Micachu

Mica Levi (/ˈmiːkə ˈliːvi/;), also known by their stage name Micachu, is an English singer, songwriter, composer and producer.[1] They are classically trained and since 2008 have released experimental pop music with their band Good Sad Happy Bad (formerly Micachu and the Shapes), including their critically praised debut album Jewellery in 2009.

Micachu
Mica Levi at the 2014 Crossing Europe Film Festival Linz
Background information
Birth nameMica Levi
BornSurrey, England
Genres
Instruments
Years active2006–present
Labels
Associated acts
Websitemicachu.biz
Good Sad Happy Bad
Also known asMicachu and the Shapes (2008-2016)
Years active2008–present
Labels
  • Textile
  • Rough Trade
  • Accidental
MembersCJ Calderwood
Marc Pell
Mica Levi
Raisa Khan

In 2014, Levi branched out into film composing, creating the score for the Jonathan Glazer film Under the Skin. Their work was widely praised[2][3][4] and Levi received a European Film Award for Best Composer and a BAFTA Award for Best Film Music nomination. Their score for Pablo Larraín's Jackie received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score.[5]

Early life

Levi was born and raised in Surrey, England.[6][7] and studied at the Purcell School for Young Musicians from the age of nine.[8] Their father is a visiting professor of music at Royal Holloway, University of London, and their mother teaches cello.[9][10] Their paternal grandmother is Romanian.[7] Levi started writing and playing music at the age of four.

Music

Levi moved to London in their teens and performed as a DJ and released a mixtape titled Filthy Friends, which was posted on their official Myspace page.[11] For Filthy Friends they enlisted the help of friends and musicians of various backgrounds including MCs Baker Trouble, Brother May, Man Like Me & Ghostpoet,[12] singer-songwriter Jack Peñate, jazz band Troyka, London pop-band Golden Silvers as well as producers Kwes and Toddla T. Following its release, Filthy Friends became sought after on the London club scene.

While a student at Guildhall, Levi was commissioned to write an orchestral piece for the London Philharmonic Orchestra which was performed at the Royal Festival Hall in April 2008.[13]

Performing in New York City, October 2008

Levi was an Artist-in-Residence at the Southbank Centre in London in 2010.[14]

Levi co-wrote and produced Tirzah's I'm Not Dancing EP, which was released by Greco-Roman Records in August 2013, to critical acclaim.[15]

Levi contributed to the soundtrack for Phil Collins' Ceremony at Manchester International Festival 2017.[16]

Micachu and the Shapes/Good Sad Happy Bad

Levi formed a band called Micachu and the Shapes, which included Raisa Khan on keyboards and Marc Pell on drums. They signed to Accidental Records. With the Shapes, Levi's focus has been on experimental pop music. Most of this music prominently features an acoustic half-guitar with various non-standard tunings, extensive distortion, and use of noise and found-object elements, as well as occasionally unusual time signatures. Despite these experimental leanings, the artist categorizes their output with the Shapes as pop music.

Their debut album, Jewellery, produced with influential electronic musician Matthew Herbert, was recorded around Mica's composition studies at Guildhall School. Advance copies of the record reached the press in early 2009, and generated positive feedback. In the wake of this growing buzz, Micachu and the Shapes were signed to Rough Trade,[17] who released Jewellery on 9 March 2009. Drowned in Sound consequently hailed the record as "thrillingly improbable pop made by a grade-A maverick."[18]

In 2009, the band received a grant from the PRS for Music Foundation.[19]

Micachu and the Shapes toured widely throughout the UK in 2008, including performances at Bestival and V Festival. The band played in the US at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York City and SXSW in Austin, Texas. They also performed on the Main Stage of the Siren Music Festival at Coney Island in Brooklyn in July 2009. Touring continued throughout Europe and North America in the summer and fall of 2009.[20] In Spring of 2010, Micachu and the Shapes supported Spoon on tour throughout North America.

The band performed with the London Sinfonietta at Kings Place, London in May 2010 and in March 2011 released the live recording as the album "Chopped and Screwed".[21] Unlike their previous effort, the recording largely avoids pop sensibilities in favor of a slower, hip-hop indebted style and repetitive, discordant string arrangements. The band were chosen by Animal Collective to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that they curated in May 2011 in Minehead, England.[22]

The follow-up to their debut, Never, was released on 23 July 2012.

