Back in 2019, my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify gifted me the song “I’m Just A Buzzkill” by a group called Mickey Darling. It quickly became a staple on my regular rotations playlist. A few months later, I stumbled across “Mom Jeans” and knew I recognized Mickey Darling’s name. Since then, their discography has been woven into nearly every playlist I create.
They have somehow cracked the musical code on how to combine vulnerability with fun perfectly. Mickey’s songs are insanely upbeat, and the lyrics jump from honest confessions to playful jokes in a manner that should seem jarring, but it just works. I often play the song “Reverse Cowgirl” in the car for my friends, and every passenger always comments on it: What song is this? Who sings this? Wait, this is so good; who’s Mickey Darling?
Now, in 2021, I got the opportunity to talk to the masterminds behind Mickey: Skyler Molina and Austin Medrano. Hanging out in their home studio in San Antonio, we talked via Zoom about the San Antonio music scene, their writing process and experience being a DIY band, making music during quarantine, and their latest single.
BRIGID YOUNG: To get started, do you guys want to introduce yourself and explain your roles in the band?
AUSTIN MEDRANO: My name’s Austin; I’m the producer. I play all the instruments and stuff.
SKYLER MOLINA: My name’s Skyler; I write all the lyrics, I sing. I make some songs, but I’ll make rough demos. I can make a skeleton idea, and he [Austin] makes it Mickey. I also do “creative direction,” as Austin calls it. I would’ve never thought that.
AUSTIN: Yeah, like the idea behind Mickey, music videos. All that.
SKYLER: Yeah, that’s pretty much the basics.
BRIGID: Gotcha. How long have you two been making music together?
SKYLER: I think pretty much when Mickey started.
AUSTIN: Yeah, it’s been almost three years!
SKYLER: I think we’re like a month away from it being three years on the dot.
BRIGID: Happy early anniversary!
SKYLER and AUSTIN: Thank you! [all laugh]
SKYLER: Before that, we jammed together sometimes, just for fun in high school. Then we literally got together, made a song, and then put it out that month. And Mickey Darling was born! We never looked back; it was crazy.
BRIGID: That’s awesome; it was like a whirlwind. Are you guys both from Texas?
SKYLER: Yes, sadly and happily.
BRIGID: What’s the music scene like down there?
AUSTIN: The music scene here, I’d say, is more centered around classic rock and hard rock. There’s also a rap scene here. The indie scene isn’t too big, I don’t think.
SKYLER: I don’t think there’s a big indie scene here. Maybe in Austin, perhaps. We’re in San Antonio. Down here, since we’re so close to the border of Mexico, there’s a very heavy [latino] culture. There’s a big Spanish music scene, which is super sick. It’s much more cultural, in a way. Then there’s a lot of heavy metal, like you said, a lot of hardcore stuff.
BRIGID: That’s pretty cool, though!
SKYLER: Oh yeah, it’s super cool! We were in LA like a week ago, and we were talking about that. We were at this diner with all these musicians that we met in LA—they all live there, and they’re all really good—but, like all of us, they’re all fighting for the same goal: trying to be successful. It’s just such a different concept when you’re a small fish in a big pond versus a big fish in a small pond. So we can be like, “oh, we’re pretty much the indie-pop band of San Antonio,” since [we] don’t know any other indie-pop band out here. But if we go to LA, we are an indie-pop band in LA. It has its ups and downs. Especially with the Internet, location doesn’t matter at this point.
BRIGID: Yeah, I feel like LA is kind of its own beast, in a way. It seems like its own universe.
SKYLER: For sure. It’s very intimidating. I used to live out there, and something I learned was that the person serving you your coffee is ten times better guitar player or singer than you’ll ever be. It’s insane how much talent is out there; it’s scary. I remember being at this dive bar, and I was watching this random jazz improv band play. It was one of those groups that [don’t] really practice; they just get together every few months to jam. It was really cool, but then I found out after the show while talking to them that they were all really high prestige people in the industry, but they just like to do that on Sundays for fun. The singer of the band was on tour with Fantasia, who’s a super huge pop star. Then the guitarist was just like, “oh yeah, I write the scores for all the Marvel movies,” and I was like, “what?!” There were like, 30 people in this dive bar. I was losing my mind.
BRIGID: That sounds insane! How was your most recent trip to LA? I know you guys played a house show. How was that experience, being out there?
AUSTIN: It was really fun. We met an artist who goes by Comfort Club. He kind of took us in and showed us where to go. We had a great time, and he invited us to play at his house. We were like, “might as well!”
SKYLER: Yeah, it was super sick. We didn’t really plan on playing a show or anything, and he was like, “
Everything about LA is what they say it is: people there are either really pretentious or the sweetest people in the world.
BRIGID: The duality!
SKYLER: Yeah, exactly, it’s really weird! Overall, it was really fun. We had a great time. We met a bunch of people, we met a bunch of artists, we saw some shows, and we played a show! It was a lot of fun.
