Aly & AJ

Musical duo, Aly & AJ (Alyson and Amanda Joy Michalka), who have sold over 2 million records worldwide, recently returned after a 10 year musical hiatus, with their new Sanctuary EP (released May 17, 2019) and Ten Years EP (released November 2018).

No strangers to success, they first made their mark with Into the Rush, their 2005 Gold Certified debut record, which reached #36on the Billboard 200. Two years later, they followed with their sophomore effort, Insomniatic, which peaked at #15 on the Billboard200 and included their Platinum Certified single “Potential Breakup Song” that was featured on TIMES’ Best Songs of 2007.

Outside of music, Aly & AJ spent the last decade establishing acting car eers. Aly starred in two hit CW shows Hellcats and iZombieand Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Easy A, while AJ was featured in films like J.J. Abram’s Super 8, The Lovely Bones,Secretariat and now stars as Lainey Lewis in ABC’s sitcom series Schooled. The duo also released Weepah Way For Now, an independent film directed by Stephen Ringer, Aly’s husband, who ultimately inspired their return to music.

“It feels kind of like we’ve never left,” Aly Michalka, the eldest sister, says. “AJ and I went into this reunion of sorts wanting to makemusic that our fans would connect with, but at the end of the day we want to make music that if we heard it on the radio orstreaming, we would be like, ‘Wow I wish we had written that song.”‘

In 2017, after connecting with music industry veteran, Mike Elizondo (Dr. Dre, Eminem), they began collaborating with Jamie Sierota(former member of Echosmith) and Ryan Spraker. From those writing sessions came their independently released 5-track EP aptly titled Ten Years. The lead single, “Take Me,” gave fans a first taste of their  new 80s-inspired  sound.  It  made its way to  Spotify’s Viral Charts hitting #1 in the US and #3 worldwide and was raved by Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, Allure, Refinery29,Buzzfeed, Playboy and more.

Their new EP, Sanctuary, offers another elevated take on their synth-pop sound, this time with more eighties inflections and eventighter harmonies. As Rollingstone wrote: ‘Much of this EP is about refocusing on the self. Their love songs this time around are about their relationships with themselves as individuals and as sisters, moving away from the romance-based writing that was thefocus of Ten Years. As Aly says, Sanctuary focuses on “self-analyzing, rebirth and redemption,” with the pair addressing struggleswith depression and forgiveness.’

“We’re now speaking about adult things in our songs and the relationships that we’ve had, or the life experiences that we’re nowable to bring to our songwriting,” Aly explains, “which is different than when you’re 13 and 15.”

“I’d say it’s very indie rock, and there’s definitely pop sensibilities and pop lyrics,” AJ says of their new sound. “It’s all very genuineand honest, and just a look into our lives.”

“There’s a lot that we’ve said no to that I think would’ve launched our careers in a different way had we said yes, and we don’t reallyhave any regrets,” AJ says. “Aly and I have really come into our own when we could have been easily molded into something thatwould not have been us at all.”

“We would ultimately love to be able to be out on the road every year or every other year,” Aly says.