If you're a fan of R&B, then we reckon you'll dig New York collective MICHELLE. Made up of Sofia D’Angelo, Julian Kaufman, Charlie Kilgore, Layla Ku, Emma Lee and Jamee Lockard, with Charlie and Julian handling the production, the mostly POC/queer group have some seriously out there influences.The group say their sound has elements of the likes of Noname, Led Zeppelin, My Chemical Romance and SZA - which makes their sound unlike anything we've heard before.
The group formed back in 2018, and initially, the plan was to just record their debut album HEATWAVE. Speaking to The Forty-Five, Sofia says they're embracing the chance to speak to a wider audience as a result of their music's success. "Now that we have this new platform, we want to share the fun that we have with each other, with the world, but also use the platform to empower our fans and our listeners."
The collective prefers to see themselves as just that, rather than a band. Speaking to NME about why this is the case, the group says it's important to remember they weren't brought together to form a band - it was organic. “It was really important for us to stay true to the fact that we were all brought together not for the purpose of forming a band, but more so for the purpose of working on a project. I think a lot of people kind of get caught up in like the optics of us and like the fact that we all grew up in New York City.
"There’s a lot of romanticising around that, but it really did happen organically, in the sense that we wanted to do this and we wanted to make music together. We realised that we’re in for the long game so we wanted to make sure people know that we all are our own individual musicians with our own bands that have nothing to do with MICHELLE or bands that are pieces of MICHELLE.”
After releasing their debut album, the collective hunkered down, working on some new music. The first song they released following HEATWAVE was SUNRISE, which feels like a breath of summer air. The collective often talks about the sun, which Julian told Love Letters is deliberate. "The challenge as an artist is to find the intersection between what you think others want to hear, and what you as an artist want to create. The vibes of the sidewalk in the heat has turned out to be a fruitful combination of our desires and our listener’s desires."
Their latest release is UNBOUND, which the collective says came about naturally, much like the rest of their music. Speaking about the track, they say, "UNBOUND came alive really fast. It’s about desire: the kind that oozes for the person you do want and the kind that evaporates for the person you don’t. We wanted to make something groovy and colorful, that could access nostalgia while also giving our listeners something new and danceable in a way we haven’t before."
There's a lot of truth in that statement. Their sound has a familiarity that means you're immediately drawn to it, but it also feels fresh and exciting. You're not confused by what they're doing, but by the same token, it doesn't sound stale or bored. Instead, it's got a sense of discovery. Check out UNBOUND above. The collective have a lot more music on the way, so f you're getting your summer playlists ready, you'll want to check out what MICHELLE has got in store.