The band released the album Good Sad Happy Bad on 11 September 2015.[23][24] In March 2016, the band announced on social media that they were changing their name to Good Sad Happy Bad.[25][26] The band then expanded to a four-piece, adding multi-instrumentalist & producer CJ Calderwood and Raisa Khan leading the band's vocals and songs.

In September 2020, the band announced their return with a new single, "Shades." The track serves as the title track to Shades, the band's fourth studio album and first under the name Good Sad Happy Bad. It is set for release on October 16 via Textile Records.[27]

Film scores

Levi's first major film score was for Jonathan Glazer's 2014 film Under the Skin.[28] The film is based on the novel of the same name by Michel Faber and stars Scarlett Johansson. Produced at age 26 and created in collaboration with Glazer, Levi's film score themes are so tightly woven into the film[29] that they give a symbiotic quality, in which the aural feels inseparable from the visual.[30] The score was widely acclaimed for pushing the boundaries of music and sound design and Levi was nominated for multiple awards. They won Best Composer at the 2014 European Film Awards,[31] and tied with Jonny Greenwood for Best Music/Score at the 2014 Los Angeles Film Critics Awards.[32] They were also nominated for the 2015 BAFTA Award for Best Film Music.[33]

In 2016, Levi completed their second major film score, for Pablo Larraín's Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis biopic Jackie.[34] Larraín had been a juror at the 2013 Venice Film Festival, and thought that Under the Skin deserved a film score prize. Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, also on the jury, was enthralled by Levi's bold score for the film, and he and Larraín spoke passionately of their accomplishment,[30] which led to the collaboration on Jackie. Levi was nominated for Best Original Score at the 89th Academy Awards, making them the fifth non-male nominated in the category,[35] but lost to Justin Hurwitz for La La Land.

Levi's third major film score was for the 2017 science-fiction film Marjorie Prime and their fourth was for the 2019 film Monos. In December 2019, it was announced they would be writing the score for the dark-comedy thriller film Zola.

In 2020 Levi composed the score for Mangrove, the first, feature length episode of Steve McQueen's Small Axe series for the BBC/Amazon.[36]

Discography

Studio albums
Year Album details
2009 Jewellery
2012 Never (with the Shapes)[37]
  • Release date: 23 July 2012
  • Label: Rough Trade
2014 Under the Skin (OST)[38]
  • Release date: 17 March 2014
  • Label: Milan, Rough Trade
2015 Good Sad Happy Bad (with the Shapes)
  • Release date: 11 September 2015
  • Label: Rough Trade
2016 Remain Calm (with Oliver Coates)
  • Release date: 25 November 2016
  • Label: Slip
2016 Jackie (OST)
  • Release date: 16 December 2016
  • Label: Milan
2018 Slow Dark Green Murky Waterfall (with Eliza McCarthy)
  • Release date: 24 October 2018
  • Label: Slip
2019 Monos (OST)
2020 Shades (with Good Sad Happy Bad)
  • Release date: 16 October 2020
  • Label: Textile Records
2020 Ruff Dog
  • Release date: 16 December 2020[39]
  • Self-released
2021 Blue Alibi
  • Release date: 27 January 2021
  • Self-released

Live albums
Year Album details
2011 Chopped and Screwed (with the Shapes and the London Sinfonietta)
  • Release date: 23 March 2011 (Australia), 28 March 2011 (Rest of world)
  • Label: Remote Control, Rough Trade

Mixtapes
Year Mixtape details
2009 Filthy Friends
  • Released: 9 February 2009
  • Label: Self-released
  • Formats: CD, Digital download
2010 Kwesachu Mixtape Vol.1 with Kwes.
  • Released: 5 June 2009
  • Label: Self-released
  • Formats: Cassette Tape, Digital download
2011 Meat Batch with Kwake Bass
  • Released: 22 March 2011
  • Label: For BTS Radio
  • Formats: Digital download
Chopped & Screwed Mixtape with Brother May
  • Released: 2011
  • Label: Self-released
  • Formats: Digital download
2012 Kwesachu Vol. 2 with Kwes.
  • Released: 30 April 2012
  • Label: Self-released
  • Formats: Cassette Tape, Digital download
2014 Feeling Romantic Feeling Tropical Feeling Ill
  • Released: 27 November 2014
  • Label: Self-released (Demdike Stare Self-Released)
  • Formats: Cassette Tape, Digital download

