While many of us grew up with Aly Michalka and AJ Michalka, known as the music duo Aly & AJ, from Aly’s role in Phil of the Future to their joint Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM) Cow Belles. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of their album Into The Rush, featuring popular songs like “Rush,” “No One” and “One The Ride.” Aly & AJ have reworked songs from that album ahead of their upcoming fall North American tour, including a stop in Toronto at Massey Hall on Oct. 15.
“We did it with our band, who obviously didn’t have nearly as deep of an understanding with that music from the past, except for our bassist who, funny enough, toured with us back in the day when we first toured ‘Into The Rush’ as an album,” Aly told Yahoo Canada. “It was his first tour that he was on, and we recently kind of just reconnected through a producer that brought him in for a session, and then he became our bassist out on the road. When we were planning these shows, he was like, ‘It’s crazy. All these songs are coming back to me.'”
“It was cool to be able to reimagine them in slight ways, but really just stay true to the way that people fell in love with these songs, and kind of stripping them down to how we even just initially wrote them in our room as teenagers. It was a really beautiful energy to see so many fans singing in the crowd to these songs that I know meant so much to them and still do to this day.”
Watch: Aly & AJ on upcoming tour, being ‘less fragile’ with their lyrics, advocating for gun reform and moving away from Disney Channel
But Aly & AJ’s newest album, Silver Deliverer, is an example of the incredible evolution the sisters have had as artist, with an enticing sound that draws in fans who grew up with the sisters, and newcomers to their music.
One thing that’s very clear about all the tracks on Silver Deliverer is that Aly & AJ have really committed to honesty in their lyrics, from the song “Sirens” about their personal experience with a mass shooting in Sacramento, California, to the song “Michael” about their late friend and business manager, and “Places To Run,” with lyrics related to Aly’s mental health struggles.
“We’ve always been the type to write about our personal experiences, but for whatever reason I think this record really pushed our honesty when it came to the lyrics of the songs that we were writing, and the subject matters [we] speak about,” Aly said. “And I think part of that is maybe just us getting older, feeling more brave and less fragile about just speaking about them in just a plain and simple way.”
“And just letting the music meet us where we’re at,” AJ added. “It’s really important to tell stories based on the current point in life you’re at.”
“I think it’s beautiful to write about the past and what you hope for in the future, but it’s also really great to let fans in on what you’re going through currently. And I really feel like this record does that. I mean, we’ve been through a lot in the last couple of years, so it felt very fair to write about what we’ve been through very recently.”
Advocacy after mass shooting and an ‘anthem’ to love yourself
For the song “Sirens,” the sisters took the opportunity to funnel their personal trauma of the mass shooting into music, but also committed to being advocates for gun reform, partnering with the non-profit March Fourth and previously meeting with former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss legislative changes.
“The experience itself, it was so clear to Aly and I that, OK, if we’re going to be continuing to play music for years to come, we have to back it up with advocacy, and this is something that we really want push forward right now,” AJ said. “I think for us, it wasn’t just about writing the song, but making sure we spend time on stage every night while on tour discussing our story and trying to get people involved, whether that’s encouraging them to lobby, to vote, to sign a petition, to donate, whatever that looks like in the moment.”
“I think that a song like ‘Sirens,’ it was not only a healing mechanism for Aly and I to write a song like that, but it’s also been really amazing to share that story with our fans. … We made a pact that year. We were like, you know what we’re going to do everything we can to to advocate for a cause that we really believe in, that we’ve now experienced firsthand, and now that Aly is a first-time mom, it means an even greater deal to us at this point, because of having a child in the family.”
Another particular highlight on Silver Deliverer is “What It Feels Like,” that has this beautiful message about embracing aging and pushing back on this societal obsession with beauty and linking that with youth.
“We write these songs for our fans, but they’re also for us, in a way, it’s this anthem to remind myself who I am and what I love about myself, no matter what age I’m entering. No matter what my skin looks like. No matter what my hair looks like or how I’m fitting into my clothes,” AJ said. “And not to say those things don’t continue to bother me as I get older, those things are always going to be, I think, a slight challenge.”
“I think growing up in the industry, there is a certain obsession with body … and youth, and I think people deal with that whether they’re in the industry or not. So I think having a song that is a bit of an anthem for women and men who are entering their 30s or 40s going like, ‘Wow, I just want to know what it feels like to to love myself and to feel comfortable with the space I’m currently at.’ And I think Aly and I have had to remind ourselves about that on a daily basis, and the song really has helped me with it.”
But Aly & AJ have a history of creating songs that really speak to their fans, and have endured the test of time, including the Into The Rush song “No One,” which had a resurgence in popularity after the death of Michelle Trachtenberg, with the song used in her film Ice Princess.
“It’s almost like a time capsule for memories, … and when I think of certain songs from my past or my childhood, I definitely associate them at specific times in my life, or maybe things that I was going through or struggling with,” Aly said. “We found it really beautiful and touching that, that song was so deeply connected with so many people.”
‘Now we just make the decisions on everything’
While Aly & AJ have toured for years, there’s a new addition on the road this time around, Aly’s son Jack.
“It’s a wild new chapter in our life and we’re trying to really embrace it, because we know that it’s also fleeting. It’s not going to be like this forever,” Aly said. “The next thing I know, he’ll be like driving a car.”
“But he’s a really awesome kid and he’s really just down for the adventure. And we’ve been really lucky, and our little tribe of people that have been there to help us out and just be there when we need to hand him off, or he needs be watched for an hour. … My husband is always kind of wrangling him, but it’ll be full on, given that we’ll be out on the road and we’re so used to touring without a child. Some of our freedom will change, but I also think that it’s going to be this beautiful new memory that we’ll have together as siblings and as a family.”
But while Aly & AJ had an early push in their careers with Disney, as independent artists their circle is now quite small, an interesting evolution in their lives.
“When you grow up in the industry at a young age and you’re working under a major corporation, where it’s like Disney Channel becomes the middleman to your fans, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but now that we’re independent artists, it’s so direct,” AJ said. “It’s just us and fans constantly.”
“Even when we’re on tour or in a meet and greet, or at a vinyl signing or whatever it might be, there’s no middleman kind of conducting how things are going to go. It’s us and the fans, and I really love that. I think the fans know that and there’s an authentic friendship and a relationship that we now have with our fans who have grown up with us.”
“At the end of the day, now we just make the decisions on everything in a way that wasn’t the case,” Aly added. “It was like, oh you have to go through the the long list of people that check things off and approve stuff, and then it gets brought to us for us to sign off.”
“But now it’s so direct, it means that there’s slightly more work, and our eyeballs are really across everything. But it’s also more rewarding in a way too.”
