Ever since his breakout hit “Fireflies” back in 2009, Owl City has had something of a cult following in the pop world. While you may not have heard from him in a little while, he sells more albums and concert tickets than some of those whose singles dominate radio. The producer/singer-songwriter, otherwise known as Adam

Young, has been releasing some exceptionally cute tunes for years now, and if you haven’t been listening, it’s not too late to catch on. Adam sat down with Myspace recently to discuss his new album Mobile Orchestra, which was one of the first to be released on Friday (July 10), the new global release date for music.

What is a “mobile orchestra”?

It’s basically me and a laptop, more or less. I love how you can make the sound of an 80- or 90-person orchestra with a box. I like that you can do that in the air on the way to Japan. That’s pretty cool. It’s kind of a pun on what I do. If I didn’t have a platform, I’d probably do it anyway just for fun.

What number album is this?

I...don’t even remember. Five, but only with the label. I’ve done stuff before.

A lot, either way. You’re pretty prolific. How do you keep churning it out?

I have a hard time stopping, really. I have a hard time turning off that part of my brain, the creativity part. I have trouble sleeping. It’s always working, and it’s kind of a curse and kind of a blessing. It’s easy in the sense that I always have something to put out. The bad thing is that I have all this material, but I have to break it up into albums. I have to wait years to get some of the stuff out there, so some of the songs on this album I made back in the day. Maybe 2006 or 2007, at least in demo form.

Which songs from the new album?

There’s a song called “I Found Love”. “Thunderstruck” as well. That one was 2005 or 2006. They’re different now, but the beginnings of the idea go back a long way for some of them.

I assume, judging by what you said earlier, that you have many albums worth of material stored away somewhere.

Tons of beginnings of songs and old ideas that I recorded a few seconds of. There's thousands of them. Some are good, some are not so good.

As you’re coming into a new album cycle, how do you look back at your old songs and decide it’s time to bring something to light?

That’s a good question. Usually I just go through my folders on my hard drives and find things to work on. Sometimes I’ll chase it, and if I hit a wall, I’ll leave it and maybe come back to it for another album. Sometimes it feels like there’s more to explore, so I keep following that until it feels like it’s finished.

There are several features on Mobile Orchestra. How do you decide which artist should go on which song?

Kind of at the last minute, all the artists popped into my head...except Jake Owen. I kind of set out to write a country song, though I didn’t really anticipate having a feature on that one. He was the first person in the country world that came to mind. I love country music. I love people like Keith Urban and Brad Paisley, and Jake Owen was at the top of my list for sure. Usually it was just like, “Oh! This person would sound really good here.” Then I’d ask them, because what’s there to lose? Everyone said yes. I feel so grateful. It was really cool.

You have all these songs stored away somewhere. Is there anybody you would want to work with on any of them?

Tom DeLonge for sure. Enya is actually on my list.

Enya?

Yeah, totally. She lives in a castle with a whole bunch of cats I’ve heard.

Of course she does. That’s totally an Enya thing to do.

That’s amazing. I get that. I don’t feel like I deserve to have the list of people I’ve worked with at all, so I feel really lucky. It’s amazing to say that I’ve checked them off. My mind’s open.

Pop music is really interesting because “top 40” is defined by how well a song does, but then there are so many songs that share a similar sound, but might not have made it as hits. How do you feel about being someone who has had a few hits, but keeps the same style?

It’s strange because I never anticipated going over into the top 40 world. I was always just going to be this quirky, weird, mad scientist in his basement putting out records. I didn’t want to tour, I didn’t want to do promo, I didn’t want to do press. They talked me into it.

So, you’re pretty unhappy right now.

Yeah, I hate it. No, I wouldn’t trade it. But it was a big stretch.

Are touring and press still things that comes along with all of this, but that you’re not really interested in?

Truthfully, yeah. But it’s worth it and I appreciate it for sure.

You play live quite a bit. Is that something you’ve grown into?

Yeah, that was scary too. I didn’t want to do that at first. I never grew up singing or playing in church or school. I hated being up in front of people. I hated giving speeches and stuff. The more I made myself do it early on, the more I got off stage and felt excited, thrilled, and exhilarated. The more I did it, the more I got used to it. Now I love it.