About
Born in Brooklyn, NY, raised in Dallas, TX, and currently residing in Akron, OH, 'Missingno.' adapts his name from a glitch in the original Pokémon game, which is interpreted as "missing number." As the origins of his name would suggest, Missingno.'s music heavily incorporates game-like sounds that are reminiscent of many classic Nintendo games and combines them with elements of today's Pop and Hip-Hop / R&B.
“I never really listened to music as a kid until my mom got me that iPod.”
Growing up he was obsessed with video games, to the point where his mother was tired of buying them and decided to instead buy him an iPod for Christmas one year. At that time he began listening to singles from artists like T-Pain, 50-Cent, and Eminem, and eventually started listening to full albums after being introduced to Odd Future artists Tyler the Creator, Frank Ocean, and Earl Sweatshirt. He also began to expand his musical palette, listening to soundtracks from games such as Sonic The Hedgehog, Donkey Kong Country, and Kingdom Hearts.
“I thought it was really cool and I asked him how he did it and he told me that he learned off YouTube. He would have shows, and I used to help him promote and assist him with filming music videos.”
It wasn’t until he made it to college that he was introduced to the artist lifestyle and started to get into creating music. While attending the University of Texas at Austin for Psychology, he met his friend Nick, aka ‘Lil Simba’ who was an aspiring rapper and producer. Meeting Lil Simba and realizing that he can learn from YouTube turned him onto producing music, but when he realized he was making non-mainstream music and it would be hard to find someone to sing over his beats, he decided to try to sing over the production himself.
“I bought my own mic, started recording myself, started writing. To this day I have never recorded in a studio. I was just too nervous to record in a studio. I thought I would sound terrible, I was not comfortable singing in front of people, so I did everything myself, out of fear.”
Following his graduation from UT Austin, Missingno. put out his first project in 2015 called “The_Screen.” The title was derived from the fact that he was constantly in front of a screen (whether it was at his day job working at Apple's Riata Vista campus, or producing and playing video games after work), so “the screen” was ever present. After working at Apple for a little over a year, he started a graduate program to receive his Master’s degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Akron.
During this time he was also part of UAkron’s student-run television program, ZTV, where he would interview other artists for the show Lowdown, all while writing and recording music himself. He ended up releasing a single called 'Mood' in March 2019. 'Mood' was the lead single off of his '808-Bit Music’ project which was released in the Summer of 2019. Moving towards the end of last year, he performed for the first time in September 2019, opening for CalenRaps in Brooklyn, NY followed by more performances in cities across the US, including Akron, OH, Cleveland, OH, the “Japan Boston Party” in Boston, MA, and the Green Elephant in Dallas, TX.
“Most of my performance opportunities came from simply networking and seizing opportunities. I used resources like IndieOnTheMove and ReverbNation and I would travel wherever I needed to. I actually went to Texas for SXSW and was trapped down there for a month when the pandemic hit.”
Since COVID-19 hit, Missingno. has released two music videos, an EP, and virtually performed for the ‘LAUNCH Music Conference 2020’ (which usually takes place in Lancaster, PA). He also recorded a performance in his bedroom for the “Dayton Art In The City” festival which was his first paying gig.
His most recent release, titled “Dirty Beach” is a two-song mini EP with fun and up-beat summer vibes. He wrote the title track about Coney Island in Brooklyn, the beach he went to as a kid, though the song has an environmental angle to it as well. He has also released a captivating and colorful music video where Missingno. imagines himself as a reporter sent to investigate why people are enjoying being at such a beach. The second song, ‘Bubbles’ which is dreamier and a little more romantic, talks about imagining a nighttime date at the seashore, where bubbles are blown and slow dances are had.
Recently, he was interviewed for the online publication, Stimulate Your Soul, where he had the chance to elaborate on his sound, recent releases, Pokémon, and more. With a nice handful of songs in his repertoire, expect much more music and content on the way. Stay up to date with everything Missingno. related by following him on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, and by subscribing to his newsletter.