About
Mike Vaughn
Growing up in the suburbs of New York City, I always loved making music. Dance music, though. I genuinely hated it.
Then New Year’s Eve 2016. Martin Garrix dropped “In the Name of Love” live, I was surrounded by some of my closest friends, and something clicked. It wasn’t cool music. It didn’t matter. It was the first time a record made me feel like the moment was bigger than I was. One song, one night, and what I wanted to create completely changed.
I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.
Not the song, not the genre. The specific thing that happens when a record pulls back, gives you room to breathe, and makes you want to raise your hands and just let it wash over you. That moment where you stop thinking and start feeling. That’s what I make music for.
A decade of writing records across the EDM spectrum taught me that the feeling doesn’t live in the biggest drop or the most polished production. I spent years chasing the big room, the mainstage, the super pop progressive sound and I loved it, genuinely. But at some point I realized the records I kept coming back to weren’t the ones I was making.
So I rebuilt around what actually moves me. Melodic and club progressive. Festival records that breathe. Late night music for empty highways. The hooks and the radio instincts are still there, they just live inside something heavier and more patient now.
The goal is still the main stage. It always will be. I just finally know what I want to sound like when I get there.
Awards
