At first glance, or even after multiple listens, the music of Michael Gordon—known as Mk.gee—may not strike one as the kind that ignites contemporary music trends. His tracks, marked by a blend of jazz, AOR, and classic rock influences, often sound cracked, veiled, and fuzzy. These elements are far from the cutting-edge sounds of today’s pop scene. Mk.gee’s music can feel like a fleeting whisper or a sudden outburst, with hooks that sneak up on you and payoffs that are often more implied than explicit. His songs rarely stay the same for long, constantly morphing into something new or stopping abruptly.
Mk.gee’s breakthrough album, Two Star & the Dream Police, which he considers his official debut, is just over 30 minutes long. At his concerts, he has started performing the track “Candy” twice in one set. With repeated listens, the music begins to make sense.
“This record was meant to feel like a small forest fire,” Gordon, a youthful 27-year-old with tousled hair and a soft-spoken manner, explained during a rare interview on the porch of his home and studio in Silver Lake, California. “Little fragments of perfect songs amid a lot of chaos and strange atonal moments,” he continued, describing it as “a new recipe” he hasn’t yet perfected.
However, since the independent release of Two Star & the Dream Police in February, and particularly after a sold-out spring tour where the album’s 12 tracks blossomed, that fire has spread rapidly, fueled by word of mouth. This momentum has put Mk.gee’s status as a cult figure—your favorite musician’s favorite musician’s favorite musician—at risk of wider recognition.
High-profile endorsements from the likes of John Mayer and Eric Clapton, who compared Mk.gee to a young Prince, have further ignited the buzz. Frank Ocean, Kendall Jenner, Charlie Puth, Tyler, the Creator, and the fashion house Jil Sander have also taken notice, with Justin Bieber becoming an unexpected collaborator.
But it’s a growing base of devoted fans who are transforming what might have been superficial hype into a deeper, almost religious following. These fans are dissecting Mk.gee’s influences and pedal board setup with fervor, trying to decode the essence of his music:
Is that the sound of Genesis’s “Taking It All Too Hard” or Debarge’s “All This Love” they hear? (Both, and more.) “How does he make his guitar sound like that?” (A YouTube video on the topic has 358,000 views.) And what, if anything, is this peculiar little album about? (“I’m really into funny, mythical old stories—Celtic fables and stuff,” Gordon said. “That’s what the record felt like to me.”)
The mythos around Mk.gee has grown, especially through live performances and carefully curated YouTube videos that portray him as an enigmatic hero wielding his guitar like a sword (and sometimes just a sword). An international tour set to begin on September 2 will serve as a victory lap for this year’s unexpected triumph.
Yet Mk.gee—pronounced “mick-ghee,” a self-described “dumb name” that plays off his real name, Mike G.—is not entirely surprised by the enthusiastic response. This was always the goal.
“I made the best record ever,” Gordon declared, at first hesitantly, as if unsure whether to express such confidence. But then he repeated it. And again.
“Nobody in alternative music is allowed to be confident,” he said, with a few expletives for emphasis. “You’re supposed to conform to certain expectations if you’re in alternative music, and if you make pop music, you’re supposed to behave a certain way.”
“This should be pop music,” he asserted. “In my mind, it feels like pop music”—or at least, as a friend told him early on, in what could be seen as a backhanded compliment, “like you’re trying to remember what pop music sounds like.” “The goal is the same,” Gordon added. “And there’s no reason I should be aiming for anything less just because I’m not following the typical pop playbook.”
It might seem like a bold claim coming from a relative newcomer surrounded by secondhand musical gear and empty beer cans. But Mk.gee’s public persona is less about vintage rock star swagger and more about the intense focus of a prodigy who is just quirky enough to make it work.
