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MICHELLE Are Like a Party That Everyone's Invited To

For this rising six-piece collective, building community is just as important as making lovable, genre-bending music.

MICHELLE care about their community. It’s not the type of care where the band play an occasional concert in New York City and shout “We love you, New York!” Their care looks like hosting community picnics and art shows, raising money for a local soup kitchen, and performing free concerts in the city that gave them their start.

Formed through a group text, the six-member group consider themselves to be a collective, always changing, evolving, and welcoming new ideas and new sounds. At times, there would be five members performing, or three, or at its bleakest, two.

Now more static, the band is composed of Sofia D’Angelo, Julian Kaufman, Charlie Kilgore, Layla Ku, Emma Lee, and Jamee Lockard. They recently opened for music superstar Mitski and are fresh off the debut of their sophomore album, After Dinner We Talk Dreams, earlier this year . The album is infused with inspiration from a plethora of music genres, but they all blend to create a cohesive vision. There’s crooning, dance-worthy tracks, euphoric R&B melodies, and sucker-punching lyrics that evoke an almost guttural shout from Gen Z. Take the hard-hitting line “cities crumbling, well I don’t mind, I think you’re hotter than the burning sky,” on their song “End of the World.” They seem say we dance while we cry, and we have to party as we watch the world burn.

As MICHELLE continue to establish themselves and develop their relationship with their fans, they’re growing closer amongst each other too. “When we made our first album, we weren’t like a gaggle of besties, you know, like the band made us a family,” says vocalist Sofia D’Angelo. “The hang time is just as important to the performance as the rehearsals itself. ... I think what really makes the MICHELLE show special is the interactions between the six of us on stage, we want to make it a party that everyone's invited to.”

ELLE.com caught up with the band right before a show in Seattle to discuss their recent success, the dynamics of the band, and their commitment to social justice.

I would love to know how you all met and what it took to get you all together.

Sofia D’Angelo: So MICHELLE came together when Julian and Charlie met through a mutual friend, and the two of them got along so well. And, these two silly boys were like, “We should make a record!” So, in the summer of 2018, the two of them decided to make an album and they reached out to their favorite songwriters and vocalists that they knew from different points in their lives. So, me and Emma had known Julian through the New York City music scene. Jamee and Layla both knew Charlie from school, Jamee from college and Layla from elementary school onward. We would all go to Julian's apartment on different days to record this album. Then, [our first album, Heatwave ], came out in September 2018 and at that point, we still hadn't all been in the same room.

And a lot of you were in college when you all started working together. What was that like, having to balance school and creating a record?

Jamee Lockard: It’s very difficult. At first, it was fine, because we were all in school, and it was kind of like, “Oh, we’re on a break, let’s write this winter break, or let’s write this summer,” but then as time progressed, some of us graduated, some of us dropped out, some of us were still in school. Then we’d signed a record deal on top of that and had management, so it kind of became a full-time job while Sofia and I were still full-time students. And there’s a pandemic on top of that. So, it was a lot by the end, but we got out, we graduated, and now none of us are in school.

SD: Yeah, Jamee and I were reminiscing because during one of our big writing retreats for After Dinner, We Talk Dreams we would have sessions where I would straight up just be in Zoom class while like coming up with melodies with Charlie and Jamee. People would be making dinner and I’d be like, writing out my essay for a class I was in.

I’m also curious, where did the name MICHELLE come from?

Charlie Kilgore: So many of our musical heroes, especially in the kind of ‘90s R&B world that we love to occupy—like Brandy, Monica, and Aaliyah, and then if you go older, you have Madonna and if you go more recently, you have Beyoncé and Solange—they have the mononym female name.

SD: Cher, Lorde, Adele.

CK: And, I think we wanted to continue in that tradition. We put out like, a bazillion names, and MICHELLE was the only one that was good. Gertrude was a second choice, but that would have been admittedly horrendous.

But what made MICHELLE the name that was good? What was the thing ?

CK: The fact that it wasn’t Gertrude…

Layla Ku: It was all we could agree on.

SD: Yeah, the fact that it wasn’t I Sniff Paint.

LK: Which was an option…

JL: Delicious Breakfast was another one.

CK: Delicious Breakfast was good. I liked that one.

I love it. So, can you explain why you call yourselves a collective?

