How Mikey Angelo turns the internet's chaos into catchy pop songs

The creator world is just so dense now

There's just so many people that are doing it. And so, yeah, I think it is important to be a multi-hyphenate and to, yeah, like continue evolving and like growing

So when people ask you like what you do, what do you say? Well, I always say I'm a content creator, but I also include that I'm a songwriter and I'm an artist

And just a creative in general is like a great word to sum up. What appealed to you about VidCon when you first attended

I mean look I grew up in the YouTube era the early YouTube days of it all I when content creation

wasn't really even called content creation it was just YouTube videos I always just had a connection

to that scope that like career that whatever it was that just spoke to me as a kid yeah um so yeah

I always wanted to be a YouTuber and a content creator before it was really what it is today

And so yeah, VidCon was like the place to be for all things YouTube

Who were the creators that you were obsessed, the YouTubers that you were obsessed with

My first YouTube idol was Fred, actually. I had like, I would go to Hot Topic and get like Fred merch and like have stickers of him on my wall

And like, yeah, he really changed the game. Any way that Fred has inspired you in your own content creation journey

I mean, I think just that sense of nostalgia I hang on to a lot is like I always remember whenever I get burnt out

I'm like I remember how excited I was to watch his videos as a kid and I just it reminds me like wow

There are people watching me that are excited for my Content and videos now and so it's fun to that helps motivate me

What I love about your content is obviously a lot of people know you as somebody who

Recaps pop culture news via song for all the things happening on the internet your songs feel surprisingly coherent

coherent and I love how it's just the perfect way to process all of the information. What is like

the deciding factor like oh this is going in the song? So I always tell people it's like an exact

it's it's like I'm regurgitating my own for you page so it's it's what I see on my on my for you

page a lot and it's kind of just whatever I see that I'm like oh this deserves a spot

whatever makes an impact on me as is what makes it in the my notes app full of like all the

everything all the drama all the tea yeah you mentioned obviously being such a fan of creators

growing up and now you are a creator yourself we're here at big con do you find yourself kind

of watching the internet as a creator or instead of like a participant like how is that what's the

balance between that that's a great question yeah I feel like a little bit of both like I sometimes I be doom scrolling way longer than I should and then you know to kind of help relieve that that self like criticism I put on myself I like wait I working I like this is work I doing research so it is it is fun it

does like it helps me um cope with the fact that I don't touch grass a little bit better because it

is part of my job so it's like I get to yeah scroll and also be on the clock I have a lot

of friends who are like oh my gosh you should try taking like a break from your phone like turn and

I'm like, I can't like, if I'm not up to date with what's happening, who is like, are you ever

like afraid of burnout? Yeah. I mean, I get burnt out a lot as a creator. I feel like that's something

a lot of us can relate to burnout is such a big part of the creative process. And you just have

to learn to accept it as yeah. Part of the process. And it always, yeah, I always know how to come out

of a burnout. So it's just part of it now. There's always a lot of talk about diversifying your

content across all the different platforms and I think a lot of people know you from short form

content but what about long form because you grew up watching more long form content yeah I mean I

think my short form I'm at a place now where my short form has really taken priority so it's like

the short form is like the way things work now with my content and content in general but I did

for years before moving to short form was where was making long form on YouTube I was doing a whole

like rap battle series and like those days will always be so special to me there was something

about the the long form that like I really miss a lot and so I would love to get back to my roots

and and make long form I've just I've had I've struggled like finding the same success that I do

with short form these days why do you think that is do you think it's because the kind of content

that you're making is so like it's it's easier to consume bite-sized quantities of it the algorithm

them has kind of prioritized fast-paced punchy things that'll grab people's attention and I think

yeah it's just kind of worked out that way with ever since TikTok really blew up I think the whole

industry has just kind of moved towards grabbing at people's attention spans and like really like

getting that quick fast-paced video out to to the masses yeah so then what do you think it is about

your content specifically that keeps people tuned in and coming back it's a form of giving people

like the news very quick, but not like heavy, like dark news. It's like the more lighthearted

stuff. It's like a funny way of connecting all of us being like, oh my gosh, yeah, this wasn't

on my For You page this past month. And like, there's always something happening. So it's a

quick wrap up that I think, yeah, it's, it just works with the, the equation, the algorithm. Yeah

Your songs obviously move really quickly, but they don't feel random. There's intention behind them

How do you deserve like what deserves like a five seconds versus like an entire song

