Ayokay

Hailing from Los Angeles, DJ and producer Alex O'Neill, professionally known as Ayokay, specializes in EDM that draws liberally from pop, hip-hop, and R&B traditions. Two of his tracks registered on the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart: the 2016 release “Kings of Summer” recorded with Quinn XCII and the 2017 single “The Shine” that featured Chelsea Cutler. Those successes preceded his first full-length album, In the Shape of a Dream, which surfaced in 2018; the EP We Come Alive followed the next year. On the 2022 album Digital Dreamscape he adopted a darker, more refined sonic approach, then returned in April 2024 with the club-focused single “Feel It.”

Born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Ayokay began creating music during his final year of high school in tandem with longtime friend Mike Temrowski, who records as Quinn XCII. The two continued refining their material after graduation while O’Neill attended the University of Michigan and Temrowski enrolled at Michigan State University. Their 2016 single “Kings of Summer” was quickly embraced by Texas Rangers outfielder Ian Desmond as his walk-up song; it later reached number 16 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart and helped the pair secure a contract with Columbia Records.

Around the same period Ayokay moved to Los Angeles to pursue his career full-time. In 2017 he issued the solo track “Shine” featuring Chelsea Cutler, which entered the Top 50 of the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart. His debut album, In the Shape of a Dream, arrived the following year and contained the singles “Sleepless Nights” with Nightly and “Stay with Me” with Jeremy Zucker. Further songs appeared in 2019—“Things Fall Apart,” “Move On,” and “Sleeping Next to You”—alongside the EP We Come Alive.

September 2021 brought the single “I Still Need You,” the first preview of his sophomore album Digital Dreamscape. The record offered a somewhat darker, more sonically sophisticated and mature statement than its predecessor and included appearances by Quinn XCII, Stay Over, Nightly, Disco Lines, and Slenderbodies. The upbeat, summer-oriented single “Feel It” was released in April 2024.