Mikky Ekko survived his performance, and after that night he earned himself a new set of fans, including a few from Rihanna’s very dedicated Navy. Since then he’s continued to work on his upcoming studio debut album with producers like Clams Casino (who produced “Pull Me Down“) and new collaborators including Pharrell, Diplo and Ryan Hemsworth. But even tackling the Grammys stage didn’t take away all of the nerves when it came time to record with a legend like Pharrell.
“Pharrell is pretty much how I imagined him — super cool, chill, mad style, super fast and the first thing I thought was, ‘If I’m gonna go in with him I gotta try to do something to impress him. Even if I miss, I’m just gonna go for it,” Mikky explained. “So I went in and tried a delivery style that I hadn’t tried before and approached my lyrics in a different way.” He got the Pharrell stamp of approval, and now all that’s left to do is complete his album, which has been difficult to work on while out on the road touring with artists like Jessie Ware.
The ultimate goal though, is always to improve his craft. “I try to write from a place that’s pure and I work really hard to figure out what it is I’m trying to say if it’s important,” he noted. ” ‘Stay‘ would up being a song that resonated with somebody like Rihanna and it has been so surreal but it also gave me a real push to step up my songwriting. If it can resonate with someone like her who has such a massive platform, then how I can continue to elevate my game?”