LK: I mean, initially, when we talked about it, at the same time, during naming this and deciding what it was, we didn't have any idea of what it would form into. Still now, we’re all artists of different mediums. Emma’s also a dancer, Jamee and Emma make visual art, Sofia and Charlie make music on their own, we’re all making music on our own at the time, too, [and] Charlie’s a playwright. We all have a bunch of different shit going on. We still all have our own endeavors outside of MICHELLE, and we’re still individual artists, as well as one kind of joint entity. But I feel like, at its core, a collective is just kind of more applicable for who we are as people.

Did you all envision MICHELLE being the success it is right now?

CK: No. No fucking way.

SD: I like to say your dreams do come true, but never in the way that you anticipate them to. So, all the things that MICHELLE is doing right now are things that I talked about doing when I was in elementary school, middle school. I was like, I want to go on tour, I want to play festivals, I want to cut records like, blah, blah, blah. And, I thought I was gonna have to do that alone or with my high school three-piece rock band that was trying to be Green Day. But instead it came to life with this miraculous group of individuals I would not have known if it weren’t for making Heatwave , you know, it’s crazy.

Julian Kaufman: This is a kind of dream. I feel like I had to sell this to Charlie, and sell this Emma, and sell this to Jamee. As we were signing our first management contract, everybody was still like, but I don’t know. What if I just want to do something else , and I had to like sit down and be like, no, here's a path, here's a reality, like, we can make this reality a thing .

I’ve noticed you put social justice and making an impact at the front of what you do. Can you talk about why?

SD: I think as an artist, you make art because you want to make the world a better place. You know, you want to make the world a better place for yourself, and maybe for others. But if you do that for either person, it affects everyone. So, let’s say I want to make the song that I want to hear. It could also be the song that someone else wants to hear too, and it could make their life better.

.css-1aear8u:before{margin:0 auto 0.9375rem;width:34px;height:25px;content:'';display:block;background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-1aear8u:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/elle/static/images/quote.fddce92.svg);} .css-1bvxk2j{font-family:SaolDisplay,SaolDisplay-fallback,SaolDisplay-roboto,SaolDisplay-local,Georgia,Times,serif;font-size:1.625rem;font-weight:normal;line-height:1.2;margin:0rem;margin-bottom:0.3125rem;}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-1bvxk2j{font-size:2.125rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-1bvxk2j{font-size:2.125rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1bvxk2j{font-size:2.25rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 73.75rem){.css-1bvxk2j{font-size:2.375rem;line-height:1.2;}}.css-1bvxk2j b,.css-1bvxk2j strong{font-family:inherit;font-weight:bold;}.css-1bvxk2j em,.css-1bvxk2j i{font-style:italic;font-family:inherit;}.css-1bvxk2j i,.css-1bvxk2j em{font-style:italic;} “I like to say your dreams do come true, but never in the way that you anticipate them to.”

But, as a collective, I think our goal is to make music for people to listen to. It’s a very selfless act for us, and part of our responsibility, especially with the platform that this music has given us. We make this music for others, we have this platform where people can see us; we would be completely remiss to not take advantage of it to shine light on things that need funding, things that need attention, things that people are not paying attention to. We’re native New Yorkers born and raised in the city, you know, not like, Westchester. We want to shine light on causes in our hometown to support our community, as best as we can. Because why would you have a platform and not use it to help other people? You have an audience and people who are willing to listen? Might as well take advantage.

JL: One tangible example of that is we had a community picnic a couple weeks ago where we physically brought people together to enjoy a nice summer day. But instead of just being like, let’s all vibe together , we also had a community element of, let’s make this a clothing drive as well and donate to a community center that we really believe in .

SD: It’s called The Door . They’re doing really amazing things.

Going off of that, I know you’re performing a show at Hudson Yards soon. What does it mean for you to come back to New York? How is performing in the city different for you all?

CK: I think, because it’s kind of impossible not to just write what you know, regardless of how far out your fiction is, a lot of our songs, because they’re very personal, even if they don’t directly reference places like the subway or whatever, they all sort of inevitably take place in New York. I think there’s just a way that the music resonates on a slightly deeper level, when you’re playing it in the world that the stories that you’re actually happening in, and also all of our friends and family.

SD: Yeah, the New York fans go crazy, which is nice, because usually shows in New York, the crowd is pretty chill, kind of like when you play shows in L.A., like, these are the cities where these things happen all the time. But, New York goes nuts for the MICHELLE party, as they should.

