What is a 20 year old with insomnia to do in his unwanted early morning waking hours? If you are Adam Young, you start putting together songs with a computer and keyboards in your parents basement. That's where the story of Owl City begins. In a basement in Owatonna, Minnesota in 2007, Adam Young put together some songs, recorded them and posted them to MySpace calling himself Owl City. The songs soon took off and Owl City ended up with a viral hit, the song "Hello Seattle."

Owl City's first official release was a self-released EP titled Of June in 2007. It includes the song "Hello Seattle." In 2008 a full length album appeared titled Maybe I'm Dreaming. It was again self-released and built Owl City's fan following further. The style of music is melodic synthpop with often dreamy, fanciful lyrics.

Owl City's first major label album Ocean Eyes was released digitally in July 2009 by Universal Republic. The first single "Fireflies" was chosen as the iTunes single of the week, and it generated intense interest in the album. Ocean Eyes featured guest vocals from Relient K's Matt Thiessen on four songs. It reached #27 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart and "Fireflies" began climbing the Billboard Hot 100. By October 2009 "Fireflies" was a top 10 smash.