Q&A: MICAH Leads Us Into Her ‘PSYCHE’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY IVONA HOMICIANU ☆
LISTENING TO MICAH’S VOICE FEELS LIKE SINKING INTO A WARM BODY OF WATER— The atmosphere she builds on her debut EP PYSCHE surrounds us. It makes our minds focus on feeling the music in our bodies. Her honeyed voice commands attention as she accompanies the string production.
Although she had an interest in performing from a young age, MICAH truly discovered her passion for music while studying business in London. From there, she released her first single “MIRROR,” followed by PSYCHE. It is no surprise her music is all-encompassing, PSYCHE was made to relay the mind, the body and the soul to each other.
The project begins with “for,” a vulnerable track about finding light in dark times. Her haunting vocals express the intensity of the emotions, but she does so in a comforting and soft manner. “glimmer” follows up the desperate search of hope when going through difficult moments. The production begins slowly and picks up with a poetic similarity to the message expressed in the lyrics.
The project ends with a reminder that growth and self-love are works in progress. With “sculpture,” MICAH explores the concept of the self being made of marble, and having to chip at the material until it turns into a work of art. The heavy guitar adds gravity to the dimension created. The self-reflective nature of PSYCHE makes for a compelling and impressive project.
Find out more about MICAH and her debut project PSYCHE below.
LUNA: Could you tell us more about yourself?
MICAH: I'm Micah. I'm from South Africa. I moved to London to study music business, but then realized how much I actually enjoyed making music, so I transitioned to doing that. I've been experimenting for two years with my sound and I've landed on soft rock recently.
LUNA: When did you know that you wanted to pursue music? Was it in business school or was it before that, that you had a passion for music?
MICAH: I feel I did subconsciously, because as a kid I had a lot of instrumental toys, and I really loved Hannah Montana and all the Disney shows that had a lot of music in them, so I think that's when it began. I also used to want to learn the dances of TV shows and loved singing and writing, even in high school. That's when I started writing poetry. When I got to business school, I was like, I've been loving this for so long, let me actually try and do the music.
LUNA: Congrats on the EP, it's beautiful! With “for,” you list all these reasons to live for. What prompted the song?
MICAH: This one was funny, because it was so long ago but I remember it being such a weird song for me to write. I wasn't in a good place to even write a song like that. I usually write a lot of songs in my notes, and then I go back and read them. When I read it, I was shocked that it was something I had written. “for” is a mystery to me. Honestly, if I said that's how I felt at that moment, I would be lying. It's something that came from the universe.
LUNA: “glimmer” is very emotional and vulnerable. The production is also very beautiful with the soft guitar and the upbeat transition. How was the creative process for this song?
MICAH: “glimmer” was interesting because I've been listening to a lot more rock influences. Once I realized I wanted to incorporate rock into my music, I bought myself an acoustic guitar. I didn't know how to play, but two weeks after learning the basic chords, that's when I wrote “glimmer.” I had the “I'm praying on a glimmer” part for so long because I read a quote that said “glimmer is a micro moment of joy,” and I'd always had that in my mind. When I learned the chords on the guitar, and then I remembered that as well, the chorus specifically flowed out of me. I worked a little bit more on the verses.
LUNA: Do you play the guitar on “glimmer”?
MICAH: I wrote the chords on “glimmer.” At the time, I was still a beginner, so I wasn't clean on playing the guitar, but I wrote the chords.
LUNA: “sculpture” has such a visual effect when you listen to it; you can just picture the metaphor. Is there a specific moment that inspired the track?
MICAH: I don't know if it came from me visiting a lot of galleries, but I'm very interested in going to art galleries and finding inspiration. Sometimes just to walk around the galleries, that is enough to make me feel like, “Okay, let me go home and make something of my own.” With “sculpture,” I don't remember a specific kind of gallery that I'd gone to. It's something I wrote because as a kid, I grew up in the church, and there was this [concept] of being created by God out of clay. We've all been molded differently and uniquely. I wrote it at a time where I was feeling a bit more insecure than I've ever felt in my life so I was like, “I don't want to feel like this anymore.” The song came out of that experience.
LUNA: What is the emotion that inspires you the most to write?
MICAH: A bit of resentment in a way, sadness, anger, but also comfort, a sense of feeling comforted. My songs are a way to express myself, but also to understand what I'm going through. I feel like it's just me trying to capture the emotion for each moment in different songs, and trying to make it make sense to the world without it sounding too intense. I know my songs are very vulnerable as well. I'm happy to be vulnerable because it's harder to say stuff with words sometimes.
LUNA: What artists have inspired you for this EP?
MICAH: Before discovering the soft rock side of me, I was listening to music very passively, and I wasn't trying to find the music that I liked. It was just whatever was playing on the radio, what my friends and family were playing. Willow Smith was the very first artist that really made a click for me. I had an epiphany almost. I was like, wow, I actually love what she does with music. I've always liked Billie Eilish. I don't listen to her music a lot but when I do, I just feel right. Another is Foushée, she's an American rock alternative artist as well. Her music is really amazing.
LUNA: Where do you hope you'll be in a year?
MICAH: I've been working on an EP, and I think I want to create a visual world for it. I'm an independent artist, so there are limits to that, but I don't want to think of that too much because this EP will be a clue to all the sadness I felt in my earlier years. I want to perform a lot more across London. I'm hoping to improve my presence more than anything. I think I know what my identity is, but I want to solidify it for people to be able to be like, “That is definitely MICAH’s music.” If I can have a strong sense of that in my community, then I'll be happy.
