Micachu is the moniker of major new talent, 21 year old songwriter and producer Mica Levi. Despite her relative youth, Mica arrives as something of a Midas touched, Renaissance artist: equally at home writing and producing stunning, experimental pop with the likes of Matthew Herbert, as MCing with friends in various grime collectives and balancing this with her day time tutorage at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she’s studying composition. In typically modest and idiosyncratic fashion, Mica throws the curveball of recruiting friend Taza on lead vocals for her debut single, ‘Lone Ranger’. Produced by Matthew Herbert, Micachu has fashioned a leftfield pop gem out of just scratchy guitar lines, Herbert’s jittering drum patterns and Taza’s beautifully resigned vocal. It’s the chameleon like ease with which Mica straddles different genres that marks her out as such a one-off talent. On the 7”s flip-side, ‘Worst Bastard’ sidles along to a low-slung and bass heavy groove whilst acoustic track ‘What For’ mixes heart-on-sleeve ramshackle with shots of fragile beauty. Perhaps the real beauty of Mica’s talent is despite her prodigious musical ability she without fail keeps things rough around the edges: no polished beats when bit fat dirty ones will do, obvious choruses eschewed for intricate yet subtle melodies that grow and grow.. Mica studied violin, viola and composition at the Purcell School of before being offered a scholarship to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to study composition. Her talent as a young composer has not gone unnoticed with Mark Anthony Turnage commissioning her to write an orchestral piece for the London Philharmonic Orchestra to be performed at the Royal Festival Hall on April 29th.
For live shows Micachu plays with her band the Shapes: a three-piece fronted by Mica (vocals, guitar, electronics and Hoover), Raisa Kahn (keys) and Marc Pell (drums). Armed with just her beat up, half sized guitar and hidden beneath a mop of hair, Mica’s understated appearance belies her startling musical prowess.
Currently doing the rounds is Micachu’s ‘Filthy Friends’ mixtape featuring the likes Man Like Me, Ghost Poet, Kwes, Jack Penate, The Fields, Naked & the Boys, Toddla T, Suicidedogz, Golden Silvers and many more of her friends. Micachu