’ The sound and direction is completely different from your very first 2016 EP A Man In Love. Could you describe to me this new sound that you’re getting into?
Mickey: When Benny and I make a song, I don’t really talk about how I am going to evolve or how I’m going to push forward. If a beat comes on and something comes to mind, then we both nod at each other. Benny’s not a huge talker. All it takes for him to confirm whether it’s hot or not is a shake of the head. So like we don’t really plan out how we’re going to methodically evolve. I’ll just hear a song, send it to him, if I’m inspired by something. There’s no intention behind it. It just kind of happens. Glad that it does because the last thing I want to do is to stay static. I appreciate you noticing that though.
Shakirah: Where do your lyrics come from? When I listen to certain songs by you, I’m like “oh this guy is a big lover, he wears his heart on his sleeve.” Can you describe to me certain situations in your life that have made you come up with the lyrics in some of your songs like Be Your Fool, Kill a Man, My Place?
Mickey: That’s a really good question. I think I’ve always kind of been a little bit of an emotional person. So when I found music, it was an opportunity for me to just say stuff and say how I was feeling. I guess at a certain point I kind of got use to it and being vulnerable is part of it. I think that if you are going to be an artist you’re going to have to be vulnerable at some point. I don’t know if that answers your question. I’m definitely an advocate, at every show I tell people,
“If there’s anything you can take away from a Mickey Blue show it is to spread love.”
So I’m definitely an advocate of that, making the world a better place. I believe that when you have the influence, whether you’re world famous or performing in front of 10 people, or 200 people or 50,000 people, it’s kind of your obligation that once you get that kind of power, once you get that kind of influence, make the world a better place and if not, what are you doing with your power? The overall message [of my songs] is to bring everybody together, to have a good time because besides sports, sports and entertainment are two of those things where you are able to bring out however many people together for one common goal. And I always say to people “you don’t have to be Mother Teresa, you don’t have to be Gandhi, you don’t have to change the world overnight, but I think it is all of our responsibilities to contribute to a better world like: Hold the door for somebody, something as simple as compliment somebody instead of looking back down at your phone when you make eye contact with a stranger in the streets—just nod at them, say “hey, what’s up?” Smile at them. The little things will make this place better because it’s a cold world out there, there’s a lot of bad sh*t going on, pardon my French . But if you could just make somebody’s day better . . . I know how good it makes me feel when somebody just smiles at me. Little things like that just make your day better, it’s not going to change your life, but it's the little things.
Shakirah: So is Toronto a friendly city?
Mickey: Overall, it’s hit or miss like anywhere. You have people on the street having a bad day. I have bad days, I’m not perfect either. I don’t do it all the time. [referring to performing good deeds] I try. I make a conscious effort to act like that, but like, I have bad days, we all have bad days. I’m not trying to eliminate my bad days but I’m trying to decrease them substantially, you know? Trying not to dwell on for so long.
Shakirah: I can tell that you are a big lover and have a huge heart, I want to know how are your relationships going, do you have a someone?
Mickey: *smiles* I’m in a long-term relationship.
Shakirah: Ok, yes. For how long? Where did you two meet?
Mickey: *gets shy* I don’t know if I want to uh . . .
Shakirah: Ok, we don’t have to talk about it . . .
Mickey: No, no. I’ve been with her for four years now. And I met her when I was 16, so I met her a long long time ago.
Shakirah: Were you doing music back then?
Mickey: No. I didn’t start doing music until I was 24, I’m 29 now. I just turned 29 on July 26th.
Shakirah: Happy Belated Birthday!!
Mickey: Technically it’s still birthday month, right?
Shakirah: yeah *laughs*
Mickey: I got to milk that all the way.
Shakirah: And you deserve to do that. So where did your artist name Mickey Blue come from?
Mickey: Very simple. At the time when I graduated University, I was in my room brainstorming and I was drinking a beer called Mickey’s and they had these little riddles under the bottle cap. Similar to this *holds up bottle* but they’re short and stumpy. I was drinking them at the time and so I figured, Mickey was a cool name. And I felt like it would be cool when I was 25 and I felt like it would be cool when I was 80 and then I added blue because blue is my favorite color. All the Toronto sports teams besides the Raptors are blue. Blue is my has always been my favorite color and I didn’t consciously think of this when I was doing it but I was also born on the same day as Mick Jagger I didn’t think about that when I was doing it and the signify about that is that my parent’s favorite band growing up and how they fell in love were the Stones. So they’re not big musicians either. My dad played the guitar when he was growing up. But yeah they fell in love with the Rolling Stones and I was born on the same day as Mick Jagger so I thought that was kind of cool, a cool little coincidence.
