Mike McCarthy on Trance Roots and the Making of Right By You
The Montreal Producer’s Vocal Single with Viktoria Sunshine Opened Find Your Harmony Before Release
Two days before Right By You reached streaming services, Andrew Rayel opened episode 508 of Find Your Harmony with it. The track belongs to Mike McCarthy, a Montreal producer and DJ, and it features the vocalist Viktoria Sunshine. It came out on 28 August 2026 on nomads music. That early spin on a trance show says a good deal about where the record comes from.
Mike McCarthy’s Right By You, with Viktoria Sunshine on vocals, is in the playlist below next to this desk’s electronic and ambient picks, and earlier coverage of McCarthy sits on the Mike McCarthy artist profile. The single came to NewMusic.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Press play first, then keep reading for the timing behind it.
Why Right By You Arrives at a Busy Moment in Mike McCarthy’s Run of 2026 Releases
The timing makes more sense once the release calendar is laid out. Mike McCarthy has spent 2026 putting out music at a steady clip and across a wide spread of labels. Too Much to Hold, with the singer Olya Gram, came out on Soho Music in May. The Skybound EP followed in June on VANDIT Alternative, the label run by Paul van Dyk’s company. Then Soft Radiance arrived on Elliptical Sun Melodies on 21 August, just a week before Right By You. A month later, Silent Ascend appeared on Magic Island Records, again with Olya Gram.
Right By You is also the latest chapter in a longer relationship with one label. Mike McCarthy released Humanity’s Treasure on nomads music in 2024. He remixed the label’s own Nomads single that November and returned with Reverb of the Past in September 2025. So the new single lands with a label that already knows the producer’s sound. It also lands at a point when that sound is reaching more rooms than ever.
That reach is the real story of the moment. The catalogue now spans Coldharbour, Enormous Chills, Freegrant Music, Elliptical Sun and VANDIT Alternative. The releases move between progressive house, melodic house and trance. Andrew Rayel’s decision to open a two-hour show with Right By You fits that picture. Find Your Harmony is a trance programme. The record earned its first slot there before most listeners could stream it.
The Release Builds a Progressive House Track Around Viktoria Sunshine’s Vocal
Right By You runs for four minutes and thirteen seconds. It is melodic and vocal-driven, with warm melodic layers and an uplifting progressive production underneath Viktoria Sunshine’s performance. The structure reflects the way Mike McCarthy usually works. The atmosphere and feeling of melodic house sit over a backbone that comes from progressive house and trance.
The order of the work matters here. Rather than adding a voice to a finished instrumental, Mike McCarthy built the production around the vocal. In his own words: “Viktoria brought exactly the emotional character I was looking for. The vocal gave me the foundation to build the production around rather than treating the voice as simply another element in the arrangement.”
What a Trance-Rooted Producer Answers With a Vocal Track Made for More Than the Club
The question behind Right By You is one many melodic electronic producers face. Can a track built for the dance floor also hold a listener at home? Mike McCarthy’s answer is to put melody and songwriting first while keeping the structure a DJ needs. The vocal gives the record a way in for people who would never call themselves progressive house fans. Meanwhile, the production still works in a set.
That balance places the single in a long tradition. Paul van Dyk spent years pairing trance melody with guest singers, on records such as Time of Our Lives with Vega 4. Mike McCarthy now releases on the VANDIT Alternative imprint linked to Paul van Dyk’s company. Above & Beyond ran vocal trance and deeper progressive house side by side through Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep. Right By You works on a smaller scale than either, yet it draws on the same instinct to let a vocal carry an electronic record.
Who Right By You Is For, From Vocal Trance Fans to Melodic House Playlists
The natural audience is wide. Listeners who follow melodic house and progressive house will hear the production first. Fans of vocal trance and vocal progressive will hear the song. Listeners who keep emotional electronic music on their playlists, from melodic techno to uplifting house, will find a track that sits comfortably between both camps.
NewMusic.News’s curator team: “Right By You shows why the order of the work matters. Because Mike McCarthy built the track around Viktoria Sunshine’s vocal, the drop feels like part of the song instead of a break from it, which is rare in progressive house.”
Stream Right By You on Spotify. Then follow Mike McCarthy on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Beatport, Deezer, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud, Instagram, Facebook and X. The official site has the full story.