I just go with what I excited to talk about the most So if there something that is speaking to me that I really want to write about then I take the time to make that a dedicated song as opposed to just like a little line and how long were you making content before you like okay this is my voice I would say it wasn

until quarantine that I really was like I'm gonna do this full-time and I was like really finding my

footing it was when I switched over from YouTube to TikTok and was like wow and before that I was

going for like five years. So it was a while that I was doing it before I really found my voice

You mentioned quarantine and I feel like that's when TikTok like truly blew up for

at least in the pop culture sphere, right? How much has it changed in the last six years

The live streaming of it all has really blown up recently. Like I've met at VidCon, I've met a lot

of Twitch streamers and I'm learning so much and it's like a world that I'm not really a part of

but it's become so huge and that wasn't as big of a thing in in quarantine um but yeah i tell

people all the time like there was something about all of us at the same time collectively going

through this thing and we were all on tiktok at the same time like even though 2020 was like the

roughest year ever it was there was something so magical about the community that came from

content creation and tiktok and stuff and so like yeah ever since then it's slowly been evolving and

changing but um yeah I think it's that change the game forever for sure what's kind of the balance

between like talking about participating in a trend or talking about what everybody else is

talking about versus like kind of doing things your own way with your own intention I'm not the

type of person to to like hit a one-two do like one of these tiktok dances or anything but I will

write a line about it in a wrap so it's like for me I feel a little lucky because it's like that's

what I do is recap what people are doing and the trends people are doing

So I think that's what makes me a little different than the other creators who, who jump on the trends

I more so recap them and just talk about them. Like this, this was the trend this month as opposed to like

let me do the trend. How can a creator stand out the way that like you've

you've stood out. I always tell people the thing that I owe most of my success to is just wanting

it more than other people and, and being willing to put in more work than most people would be willing to do

So I think just knowing what you want to say, knowing what you want to do

and just like really putting in the effort to come up with ways that you would create content that you would want to see yourself

and be like, wow, this is what would work for me. So like, how can I use my personality and infuse the things that make me me into a content that would speak to other people as well

Yeah, I have to say seeing you perform last night at the

Hall of Fame ceremony very impressed because you had like one piece of paper and you like kept on be like you didn have a single like I feel like I would trip over my words like you did so amazing like what kind of vocal warm are you doing to ensure

like perfect delivery oh thank you so much by the way that's very sweet of you um yeah I do I mean

I do a lot of vocal chores beforehand I get I like the adrenaline that I get I think it helps me even

though I'm so I get so nervous and like you might I get like sweaty and nervous all the things but I

I think it helps me kind of. So I kind of just use that to go out and yeah, do as best as I can

I've been doing it long enough that I feel like a lot more confident on stage now than I did when

I first started. And yeah, last night was amazing. It was so much fun. Such a young crowd. Oh my gosh

They were all the, all the children were just in front of me. I walked out and I was like

what do I, do I talk about Roblox? Like, I'm like, I don't know what to say to these kids. Like, they're so young. I think there was like a political reference in your song and I was like

these kids are just not going to understand. Right over their head. They're like, talk about Roblox

Yeah, exactly. Minecraft. How important is like personal branding? Because obviously everybody

knows you for your bucket hats. You've kind of kept that going. Is that something that at what

point did you decide like, okay, this is going to be my thing. This is how people are going to know me. Kind of happened on accident for me. I was, I started out making a couple of TikToks in a

bucket hat because I really liked the way I look in them. I was like, I thought it was really cute. So I wore them in a bunch of videos

And then one day I made a video where I wasn't wearing a bucket hat

And everyone in the comments was like, where is your drip? Where is the fit

I'm like, where's your signature look? And I was like, oh, I guess that's kind of becoming my thing now

So I, yeah, just, I luckily fell into it. And I think it's become, yeah, if I go out in public in a bucket hat and glasses

it's like I weirdly get recognized way more than when I'm not in my bucket hat

So it's like my Superman suit. I love it. You do one thing very well

You're recapping pop culture moments through songs, through your rapping. Have you ever thought about diversifying your content

like doing something a little different? Or do you feel pressure to kind of keep doing what you're really good at

I do feel a pressure to continue doing the series that people look for every month

just because if I stop people are gonna be like um where's my recap of the month but also I'm along

the way I've been like evolving as a songwriter and at the end of the day music is like what I'm

most passionate about and so I think evolving into someone where I can start like writing more and

and singing more and just yeah anything where I'm surrounded by music is like my happy place so

I think I will eventually reach a place where I'm evolving out of the recaps and doing more

original songs and finding that balance right now is where I'm at. Yeah, album when

Yeah