Aly & AJ graduate on soph CD Sister act
Their first album, Into the Rush, already has been certified platinum - fueled by a chart-topping single, the Lovin’ Spoonful hit Do You Believe in Magic, at Radio Disney.
But Disney-linked sister act Aly & AJ didn’t want to play it safe on last year’s follow-up, Insomniatic.
As Alyson Michalka, the older sister pushing 19, says, “That sophomore record’s always really hard. There’s pressure. You have people going, ‘Oh my gosh, can they do it again?’ But I think we were definitely able to reinvent ourselves and not have the same record out twice.”
These days, Alyson, whose introduction to the Disney demographic was a starring role as Keely on Phil of the Future, is out with AJ rocking bigger crowds than ever on the most successful teen-pop tour in ages, the Hannah Montana Best of Both Worlds Tour. Here’s insight into the sister act
Question: I guess you’re pretty happy with the way the album turned out?
Answer: It was good to be able to write about stuff we didn’t get to write about on the first record. Just from maturing and experiencing more things on the road, we were able to pull from some really cool experiences.
Q: What would be an example of something you feel illustrates that new maturity?
A: A lot of our songs on the first record were kind of self-empowerment things. And we’re still all about that. But at the same time, we want to write about things we’re going through right now as we speak, and that’s a lot of relationship stuff. I think it’s just our age, as 18-, almost 19, and 17-year-olds.
Q: How does opening for Hannah compare to your headlining shows?
A: It’s really cool, because you don’t have the pressure of being the headliner and there’s a whole other crowd. We’re playing an arena, which is definitely a huge step up. So it’s a new experience for us.
Q: I didn’t expect your show to be so rock.
A: We like the Police and Heart and the Beach Boys, Van Halen. We definitely had our time where we were both like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re all about ‘N Sync and Britney Spears.’ But our real musical influences are definitely derived from the stuff we listened to when we were younger that our parents hooked us up with.
Q: I can definitely see you liking Heart.
A: I love them. And I obviously never got to see them back when they were younger, but from the DVDs I’ve seen, I was like, ‘Wow, they still rock just as hard and they’re, like, in their 50s. Are you kidding me?’
Q: Do you see yourself still doing this, like Heart, when you hit 50?
A: It’d be cool, but I don’t know if I could hang in for that long. Goodness.
Q: What would you say the advantages are of working with your sister?
A: Because it’s blood it’s not a competitive thing, where some band members that are not related, they’re fighting over ‘You sang more lyrics than me!’ or ‘You’re leading this song’ or whatever. With us, it’s just, ‘Whatever sounds the best . . . if you’re going to take the lead on that song, go for it.’ We’re all about that. It’s a sister thing.
Q: So are there any disadvantages?
A: Well, we do live together. So there’s not really a break sometimes where we can kind of get away. But we usually have our own set time where we can just be chilling on our own. We have our own rooms and we have our own little bunks on the bus so we can just shut our curtain and be like, ‘OK, peace out.’
Q: Could you talk a little bit about the word Insomniatic?
A: We were like, ‘That’s not a word, but that’s cool. We could give it a definition.’ And the definition that we thought of is a state of mind where one becomes addicted to the deprivation of sleep caused by an epic revelation of joy.
Q: So when you finished this new record, did you celebrate?
A: We all went out to dinner, Mom and Dad and our producer. We all cried.