I would love to talk a little bit about After Dinner, We Talk Dreams . I think I read somewhere that there were a lot of songs that didn't make it onto this album. How did you whittle it down to the final songs that made it?

CK: We chose 14 from 49.

CK: Yeah, correct fucking response. Like, imagine all six of us each having a whole spate of individual favorite songs and having to be very civil as we campaign for the songs that we like. It was like if you've ever watched a like a documentary about what like the royal court in medieval times was like. It was high-level palace intrigue. There was the court there was assassination attempts. It's rough, but we did it. And it was fine.

JL: And I think the process was kind of like, Charlie and Julian had divided those 49 songs into genres of like ‘80s pop, left-field tracks, and ‘90s R&B. So, we kind of picked our favorites from each category, that way, we didn’t end up with an entirely ‘80s album. We want it to be very fluid with our genres and just show our range.

Did any of you have to really kill one of your darlings?

SD: Oh, yeah, yeah, I’ll say it out loud. I wish “Fool for You” was on the actual album. I love that song.

CK: Yeah, everyone has that little one that they keep in the back of their mind.

Emma Lee: I think part of it too is that we picked a handful that we want to continue to develop. Those songs weren’t quite ready to be made and it doesn’t make them any less or lesser than the songs you know, it just means, these just aren’t ready, but they shall be.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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Much like the city itself, the music inspired by New York is always changing, always evolving. Meet MICHELLE: Sofia D’Angelo, Julian Kaufman, Charlie Kilgore, Layla Ku, Emma Lee, and Jamee Lockard. Six 21-year-olds raised across Manhattan and Brooklyn; six like-minded individuals who came together in an unlikely way.

The kernel of inspiration for what would eventually become MICHELLE started in the spring of 2018 when Julian and Charlie were both in their second semester at separate colleges, both wading through bad breakups and looking for something to pull them out of the mire. “We wanted to be doing something instead of proactively destroying ourselves,” explains Julian. “So we started FaceTiming all the time.” Both trained multi-instrumentalists with self-taught production chops, the pair had been orbiting one another since their mid-teens at house parties and onstage at all-age event spaces like 7eventytwo. So they came up with this: write and record a one-off, quasi-concept record about growing up in New York… and do it in two weeks.

Pulling in vocalists they’d befriended in high school (Layla), college (Jamee), and through the local music scene (Sofia + Emma), alongside additional New York musicians and singers, the pace was swift, the method unconventional. Using Julian’s keyboard-strewn bedroom as a studio – monitors under his lofted bed and a makeshift vocal booth sandwiched between shelves and some hanging clothes – the vocalists would come in pairs and write alongside Julian and Charlie, laying down two tracks a day.

Fueled by passion and frozen pizza, the project was not without its nerves and tensions; after all, a creative collaboration in a small space with people you don’t know that well is a terrifying prospect for anyone. “A great record is like a tempestuous relationship – if there’s not some struggle to make it as great as it needs to be, you’re not going to hear any emotion in the music,” notes Charlie. “When me and Julian are battling it out in the control room that’s when I know it’s working.”

Released in September 2018, HEATWAVE is a streets-and-skylines homage to their hometown. The lyrics capture the city’s idiosyncrasies (“2.25,” “MANGO”), its magnetic pull and its polarizing qualities too (“STUCK ON U,” “THE BOTTOM”), all set to R&B-inflected pop, sleek synths, plush harmonies, and buoyant grooves. The collective’s omnivorous, disparate influences – Noname, Led Zeppelin, Sly and the Family Stone, Orion Sun, My Chemical Romance, SZA, to name a few – distilled to create a cohesive whole. But it wasn’t till a few months later that the group finally came together for the first time to rehearse – just once – on the day of their debut show (at Bard College where Layla and Emma were studying). “I feel like everyone was extra themselves that day,” recalls Layla. “So I really got a sense of who they were and how they moved through the world.” That evening the venue was packed and the audience knew the words to every song.

In some ways, it was only when the sextet started performing live that MICHELLE began to coalesce as a true creative collective rather than a standalone musical project. “There’s definitely a lot more comfort now,” says Layla. “This time around someone might come to Julian’s house and be like, ‘Yo, I’m so depressed today, this thing happened to me…’ and that would spark the writing.”

