Martin Garrix & Mike Yung share details behind the making of ‘Dreamer’

Dance DJ Martin Garrix was determined to track down New York City subway singer Mike Yung after becoming captivated by his “unique” voice in a viral video. Yung, who had a few failed record deals during his youth, had been busking for decades until 2016, when a video clip of him belting out The Righteous Brothers’ classic ‘Unchained Melody’ caught U.S. late night host James Corden’s eye, and landed him his first TV gig on The Late Late Show.

Dutch superstar Garrix also came across one of the 58 year old’s other viral performances on Instagram, and made a few inquiries to try and connect with Yung, who had also auditioned for America’s Got Talent last year, when he reached the semi-finals. The two artists eventually met up in the Big Apple, and two months later, Yung was visiting Garrix in Amsterdam to work on new material. The pair recently unveiled their collaboration ‘Dreamer‘. Now, Billboard has released a video of the two musicians talking about the making of the track.

“First of all, I saw the (viral) video, I got goosebumps over my whole body,” Garrix recalled on U.S. talk show GMA Day. “I was like, ‘Wow, this guy has such a unique, such a powerful, such a real voice, and I miss voices like this in music nowadays’.”

“And then I knew we were gonna do something special together when we met in New York about a year ago, we just connected. Even though we’re so unique with both of our own things (careers), but we connect on so many things.”

The first release from the unlikely pals is uplifting ballad ‘Dreamer’, one of a handful of tracks they concocted during a boat ride through Amsterdam’s famous canals.

“We rented a boat, we went on the canals with the guitar, and we wrote five amazing songs,” the DJ explained in his YouTube series, The Martin Garrix Show. “We were jamming, and then sometimes we would go under a bridge, and he (Yung) would go full voice, and just (the) echo, I had goosebumps so many times because he’s got such a powerful voice… It was special.”

Yung added: “I got the voice, he got the magic (sic) so you put the two together, it’s, like, unstoppable.”

Garrix reveals they have “a lot more crazy stuff” to come, and while Yung is overjoyed to have found such great chemistry with the 22 year old, he confesses he hadn’t heard of the DJ when he first got in touch.

“I’m a little old school, I didn’t even know who Martin Garrix was, and when I mentioned his name (to his family), all my kids went crazy!” Yung admitted.

Check out the full interview below.

H/T: Billboard