AJ Mitchell celebrates the arrival of his years-in-the-making debut, ‘Skyview’

AJ Mitchell‘s debut album, Skyview, was supposed to be released in 2019, and then in 2020. But after having been delayed again, it finally came out last Friday, along with a new single and video, “Hi-Lo.” AJ says he really appreciates that his fans have waited this long for his music — because he’s not sure if he could’ve done the same.

“They’ve been so patient, they have been like blessings,” AJ tells ABC Audio. “They are blessings. They’re the best fans ever! I don’t know how I would react if someone, like, took this long for an album!”

And while the pandemic contributed to the delay, AJ says it also helped him realize that Skyview wasn’t quite complete.

“It’s kind of crazy how I had the album finished, but just having that extra time, you know, you write music, and you’re like, ‘This actually fits perfectly with the album,'” he says, adding, “I’ve been creating this album for the past two years, trying to find out who I am…and now I’m at that point where I feel like it all just came together.”

While not all of the 20-plus singles that AJ’s released over the past few years are on Skyview, one that is is “Used to Be,” which he wrote when he was just 13. AJ is 20 now, so why put such an old track on the album?

“It kind of just made sense because, at the end of the day, Skyview is a drive-in movie theater in my hometown,” he explains. “It’s where I came from, and I think it just it made sense to have ‘Used to Be’ on it, because I wrote [it] in my hometown when I was 13, and I think it just kind of ties together the whole album.”