MkX’s new single Up arrives as a glittering fusion of Y2K nostalgia and futuristic sound design, showing exactly why the Billboard-charting artist has become one of electro-pop’s boldest voices. Released a few days ago, the track blends punchy 2000s-style hooks with the chaos of hyperpop, creating a sonic rush that feels both familiar and forward-looking.
Produced with longtime collaborators Myah Marie and Brandon Colbein, Up takes cues from Max Martin’s golden-era pop while sprinkling in unexpected textures. “Lasers, bubbles, zaps, bleeps and bloops,” as MkX puts it, give the song its rocketship energy. The artwork by Chris Lee even includes a cheeky nod to Janet Jackson’s Doesn’t Really Matter, featuring the same robotic dog that became an early-2000s icon.
“The louder the personality, the louder the music,” MkX says. A Berklee graduate, he crafts his music and visuals with obsessive precision, designing every detail from stage effects to video content. “I like to take everything I do and crank it to the highest maximum I can. My music is a mix of pop and electronic with intricate ear-catching sound design, incorporating different samples of gadgets and pieces of technology from my childhood.”
This maximalist approach extends beyond the studio. Over the past year, MkX has turned Pride stages into full-scale spectacles, from Las Vegas to Oakland, culminating with a centre stage performance at World Pride in Washington, DC, in front of thirty thousand people. With Up, MkX doesn’t just revisit the past; he reimagines it for 2025.