After 14 years, sisters Aly and AJ Michalka, better known as Aly & AJ, are back with the release of their fourth studio album, A Touch of the Beat, which launches today. After pursuing their individual acting careers for the last decade, as key pieces fell into place over the last year, their return to the stage can only be described as inevitable.
The sisters got their start on Disney, in the same generation as Lizzie McGuire and the Jonas Brothers. First, Aly starred in the TV series Phil of the Future; later, they co-starred in the Disney Channel original film Cow Belles. Through their on-screen success, the pair built a successful music career, resulting in two albums. However, acting was more than a means to an end. After the success of their second album, Insomniatic, in 2007, both opted to focus their attention on film and TV roles, leaving music to the side.
Unlike other child stars, shedding their Disney skins did not involve messy tabloid coverage or feud rumors. Despite a brief name change to 78violet, the two simply grew up. Aly appeared in films like Easy A and held a recurring role on the CW’s iZombie, while AJ nabbed a spot on the ABC sitcom The Goldbergs, which spawned her own spinoff, Schooled. While their acting pursuits were never in vain—in fact, Aly just finished filming a movie in Connecticut with Chad Michael Murray—it did complicate their music endeavors.
In 2017, the duo returned to making music under their original name, Aly & AJ, with their single “Take Me.” Aly says, “The welcoming energy that [fans have] given us, since we put out ‘Take Me’ up until now, has been really incredible and I think it's been encouraging to get out on the road, play songs, see that people are showing up and care, and that there is still this space for us as artists.” By the end of 2019, the sisters had released and toured two EPs. However, AJ’s commitments to her show bound her time.
Enter: 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down a majority of the entertainment industry. As a result, Schooled was canceled, allowing both Michalkas to fully commit to their music. “We were like 'Well, we can't just continue to make EPs for the rest of our lives.' And we had the time,” Aly says. Meanwhile, their early fanbase, now spanning different stages of adulthood, was already clamoring for their comeback on TikTok.
In the fall of 2020, Aly & AJ’s hit 2007 single “Potential Breakup Song” went viral on the social media platform, prompting many fans to encourage the idea of the duo re-releasing an explicit version of the song. “We were not even on TikTok,” Aly shares. Instead, friends sent the sisters several videos of fans using the sound. “We would talk about how it was random that these would come to us and they were getting really high views which was interesting, but we really didn't put two and two together.”
However, when the band’s management got wind of their Gen-Z resurgence, it was clear this was the time to strike. In December 2020, their new recording of “Potential Break-up Song”—curse words included—was met with great excitement. Between AJ’s show being canceled, the spike in popularity on TikTok, and the extended time at home allowing them to focus on songwriting, a more perfect set of conditions has never existed for an album rollout. “It was kismet,” remarks AJ.
Now, their new album, A Touch of the Beat Gets You Up on Your Feet Gets You Out and Then Into the Sun, ushers listeners into a more mature era since the Michelle Branch-esque (and quintessentially 2005) songs from their first album, Into the Rush.
Of the lengthy title, AJ explained, “It's just a run-on sentence that symbolically represents West Coast energy and the feeling of recording an album in California.” The line comes from their single “Don’t Need Nothing,” a gradually upbeat track that she calls the album’s “pinnacle track.”
The concoction of ‘70s and ‘80s synth tinges the record with an old-school Americana feel, while their airy voices lend a dream-like element to the overall sound. Both singers see fans listening to the songs while driving down California’s Pacific Coast Highway or while hanging with friends at the beach or a nearby lake. Inspired by their time in isolation, it’s a celebratory soundtrack to returning to a post-pandemic world.
“I really feel like ‘getting out into the sun’ is our way of saying that we can't wait to get out and tour again and get these songs live on their feet. I just think symbolically that the album title will be something we're really proud of for a long time,” says AJ.
After almost two years since their last live show, the singers are on the heels of announcing A Touch of the Beat’s accompanying 2022 tour. After assuring that “music is definitely on the front burner” for them right now, it’s not lost on the pair that this wouldn’t have been a possibility had circumstances not played out as they did. “Certain things end for a reason in order for something else to really begin,” AJ explains. “And I do feel like my time on [Schooled] was wonderful and well-used and I'm so happy I was on it, but I also feel like that coming to a close is what really helped us hone in the music.”
She adds, “Music is an escape, and I hope that for that little over an hour's time, listening to these 12 songs, someone can feel like they just elevated themselves to a whole other realm.”