As their relationships strengthened so too did their songwriting abilities, turning inwards and to each other for lyrical grist. The push and pull of romantic relationships feature in songs like “Sunrise,” with its smart syncopation and indelible hook, or the smooth, 90s R&B swagger of “Unbound.” Elsewhere “FYO” sees Jamee and Emma taking the creative lead, exploring their biracial identity, setting their shared observations to a skippy beat and loungey, funked up sonics. It was the first time the two half-Korean songwriters had ever tackled such subject matter, but for a group predominated by queer, biracial women the space to discuss such topics is key.

“It’s very comfortable to be around such a diverse group of people – there’s real discussion and reflections about racial identity,” says Sofia, herself of Cuban-Italian descent. “It’s about being as honest as possible. Now we have this outlet to share our stories.”

“It wasn’t intentional at all,” adds Emma of the group’s composition. “But it’s going to matter for the people we play for, and in the work that we make, and the spaces we occupy.”

Listening to a recent podcast with Stevie Nicks and The 1975’s Matt Healy, Sofia was struck by a comment from Fleetwood Mac’s first lady: “What keeps a band together is when every member is still impressed by the other members in the group.”

It’s a notion that certainly rings true for MICHELLE. When the band recall their initial encounters, it’s clear they’re impressed, and in some cases in awe, of each other’s skills. The effect is almost of an unspoken individual challenge to push themselves forward creatively. Although MICHELLE is their top priority and focus, each member is involved in other endeavors, whether that’s solo projects or other bands (some with each other), finishing college degrees, or continuing to pursue commitments to dance and visual art. These days they respect and rely on each other’s input and advice and it all ultimately feeds back into MICHELLE.

“We’ve continued to learn about each other’s identities, pasts, and interests, and when we’re together I feel supported,” says Jamee.

with MICHELLE

Gus dapperton, the collapsed in sunbeams tour 2021, the lemon twigs, with becca mancari, lakeview and austin meade, infinity song.

Entertainment

Meet Michelle, The Indie Collective Whose Music Defies Categorization

The New York-based sextet is a breath of fresh air, with each of their songs bringing something new to the table.

Michelle , the New York-based alternative R&B band, began as an experiment. Formed by producers and friends Julian Kaufman and Charlie Kilgore, the six-person ensemble — featuring vocalists Sofia D’Angelo, Layla Ku, Emma Lee, and Jamee Lockard — was born through the power of the group chat.

With a bit of convincing, good timing, and a well-crafted text, Kaufman and Kilgore got all four singers and mutual friends to participate in a project, to craft one album dedicated to their beloved home, New York City. That was the plan, anyway.

In 2018, the group released Heatwave , their invigorating debut album that was instantly revered by the city’s indie music scene. Thanks to the members’ diverse range of interests and abilities, Michelle’s music defied categorization, with each song bringing something new to the table from the synthesized beats on “Summer,” to the Sade-inspired vocals on “KIP,” and sunshine-infused lyrics on “Ideal.” The band arrived like a much-needed breath of fresh air — and found their own momentum to keep the group together. “I think by some stroke of incredible luck we happened to link up with the four most fantastic singers that all happened to sound really good together,” Kilgore tells NYLON over a recent call.

Now, the sextet is gearing up to release its second album, After Dinner We Talk Dreams , a vulnerable reflection of their lives, out March 4 via Canvasback Music. Soon after, they’ll hit the road as part of Mitski’s spring 2022 tour . But before then, the group spoke with NYLON about the magic that makes them click, which band names didn’t make the cut, and their dream collaborators.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

How did you come up with the name Michelle ?

Sofia D’Angelo: It was either this or Gertrude. I went in for my sessions for Heatwave, and I never went back to Julian's apartment. All of a sudden, I found myself in a group chat and everyone was suggesting names for the album and names for the band. I was in college at [New York University], just like, “This is just some project I did. I guess it's cool, I'm down with whatever.”

Then someone threw out “Heatwave by Michelle.” I think we had argued about heatwave being the title for the album. And I think I pitched him being like, “Heatwave’s a cool name.” Then I went back into hiding at NYU and then people were like, “Michelle.” And I was like, “Okay.” Something like that. That was my personal experience, which doesn't usually match the reality of what happened. But that's just my perspective.

Julian Kaufman: Well, there are screenshots. There are screenshots for the whole thing happening.

Charlie Kilgore: Yeah, it was all in our group chat.

