Powell Aguirre (born April 10, 2000), known by the stage name Surf Mesa, is an American electronic musician from
Seattle. He gained fame for the single "
ILY (I Love You Baby)" (2019), a song which sampled a cover of
Frankie Valli's "
Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (1967) and gained popularity on
TikTok.[2]
Biography
Aguirre was born in
Seattle, and is the son of jazz saxophonist Tony Aguirre.[1] He has been making music since the third grade of elementary school, first learning through
FL Studio and production tutorials on YouTube.[2] He began working on the Surf Mesa project in high school, releasing music on
SoundCloud.[3] His stage name was chosen based on the Counter-Strike map of the same name.[4] As Aguirre was planning a move to
Arizona to study computer science at a technology school, he broke his leg and was bed-bound for three months.[5] During this time, Aguirre was able to focus fully on producing music.[5]
Aguirre decided to move to
Los Angeles after visiting a girl he was interested in, as he realized the opportunities for musicians in the city.[5] In 2019, Aguirre released his debut single "Taken Away" featuring Alexa Danielle,[6] and his debut
extended playBedroom.[7] In November, Aguirre released "
ILY (I Love You Baby)", a song based on singer Emilee's cover of "
Can't Take My Eyes Off You".[2] The song gained massive popularity on video platform
TikTok, leading to Aguirre being signed by
Astralwerks and
Universal.[8] By June 2020, the song had become an international hit, reaching the top 10 in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Scotland, the Netherlands, Malaysia and Singapore, and the top 5 of the BillboardHot Dance/Electronic Songs chart.[9]
In June 2020, Aguirre released an official remix for American electronic musician
Marshmello and American singer
Halsey's "
Be Kind".[10]