BRIGID: That’s sick. Didn’t you guys also go to New York?
SKYLER: Yeah, we went to New York as well! It was for like, four or five days. Originally we went on these trips to go for business stuff.
BRIGID: Yeah, that’s what I was about to ask. Was it for business, or was it like a little vacay?
SKYLER: Originally, it was to shake some hands and have some meetings. A lot of it kind of fell through, so we ended up turning it into a vacay thing. We could’ve gone for like, two days in each city, just to have some meetings and leave, but we were like, “why don’t we just stay for five days for no reason?” It definitely turned into more of just fun instead of business.
BRIGID: Sweet, that’s awesome. Different topic, [but] I wanted to ask a bit about your writing process, regarding Mickey Darling specifically. I know you both have side projects, including one together, so how do you decide which song goes to which project? Does the writing process differ between them?
AUSTIN: Like [Skyler] said earlier, he’ll make demos on his own, and I’ll do the same. I guess [it] depend[s] on the vibe. If it’s upbeat enough and he thinks it has potential for Mickey, we’ll agree on that. I feel like our side projects are more of a creative outlet. As far as the writing process, he just has an amazing bank of lyrics and melodies. I’ll send him stuff, and if he likes it, he’ll write to it, and we just go from there. It’s kind of rare that we actually sit down and write a song together.
SKYLER: Yeah, we’ll work on lyrics together sometimes if I’m stuck on a verse or something. We just make a bunch of demos, really thin skeleton ideas, and then we’ll pick our favorites. If we can agree on those, then I’ll sit for a few days and write lyrics. At the same time, he’s going and like… making it good [laughs], really giving it that Mickey-esque sound, in a sense. If it works out, we can have the song done in a few days, and we’ll come together and record, then mix and master and stuff, and then it’s done. Some songs take a really long time. “Your Looks Can’t Save You” took like, two months to make for some reason. It makes no sense. And then “Reverse Cowgirl,” which ended up being our biggest song, took [around] two weeks. There’s no rhythm or rhyme to it. Whatever we don’t like for Mickey can be used for a side project. It kind of all works out.
BRIGID: That’s sick. Do you have a home studio that you work in?
AUSTIN: We’re in it right now!
SKYLER: Yeah, from your view, you can only see the back, but we have a bunch of instruments and stuff in front of us, a big set up. Even before this, we were always just in our bedrooms. We’ve been to a studio once, but it was because we knew a guy who could get us in for free.
AUSTIN: That was through our school, and yeah, that’s the only time we’ve ever been to a studio.
SKYLER: That was our first or second song. We were just trying it to see if it was cool. It was cool, but we could [record] without [a studio]. Now, it’s almost a statement to be independent and be like a bedroom pop-ish project.
BRIGID: For sure. I go to school for music technology, so I’m always so intrigued by fully DIY artists with their recording process. It’s cool to talk to musicians and be able to approach from a musician perspective, you know?
SKYLER: Yeah, it’s like a fresh take on it.
BRIGID: It’s cool that your process has stayed that way throughout Mickey Darling’s growth.
AUSTIN: Yeah, that’s like all we know, really. We never had access to a studio. The thing with studios is that you have to book time, and it’s complicated.
SKYLER: And the pressure. [As] I said, we could work on “Reverse Cowgirl” for two weeks or “Your Looks Can’t Save You” for two months. If we go into a studio, it’s like $300 for 10 hours. You have to pay every day if you want to keep working on it, so it’s just practical for us to do it ourselves. Now, all you need is a MacBook, and you can have a whole career. At the same time, I understand why studios are still popular. There’s a learning curve. You have to learn how to be good enough to be confident in producing a song and putting it out, and then being happy with it. I totally understand why people pay for mixing, mastering, and production.
BRIGID: Do you feel like since it is all DIY, you feel like it’s more rewarding when you put out releases? Do you experience more satisfaction knowing that it’s 100% yours?
SKYLER: That’s interesting. I’ve never thought about that.
AUSTIN: I don’t know. I feel very weird about our songs sometimes. It’s like a hit or miss. It takes a couple [of] months for me to get over it and be like, damn, we really did that. Now, I can listen to “We’ll Always Have Summer” and be like, we made that shit, that is sick.
SKYLER: But when something [first] comes out, we think it’s the worst thing ever.
BRIGID: I feel like that’s just being an artist; that’s just how it goes. You’re your own worst critic.
AUSTIN: Absolutely. It’s hard to feel proud, but after some time, I can look back and be like, “damn, we did that all on our own,” and it feels good for sure.
