Welcome to Young Hollywood. What's up guys? Nikki Novak here for Young Hollywood, standing outside the tour bus of the man, the myth, the legend, Adam Young, otherwise known as Owl City.

I'd like to make myself believe that planet Earth turns slowly. It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep. Cause everything is never as it seems.

Thanks for letting us on your tour bus.

Thank you very much.

Sorry we woke you up.

It's all good.

It's very early in the morning. We basically just knocked on the door and he was sleeping and we woke him up. I said who are you? Oh, you have a camera. I guess you're important. When you're writing, I heard you actually have insomnia, which is kind of ironic that we kind of woke you up, but is that sort of when you write? Is what is your process when you're writing?

Yeah, I ironically, um, those those given nights where I I do find it hardest to fall asleep are the given nights where the songs kind of write themselves. So, it it's kind of a blessing and a curse really, but um, you know.

So in LA.

In LA. It's like, it's like home away from home. Uh, which is ironic because I'm from a very small town in.

How could you say that? It's something about it. It's very cozy. Very cozy here. I've heard you say that you will never leave Owatonna, Minnesota. Is that true?

Yeah, it's it's pretty safe to say. Um, there's something very quaint, very, very cute, very honest about my my little hometown Owatonna. And uh, it's it's always great to to leave, but it's always great to come home.

So when you're at home, I mean, you're like a rockstar at home. Do you still have the anonymity that you used to have there? Do people kind of leave you alone? Are they kind of down to earth and they don't care, or are they kind of big fans?

They're very sweet, they're very genuine. Uh, I I guess I can't really go to the grocery store without someone saying, "You're the guy, right? Can I can can you sign my receipt?" Or whatever, but but it's so, it's so endearing.

You have fans so like all over the world, though. Like your following kind of spreads and a lot of artists don't have that. They have sort of like a concentrated in the United States or Europe. Where are like the craziest fans?

Craziest fans have to be in Indonesia, uh, or maybe the Philippines, kind of in there. For whatever reason, my music seems to really connect with with the the people there. And it's so, uh, it's very surreal. It's very cool.

I saw the video for Dear in the Headlights. And you were in the DeLorean from Back to the Future. It was the actual DeLorean from the actual film. Uh, I how cool was it inside?

It was very cool. The bummer is that I can't actually drive stick shift. The car was stick shift, so it was sitting on a a like a filming trailer, which was like this far off the ground and the trailer pulled me, driving, sort of. So I wasn't actually driving.

You're the one love who shines this bright. Well, smile because you're the deer in the headlights. So if you had your choice and you could actually go in there and go to any year, what year would you pick?

I'm actually go backwards because um, I think there's something that's super romantic and exciting about the 40s.

You will not believe your eyes. And your lyrics are they're very sort of dreamlike. There's a lot of talk about, you know, like fireflies and very like lovely things. Is that sort of like a wish?

I'm very um, inspired by kind of innate innocence and in in whatever form that is. And I feel like anything nature or animals or or, you know, anything naturalistic kind of has this innate innocent quality to it, and I've always found that very interesting. So fireflies is kind of one of those. I actually was born and grew up in Iowa. And Iowa is full in the summer of fireflies. At at at, you know, 5, 6:00 p. m. when the sun starts to go down, they're they're everywhere. And it's like, you can't ride your bike down the street 'cause you'll you'll get hit the face. And it's it's a beautiful thing.

Do you prefer to be writing or performing, or is it sort of a combination?

My kind of true love is is hiding away in the studio. Uh, honestly. But when I first started performing, um, it was so much fun. I couldn't stop. And and despite the crazy butterflies that I that I was like, I don't know if I can actually walk out there on stage and play for an hour. But I I I made myself do it the first time, and it was so fun. I couldn't stop.

So talk to me about the new album. The reception's been very cool.

It's been very cool to see every night um, more and more kids start to know the lyrics to the new songs.

Does it sort of as time goes on, they get more and more familiar?

Yeah, it it's cool to see them kind of sing more confidently every night and it's I feel like I feel like a proud parent. It's cool.

So your songs are like your kids in a way?

A little bit. Yeah. Everyone says, "What's your favorite song to play?" And I can never choose one 'cause they're all like my my kids.

Do you see yourself like in the next five years? 'Cause it seems like the music just kind of comes out of you at random. Where do you, where would you like to go with it?

Honestly, um, if I can kind of take things a day at a time and just keep things going, um, writing writing albums, making music, putting out records. If I can keep that going, I'll be as happy as a firefly because

Do you think they're happy?

I think so. They seem like happy bugs.

You're the deer in the headlights.

This really is a dream come true for me, because if it wasn't for this, I'd be back home loading trucks. So I'm very grateful. Hey, it's Adam Young from Owl City. Uh, new record out called All Things Bright and Beautiful on tour right now.

Thank you for watching Young Hollywood.