Twenty-four-year-old Michelle Chamuel is the out frontwoman of Ann Arbor, Michigan-based band My Dear Disco. The band recently earned a spot on a stage at Lollapalooza, the largest music fest in the Midwest every year.
Michelle recently took time off of her busy life as a singer, songwriter, musician, and businesswoman to chat with AfterEllen about being out and queer in the music industry, staying true to herself and singing to Naomily.
AfterEllen: Congrats on your recent gig at Lollapalooza! What was the experience like performing at such a historic festival?
Michelle Chamuel: Lolla was awesome. This was definitely the biggest festival we’ve performed at. Playing the BMI stage felt pretty historic. Lady Gaga came on stage for the Semi Precious Weapons set right after us and referenced the BMI stage a lot. All the bands we saw there were amazing. It felt like we were participating in a part of live music history.
The crowd response was great — when we got on stage to soundcheck, people were shouting our names and sending us so much love. We were blown away and it got us even more pumped. We were so excited that we played our songs faster than usual, but people seemed to be right there with us. By the end of the set, we had a crowd of around 4000 people.
AE: Which other acts did you get a chance to see? Were there any particularly queer or memorable moments?
MC: We got to see a lot of music. Highlights include: Jamie Lidell, Arcade Fire, Erykah Badu, Mute Math, Lady Gaga, Neon Trees, Yeasayer, and Semi Precious Weapons. Lollapalooza is about a mile across, so trying to see all the bands you love takes up a lot of time. And then, there’s also press that takes up a good chunk of time.
Lady Gaga was great, she is great, and she gave it everything. I’m still learning about what it means to “give it all you got” on stage. Being the huge icon she is and putting on a gigantic show is an amazing gift that can also be a terrible burden. I have no idea how she does what she does.
Even though we didn’t go anywhere explicitly designed for a queer audience, there was plenty of love. The Gaga and Semi Precious Weapons shows had a lot of queer appreciation and celebration. Gaga dedicated “Boys Boys Boys” to her LGBTQ fans in Chicago. Celebrating music seems to bring all sorts of people together.
AE: You’ve been on tour for quite some time. How’s the tour going right now? Do you ever get a second to breathe? How do you think your inclusion in Lollapalooza has affected your fan base? Do you think you’ve acquired more exposure as a result?
MC: Touring is awesome; not a ton of breathing time, but we’re learning so much. As far as the effects of Lolla go, we’ll have to wait and see. Our next show in Chicago will be one way to see the effects of Lolla. Also, the press frenzy that happened at Lolla is still floating around. The proverbial dust is still settling.
AE: For those readers who have yet to hear about you and My Dear Disco, can you tell us a little bit about how you got your start at the University of Michigan?
MC: I was around music early on. My dad is a violinist and an acoustical engineer, so I needed to major in music. I was a Performing Arts Technology major at the University of Michigan, but as for singing, I’m not formally trained and I had serious performance stage fright. I kept my singing to the confines of my shower and car, while doing the dishes, and in my basement, but I would burst out crying if anyone asked me to sing. I finally decided to perform and although I didn’t get called back to the school’s musical, I won the “Michigan Idol” competition, so that was pretty cool.
As for My Dear Disco’s start, in either my sophomore or junior year, my friend Bob and his band Toolbox wanted to collaborate, and we came up with our single “White Lies.” I did my first gig with Toolbox at the Blind Pig and by late 2007, we became My Dear Disco.
AE: I love your concept and genre of “dancethink.” For those of our readers who have not yet had the pleasure of experiencing “dancethink,” how would you explain it?
MC: I don’t really like labels and neither does the band. It’s dance-y, electronic, electronic-rock-dance music. “Dancethink” is a more focused concept. It’s an idea about thinking about dance music. It’s the kind of music to dance to and jam along to. There’s a lot of cheesy techno-dance music that people call their “guilty pleasures,” like Alice Deejay and Lady Gaga, [who] we love. Our music is guilty pleasure music that is engaging to listen to and you can dance to. In our single, “White Lies,” we make you dance, plus there’s an 11/4-metered breakdown. When people can get completely lost in our music, that’s when we know we’ve done something right.
AE: From which musicians have you drawn your inspiration? Any contemporary artists that really inspire you to get in the studio and make beautiful music?
