At just 26 years old, Michael Thomas White has already become quite the multifaceted individual who is delving into the worlds of music, modeling, entrepreneurship, TikTok and more. The Columbus, Ohio-raised, now Brooklyn-based musician has made his passion and craving for creating more than evident. After growing up surrounded by a guitar-playing father, graduating from Northwestern University, and eventually becoming a co-founder of a watch company, the young artist only got more serious about music in the last few years, but rest assured, his excitement for the future is unparalleled. We had the opportunity to sit down with White and talk about what his journey has been like up until this point, who his dream collaboration would be with, and more. Read on to find out all about MTW.
BTS: For someone relatively young in their music career, why do you think people should listen to Michael Thomas White?
MTW: Love this question. I don’t believe in separating art from artist, and I think as an artist, I can relate a lot to the people listening to my music. I’ve done their job. I’ve worked in corporate America, I know what that’s like. I’ve gone to college, I know what that’s like. So I feel like for a lot of people listening – especially right now where most of the audience is in major cities in the U.S. like New York, Chicago, LA, Atlanta, Seattle, Philadelphia, all those kinds of places – I’ve lived there and I’ve done kind of what they’re doing on a day-to-day so I feel like I can relate to my audience a little bit. I definitely put a lot of time into the music, like a song will take me four months minimum for writing, production, and everything else, but then I’ll take kind of the “extra step” of creating content so that people discover it. I try to do it in a funny way that will give as much of me as possible to the fans. I don’t know if every artist does that.
BTS: I’ve seen quite a bit about people not knowing whether or not you’re serious about your music. How do you tackle that?
MTW: Haha yeah. For me, TikTok was always a character and I just tried to view each video as its own story to be as entertaining as possible, essentially. I feel like that’s the point of TikTok. So it was kind of like a way for people to hopefully discover the music that I was working on and things that I am passionate about, meanwhile having as much fun and as many laughs as we can. I love TikTok and I think it’s been such a great way to build a community and find and interact with people, so I have a lot to thank for it, really.
BTS: Is there anything in your music that sets you apart from other artists out there?
MTW: In the music itself, I definitely work with an incredible producer in Sweden. So for my first EP, I lived in Sweden for six months with this overarching dream that I wanted to do music. I should’ve been on TikTok at that time, even if I was just doing dances or something like that haha. But, I think that I just work with really talented people and I’m also willing to be very vulnerable in my lyrics, even if the message is hidden behind a fun dance song. I’m still writing about heartbreak, for me, and I think those are kind of the best songs.
BTS: Favorite album of all time?
MTW: If I had just one album, I would say Fine Line by Harry Styles. That was the album that really inspired me to want to make music. It came out in 2019 and I was kind of at the height of fundraising for this watch company, and I would just listen to that album – and I still do – like once a day. If it’s something like going for a run or waking up, “Golden” is always my go-to song. There’s so much energy in that. So that album, for me, is really special. I have not been to one of his shows but they look incredible.
BTS: If you could collab with anyone, who would it be? Why?
MTW: Great question. I would collaborate with Dua Lipa. I really like the dichotomy of a male and female voice on a track, so that was the first thing that came to mind there. And, I think her story is so incredible. Going back to what I said earlier about not separating the art from the artist, I think as an artist, she was born in London and then moved to Kosovo and then moved back to London when she was 15 and was like working as a waitress, just really chasing this dream of being a musician. I think she faced rejection so many times, and to me, those stories are really inspiring if you’re able to persevere and push through that. So, she’s such a hustler and I really like that about her, plus she’s so great on every feature which doesn’t miss and every song’s a hit. If I ever got to do a song with her, I know that would be special.
BTS: How do you want the audience to feel when listening to your music?
MTW: I guess for me right now, I’ve written most of the songs about the highlights of my love life. So, I guess going there and being able to kind of feel what I was feeling, maybe how I thought the other person was feeling about it too, and so to kind of live vicariously through those experiences would probably be where I would hope the music would go. The best comments are when people say like “this music got me through a breakup” or “this music means so much” because that’s what Fine Line did for me back then, so that was always what I wanted out of making this music.
BTS: You’ve gained quite the attention on TikTok for your song “Dancing in the Kitchen.” Did you ever think that was going to happen?