Kaufman: I've got the screenshots

Kilgore: Other candidates for names that were thrown out in the group chat before we settled on Michelle were I Sniff Paint, and Delicious Breakfast.

All very cool options. Did it come down to a vote?

Kilgore: You don’t have to say that.

D’Angelo: I think Delicious Breakfast, personally, is really great, because we got from Delicious Breakfast as an idea to After Dinner We Talk Dreams, the reality. Foreshadowing? Maybe this was planned out all along. Maybe we're like Vince Gilligan. We knew the outcome of Breaking Bad the whole time.

What makes you guys work well together as a group?

Layla Ku: I feel like I’ve answered this question a lot, and then we end the interview and I'm like, “Is that why?” But I genuinely do feel that [the] odds are very low of six people being able to consistently resolve what needs to be resolved in any other circumstance.

I do think, in some ways, it is [our] character. I feel like other than the fact that we emphasize communication with one another, and see to it that we're constantly doing so, there's definitely some other factors that are beyond our control, that have resulted in us being able to do this together and be very pragmatic and focused on resolution and communication. But we do also work very hard too — take the time, make the calls, sit down, run through things. “Yes, no, maybe,” back and forth, until we can get to a spot where we're all feeling like this is the best possible outcome and this is what we're going to move forward with.

It sounds like a class project. What you’ve described is sort of — magic’s such a corny word — but, the essence that makes it all come together.

Emma Lee: I was just going to say, I've never thought about it that way. That’s a really cool way to think about it, because I feel like that's something we all experienced. It's kind of like a science project, or something. I think everybody is very different, and I think that that creates a lot of challenges. I feel like if we were all the same person — or grew up the same way, or like, we're interested in the exact same thing — I don't know that we would be able to create the way we do or that the music would sound the same. We get to have such a multidimensional sort of shape to the mission.

Totally, and you can hear it in the music. Did you all have a different style that you wanted to explore?

Kilgore: Everyone does have different styles that they gravitate towards. But because everyone's music taste is so varied — and because everyone has the chops to be a genre chameleon — I think we can just come in every day and follow whatever strange sort of fancy we’re feeling, pretty unabashedly.

So whether that's, like, Layla listened to a Sly and the Family Stone track this morning and then can't get that bassline out of our head, and we’re like, “Ok, how do we do that?” Or Sofia came in and she's like, “I'm feeling like an Incubus vibe,” and we're like, “All right, that's what we're doing.” We've kind of trained ourselves to be ready to leap wholeheartedly into any kind of flight of fancy, regardless of genre.

What inspired After Dinner We Talk Dreams?

Jamee Lockard: Some of us were in school still, so we kind of just took every break we had to write a new chunk of songs. We wrote [during] the winter right after Heatwave . We wrote the summer following Heatwave , et cetera, et cetera. So we kind of just kept writing songs and we kept thinking like, “We have a whole album done, maybe we even have enough for two albums.” But instead of just releasing everything we had ever written, we chose to accumulate songs until we reached about 50 unreleased songs.

Then we went with that down to 14 of our favorite, strongest, tracks. And then “After dinner, we talk dreams,” was a lyric from the last song on the album, “My Friends.” I think it just really spoke to us because in our last writing track for the album, we were at Sofia's house the whole time. We would have a family dinner every day after we finished writing, and we would do our rose, bud, thorn, and just have silly conversations, and it really allowed us to bond like a family because we ate like a family.

How do you write songs as a group of six?

Lockard: Well, we never do it with all six of us. It's just too many cooks in the kitchen, but we do groups from two to four. Generally around three or four. Everyone has a different, slightly different, process. But in general we like to come together at the concept, break apart, write separately, [then] join back together and see what we’ve all cooked up. If there's something good there, we try to mix and match or refine what's already been written. So it's a lot of coming together, breaking apart, coming together, breaking apart.

“We've kind of trained ourselves to be ready to leap wholeheartedly into any kind of flight of fancy, regardless of genre.”

Can you tell me how you got connected to Mitski?

Kaufman: It's kind of a long story.

Lockard: I think long story short, we're very excited to open for Mitski. She's a legend. We've been dreaming of this moment for years. It was actually just like our pipe dream, at a certain point, that we never thought would happen. So we used to share a manager, so I think that's how we got on her radar. She DM’d us at one point, we freaked out, and when we found out that she wanted us to open for her, I think it was like a pinch me moment.

