Tonight’s Christmas special of ABC Family’s Peabody Award-winning drama series Switched at Birth will get a special assist from singer-songwriter Mikey Wax. The Long Island-native, who was recently named iHeart Radio’s “Artist to Watch,” will have an original song of his “And A Happy New Year” featured on the first-annual special.
When Wax’s team found out that the series was doing a holiday special and were in need of some holiday music, New Year was submitted in the hopes for inclusion on the episode. “They were kind enough to take a listen,” Mikey Wax tells OMFGTV, “and decided to use it! It was pretty exciting, and I know a lot of my fans are also fans of the show so it’s great all around.”
“The song is about that special person you want to be with during the holiday season into counting down the numbers at midnight on New Years Eve,” Wax explains. “It’s a very celebratory time of year, and in general it’s about spending that time with those who matter most.”
Mikey has performed nation-wide sharing the stage with artists such as Parachute, Matt Wertz, Howie Day, Jon McLaughlin, Andy Grammer, Tony Lucca, Ryan Cabrera, Tyler Hilton, Graham Colton and Landon Pigg, among others. While his music can be heard on stage and in his unique, exclusive house concerts in the living rooms of his fans, his tunes have also been heard on television, in such shows as So You Think You Can Dance, Pretty Little Liars, Dance Moms, the NBC Olympics, and many more.
“Having placements on TV has been huge for my career especially since prior to this year I was a completely independent musician,” he says. “These shows gave my music some amazing exposure and I was able to reach a lot of new fans through it. Plus it gave my earliest fans something to rally behind to help get others interested.”
Wax’s 2009 debut album “Change Again” received a strong initial reaction on social media, which grabbed the attention of YouTube, who featured the music video for the single “In Case I Go Again” on it’s homepage, resulting in over half a million views and propelling the album to the top 100 on the iTunes pop chart in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. The success of the album introduced thousands of new fans to his music, including Superbowl MVP Aaron Rodgers, who has publicly mentioned that Mikey is a top artist on his playlist.
For his holiday album “And a Happy New Year,” Wax put to use a handful of original, strong songs with good melodies that didn’t really fit with his other music. “The holidays always bring a sense of tradition and happiness, and I wanted to make an EP that held those qualities and felt timeless. Once I started writing lyrics based on those themes, the songs came together pretty easily. I also included a few covers of my favorite holiday-ish songs. While the Beatles ‘Across the Universe’ isn’t a holiday song by any means, somehow, in my mind, it just fits!”
Mikey Wax can next be seen on his free live online show on December 21st. Tune in right from your computer by getting tickets at StageIt.com. You can follow his social media accounts here: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Vine, YouTube.
Switched at Birth, the Christmas special, airs tonight at 9pm on ABC Family.
*Update* Album giveaway contest has ended.