INTERVIEW: MICHELLE talk their new album 'Songs About You Specifically': "It was awesome to be in a space that felt safe enough to take musical risks, and that translated into the final product."
Image: Raphael Gaultier
Published: 8 October 2024
US six piece band MICHELLE (made up of Sofia D'Angelo, Julian Kaufman, Charlie Kilgore, Layla Ku, Emma Lee, and Jamee Lockard) have recently released their third studio album Songs About You Specifically. Its eleven tracks cross the musical border where indie meets pop, with forays into synth, shoegaze and funk.
Preceded by the release of the singles ‘Oontz’, ‘Mentos and Coke’ and ‘Cathy’, the album sees the band explore complicated desires, voice regrets and foster community, all leading to raw honesty. While writing the album, the band rented a house in Ojai, California where they were surrounded by lizards and endless sandscapes that resulted in a profound sense of solitude and closeness that would ultimately shift the tone of their work, away from sounds driven by their hometown of New York and into a gentler, chilled sound.
The album starts with second single ‘Mentos and Coke’ which has a feel of the late 1990s post-grunge indie sound with some gorgeous vocals that are gentle and strong at the same time as they sing of friendships and perhaps the feeling that one part of the relationship is impossible to read: ‘Are you amazed by everybody else or do you refuse to be?’
‘Akira’ is a sultry, funky-pop-R&B track, the first of three songs with first names as their title, and it looks at being trapped between loving both a man and a woman. ‘I love Adrienne / But in the end / I'm leaving with him.’ Third single ‘Cathy’ is a mellow, guitar pop song that tells of missing someone - ‘Find myself alone again without you, Cathy / I wanna be with you’ - while the final track in the trifecta of first names, ‘Noah’, starts as a gentle piano song until electronic beats combine with the piano giving it hints of Italo house and synthpop.
‘Missing on One’ is an album highlight, a gorgeously melancholic electro-indie track with lush, warm vocals and lyrics that speak to the pain of when a friendship falls apart due to neglect, and you realise it is too late to turn things around. ‘Maybe we'rе better off if I stay gone…And even though we're out of touch / I wish that you'd shout to turn around and stop it’.
First single ‘Oontz’ oozes with funk and R&B with lyrics that defy the perky, feel good vibes of the production, with a story of being deceived by a partner: ‘I knew that you lied to me / You said you loved me, but I know what you did.’
The album ends with ‘Trackstar’ which in many ways is a sonic outlier on the album. With a more heavily electronic soundscape, it leans into electronica, trance and house and with its uplifting message of perseverance and embracing the good and bad, it is the perfect, feel good end to a beautiful album - ‘Start to cry just a little bit / Realise we're not winning it…Now we ache and we deal with it / Or we break and we reel in it / So you swallow your pride, it's on the line’
MICHELLE have created a moving, emotive and exquisite album with Songs About You Specifically that pulls at the heartstrings while also empowering and invigorating your spirits. The sense of community and closeness they felt when recording the album has transferred absolutely to the music and listening to the album also gives you a sense of connection with the band, along with a delicious wave of the feels. We recently sat down with MICHELLE to chat more about their music and the creation of the album.
Hey MICHELLE! Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us. How is everything in your world right now?
James: MICHELLE world has been super busy, but it’s been the best kind of busy. We just got home from tour with Still Woozy a few weeks ago, and since then we’ve been in album release mode with a headline tour on the horizon.
That album, your third studio album Songs About You Specifically was released at the end of September and I have to say a massive congratulations because it is such a beautiful album. You wrote the album in a rented house in Ojai, California and you have said how this shifted the tone of your work. Can you tell me a little more about this, and how your creative process changed?
James: Living together in the desert, far away from our home of New York City, allowed us to experience a very different pace of living than we’re used to. We were able to slow down and get away from the distractions of city life. Our mornings were filled with stretching, meditation, journaling, and fueling up on coffee before our sessions for the day. Our afternoons were spent writing in groups of 2 or 3, and our evenings were spent eating dinner together outside.
Going into the creation of the album, was there an intention as to what sound, themes, or feels you were aiming for with the songs?
Sofia: At least for me, a lot of the Ojai writing sessions had me being more honest than I’d ever been with my band mates or myself. The tracks we were presented with were different than what I would’ve described as “typical” for the MICHELLE sound, as Charlie and Julian were experimenting with more sample-based beats. So it was awesome to be in a space that felt homey and safe enough to take musical risks, and I think that translated into the final product.
One of my favourite songs on the album is ‘Missing On One’. It has this gorgeous synthpop-indie sound with melancholic lyrics. Can you tell me about the story behind this song?