SKYLER: All we have [are] our own opinions on the songs, which can be very difficult to deal with. Sometimes I’ll write a lyric, and he’ll be like, “I think it can be better,” and I’m like, “wow, I thought that was really cool,” but it’s because I’m so close to it. We try our best to keep it just between us, but we do sometimes outsource just for some opinions. I think it is more rewarding, though, being 100%. I’m always proud of the lyrics. When they come out, I’m like, “damn I wrote all those in my room by myself! I could’ve paid a ghostwriter, but I didn’t!”
BRIGID: That’s awesome. You guys have been working on music together for a long time. How does it feel to see the success in terms of numbers? “Reverse Cowgirl” has almost 3 million streams on Spotify. How does it feel to see that?
SKYLER: We talk about this all the time.
AUSTIN: It’s really surreal. It feels even more rewarding because we didn’t expect anything to come out of this. We were just doing it to see what happens, and to see this is totally unreal. At times, you can’t fathom it.
SKYLER: The best way I could explain it, to explain the surrealism, is that it’s so surreal because all we’ve ever known—at least me personally—is
If we had made it 6 or 7 years ago, we probably wouldn’t have grinded as hard to find our real voice that we had to find after years of rejection.
AUSTIN: Jesus Christ, that was so deep [both laugh].
SKYLER: So to answer the question: it’s very weird. We genuinely don’t even know how to feel about it. It’s amazing, and we’re honored. Something I used to say a long time ago, before Mickey, was that at the end of the day, if I wrote a song and made one person feel something, that’s cool. Then I’ll get my big boy job when I’m like, 30 years old, and I’ll settle down or whatever. But until then, if I can make some people feel stuff, that’s the dream. The fact that we can do that now, and have fans, and friends, and meet these people in real life that confess these deep things to us… I guess I don’t even realize that I confess deep stuff in the lyrics; it’s so natural to me. I guess other people don’t say… I don’t know…
BRIGID: No, I get what you mean! A lot of people aren’t as vulnerable, so to hear someone be vulnerable, they feel a connection to it.
SKYLER: Like a connection! Yeah, exactly. It’s an incredible feeling. I wish everybody… I hope everybody gets to feel it at some point.
BRIGID: For sure. I also wanted to talk a bit about the latest single, which was a long-anticipated return! Was it written and recorded during quarantine, or was it a more recent project?
AUSTIN: It was definitely after. I’m trying to remember.
SKYLER: Yeah, “Pink Socks” came out in August 2020… so yeah, that makes sense. We were pretty much never working on stuff at all. We were talking about it, but it took longer than anticipated. We were going to put out an EP, and “You Were Perfect & I’m Sorry” was going to be on the EP, but we thought it was the worst song of all the songs. We were like, let’s just put it out now, as a throwaway song, and then we were going to put out the EP. We made it in like, two or three weeks.
AUSTIN: Maybe like a month?
SKYLER: Yeah, it happened real fast. Maybe May [of 2021]. It came out in June?
AUSTIN: Yeah. I think it happened in May.
BRIGID: In quarantine, I feel like people were either writing every day or not at all. There was no in-between.
SKYLER: Yeah, it was weird. We were making stuff separately, but we kind of lost the focus of Mickey. Quarantine was happening, and we were gaining all these fans and all these streams, and for the first time in our lives we felt that pressure. Like, now there [are] people watching. That’s why it took so long because there was so much pressure. I wanted all the lyrics to be so good, and he wants the production to be so good, we have to make it as good as possible. That’s the irony of it, because like, “Reverse Cowgirl” took us two weeks. I hated the song when we first put it out, and then it turned out to be our biggest song so far. Which is a perfect metaphor for life or something, I don’t know. The lack of overthinking was the greatest career move ever for us. Now, I’m trying to get much more comfortable with the idea of a fanbase: people really listening and critiquing. But at the same time, whatever. We know we’ll never be able to please everybody.
BRIGID: That’s just kind of how it goes with art. You put it out there, and whoever gets it gets it. And whoever doesn’t, it’s like, whatever.
SKYLER: Exactly.
BRIGID: So in terms of future plans, are you still working on an EP, or planning to release one?
AUSTIN: In the future, yeah.
SKYLER: Essentially, we have an EP ready, but we decided to put out the songs on it as singles over the course of like six months. It was a random impulsive decision one day. We’ll release those four singles, and then an EP will come after that.
BRIGID: Cool, definitely looking forward to that. I know with COVID things are up in the air, but do you guys have any plans to do any touring or shows?
AUSTIN: That’s the dream.
SKYLER: No technical plans as of now. We’re still super DIY and independent. We have no idea how to plan a tour. The dream would be that a bigger band takes us on as an opener. That would be really cool. We have a show this Saturday in Texas, but other than that, we don’t have any shows planned. But, we are willing to play shows.
BRIGID: Awesome, well that’s all I’ve got for you guys. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me.
AUSTIN: Thank you so much for having us!
SKYLER: Yeah, thank you!
You can listen to Mickey Darling and their latest single “You Were Perfect & I’m Sorry” on Spotify.
