By Andrew Mason | June 5, 2018 |
While the typical Ventura County high school graduate heads off to college to try to find success in adulthood, M.I.C. has begun to make a name for himself right here in Newbury Park. And although rap music and the Conejo Valley seemingly go together as well as peanut butter and toothpaste, the 20-year-old Newbury Park native has found a way to make it work.
Meet Michael Pofsky, also known by his stage name M.I.C., which stands for “Music Is Crucial”. With his popular album titled “DYNAM.I.C.” released in 2017, and a debut tour already in the books, the 2015 Newbury Park High School graduate is making his way to the top of the local hip-hop scene.
Pofsky’s connection with music has deep roots, dating back to when his parents enrolled him in guitar lessons at just eight years old. At 14, he turned to hip-hop.
“With everything in my life kind of getting crazier as a teenager growing up, I found hip hop music and fell in love with it,” Pofsky said. “I went to Guitar Center and traded in all my guitars and amps and got a mic and an interface - everything I needed to be a rapper.”
Let’s be real. A kid from “the 805” spitting rhymes? That’s not something you see everyday, and Pofsky felt the pressure of being different. He noted that soon after he began to rap, his peers started to make fun of him.
“I got embarrassed and I publicly stopped,” Pofsky said. “I became confident again in high school and I started putting [music] out again.”
Since his junior year of high school, Pofsky has released seven full projects and appeared on Hits101 Radio, Accelerated Radio, and Ent Radio. His full collection of music is available on Apple Music, Spotify, SoundCloud, and iTunes.
In 2017, Pofsky teamed up with his good friend and pop producer Charlie Michener, 25, to create “DYNAM.I.C.”, a project that debuted on July 7th of that year. The album features artists Jessica Bond, Mikey G, and Kollege Kado, the former Moorpark College football standout otherwise known as Kado Brown.
Pofsky admitted that he started to really devote time and effort to writing “DYNAM.I.C.” after he had gotten out of a relationship. The motivated Pofsky and Michener then recorded the entire album all in Michener’s Newbury Park home.
“I think it’s [Pofsky’s] vision that makes it easy to work with him,” said Michener. “You can tell he’s been performing his bars in the car all week before the session.”
The eight-track album is highlighted by perhaps Pofsky’s most popular song to date, titled “DREAMS”.
“We wanted to conceptualize the idea of moving toward your dreams,” Michener said. “With ‘DYNAM.I.C.’, I feel like you’re tuning into the radio station inside [Pofsky]’s mind. That includes ups and downs, but we wanted it to feel complete.”
While crafting music, Pofsky said he aims to maintain his own unique sound, but draws inspiration from “everything”, including his own favorite musicians. If he could collaborate with one living and one dead artist, he would choose Nas and Jimi Hendrix, respectively (“we would do something crazy”).
With the success of “DYNAM.I.C.” in his back pocket, Pofsky tried his hand at a self-organized tour during the first half of 2018.
Joined by 27-year-old producer and singer JoeeBilli, the two musicians scheduled 13 shows in Southern California and two in Hawaii, to make up the “So Far 2018” tour.
“To travel without parents and go and do that by yourself is cool,” Pofsky said. “But to be out there for music and not just be out there for a vacation is the goal. It was kind of like a little insight to what my future’s going to be like.”
Billi and Pofsky rocked stages together on tour for over four months, and even shot their first collab music video while in Hawaii.
“[Pofsky]’s a dope MC,” said Billi. “I see [his career] going up, the ball is in his court.”
Without a record label or agent, Pofsky and Billi networked and scheduled all 15 shows of “So Far 2018” themselves, even if it meant paying a couple venues to allow them to perform. But Pofsky sees situations like that as simply an investment into his future music career.
But finding the time to develop a reputation in the music industry is easier said than done. According to Pofsky, he currently works about 60 hours per week between two minimum wage jobs in addition to creating music and maintaining a social life.
“I can’t wait till I can take all that time that I’m sitting at work during the day and put that into music,” Pofsky said. “I’ll actually be able to take all that random inspiration that I get all day, and harness it.”
Pofsky notes that another obstacle young up-and-coming musicians often face are people who try to exploit fresh talent.
“It’s really easy to let people just take advantage of you,” he said. “You’ve got to be really careful and strategic with who you let make you feel has certain power.”
Pofsky credits his support staff, including his parents and close friends, with helping him overcome these challenges and encouraging him to pursue his rapping dreams. Pofsky’s mom even has a short yet heartfelt voice-over in his song “WAVES”.
“Sometimes people get worried that this is a little bit risky,” Pofsky confessed. “But everyone just wants to see me be successful...I feel like I got the right people in my corner.”
Pofsky claims that he currently has a ton of songs that he is sitting on, that will likely come out as singles. However, he has not ruled out the possibility of releasing an album in 2018.
As for the future, Pofsky has set sublime goals for his career. He dreams of one day performing in an arena with 100,000 people, and is confident that his music will touch those all around the world.
“Everything that I am putting out now, I believe will have millions of views,” he said. “Sometimes it takes a few years.”
However, no matter how much Pofsky may crave to impress listeners and ultimately grow his brand, he seems to have never lost that eight-year-old self who first picked up a guitar to just jam out and have a good time.
“You can’t do things targeted to what you think people are going to like,” he said. “People are going to love that you’re doing you, and if you continue to do that, [music] will sell itself.”