Are there any other artists you would like to work with?

Kaufman: Maybe Beyoncé, you know.

D’Angelo: Rihanna. Rihanna's baby. I saw a photo of the baby bump with A$AP Rocky, and was like, “They’re so cute.”

Lockard: A SZA collab or a Frank Ocean collab would kill me, but they're also both very selective.

Kilgore: It's definitely a slightly less current collab, but for me, it would probably be Sade.

Lee: I'm not very good at favorites. I get very anxious when I have to pick favorites — but I'll list some names where if I met them, or were in the same room, I’d probably, like you know, pee my pants or be very excited to work with them. Maybe Feist, or Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Growing up, I listened to a lot of their music.

Ku: I have to decline to answer this question, because I'm going to read this article back and be distraught with my answer and be like, “No, it should have been this other person.” There’s too many to name.

What songs are you looking forward to performing live?

Kaufman: This is a terrible take, but, “The Bottom.” I think “The Bottom,” it's an older song of ours but I still think it's really, really good. I think that might be one of our best songs that we will ever do. And I feel like when it's performed right, and the track is hitting just right in these big venues, it leads to such a crowd euphoria that is pretty unmatched.

D’Angelo: There's a new track on After Dinner We Talk Dreams called “Talking To Myself.” It’s one of the undercover songs that I think people are just going to love. Hopefully — I can't speak for everybody — but from our experience of performing it live, as soon as it starts, people start grooving and vibing. And when the four of us are all like locked in with our harmonies, and the choreo, and the energy of the song, it locks in really nicely. I think it’s a really great new energy to share with the audience.

Lockard: This may be a hot take but I'm really excited to perform “Fire Escape” live, eventually. I just love the harmonies in that song and I love how we can get quiet and the crowd will be respectful and quiet with us.

Michelle’s sophomore album, After Dinner We Talk Dreams , is out 3/4 via Canvasback Music . Catch them on tour with Mitski this spring.

Born-and-bred New Yorkers, MICHELLE formed in 2018 and 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. The hallmarks of MICHELLE's music—layered vocal harmonies, analog synthesizers, vibrant percussion, smoldering hooks—dominate the sonic landscape of their upcoming album, with the four female vocalists pushing the boundaries of their considerable singing talents as Charlie and Julian’s shared production explodes with fearless creativity and exploration. Despite all the tinkering elsewhere, it is important to note that the vocals remain largely untouched and appear in their organic state. Songs hop across genres, from funky R&B to bedroom slow jams to amped-up beat-heavy anthems and more. The songwriting on AFTER DINNER WE TALK DREAMS has been elevated, as there is a depth and prowess at work that makes good on the promise of the band’s early songs, something they admit was learned by reflecting and allowing room for artistic growth.

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MICHELLE live at The Great Escape: an ecstatic, joyful celebration of friendship

May 12, The Old Market, Brighton: The New York group flex their sharp and ambitious collective musicality in a show happy to have a bit of young, dumb fun

For a band that sounds so intricate on record, MICHELLE sure know the power of simple joys. At The Great Escape in Brighton, their first-ever festival appearance, vocalists Emma Lee, Sofia D’Angelo, Layla Ku, and Jamee Lockard move in and out of time with each other, as though they’re devising dance routines with their mates in the school playground. Percussionists Julian Kaufman and Charlie Kilgore, meanwhile, crush and crunch sounds with an elaborate set-up, jamming out and goofing around with bongo drums and a shaker made from a juice bottle. “I filled my new instrument with pebbles from the beach earlier today,” Kaufman gleefully says of the latter. He flashes a smile so wide and excitable you’d think he’d instead found real gold on the Brighton seafront.

• Read More: MICHELLE: New York gang’s vivid and heartfelt tribute to their hometown

The music and choreography is both restless and joyful, as are the six-piece performing it. You’re never far from a brilliant reminder of how unlike other bands MICHELLE are: ‘Mess U Made’s rich and ascendant soul melody is deliberately punctured by a guttural scream from Lee; Kilgore’s stage chatter largely revolves around repeatedly telling the audience at The Old Market that he keeps “fucking up” his sections.

