Spotlight: Mk.gee”

Rinah Milter

Music Journalist

Initially, I heard about Michael Gordon, who performs under the name Mk.gee, from Tik Tok. His song “Candy” was a trending sound, and it hooked me. I went down a rabbit hole researching his journey and music, and I found he has been behind the scenes in the industry for a while. He has written for artists like Role Model, Drake and Fred Again, and he’s worked very closely with another favorite artist of mine, Dijon, on his album “Absolutely”.  

This is when everything clicked. I noticed he had been making his own signature, genre-blurring sound. I started listening to Dijon a year ago, and I noticed a lot of the same producing techniques that Mk.gee uses, which makes sense because he’s a credited producer on the album. 

 He’s also written for Omar Apollo’s “Useless”, evident because of the hard-hitting guitar intro.  On his album Two Star & The Dream Police, he has described his music as a “liminal space”, saying that his goal with releasing the record was to make it so familiar, but knowing nothing like it has been released.  

While showcased throughout the album, his songs “I Want” and “Breakthespell” stand out for their almost dreamlike production. Both highlight the reverb-heavy guitar and strike a chord, making it seem like you’re reliving a distant memory.  

Mk.gee is one of those artists where, on first listen, you’re instantly drawn into the engineering of his music. You can sense that there’s a confidence in his music – that he knows what he’s doing.  

In his songs like “You Got It” and “Dream Police, he starts with a soulful guitar intro, and when the beat hits, it’s more of a progressive deep bass. For others on the album like “DNM”, he starts with kicking the snare, letting that be the heartbeat of the song and layering his vocals on top, and all have that signature Dijon R&B groove.  

However, there are certain nuances in his songs that you can only hear live. His live footage just shows how talented he is as a musician, and most people within the indie scene have caught on. There’s a community on Tik Tok that keeps posting videos of his concerts that showcase his down-to-earth performances, like he’s just jamming in his living room.  

The minimalist visual aesthetic of his concerts with low backlight lets the audience feel like they’re part of something emotionally intimate, especially his new album which is mostly about longing and anxiety. Music sources like Pitchfork have said that because of his experimentation and “jarring” choices, it only makes him sound more human, rather than a clean-cut studio release.  

Nothing about his music is clean cut, which is why it resonates with so many people. His vocals are intensely raw on every track. It could be soothing, like he’s singing to himself, or it could be almost as if he’s crying out, leaving the listener no choice but to hear and understand him.  

His lyrics are meticulously crafted so that you listen again and again until it hits you.  In “Are You Looking Up,” he sings, “And who’s got the power in your mind/How’re you gonna waste it all/when somebody’s playing to no one every night/so are you looking up/are you asking why?” He’s searching for connection and a meaning in life, but this could slip by on the first listen.  

Around this time of the year, I usually search for that old-school sound you find in most late 80s early 90s songs. Mk.gee has found a way to really capture that nostalgia factor. His music has obvious influences from Prince, D’Angelo, and the Police, with a murky synth and downtempo beats reminiscent of Phil Collins and Michael Jackson. His songs just have that nostalgia factor to it, like you’ve heard them before, but you haven’t yet experienced what he’s showing through his melodies. Compared to everything else out right now, he has managed to create this new-wave sound of muffled rock, R&B, and distorted jazz. He’s carving a path of contemporary music that hasn’t been explored yet.