Michelle – Songs About You Specifically
Today, MICHELLE announces their new album Songs About You Specifically due September 27th via Atlantic Records and Transgressive in the UK.
Alongside the announcement the band shares a new single “Oontz.”
The track eases effortlessly into a silky groove, while detailing the pitfalls of an unstable relationship. Alongside the album the band are also announcing their North American tour titled A Tour For You Specifically with dates in Vancouver, Seattle, Denver, Los Angeles and more.
While writing their new album MICHELLE decided to rent out a house in Ojai, California. Surrounded by lizards, the smell of ripe cactus fruit, and endless expanses of sand, they experienced a sense of solitude and closeness they hadn’t before. It shifted the tone of their work. While their earlier music channeled the churning restlessness of the city, these news songs meander and expand into starry shoegaze reveries, slick funk riffs, and lilting 80s synth pop.
The months they spent touring, as well as the experience of living together in Ojai, fostered new bonds between the band. “There are friends I’ve had for almost my whole life who I won’t know as intimately as I know members of this group,” Emma Lee says. “There isn’t really an opportunity for that in any other kind of relationship in your life.” The sense of trust and comfort they fostered with each other allowed them to be more candid and vulnerable in their songwriting too. “It’s so easy to write a generic love or breakup song,” Julian Kaufman says. “But many of these stories are true. We’re coming from a really honest place.”
Their newfound closeness helped them write more vulnerable music. On Songs About You Specifically, the band members express their complicated desires, voice their regrets, and own up to their moments of selfishness. By slowing down, cutting out any distractions, and fostering a sense of communal closeness that necessitated honesty, MICHELLE ended up with a collection of songs that feel like the truth.
MICHELLE is comprised of Sofia D’Angelo, Julian Kaufman, Charlie Kilgore, Layla Ku, Emma Lee, and Jamee Lockard. The predominantly POC and queer collective mix and match the writing and production groups amongst the six of them. All 6 members of the group grew up in New York, and their fluorescent R&B encapsulates the best the city has to offer: the glow of neon lights bouncing off rain-slicked streets, the taste of a sticky mango purchased on a summertime Q train.
Upcoming Live Dates
10/30 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
11/1 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
11/2 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret
11/3 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza
11/6 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
11/8 – Denver, CO @ Lost Lake Lounge
11/10 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
11/13 – San Diego, CA @ Voodoo Room at House of Blues San Diego
11/14 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Roxy Theatre
#wearemichelle