Dijon, Mk.gee, and the Third Party Called Pop

Dijon released his seminal album Absolutely in 2021. From the very day it was released, it opened up a portal for artists who wanted to go beyond what was once known. Now, one could sway with spoonfuls of honey in their mouth, laying their sounds bare, not through make-believe lo-fi fuzz, nor self-indulgent late-night poetry, but through a collective care that clenches fists, only to land on wooden tables, trembling with laughter, because the joke really was funny, and your friends really do love you.The untold magic of togetherness is portrayed through drunken background noise, laughter, chatter, and cracked voices throughout the album. Having been recorded in an “omni-polar” way, with microphones that pick up 360° of the noise, you hear everything inside the room and the many lives each song lives. It’s so easy to want to come back to this record to revisit it, as you hear different layers of trembling honesty bleeding out between each song with every listen.

Throughout Absolutely, Dijon asks questions, even if some of them don’t necessarily end in question marks. “You can change your mind,” he repeats over a recording of drunken background noise. “Will you?” he asks actually, mute. Voice cracks, claps, the song finishes, on to the next one. "Did you see it? Pretty lights drift in and pretty lights drift out." He asks bluntly this time. He is curious, not only to exchange perspective, but also in the kind of sound curiosity makes. On Rodeo Clown, it’s Dijon’s voice that does all the heavy lifting. It bends, claws, sobs, sputters, shape-shifts into whatever the song needs in that second. You could line up a thousand vintage synths and a professional orchestra and they still wouldn’t land it the way he does. Because those things don’t panic or flinch as they they keep singing anyway.

In Mk.Gee’s music, the message is delivered through six strings, the medium is the message, if you will. His guitar doesn’t feel like an instrument so much as a third hand, an extension of thought before it becomes speech. As soon as it verbalizes itself, it vanishes into thin air, leaving a trail of myst and smoke. Songs end before you realize, his 2024 release album Two Star & The Dream Police clocks in at just 33 minutes. (A study should probably be conducted to track how many guitars have been bought since its release.) He has plenty of look-alikes and sound-alikes, yet no one ever quite captures the novelty of his music. You can teach someone to plug a guitar into a wall of pedals and reverb, but authenticity isn’t something you can pass on. There’s an enigma around him, a veil between what people hope to uncover and the hermit-like nature of his artistry.

With the undeniable sheen of their singular talent, it’s no surprise they’re the most sought-after duo around. Check the credits on any of your favorite recent releases, you’ll find them there. It makes for a great little “Ha!” moment. Bon Iver, was one of the latest artists who demanded the fingerprints of Mk.gee and Dijon for his latest record SABLE, fABLE. The song From opens with Mk.gee’s now signature guitar-riff, extending the boundaries of the song into sky-like limits, from the valley to the pier. In Day One Bon Iver dials Dijon in, and steps aside for a moment for him to work his magic.

Soon after the news hit about Mk.gee working with Justin Bieber, he gave an interview to New York Times, one of the very few he ever did.

“Anything that comes out of his mouth is pop music. You can really do pretty wild stuff behind that, just because it represents something.”  - Mk.gee on Justin Bieber

He seems to understand Justin Bieber’s definition of pop not only as a genre but as a cultural permission slip, as a container that people recognize and trust. Pop is the starting point, not the destination. In SWAG, the pop star's brand new album, Bieber’s voice is the brand, bright, global, instantly legible, and undoubtedly beautiful. Mk.gee builds around it with all the idiosyncrasies that define his own music. Even though he is only credited on the song DAISIES, the album revolves around the hurling guitar sound he perfected through his latest album Two Star & The Dream Police. The structuration of the beginning of SWEET SPOT is the same with How Many Miles, just packaged differently. WALKING AWAY has the same immediate effect of the beginning of Bon Iver’s “From” where you could put a bet on him having produced the song. BUTTERFLIES and THINGS YOU DO have the same guitar pattern of Dream Police. Whenever you hear guitar, you hear Mk.gee, whether he is the one doing the playing or not.

When it comes to Dijon’s relationship with pop stardom, it translates as a liminal, humble way of filling space. “I wanna hear some of the biggest pop artists in the world record with one room mic, and with me walking around in the background opening up a bag of chips while they’re singing,” he once told Pitchfork. I don’t know how many bags of chips he actually opened during these sessions, if any, but he’s credited all over the album, and Bieber seems to depend heavily on his vision. On SWAG, with he helping hand of Dijon, the music diagnoses the disposition of a room. It’s vastness, the people inside the studio with Bieber, or the lack thereof. Throughout the album, he tries to create intimacy with the listener through imperfection. Not only through subject matter, but more so by trying to rub off the sterile studio polish. Calling Dijon. 

On YUKON, Bieber’s autotuned voice hits a wall and ricochets, each guitar string distinctly audible. It plays like a demo, raw and skeletal, until the backing vocals ease in. GLORY VOICE MEMO deepens Justin’s pursuit of simplicity and emotional connection. The polished production steps aside as he sings over what feels like a loose jam session. ZUMA HOUSE strips things down even further; his voice drifts, coos, and murmurs with unguarded ease. On DEVOTION, Dijon steps in for an official feature and shifts the gears toward something softer, an acoustic turn bathed in country-mellow tones and a fuzzy folk warmth.

Anyone drawn to the sounds of Dijon or Mk.gee will find plenty to love here, their fingerprints are all over the record. Justin Bieber gains a kind of alternate credibility, while Dijon and Mk.gee explore the various ways in which they can leave a fingerprint on pop from the inside. The album being heavily reliant on R&B and soul sounds doesn't change the fact that it is a pop album. As Mk.gee mentioned, "Anything that comes out of his mouth is pop music." Mike Gordon was once regularly fired from his touring guitarist gigs because the way he played was considered "odd." Today, the oddity of his sound is becoming the new norm, though it won’t be long before he invents another one, as he’s quick to move on without lingering too long in any sphere he’s built, especially once it feels too inhabited. It’s not that he’s against the mainstream or trying to make a case for rockism, but simply that he lets the spirit of the music grow and follows his imagination deep into whatever rabbit hole it leads him down.

Pop stars will without a doubt, continue to look toward Dijon and Mk.gee for a sense of taste, for texture, for a certain feeling. I deeply enjoyed SWAG, yet if it were stripped down to its core and if you were to peel away the influence of Dijon and Mk.gee, you’d be left with very little. The skeleton doesn’t hold without their flesh. That’s not a diss against the record, it’s merely an observation on how completely their presence transforms it, even if it's the very presence of the biggest pop star. Their influence sounds more gravitational than decorative. Thefore, it becomes increasingly difficult, no matter how big your name on the tracklist, not to sound like the third party.