Don McCloskey ’95

In today’s fractured music world, it can be hard for new singles to get attention, but Don McCloskey ’95’s newest song “First in Flight” is resonating with a global audience thanks to a push from a dedicated fanbase, a feature from Spotify and its recent appearance in classmate Rob McElhenney ’95’s Apple TV+ show Mythic Quest.

 

“The song is part of the emotional climax of the season,” says McCloskey, who has remained close friends with McElhenney since their Prep days. “It ended up being a perfect match with the story line.”

 

“First in Flight,” an autobiographical song about moving forward with faith into uncertain conditions, is loosely based on the story of the Wright Brothers and is the first single off of McCloskey’s upcoming album, The Chaos and the Beauty, the fourth of his career. Influenced in part by a recent trip to Malawi, the African-inspired guitars are reminiscent of Paul Simon’s Graceland. The second single, “Unbecoming,” will drop in the fall.

 

“It was very serendipitous,” says McCloskey, who spent 2 ½ years working on the album. “Rob was in the studio a few times while I was recording and I shared the final songs with him. When he heard ‘First in Flight,’ he said it was perfect for what he needed for the season finale.”

 

The song has been streamed more than 200,000 times in its first month across streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon and Pandora. The song’s 10,000 hits on Shazam are also an indication that many new listeners heard the song on Mythic Quest and looked it up to listen again. 

 

“This is the first time I have ever concentrated on promoting a single ahead of the album,” says McCloskey. “The market is so fractured, you have to make sure that it lives in many different places at once.”

 

The PR is worth it to the musician, who recently appeared on WMMR’s Preston and Steve Show with McElhenney. “I love this record. I loved making this record. Everyone who worked on it put their lives into it so I’m happy to do what it takes to make sure the world hears it.”

 

This is not his first hit single or the first time his music has appeared on-screen. Over the course of a 20-year career, McCloskey’s music has appeared in multiple television series, national advertising campaigns, podcasts, and the Academy Award-winning documentary, Bowling for Columbine. 

 

Another single, “This Just In,” off of his second album, received mainstream radio play, including on WMMR in Philadelphia, and his song “Unstoppable”, written for the 2009 Phillies, was played across all radio formats and ultimately at Citizens Bank Park during every home game of the 2009 World Series. 

 

His upcoming album, The Chaos and the Beauty, was funded by his loyal fanbase who raised over $22,000 in two days on the online crowdsourcing site, Kickstarter. Recorded at Honey Jar Studios near his home in Brooklyn, the album consists of eight musicians and singers recording live to analogue tape as a “tribute to the singer-songwriter style pop music we grew up listening to,” he says. “David Byrne, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel all influenced it.”

 

This is also not the first time McCloskey and McElhenney have collaborated. Several of McCloskey’s songs appear in It’s Always Sunny, including “Up In This,” which was featured in “The High School Reunion” episode, shot on location at the Prep. McCloskey was also instrumental in bringing the cast of Sunny to the stage for their musical, The Nightman Cometh, when he invited them to perform at his show at the famed Troubadour in Los Angeles.

 

McCloskey, who was the class president, is still close to many of his classmates. “The Prep was something unique to me because it draws people from all over the place,” says McCloskey. “There was a diversity of perspectives so you ended up gravitating towards people with common interests rather than just common geography. Those bonds are stronger because they were based on your individual personalities.”

 

Relationships are important to Don, especially in his career. He has performed, recorded and collaborated with many of his 1995 classmates over the years, including McElhenney, Bryan Master, Brian Connell, Brian McMicken and Bill Mowers. “We have been working together for 25 years, based on our friendships and relationship from the Prep,” McCloskey says. “They grow deeper and more important as you grow older.”

 

“The thing that sticks with me and my friends from the Prep is that the call to be a Man for Others is something that is really, truly present in our lives and our minds, even as we go into the world and it gets difficult to do that,” he says. “It is still our North Star.”

 

To learn more about Don and his music, including a link to hear the new single and also to listen to the Preston and Steve interview with Don and Rob on WMMR, go to https://www.donmccloskey.com/.