Kyle McCarthy

Kyle McCarthy, better known by his stage name as NIIC the Singing Dog or just NIIC (pronounced "nice"), is a musical artist, performer and producer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Biography
Kyle McCarthy conceptualized NIIC the Singing Dog shortly after graduating in Music Composition from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and moving up to New York City in 2013. Kyle currently operates NIIC the Singing Dog in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and tours as the green, singing dog across the United States.

Kyle was a guest of honor at both FurCon and FangCon in 2014 as well as Fur-Xoticon in 2016. He was also a guest of honor at Megaplex 2018.

Character
Kyle McCarthy's character, NIIC is an anthropomorphic dog through which he performs and produces original indie dance-pop music. The green dog is a public figure in Philadelphia and a musical icon at festivals, anime conventions, furry conventions, and gamer conventions across the country.

A big green akita inu, the Singing Dog was first conceptualized in February 2013 by McCarthy. NIIC was inspired by a dog from Kyle's early childhood - a relative's husky named Nicki whom Kyle briefly grew up with. The unconventional green color of the character was chosen to reflect his vibrantly energetic personality, and was first mocked-up by the anthropomorphic artist Casparr. Kyle began the promotion of the green dog and its music within the furry fandom in March of 2013. In 2017, Kyle McCarthy expanded NIIC the Singing Dog's performance audience across additional fandoms and quickly integrated him into the Philadelphia festival and music scene.

The Singing Dog is in fact a revival of a previous anthropomorphic musical project Kyle had developed in Philadelphia, a web show puppet series called Sebastian the Singing Cockroach - a self-absorbed part-time artist and cockroach that worked at a city coffee chain and frequent lamented about being under-appreciated by the rest of society. Upon discovering the hardships of operating puppets, musical scoring, and video editing as a one-man team, Kyle revived the project in 2013 upon discovering the furry fandom and tweaking Sebastian to a live acting musical performance, ie. NIIC the Singing Dog.

Design
NIIC the Singing Dog was first designed digitally by artist Casparr. The first consistent wardrobe of NIIC to appear in various pieces of artworks was conceptualized by the Canadian artist Vallhund, who was also responsible for creating NIIC's signature logo (the headphone paw prints frequently displayed with NIIC). The first mascot costume modelled after NIIC's final design was constructed by New York crafters Blix Fox (head) and Faris Batwan (arms, paws, and tail). NIIC's most current costume was crafted by Grimmkitty Productions (head) and Sassypup Creations (arms, paws, and tail).

Music
NIIC the Singing Dog's music has a very upbeat, energetic sound, with a style similar to Mika, Walk The Moon, and Foster The People. His vocals are typically accompanied by energized and syncopated synthetic backing tracks, dispersed with live instrumentation. Kyle McCarthy produces all songs within Pro Tools and mixes them through an Apogee Quartet console. His microphone of choice is the dynamic Shure SM7b, and incorporates virtual instrumentation software into his tracks, such as Kontakt, EastWest, Superior Drummer, Trilian, and Stylus RMX.

Discography
At the start of 2013, Kyle McCarthy released several "rough drafts" of songs that would appear in future albums, such as The Extended Play and Unleashed. It was originally entitled Paws to the Walls but was never formally published as an official album.

It was not until July 2013 that Kyle McCarthy released NIIC's first album (the Extended Play), during the opening of Anthrocon 2013. NIIC the Singing Dog's first full-length album was released on Valentine's Day of 2014, titled Unleashed. NIIC's second album, Instinct, was debuted at Fangcon 2014. In 2016, "Beast" was released and toured throughout the United States. In 2017, NIIC released his first Christmas-themed album "Deck the Dogs", which included remakes of earlier Christmas singles "All I Want For Christmas Is a Boy" and "The List".

In addition, NIIC has also released cover tracks and song commissions which are not yet compiled into albums, but appear in piecemeal on various media websites such as SoundCloud, YouTube, BandCamp and formerly HypedSound and Grooveshark. He also has his own website NIICMusic and accepts commissions here.

In July 2018, he announced in a Q&A on YouTube, that his next album, Escape the Humans, was set for a late 2018 release. Due to delays and having started album production in December 2018, it is now scheduled for a release sometime in 2019.

Singles

 * 1) T.B.U.Y.G.F.U. (Wanna Break Up? Version) (2013)
 * 2) All I Want for Christmas Is a Boy (2013)
 * 3) The List (2014)
 * 4) Paws Up! (feat. Hixbi Fox) (2014)
 * 5) Paws to the Walls (Fursona Version) (2014)
 * 6) I Don't Need Love (2015)
 * 7) Fall is Fallsome (2015)
 * 8) Broke On Christmas (2018)

The Extended Play (2013)

 * 1) Oh Yeah, Baby!
 * 2) In Love With the DJ
 * 3) Make Me Your Beat
 * 4) Never Catch Me
 * 5) Arcade Desire

Unleashed (2014)

 * 1) Introduction: My Name is NIIC
 * 2) The Singing Dog
 * 3) Whatever U Want Me 2 Be
 * 4) Paws to the Walls (Album Version)
 * 5) The Bass Drop
 * 6) Freaks
 * 7) Do What Feels Good
 * 8) T.B.U.Y.G.F.U.
 * 9) Knock, Knock
 * 10) All We Need is Distance
 * 11) There's No Good in a Goodbye
 * 12) Take Me Higher
 * 13) Unleashed

Instinct (2015)

 * 1) Breaking News with Julia Meisgeier
 * 2) Instinct
 * 3) It's How We Do
 * 4) We're Taking Back the Night
 * 5) This Land is Ours
 * 6) Not Going Home Tonight
 * 7) Brush Yourself Off
 * 8) The Best Thing That Happened
 * 9) Incoherent (Bee Sae Bai)
 * 10) My Friends
 * 11) Jack of Hearts
 * 12) Our March
 * 13) Till the Music Stops

Beast (2016)

 * 1) Introduction: I Am
 * 2) Beast
 * 3) Howl At The Moon
 * 4) The Next Horizon
 * 5) PhD In Mixology
 * 6) Could You Ever
 * 7) Heart In Me
 * 8) The Watchmaker
 * 9) We Are Lovers (Of The Light)
 * 10) The Dog House
 * 11) Thank You (For Being There)
 * 12) President Of The United States Of Dance
 * 13) Our Time Will Come

Deck the Dogs (2017)

 * 1) My Wish
 * 2) The List (Remastered)
 * 3) All I Want for Christmas (All I Want for Christmas Is a Boy Remastered)
 * 4) Once Upon a Holiday
 * 5) Brand New Year