Missingno.

“The genre-blending artist instantly captivated us.” - Stimulate Your Soul

Brooklyn-born alternative hip-hop artist, 'Missingno.' adapts his name from a "glitch" in the original Pokémon game, which is interpreted as "missing number." As the origins of his name would suggest, Missingno.'s music heavily incorporates game-like sounds that are reminiscent of many classic Nintendo games (such as Super Mario Bros., Pokemon, Sonic the Hedgehog) and combines them with elements of today's pop and hip-hop / RnB.

His most recent release, titled “Dirty Beach” is a two-song mini EP with really fun and up-beat summer vibes. He wrote the title track about Coney Island in Brooklyn, the beach he went to as a kid. The second song, ‘Bubbles’ is about imagining going out to the beach right now, and has an environmental vibe to it as well with lyrics about plastic on the beach.

Growing up he was obsessed with video games, to the point where his mother was tired of buying them and decided to instead buy him an ipod for christmas. “I never really listened to music as a kid until my mom got me that ipod.” At that time he began expanding his musical palette, listening to albums from artists like Tyler the Creator, Channel Orange by Frank Ocean, and Earl Sweatshirt’s album, Dorris. He also listened to a lot of soundtracks.

It wasn’t until he made it to college when he was introduced to the artist lifestyle and started to get into creating music. While attending the University of Texas, he met his friend Nick, who was an aspiring music producer. “I thought that was really cool and I asked him how he did it and he told him that he learned off Youtube. He would have shows, and I used to help him promote and assist him with filming music videos.”

Meeting an aspiring producer and realizing that he can learn from Youtube turned him onto producing music, but when he realized he was making non-commercial music and it would be hard to find someone to sing over his beats, he decided to try to sing over the production Himself.

“I bought my own mic, started recording myself, started writing. To this day I have never recorded in a studio. I was just too nervous to record in a studio. I thought i would sound terrible, i was not comfortable singing in front of people, so i did everything myself out of fear.” He put out his first project in 2015 called “The Screen.” The title derived from the fact that he was constantly in front of a screen (whether it was at his day job working at the Apple store, or he was producing and playing video games after work) so the screen is always present.

After graduating, he decided to move to Ohio for grad school to get his Masters in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. During that time he was part of the schools TV program where he would interview other artists, and he was also still writing and recording music himself. He ended up releasing a single called “Mood” in March 2019. 'Mood' was the lead single off of his '808-Bit Music’ project which was released summer 2019'. It’s a mid-tempo electronic song that captures the edgy, slightly angsty emotions of wanting to be left alone or waking up on the wrong side of the bed and just having a bad day. The instrumental for 'Mood' flips a sample from the original Pokemon Battle Theme over a synthy, 808-led instrumental. The music video for 'Mood' features me singing in the middle of Highland Square—a popular nightlife area in Akron, OH—in the snow, while wearing a Pikachu onesie.

He performed for the first time in September 2019, opening for CalenRaps in Brooklyn, NY. Followed by more performances in cities across the US, including Akron, Oh, the “Japan Boston Party” at an art gallery in Boston, MA; and Dallas, TX.

“Most of my performance opportunities came from simply networking and seizing opportunities. I used resources like IndieOnTheMove and Reverbnation and I would travel wherever I needed to. I actually went to Texas for SXSW and was trapped down there for a month when the pandemic hit.”

Since Covid 19 hit, Missingno has virtually performed for the ‘LAUNCH Festival’ (which usually takes place in Lancaster, PA). He also recorded a performance in his bedroom for the “Dayton Art In the City’ festival which was his first paying gig. Recently he was interviewed for online publication, Stimulate Your Soul, where he had the chance to elaborate on his sound, recent releases, Pokemon, and more. With a nice handful of songs in his repertoire, expect much more music and content on the way. Stay up to date with everything Missingno. related by following him on Instagram, Twitter and by subscribing to his newsletter.

MY MOST RECENT SHORT BIO – ABOUT MISSINGNO.: Currently based in Akron, OH, Missingno. is an alternative hip-hop artist hailing from Brooklyn, NY who explores Hip-Hop/R&B, Pop, and 8-Bit/Chiptune as he combines them into a chill musical experience. Missingno. has released two projects – The_Screen (2015) & 808-Bit Music (2019), in addition to one EP – Dirty Beach (2020). More recently, he has released multiple singles including 2024’s Infinite & Hazy_Thoughts. .