Yet MICHELLE sound consistently fantastic, locking into infectious grooves and allowing each member to shine. As Ku takes the vocal reins on ‘50/50’, the rest of the band kneel on the side of the stage and watch on in awe, while D’Angelo leads a carefree, funky ‘Syncopate’ with easy confidence. Other tracks from this year’s ‘After Dinner We Talk Dreams’ dazzle, too: ‘Pose’ is transformed into a thumping pop number with swirling synths and full-bodied steel drums, and ‘Expiration Date’ shows off their gorgeously layered group choruses.

There’s a real sweetness to the both band’s harmonies and on-stage connection. When they sing about relationship anxieties on ‘Sunrise’, from the back of the stage, Kaufman and Kilgore act as cheerleaders for the girls, lip-syncing along and snapping their fingers in appreciation whenever someone hits a high note. Their participation is immediate and involving, and offers an anchor of real human warmth.

More beautiful yet is ‘The Bottom’, the pristine and anthemic centrepiece of MICHELLE’s self-released debut album, 2020’s ‘HEATWAVE’. It’s rendered more playfully tonight, with the added fun of triangles and cowbells, as the band take it in turns to deliver the track’s huge refrain. “I’m not afraid, I know you’re on it,” each member sings respectively, offering conspiratorial, encouraging nods to one another, dancing like nobody else is watching.

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Studio Sessions

Hear a live mini-concert performed by michelle.

Stephen Kallao

MICHELLE on World Cafe

• "SYNCOPATE"
• "EXPIRATION DATE"
• "MESS U MADE"

Though they perform as a sextet, don't call MICHELLE a band — but, rather, a collective. According to one of the group's four vocalists, Layla Ku, "It was really important for us to stay true to the fact that we were brought together not for the purpose of forming a band, but more so for the purpose of working on a project."

The New York-based R&B indie-pop collective formed by Julian Kaufman and Charlie Kilgore features Ku, along with Sofia D'Angelo, Emma Lee and Jamee Lockard. Their most recent project, AFTER DINNER WE TALK DREAMS , was released in March this year. Michelle stopped by the home of World Cafe , WXPN for a live performance in front of a studio audience that we're excited to share with you. Listen in the audio player, and watch the performance of "MESS U MADE."

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Currently performing with Copper Box.

Different Tune

Here's a song written by Michelle LL & Danny Jerabek.

Written by Danny Jerabek & Michelle LL. Listen on Spotify or YouTube.

Merch Coming Soon!

Ignited by the joy-filled echoes of her grandfather's orchestra in Wisconsin, Michelle LL was beckoned to the stage by her father's invitation to sing with the band and her mother's dance steps—a moment that ignited her love for music. With her siblings in tow, her father steering the group, Michelle's band experience became one of her first jobs, which required a lot of fun, dedication and hours on the road. At nineteen, her heartstrings intertwined with Danny Jerabek, an accomplished musician and entertainer in the polka world. Shortly after marriage, the newlyweds had to decide how their marriage would work if they were playing in different bands on the weekends and working jobs or going to college during the week. They realized they wanted to be together---and neither of them could imagine their lives without playing in a band, so they formed their own polka band, called K!CK. But the duo's creative spirit refused to be penned in by a single genre. They evolved into Copper Box, an Americana band derailing the musical tracks to forge a genre-crossing journey, fueled by showmanship, community, and raw energy. After 20+ years of touring with Copper Box and raising a family of 3 children with Danny, Michelle decided it was time to rebrand herself under the name "Michelle LL" encapsulating a symphony of endeavors and showcasing songs she loves and her growing love for singing. Her name resonates not just with music and songwriting, but also with her passion for enriching other lives with keynote concerts (imbued with empowerment, motivation, strategy), insightful business coaching and the perpetual pursuit of living freely and loving fully.

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Born-and-bred New Yorkers, MICHELLE formed in 2018 and 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.

The hallmarks of MICHELLE's music—layered vocal harmonies, analog synthesizers, vibrant percussion, smoldering hooks—dominate the sonic landscape of their upcoming album, with the four female vocalists pushing the boundaries of their considerable singing talents as Charlie and Julian’s shared production explodes with fearless creativity and exploration. Despite all the tinkering elsewhere, it is important to note that the vocals remain largely untouched and appear in their organic state. Songs hop across genres, from funky R&B to bedroom slow jams to amped-up beat-heavy anthems and more. The songwriting on AFTER DINNER WE TALK DREAMS has been elevated, as there is a depth and prowess at work that makes good on the promise of the band’s early songs, something they admit was learned by reflecting and allowing room for artistic growth.