Shakirah: That’s awesome. Is Mickey’s a famous brand in Toronto?
Mickey: Not famous at all actually. Most of my friends didn’t even know about it, I didn’t even know about it until my friend’s roommate brought it home one day and I drank all of it and then I said sorry after because it was just really good.
Shakirah: Yeah, you’re totally right. So what kind of people do you make music for?
Mickey: That’s a reaaaaally good question. I guess anybody and everybody. I know that’s really vague and really widespread but I don't know. I don't know what my demographic is we kind of just make the music for us and hope people like it.And I feel like talking about love, relationships will never really go out of style. So I don’t have a good answer for you. I gotta say “for everybody now” I try not to curse too much in my music so that 10 year olds can listen to it.
Shakirah: *Laughs* But what about that song Kill A Man? What was going on in your head?
Mickey: I don't know, I think I . . . I don’t know what was going through my head when I wrote that. I had a couple of drinks and the bar scene kind of just came to me. The whole “drunk in love” concept. It’s not meant to be taken literally, but at the same time essentially it is written about a character who loses his significant other in some sort of tragic way and he’s drinking away the pain.
We were going to shoot a video for it, we had a fantastic idea for it but we never ended up going through with the idea.
The song is kind of laid out into a video if you think about it. Yeah, but that’s definitely one of my favorites, I think it either captured people at the start of the project or threw a lot of people off, but either way it’s fine because it’s entertainment.
Shakirah: Yeah I really liked it, I thought it was different.
Mickey: I appreciate it, thank you.
Shakirah: So where are you looking to take your music?
Mickey: Uh what do you mean?
Shakirah: Right now you are doing this part-time and you perform at local spots. Are you looking to sign with a label? Are you looking for collaborations with bigger artists? Are you looking to tour?
Mickey: Yeah, all of that stuff, would be awesome and when we get there, I think we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. But for now I think my responsibility is just to, our responsibility, is to keep manufacturing high quality product, on a consistent bases and that’s all we can really do. Sometimes in life we forget where we’re at and if you block out all the other things on where you want to be, really take a deep breath, you’ll realize that things are really good. I want to advance this career. I’d love to work with bigger artists, I’d love to work with other artists as well. I’d love to play bigger venues. If we get signed to a label, we get signed to a label but at the moment right now, I’m just doing what I love with the people I love. Like I said, eventually I’d like to become financially stable just from doing music, but everything worthwhile takes time. I’m not suppose to say that because I’m an artist and I’m not suppose to care about money but I got to eat man. I gotta put a roof over my head and I absolutely love to do that [by] doing what I love. That would be an absolute luxury.
Shakirah: Oh yes. Grind until you shine. So what are your top three songs, in no particular order, that you’ve written?
Mickey: My Place, Kill a Man, We Just Be. Those are definitely my three favorites to perform live. My Place is just so much more fun live than it is recorded. You can’t help the beat. When that BenStar instrumental comes on you can’t help but dance, especially in a live environment when you have a couple of drinks in your system. Try having a couple of drinks on a Friday night and not dancing to that song. It’s impossible.
Shakirah: I think our list is pretty identical.
Mickey: Yeah. The best song, after September 5th will be my favorite [song] that we’ve ever released though.
Shakirah: No way!!
Mickey: Yeah, I like it. I think it’s an instant classic. I think one listen and you’ll be like, this is a classic and I don’t say that about anything. I just hear it and I don’t even hear beyond it. I just hear someone who has been doing music for 40 years in it.
Shakirah: I can't wait to hear it. So have you ever cried singing one of your songs?
Mickey: Yeah, all the time. I cry when I write them.
Shakirah: Oh my gosh!
Mickey: Yeah, that’s how you know it’s good. If you start crying when you’re writing a song that’s how you know it’s good.
Shakirah: WOW.
Mickey: Yeah, sometimes you just feel it and you can’t help it. I’m not really one of those people to hide behind it because what’s the point?
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