arts & entertainment

Facing The Fire

The Voice finalist Michelle Chamuel found "her voice"

in Michigan. Now, in anticipation of her first solo album,
she returns to Detroit to share her new music.

I

Daniel Joyaux

Special to the Jewish News

W

hen indie songstress Michelle

Chamuel plays the Shelter in
Detroit on Monday, Nov. 10, it
will be both a triumphant homecoming for
a University of Michigan graduate and the
first step of a burgeoning new journey for the
Jewish daughter of Egyptian immigrants.
It's been over a year since Chamuel fin-
ished in second place on season four of
NBC's The Voice, where she was coached
by Grammy-winning artist Usher, but the
real beginning of her career takes place next
week, and Chamuel wouldn't have it any
other way.
Kicking off the tour in Detroit is "definitely
by design:' Chamuel said in a recent inter-
view that ranged from her upcoming tour
and debut solo album as an artist in her own
right to how her Jewish and Michigan roots
shaped her identity.
Although Chamuel's upcoming album,
Face the Fire (The End Records), won't offi-
cially be available until February 2015, the
eponymous single debuted last month, and
fans attending the tour will have access to
download cards of the new album.
Originally, the album release was to coin-
cide with the start of the tour, but as the
recording got pushed back, Chamuel liked
the idea of keeping the scheduled tour dates
and going "back to the old-school model
of when people actually toured the music
before it came out, and it helped raise excite-
ment and awareness"
Chamuel has deep musical roots in

Michigan, a state she lived in during college
(she studied performing arts technology)
and for several years afterward while tour-
ing the Midwest with her band Ella Riot
(formerly My Dear Disco) and producing
and putting out music under the name the
Reverb Junkie.
"I think that was a very formative time,"
she said. "Those were the eight years where I
really formed my adult musical self.
"Even though I'm now an East Coast musi-
cian, a lot of my musical heart and soul will
always come from Michigan and Detroit. I
couldn't change that, and I wouldn't want to:"
However, fans of Chamuel's work from
her performing days in Michigan shouldn't
expect to hear that music turn up in her new
shows (although her work as the Reverb
Junkie may appear).
"To do that justice she says, "I would
want more of the original members on
stage
While Chamuel's new music isn't com-
pletely solo, it was almost entirely created by
just three people.
Virtually every sound on Face the Fire was
written, recorded, produced, performed and
arranged by Chamuel and fellow U-M and
My Dear Disco colleagues Theo Katzman
and Tyler Duncan, with just one song featur-
ing outside writing contributions, and some
mixing, mastering and artwork done by
others.
Chamuel, always as hands-on as possible,
even contributed to the album's graphic
design.
For those only familiar with Chamuel
from The Voice, don't expect her new music

to have quite the same feel. Face the Fire has
less of a mainstream sound. It's still pop but
an artier version — with several influences
including electronic, '80s dance pop and
indie rock forming a swirling whole that is
distinctly modern yet a perfect showcase for
Chamuel's powerfully classic voice.
The title track, which sounds like a more
vibrant and defiant take on the sounds of
performers like Broken Bells and Santigold,
addresses the unique pressure Chamuel is
facing, releasing a pseudo-homemade debut
album under her own name under the spot-
light of reality TV fame and expectations.
However, born in 1986 to Egyptian-Jewish
parents — her mom is a doctor, her dad an
engineer — who fled their home country
during the turmoil of the 1960s, the singer
feels a natural fearlessness at facing the fires
she encounters.
Raised bilingual in Wellesley, Mass., with
French as her first language, her identity as a
Jewish daughter of immigrants is very much
a part of her.
"You hear melodically and emotion-
ally these influences from a history:' said
Chamuel, who studied both violin and piano
growing up.
Even while she was on The Voice, Chamuel
politely declined any attempts to alter her
image — from her distinct glasses to her
sense of style.
Some have suggested that her "indie"
sensibilities might have kept her from win-
ning The Voice, but Chamuel doesn't look at
things that way.
"That show wasn't about winning and los-
ing. When people would say, 'You didn't win:

I would think, 'Man, I had a crazy amaz-
ing experience, I was free to do the music I
wanted to do, and I'm really happy:
"So I feel like in my own way, I won. Even
within that concept of winning and losing,
you don't have to win or los'
When asked what albums she'd want
to have with her on a desert island, her
response is immediately informative:
"Definitely something by Imogen Heap and
Ella Fitzgerald," she replied, "but I can't nar-
row it down for you yet. I will keep working
on it:'
It's an appropriate answer because —
although one hesitates to compare anyone to
the great Ella Fitzgerald — Chamuel abso-
lutely combines a timelessly wonderful voice
with the modern understated adventurous-
ness of someone who loves what technology
has opened up for recording possibilities.
Chamuel's Face the Fire also will be
released on vinyl. When told, "That's how
you know you've made it today, when you
can release a new album on vinyl," she
responded:
"My thing is once you're on Sesame Street,
then you know you've made it:'
Has she been on Sesame Street?
"No. Not yet. I haven't made it:'
Her fans would respectfully disagree.

❑

Michelle Chamuel performs at the
Shelter in Detroit on Monday, Nov.
10. All ages welcome. Opening for
Chamuel will be Jewish pop-rock
artist Mikey Wax. Doors at 8 p.m.
$27. www.livenation.com .

Jews

Nate Bloom

Special to the Jewish News

At The Movies

Whiplash, opening Friday, Nov. 7, has
already earned rave reviews from
tough critics like A.O. Scott of the

New York Times.

Miles Teller, who has one Jewish
grandparent, stars as Andrew Neiman,
a Jewish 19-year-old jazz drummer
who attends a top conservatory,
where he becomes the protege of
Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), a
very tough jazz maestro who uses any
psychological trick to turn Neiman
into a "perfect" drummer (including

42

once referring to him as a "Hymie").
Neiman's proficiency soars, but the
rest of his life, including his love life,
suffers. His personality changes so
much that it provokes a rebuke from
his very mild-mannered father, a failed
writer (Paul Reiser, 57). The film was
written and directed by first-time fea-
ture director Damien Chazelle, a seri-
ous drums player.
Laggies, opening the same day,
stars Keira Knightley as Megan, a
28-year-old without a career or a
direction. When her high school boy-
friend proposes, she panics and hides
out at the home of Annika (Chloe
Grace Moretz), a teenage friend, and
Annika's world-weary single dad (Sam

Rockwell). Jeff Garlin, 52, has a sup-
porting role. The film is based on a
novel of the same name by Andrea

Seigel, 36.

Kudrow Returns

The highly acclaimed 2005 HBO
series The Comeback returns to HBO
after nine years, with eight new epi-
sodes airing at 10 p.m. Sundays begin-
ning Nov. 9.
Lisa Kudrow, 51, plays former sit-
com actress Valerie Cherish, who
tried, in the first season, to make
a comeback on a new sitcom but
was relegated to a secondary role.
Meanwhile, her "comeback" was being
documented by a reality show.

The new season
begins with Cherish
trying to peddle a new
reality show to Bravo.
But problems arise
when the producer
of Cherish's 2005
comeback sitcom tries
Kudrow
to sell HBO a "barely
fictional" series about a neurotic "has-
been" actress, like Cherish, and her
relationship with her sitcom producer.
The Comeback was co-created by
Kudrow and Michael Patrick King (Sex

and the City).

❑

Contact Nate Bloom at

middleoftheroadl@aol.com .

