New York transplant Mike Cykoski, a/k/a A Is For Atom, was pursuing a career as a professional sideman when a chance meeting set him on a new course: an audition with Top 20 pop-rocker Gavin DeGraw.
“That was the trigger on the path to becoming a solo artist,” said Cykoski. “I was in his apartment and he played many songs on the piano; they were all so good and he impressed me. It was right before he flew to LA to do the showcase that got him a record deal.”
Inspired by songcraft and the art of composing, Mike enrolled in the music technology master’s degree program at New York University, later also taking courses at Julliard, and expanding his horizons by completing certificates for Harvest Works and Dubspot, further exploring his interest in electronic music.
It was at NYU that Mike met his producer, the Lebanese-American composer Julian Cassia, in a film scoring class. The project began in earnest when Mike finished his master’s thesis and landed a steady job. “I wanted to set some goals, and I really wanted to do an album,” he explains. “I got this job, I got the funding, I got this producer; I said it out loud and it happened.”
The result was two five-song EPs, the most recent of which, Song for You, includes this catchy number; its relaxed melodicism conceals a rather dark lyric. Enjoy