MC: I’m inspired by almost every artist I come across. I do make it a habit to try to find new music from Google, Amazon, music blogs. It’s exhausting. But man, all the cheesy electro-trance dance stuff from the 90s, that stuff for sure. Also, the stuff my parents listened to, everything from Schubert to the Beatles and Diana Ross and the Supremes. I really dug “Stop in the Name of Love.”
The contemporary artists I started singing to are Mariah Carey, the Dixie Chicks, and Christina Aguilera, to name a few. Talk about inspiring, do you know why Lilith Fair came back? They’re opening up genres. They’re having electronic artists. If you get Jill Scott and Ke$ha, that’s really cool and encouraging.
AE: Are there any queer artists you look up to?
MC: For sure. Most of the time I don’t know if they’re queer or not. Elton John and Ani DiFranco. I think everyone’s a little queer.
AE: Your music is not only unique in itself, but also rebuffs a lot of stereotypes about “lesbian musicians” or “lesbian music.” Not that there is anything wrong with a lovesick girl and her guitar, but how do you think you, as a musician, break down those categories? Is that something you consciously think about when making music or performing at a show?
MC: We don’t market our music as “queer music”; it’s not our agenda. It’s interesting because of the whole label thing. We don’t come across as queer music, and we don’t aim to. It depends what you focus on. Our focus as musicians is music. We’ve played a few Pride festivals, so there have been a lot of supportive responses from the queer community. Everyone [in the band] puts in a part of what they are; whatever I am is only part of it. People can interpret it as anything, but that’s not what we aim to be or market.
I don’t think of myself as “a lesbian musician” or a “Jewish artist.” It’s not one and alone. I think of myself as a musician. I’m not in to labels, which makes it so that I don’t live by them anyway, so I’m not trying to fit into a category. I think people should do whatever they want. Look. I have a straight leg and a gay leg [shows us her one shaved and one unshaved leg].
These labels exist because a certain amount of people have done a certain thing, and as more people do that thing, it expands the stereotype. For My Dear Disco, if someone puts us into a category or labels us, we can either expand that or defy it.
As for me, it’s all about the music, but who I am is going to creep into my parts. At one show I had just watched the entire run of The L Word and I sang “White Lies” to Tina and Bette. And another show I sang it to Naomi and Emily from Skins.
AE: Oooh, we love Skins.
MC: Skins is brilliant like a pop song.
AE: In light of Chely Wright and Jennifer Knapp coming out as queer female musicians, do you think that musicians have a responsibility as public figures to be out and increase visibility? Do you feel any pressure to assert your queerness to help to whittle away at stereotypes and homophobia?
MC: I think each person deals with visibility in a different way. Celebrity or not, I think it’s crucial to be honest about who you are. Not accepting who you are or giving others a chance to accept you is a really hard way to live. It doesn’t help you or the world. I tend to be a more reserved person in life, so the way I deal with visibility is by being pretty low key. Who I am will always be evolving, so how I deal with injustice and visibility will evolve as well.
AE: What is your advice to young, queer female musicians/artists who are trying to make music for a living? Is there anything particularly difficult about being out in the industry?
MC: Yeah, it’s interesting. Certain people have been given a leg up, so young queer musicians may have harder access. You really need to know yourself, and you need to figure that out, and you need to not back down and apologize for yourself. People on the outskirts, minorities, are not encouraged to do so, so that’s hard. Respect yourself and your work.
It’s the same thing when you hang out with new people. I haven’t really faced anything other than, “Should I [say I’m gay] now or later?” I haven’t been in any situations where it seems to matter, but we’ve been invited to Pride festivals, which is cool.
AE: What are your future career plans? Are you working on a new album? Any thoughts of a solo career?
MC: My Dear Disco is my main focus, but that doesn’t rule out other things. I hope to release some solo music by the end of 2010, but My Dear Disco is my company: I gotta wake up and go to work. Still, my solo stuff all sounds kind of stripped down ’cause it’s just one person. I play keys — I studied it when I was little — but I’m terrible at reading. I studied violin for six years and play a little guitar and drums and bass. That’s definitely something I’m looking to incorporate.
AE: Who was your first crush?
MC: Hmm. I think that would be Velma from Scooby Doo. Just kidding. I did love that show so hard though. My first crush story is going to stay in the MC vault for now.
AE: Ugh, fine. That’s for another time in Ann Arbor. Anything else you’d like to share with AE readers?
MC: My Dear Disco has a new single out called, “It Could Be,” currently available on popmatters.com. It will be on iTunes and our website soon. Also, AfterEllen is awesome. Thanks for having me on here.