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K. Michelle Announces First Solo Country Concert

The show will take place in atlanta this summer..

Courtesy of MNRK Records

K. Michelle is taking her country music on the road.

The award-winning singer and songwriter has announced her first-ever headlining concert as a country artist. The show takes place Friday, June 28, at The Eastern in Atlanta, Georgia. K. Michelle, affectionately known as Puddin, shared her excitement on social media.

“Happy to be presenting ‘PUDDIN’ in all her glory. I’m bringing my brand new band, new singers, new dancers, new stage, and I brand new show,” she wrote in an Instagram caption for the concert’s flyer. 

Tickets go on sale to the general public Friday, May 3, at 10 a.m. local time.

            View this post on Instagram                         A post shared by K. Michelle (@kmichellemusic)

The Memphis native, who released her final R&B album, I’m The Problem , last year, has been steadily building anticipation for her debut country album. She first announced that she was working on a country project in 2019.

K. Michelle later revealed that she was working with country staples like Dolly Parton , Billy Ray Cyrus , and Eric Paslay . 

“Dreams do come true. Im losing my mind right now! I received a record that @dollyparton wrote for me! My lord i’m floored and honored. Can’t wait for you guys to hear it!!!!!!!” K. Michelle posted on X (formerly Twitter) in 2020. 

Last year, K. Michelle made her debut at the CMA Fest before later performing at the 2023 CMA Awards.

At the latter event, Puddin’, joined by Jelly Roll, performed a cover of The Judds’ “ Love Can Build a Bridge .” Their rendition appears on  A Tribute to The Judds   compilation album. 

Circling back to  I’m The Problem , the album includes the bonus track, “ Tennessee ,” a country-tinged record she co-wrote with the song’s producers Claude Kelly and Chuck Harmony of the musical duo Louis York .

Get tickets to K. Michelle’s country concert at The Eastern at axs.com .

Keithan Samuels

Keithan Samuels is the founder/editor-in-chief of Rated R&B.

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Japanese Breakfast: Tiny Desk Concert

As Japanese Breakfast, Michelle Zauner writes sparkling, opulent dream pop about grief and love (and, occasionally, robots). After releasing its debut album, Psychopomp last year, the band returned with this year's stunning Soft Sounds From Another Planet. Where Psychopomp, written in the immediate aftermath of the death of Zauner's mother, zeroed in on the experience of Zauner's grief, Soft Sounds widens her aperture, featuring paeans to her coping mechanisms, ruminations on crooked relationship dynamics and said sci-fi robot fantasy.

At its Tiny Desk concert, the band swapped out Soft Sound's gauzy, astral synths for acoustic guitar and piano, and was joined by members of Washington, D.C. string section Rogue Collective. Zauner had wanted to do something special for the performance, and was tipped off by Landlady 's Adam Schatz that the Rogue Collective make pretty great Tiny Desk partners . The Collective practiced with Japanese Breakfast the day before the Tiny Desk, and was a featured guest later that night at the band's D.C. show.

The adaptation highlighted Zauner's strength as a songwriter, providing an even more direct line into the raw emotion at the heart of her songs. The string swells during "Boyish" lent gravity to the song's bittersweet desperation. During "Till Death," her ode to marriage, Zauner sang — as she often does — in a way that strains her voice to the crackling, taut edge of heartbreak. It's arresting on any stage, but particularly powerful in the stark midday light of NPR Music's office.

For its final song at the Tiny Desk, Japanese Breakfast performed "This House." Gone was the Rogue Collective, and indeed much of the band — just Zauner and pianist Craig Hendrix remained. The song describes moments in love that are more fearful labor than bliss, the hazy space where commitment, confusion and longing intersect. Like much of Japanese Breakfast's music, the performance shows Zauner looking unblinkingly at fear and pain, daring us to do the same.

• "Till Death"
• "This House"

Michelle Zauner; Deven Craige, Craig Hendrix; Peter Bradley; Alexa Cantalupo; Kaitlin Moreno; Natalie Spehar

Creative Director: Bob Boilen; Producers: Bob Boilen, Morgan Noelle Smith; Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin; Videographers: Morgan Noelle Smith, Niki Walker, Bronson Arcuri, Colin Marshall; Photo: Christina Ascani/NPR

2018 Primetime Emmy & James Beard Award Winner

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