Owl City's Adam Young Talks Insomnia, Living in Regret and Exploring His Darker Side During In House Q&A (EXCLUSIVE)

Posted on Aug 20th 2012 1:10PM by Contessa Gayles

Owl City The Midsummer Station Noam Galai, AOL

"Music is like this consuming thing where once I start, I can't stop, or relax until whatever I was working on is done," Owl City's Adam Young tells AOL Music during his In House visit to our New York office. Despite only managing to rack up a maximum of four hours of sleep per night, Young is a dizzyingly fast talker -- fidgety and restless.

"I'm always tired," the 26-year-old insomniac admits. "But the beauty of it is I get more work done, because I'm awake more. If my studio wasn't in my house, I'd go nuts. I'd just be up roaming, pacing."

The product of Young's sleepless nights is Owl City's fourth studio album, The Midsummer Station, out tomorrow (Aug 21). The album title is "Purely imagery," Young explains. "To me it's like, I have this place in my head that is ambiguous and safe. It's this idealist, surreal, perfect world. I think everyone needs that."

In a bid to live in his own safe haven, the Owatonna, Minn.-based musician made a conscious decision not to move out to the celebrity-studded Los Angeles to pursue music, opting to stay planted in his home state instead. "I live by myself in a small town in Minnesota and I just love not being on a schedule and staying off the radar," Young admits. "I have a garden. I like to get outside and work with my hands. Minnesota is like The Shire. You can escape there, nothing bad goes on," he says, citing J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings."

Owl City's campground-set "Good Time" music video with Carly Rae Jepsen is true to that notion -- minus the Hobbits. "My manager and her manager grew up together and unbeknownst to me, she had been a big fan of what I do for a while," Young says of how he came to work with the "Call Me Maybe" singer. "So, I sent her an email and said, 'Hey, I have this cool track called 'Good Time' and I'd be honored if you were into it.' And she said, 'Yeah you came to Vancouver two times and I've been to both your shows.' So it worked out."

But the new Owl City album isn't all so innocent and happy-go-lucky. The record takes a turn with "Embers" and the Mark Hoppus-assisted "Dementia" -- the latter inspired by the consequences of wallowing in regret. "It's a darker song about how everybody thinks of how life would be different now if you had made better choices in the past," Young explains. "If you let it, that can drive you crazy. If you don't let the past stay in the past, it'll be worse. It's hard to know in the moment how the choices I'm making right now will affect me later, but you can't really think about that."

"'Dementia' is my way of saying let the past stay in the past," he says of the rock-leaning track. "Don't let the 'What ifs' frequent your mind too much. Put that stuff to bed."

Maybe one day, the Owl City singer can follow his own advice and put himself to bed for a decent night's rest. Until then, there's always music.

Check Out Our Exclusive Photos From Owl City's In House Visit