Singles / EPs
  • "Golden Phone" (2008)
  • "Lips" (2009)
  • "Turn Me Well" (2009)
  • "I'm Not Dancing" (2013) (with Tirzah)
  • "No Romance" (2014) (with Tirzah)
  • "Thinking of You" (2015) (with Nozinja, Tirzah and Mumdance)
  • "Make It Up" (2015) (with Tirzah)
  • "Taz and May Vids" (2016) (with Tirzah and Brother May)
  • "Looking Up at the Sun / Mash One" (2016) (with Good Sad Happy Bad)
  • "Clothes Wear Me" (2016) (with KEVIN)
  • "Delete Beach" (2017)
  • "Obviously" (2018) (with Tirzah as Taz & Meeks)

Production
Year Artist Title Album Label Credit
2019 Wiki 'Dame Aquí (feat. Princess Nokia)' Oofie (LP) Wikset Co-production with Alex Epton, Rob Mack and Tony Seltzer
2019 Mica Levi all tracks Monos (OST, LP) Invada, Lakeshore Composer, production
2019 Brother May all tracks Aura Type Orange (LP) self-released Production on all tracks; co-production on 'Reppin' with Rob McCormack and 'Backpack Melody' with Coby Sey
2018 Tirzah all tracks Devotion (LP) Domino Production, co-mixing with Kwes
2018 Taz & Meeks 'Obviously' Taz & Meeks / Brother May / Coby Sey (Compilation EP); Curl Compilation (Compilation LP) Curl Production
2017 Mica Levi all tracks Delete Beach (Single) DDS Production
2016 Mica Levi all tracks Jackie (OST, LP) Milan Composer, production
2016 Mica Levi & Oliver Coates all tracks Remain Calm (LP) Slip co-production with Oliver Coates
2016 Good Sad Happy Bad all tracks Mash One / Looking Up at the Sun (Single) self-released co-production as part of Good Sad Happy Bad
2016 Brother May all tracks May & Meeks (EP) Curl Production on all tracks, mixing
2016 Micachu all tracks Taz & May Vids (EP) DDS Production on all tracks, mixing
2015 Wiki 'Cherry Tree' Lil Me (Mixtape) Letter Racer Co-production with Sporting Life
2015 Tirzah all tracks Make It Up (Single) Greco Roman Production
2014 DELS 'RGB' Petals Have Fallen (LP) Big Dada Production
2014 Micachu all tracks Feeling Romantic Feeling Tropical Feeling Ill (Mixtape) DDS Composer, production
2014 Micachu and the Shapes all tracks Good Sad Happy Bad (LP) Rough Trade co-production as part of Micachu and the Shapes
2014 Tirzah all tracks No Romance (EP) Greco Roman Production
2014 Mica Levi all tracks Under the Skin (OST, LP) Rough Trade, Milan Production
2013 Tirzah all tracks I'm Not Dancing (EP) Greco Roman Production
2012 Micachu and the Shapes all tracks Never (LP) Rough Trade co-production as part of Micachu and the Shapes
2012 Kwesachu all tracks Kwesachu Vol. 2 (Mixtape) self-released Production with Kwes
2011 DELS 'Violina', 'Melting Patterns' Gob (LP) Big Dada Production
2011 Micachu hosted by Brother May all tracks Chopped & Screwed Mixtape (Mixtape) self-released Production
2011 Micachu & Kwake Bass all tracks Meat Batch (Mixtape) BTS Radio Production
2010 Micachu & the Shapes with the London Sinfonietta all tracks Chopped & Screwed (LP) Remote Control and Rough Trade co-production as part of Micachu and the Shapes
2009 Kwesachu most tracks including 'Closer (cover of Ne-Yo's song) ft. Romy of The xx' Kwesachu Mixtape Vol.1 (Mixtape) self-released Production with Kwes
2009 Micachu and the Shapes all tracks Jewellery (LP) Rough Trade co-production as part of Micachu and the Shapes w/ Matthew Herbert
2009 Micachu most tracks Filthy Friends (Mixtape) self-released Production