MTW: This is tricky haha. I did think that it would be big. I tweeted that in 2021. I said “‘Dancing in the Kitchen’ is going to be trending on TikTok.” I don’t know if it is still. You might be able to say it’s trending but it doesn’t have that like ‘popular’ icon next to it, but I think that’s coming. It took nine months from that tweet to when it started actually trending. I had no idea that that would happen. You hear about stories where a song went viral because Charli D’Amelio did a dance to it and then the whole internet loved it. I wasn’t betting on that happening for me so I was like “okay I’ll make the trend” haha. And of all my songs, when I wrote that one for my debut EP, at first it was the worst performing of all of them in terms of streams but I always knew that it was so catchy. I always felt like this was the catchiest of them all. TikTok lets you choose a 15-second clip from the song where it should start. So for that one, with the “track star” lyric, I felt like “this is great, this has legs on TikTok.” And then I would go into bodegas in New York and just do silly stuff like juggling oranges or just doing these silly dances. They were getting some popularity, but not like anything really crazy. It was like 3,000 views on Instagram Reels which, at that time, I was like “this is amazing, the song’s going crazy” haha. And then, I don’t know at what point – I feel like just being on TikTok, trying to grow an audience for music – I kind of just like picked up on the basic dance moves that the guy TikTok-ers were doing. So whether it’s like jazz hands or the leg kicks, the “magazine cover” one I felt was the most original one. I had not seen that done haha. Matty Healy from The 1975 did like a running-in-place kind of thing in one of the music videos and I think that inspired me because I was like “that’s cool, that’s a good move for the track star bit.” So I just kind of brought all these moves together and it’s had some legs. It’s been really fun to watch. Now they do great and they perform well. I think a lot of people have found it, then do the dance themselves and tag me in it. But, there wasn’t one specific video that got it a lot of attention. Even the moves, I feel like, have kind of progressed with the song.
BTS: You just released your newest single “Are You Proud of Me?” less than a month ago. What was your inspiration for this song? Any one thing in particular?
MTW: To me, this is the most special song I’ve written so far. From a process standpoint, it was the longest it’s taken me to write a song. So, it started this past winter when I was in New York. I have a lyric that says “you’re my biggest inspiration, the reason I’m so impatient.” I was in a relationship where I was in love and that inspires a lot of the music I’ve been able to write because then it’s just like the highest level of emotions you can probably feel, so the best place for me to put that is in the song. And so I was walking, it was snowing out in New York, I was going to a party, and I just had this melody come to me and I just recorded it into my phone that was like “are you proud of me? If you see me on your screen.” I was just posting a lot at that time and wondering “what is this person thinking about all of this?” And it wasn’t as big as it is now, but they live in New York too so I was thinking about it. So then I sent it to my producer in Sweden and he came back with these really cool chords underneath it and I was just going “oh my gosh this could be a hit.” Then for the longest time, I didn’t know how else to write a song. I went to Sweden to film a music video for it and I had written some other stuff, but when I got there and we were giving the ideas to the producer, he was like “this is not, this isn’t it.” Every song I had written up until that point was kind of a relationship-based song, and this one I just wanted to write it from more of a universal, natural feeling that most of us wonder whether or not someone is proud of us. So, I expanded who I was thinking about in terms of my family, my siblings, and even the approach of coming out of COVID and quarantine. I am really grateful and proud to just hear laughter on the streets and people just enjoying life, which is kind of at the end of the song. I’m really proud of that song.
BTS: Anything you want to try or experiment with within your music?
MTW: I think always as an artist, you should try and be pushing yourself to where you’re uncomfortable. That’s where you find the best results and how you keep progressing. My focus now is to start doing shows. I’ve done one concert in New York and it was sold out, so fun, and people were like singing the lyrics back. It was amazing. I’m putting together a tour schedule now. I have an American Idol second round [audition] later today. I’m trying to pull off this tour and it’s definitely possible thanks to TikTok. I’m recording more music and there’s a “Dancing in the Kitchen” remix coming out. I’ve heard the first version of it and I worked with a really great producer who has a lot of big songs out. His name is Walkabout Music and he’s on Spotify. It’s really cool so I think that song has some legs to it and I’ll just continue to create content.
BTS: What can we expect from Michael Thomas White in the future?
MTW: I would like to be on tour this October or November. I’ve been reaching out to cities and venues in Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York and Philadelphia. So that would be like a “first tour” for me and it would look like that. I would probably do it with my friend and roommate, Elijah Wallace, who’s also had a lot of success on TikTok – slightly different audiences – but, together we have some songs out and I think it would be a really great show. For new music, the “Dancing in the Kitchen” remix is coming and I just recorded another song here in Brooklyn with a band called Middle Part, so that song could be coming out soon.
No matter what anyone says, there is no denying that this rising artist’s dedication to his craft is beyond admirable. It was such a pleasure getting to witness how excited he is about the work he is doing and where the future is headed. It’s immensely refreshing to hear first-hand how much joy making music brings to young artists like this and, without a doubt, provides reassurance that this industry is still being filled with people who truly love what they do. We cannot wait to see what’s next for Michael Thomas White and will be sure to follow along every step of the way.
Follow MTW on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
Check out tickets to his upcoming NYC show on September 23rd.
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