Exclusive Interview with 'MICHELAH DESNAI'

An artist from Falls Church, Virginia, Michelah Desnai has developed her sound while residing in Paris and is currently residing in Glasgow, Scotland.
Her most recent song, “All Monsters Are Human,” was produced in Los Angeles and recorded in Jeonju, South Korea. She created this song to illustrate how, despite our overwhelming fear of extraterrestrial creatures, every monster we have ever encountered has always been a person. Check out the song and the exclusive interview below:

1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how you got started?

MICHELAH DESNAI: I’m originally from Falls Church, Virginia. A small town really… I’ve always really enjoyed music just from a young age, my Grandfather introduced me to music really old stuff like Jazz and Blues… I guess that’s where I got my start.

2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?

MICHELAH DESNAI: I took piano lessons from an early age then stopped for a bit, got back into it around middle school where I started taking piano and guitar lessons at the Falls Church Music Conservatory. In high school, I attended Duke Ellington School of the arts, where I was a theatre major. That is where most of my training came from. I had taken classes before, but I began to really explore my artistry at that school.

3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘MICHELAH DESNAI’?

MICHELAH DESNAI: Well, Michelah Desnai is my actual name, so I have no real control over that lol, but my first and strongest musical influences have been people like Jimmy Hendrix, Joan Jett, Louis Armstrong, Bukka White, and Ella Fitzgerald. I really love Jazz and Rock n Roll, but my musical influences are really all over the place.

4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?

MICHELAH DESNAI: I think the key elements to my music is that it’s real. It’s what’s really going on in my life, my complex feelings. I think life, love, and feelings are complicated and I think that I convey that through my music. My sound… I think that’s something I can’t really say, I just think I make music that sounds like me and luckily I have been able to make music that really does sound authentically like Michelah Desnai, and I hope that’s a key part of my music.

5. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as POP?
**MICHELAH DESNAI:**
I think that phase only really was a short phase for me, I guess I watched a lot of Disney Channel, so I think that only really lasted a small amount of time. I recorded my first song in Canada with a producer called Bill Bell, that first song was really his sound, my ideas, but him really putting the music and bringing everything together. Then I guess from that precedent and I just became really determined to only record things that was only me!

6. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative and entertainment?

MICHELAH DESNAI:

Well, I write what I feel. I write what comes to me, so if something that is political comes to me then I’ll write it. I won’t say no I’m not going to write that song because it’s political. I can only write what comes naturally, I don’t really think I have control over what comes out, so if I am going through something political then that’s what will be written.

7. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfilment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?

MICHELAH DESNAI:

I make music, because I love to make music. This year, I have gotten a lot recognition for the music I have written and the art I am making, but I don’t think you can be an artist with the hopes of making a lot of money. I think if I wanted to make a lot of money, I would have given up a long time ago. You have to really love doing this. I don’t think I love anything more than I love music, even if I don’t make another dollar or play another show, I’ll still love music and I’ll still play music. I don’t think music owes me anything, I just know I can’t live without it.

8. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?

MICHELAH DESNAI:

I write all of my songs myself, I think I have to be in a certain mental state in order for a song to come to me. If mentally I’m not in that state then I can’t write. I don’t really try to write a song, a tune will come to me randomly, I will write it down and then leave it alone until the next part comes to me then I will work on the song with my guitar after that. Everything happens really naturally I don’t really try to force anything.

9. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?

MICHELAH DESNAI: I think life is always difficult for everyone, I don’t know if I can say the most difficult thing in my life, but I can say as far as music is concerned. I think where to go next has always been a difficult issue. I’ve had a few offers for management and publishing, but that’s always a difficult decision. You have a lot of people telling you oh you should sign this contract, or take this person as your manager, but that is really scary, because you hear all of these horror stories.

10. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?

MICHELAH DESNAI: I think the release of my new single, “All Monsters are Human,” this was one of the hardest songs to record, because it was in the middle of covid, I was in Korea it was a new music scene. I am really proud of getting that song recorded and I think it sounds like the struggle I went through to record it. So, that just proved to myself that no matter the obstacle I will always fight to create.