Awards and recognition

References
  1. "Micachu | Biography, Albums, & Streaming Radio | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  2. Mica Levi: Under the Skin OST Album Review. Pitchfork (17 April 2014). Retrieved on 2017-02-25.
  3. Weingarten, Christopher R.. (29 December 2014) Mica Levi, 'Under the Skin: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack' | 20 Best Avant Albums of 2014. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2017-02-25.
  4. "Album Review: Mica Levi - Under The Skin OST | The Line Of Best Fit". Web.archive.org. 25 March 2014. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
  5. "Oscars 2017: Mica Levi's Jackie Nominated for Best Original Score | Pitchfork". pitchfork.com. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  6. Thompson, Ben (2 August 2015). "Micachu and the Shapes review – renaissance woman goes back to basics". the Guardian. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  7. Diver, Mike (28 May 2009). "Micachu Interview _ Features _ Clash Magazine". the Guardian. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  8. "2017 OSCAR AND BAFTA NOMINATIONS FOR MICA LEVI". Purcell School. Purcell School. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  9. Barton, Laura. "Mica Levi". The Gentlewoman. The Gentlewoman. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  10. "Professor Erik Levi". Royal Holloway. Royal Holloway. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  11. "Micachu teams up with Brother May for 'May And Meeks' EP". DIY. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  12. "Rapper Ghostpoet talks about his struggle for success". 21 February 2015. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  13. Burrows, Tim. Micachu and the Shapes: The Shape of Things To Come, "The Telegraph, 4 March 2009"
  14. "Resident Orchestras & Artists in Residence". Southbank Centre. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  15. "Tirzah: "I'm Not Dancing" | Tracks". Pitchfork. 1 August 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  16. "Manchester International Festival Full Programme Press Release 2017" (PDF). MIF.co.uk. November 2017.
  17. Records, Rough Trade. "Rough Trade Records". Rough Trade Records. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  18. Ubaghs, Charles (17 March 2009). "Album Review: Micachu - Jewellery / Releases / Releases // Drowned in Sound". Drownedinsound.com. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  19. Hogan, Marc. "What's the Matter with Sweden?" in Pitchfork.com 29 March 2010
  20. "Micachu | Listen and Stream Free Music, Albums, New Releases, Photos, Videos". Myspace.com. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  21. "Micachu and the Shapes and London Sinfonietta present: CHOPPED & SCREWED", Rough Trade Records.
  22. "ATP curated by Animal Collective - All Tomorrow's Parties". Atpfestival.com. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  23. "Good Sad Happy Bad critics reviews". Mertacritic.com. 10 September 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  24. "Pop and Jazz Listings and Albums for the Fall Season". New York Times, 7 SEPT. 2015
  25. good sad happy bad (Video). 23 March 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2017. we just wanted to tell you that rather than being a recording "good sad happy bad" is the new name of our band.
  26. Micachu on Facebook (23 March 2016). "Micachu shared a Page". Facebook. Retrieved 1 April 2017. Our band name is now GOOD SAD HAPPY BAD and we did this because we feel our last record was more than just a recording.
  27. Eede, Christian. "Micachu & The Shapes Change Name To Good Sad Happy Bad". The Quietus. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  28. Levi, Mica (15 March 2014). "How Mica Levi got Under The Skin of her first film soundtrack". the Guardian. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  29. "Mica Levi: Under the Skin OST Album Review | Pitchfork". pitchfork.com. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  30. Tapley, Kristopher (19 October 2016). "'Arrival,' 'Jackie' Composers Push Boundaries of Music and Sound Design". Variety. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  31. NME.COM. "Mica Levi on scoring 'Under the Skin': 'I dreamt the world came out of Scarlett Johansson's face' | NME.COM". NME.COM. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  32. "LAFCA". LAFCA. Archived from the original on 30 December 2014. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  33. "Mica Levi earns BAFTA nomination for Under The Skin score". FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  34. "Mica Levi scores Jackie Kennedy biopic starring Natalie Portman". 16 August 2016. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  35. Beauman, Ned (23 February 2017). "Mica Levi's Intensely Unconventional Film Scores". The New Yorker. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  36. Debruge, Peter (25 September 2020). "'Mangrove' Review: Steve McQueen's British Courtroom Drama Does Justice to a Landmark Case Against Black Activists". Variety. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  37. "News | DOWNLOAD: Kwesachu Vol. 2". The Quietus. 30 April 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  38. Jayson Greene (17 April 2014). "Mica Levi: Under the Skin OST Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  39. Bloom, Madison; Monroe, Jazz (16 December 2020). "Listen to Mica Levi's Surprise New Album Ruff Dog". Pitchfork. Retrieved 25 January 2021.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  40. "European Film Academy : THE 27TH EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS: WINNERS". Europeanfilmacademy.org. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  41. "Original Music Nominees in 2015". Bafta.org. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  42. "L.A. Film Critics Awards: Jonny Greenwood & Mica Levi Tie in Best Music Score Category". Billboard. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
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