Navigating a space where he rarely saw himself wasn’t easy for pop-punk artist MICO. “It was really weird being the one Filipino kid on the scene for a while,” MICO shares. Though he initially felt pressure to fit popular trends, like 88rising’s pop-leaning sound, he ultimately chose to embrace his guitar-driven roots. “I didn’t really fit in with the API kids having their moment, but I didn’t belong with the scene that I felt my music aligned with. I always felt like the underdog.”
He found the push he needed from the Asian rock musicians who paved the way before him. “There are so many legends that made me feel a bit more seen as a kid,” he notes. “Mike Shinoda, Dave Baksh, One Ok Rock… if they could figure it out, so could I.”
Reflecting on #APIHeritageMonth, MICO recognizes his impact by simply taking up space for his growing and diverse fanbase. “I didn’t think that of myself until I heard it from my fans more and more, how simply existing in this scene made them feel so much more accepted and willing to be more ambitious and individualistic. And that’s all that you really should be striving for, isn’t it?”