Emma: The core of this song was written on October 26, 2022. I was busy during the group writing on this day so Charlie and Julian sent a track to me at home to take a stab at. Often in MICHELLE we are away, busy or in rehearsal - it can be hard to see people or feel like a standup friend when you are absent or too tired to connect. It felt cheeky but also honest to write about this helpless, disappointing feeling over a beautiful sampled track. When we all got together on it, we were able to draw more from relationships and tour experiences, expanding on how we aren’t always such good people to the people in our lives.
The album ends with ‘Trackstar’, this has some really beautiful melodies and vocals. I am always curious about track listings, did you always intend this one to close the album?
Emma: Maybe I’ll get this wrong, but I do think it always lived towards the end in our minds. Once the track was finished, it felt like it was pointing towards the future, so following that sound with a song about certainty felt odd. The production feels intimate but also expansive, and I think the song revealed to us where it ought to be if that makes sense
Layla: I would agree with Emma. There’s a finality to Trackstar, and I’ve personally always imagined it playing at the end of a coming-of-age film (A24 - I’m making direct eye contact). It wasn’t made purposefully for the last track slot on the album, but it certainly fits there.
For those we might be new to your music, what is the story of MICHELLE? How did you come together?
Sofia: We all matched with each other on Raya. Just kidding! We first came together solely to make an album. Julian and Charlie had met through a mutual friend, and each of the singers knew one of the guys from either school or the NYC music scene or otherwise. Back in the summer of 2018, we wrote and recorded our album HEATWAVE in two weeks, ended up in this massive group chat, and only met each other properly for the first time at our first ever show at Bard College in November 2018.
Who are the artists that inspire you as musicians? Is there a collective love of particular artists or music that you all share?
Jamee: I’ve been listening to a lot of Ravyn Lenae and Hope Tala lately, and I’m generally really inspired by the songwriting of Amy Winehouse and Sade. As a band, we have pretty varied influences, but I think Stevie Wonder is one of the artists at the centre of our six way Venn diagram.
Sofia: I’d say us singers were active participants in Brat summer, and have a shared love for Charli and that album. We also love Caroline Polachek. Personally, Brat got me combing through A.G. Cook’s discography, which I’m so inspired by, especially as a DJ because he makes so many unique sounds and rhythms that get a dance floor going in a way I wouldn’t have expected.
You have a headline tour of the US coming up in October. How are you feeling about that, and what can we expect from your shows?
Emma: We are excited! The fall is definitely becoming more and more busy but it’s an absolute highlight of this job to perform for our audience. I foresee us being very sore but it’s nothing Tiger Balm can’t fix. We’ve been grinding on this new show so I think people can expect the quirkiness they know and hopefully enjoy, but at an elevated level. We have live drums, bass, and lots and lots of choreography. You’ll just have to come and see to find out ;)
Layla: I think it’s apparent now that we’ve become much more comfortable on stage, in our set. We have over 5 years under our belt at this point, so the flow of the show feels much more fluid I’d say. We’ve found our rhythm in a nice way.
You are a majority queer POC group which is beautiful to see. The music industry has not always been particularly embracing of diversity, in the main due to the fact it has been run for so long by older, straight, white men. How have you found navigating this industry that doesn’t always give the respect deserved to artists who don’t fit into that white straight male box?
Jamee: I feel really lucky to be surrounded by a team who appreciates us in our entirety and encourages us to be our most authentic selves. We’ve heard so many horror stories of artists, especially women, being pressured to present themselves with a very specific, conventional image of beauty in order to cater to the masses. So, I really appreciate that we have always been given the freedom to express ourselves, musically and visually, in a way that feels true to us.
Sofia: I remember at one of our first few shows, we played a support slot in NYC and all the singers hung out in the audience to watch the headliner. An older man in the crowd recognized us and went, “Wow! You girls are incredible singers! And those guys… Those boys write some great songs!” And we were stunned, and told him, “Oh thank you, we all write the songs together, actually.” And I don’t know if he didn’t believe us or didn’t hear us but he LITERALLY responded, “Wow. Yeah, those boys write some good songs.” Luckily that doesn’t happen as often, but the fact that it happens says a LOT about how the industry is perceived.
Songs About You Specifically is out now and then you have your US tour, what else is in the cards for you in 2024 and into 2025?
Sofia: A LOT. Our rescheduled NYC dates with Still Woozy are coming up, which will be such a fun reunion. More dates were announced for the US in Jan/Feb - tickets available now ;) We’re also sitting on some music… but we’re always sitting on music. Or chairs. Or the floor.
Songs About You Specifically is out now via Progressive/Warner Music. You can buy and stream here.
Follow MICHELLE on Instagram and Facebook.
