10 Years Post-Disney, Aly & AJ Are Reinventing Themselves — & Their Style
In 2007, Aly and AJ Michalka — commonly known as Aly and AJ — released Insomniatic, the studio album that brought the world “Potential Break-up Song,” one of 2007’s most popular anthems. That year saw the sisters become Disney darlings, open for Hannah Montana on the Best of Both Worlds world tour, score their own teenage rom-com, Cow Belles, and walk the red carpet in balloon dresses, chunky belts, and printed Pucci.
It’s not 2007, though. It’s 2017, and the names Aly and AJ, at least as one, packaged deal, have been a twinkle in most millennials’ nostalgia-minded eyes. That all changed on Friday, when they dropped their first single in a decade, “Take Me.” Along came the inevitable headlines: “Aly & AJ Drop A Dreamy New Single Like It’s 2007,” and “Aly & AJ’s New Song ‘Take Me’ Is So Worth The 10-Year Wait.”
But don’t call it a comeback.
“I think I’d call it more of a revival of [us] finding music again,” AJ tells Refinery29. “We really focused on our acting careers, and even though music has always been our number one love, we just went through a long period of time where we hit a wall, just in regards to writing and our passion for music. And we found that [passion] again.”
Born and raised in Los Angeles (minus seven early years spent in Seattle), Aly and AJ were first signed at ages 15 and 13, respectively. “It sounds weird to say we were so young when we started, but we really, actually, truly were,” Aly notes. “Now that we have a little more wisdom and have just been in the business longer, we look back at things” — things like touring and flying around the world — “and go, ‘Wow, that really wasn’t normal.’”
They’re now 28 and 26; Aly is married, AJ is a series regular on the ABC sitcom The Goldbergs. Though not even 30, the duo has become a symbol of early-2000s nostalgia, something they admit is “trending” and certainly helps catapult them back into the mainstream.
“People have been coming up to us a lot after seeing that we have new music coming out and they’ll be like, ‘Oh my gosh, you were my childhood,’” AJ says. “And it just makes me laugh, because, you know, we’re young ourselves. To be a part of someone’s past is so interesting and weird. We haven’t been around that long, but it has been long enough for people to grow up with us in a way that made a really big impact.” Continue reading Aly & AJ – Refinery29 Feature
