Aly AJ Share What Music Shaped Them—And What's on Their Playlist Now

If you ever wanted to know who is on your favorite singer's playlist, or what albums inspired the latest “it girl” the most, tune in for Marie Claire’s resident music franchise Listen Up. In this interview series, we ask musicians about their listening habits and the specific records that informed their taste—and inherently their journey as an artist.

At an L.A. bookstore in early February, Aly AJ Michalka reconnected with their childhood guitar teacher.

“We played him some tracks and sent him some of the recordings,” AJ recalls to Marie Claire over Zoom. “He was like, ‘You guys are back to where Aly AJ started,’ which only someone like that would really know.”

Aly and AJ, now 35 and 33, respectively, were touched to hear that from someone who knew them over two decades ago, especially because he echoed what the sisters felt writing their forthcoming album Silver Deliverer, a ‘60s and ‘70s Laurel Canyon-inspired project. “There’s a beauty to this record because it feels like we’re almost leaning back into the child-like wonder we had when we started, and that’s really hard to recapture,” AJ says.

Silver Deliverer marks the sister act’s third LP since they reemerged as indie artists in 2017 (they left the Disney-backed Hollywood Records in 2010). The pair felt reinvigorated while making this album because they were able to call back to the “essence” of their early days while still embracing their maturity—after years of being told by industry execs they’d aged out of music.

“[The lead single] ‘What It Feels Like’ is a depiction of embracing womanhood and aging and all of the positives and negatives that come with it, especially the societal pressure we put on ourselves to be a certain way. A song like that definitely speaks to where we're at in our life and in our career,” Aly shares.

Specifically, they note that Aly welcoming her son during the recording process—she even went into labor at the studio—and AJ becoming an aunt, proved to be creatively fruitful. “Our childhood is so tied up in our identity…With this record, it felt like we were cutting that tie,” Aly says. “Not being ashamed of the past, but acknowledging that we are in a new place in our life, our roles in our band have changed over the years, and our roles now as young women have greatly changed.”

With Silver Deliverer coming this spring, Aly AJ opened up about the country queens they used to listen to on their way to school, which ‘90s artist they consider their teen idol, and the bands they currently can’t get enough of.

Aly: Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys. That was on all the time—in the car, in the house, in the backyard. Our parents were Beach Boys fans, especially our dad, and we're California kids. I think the music felt like it was speaking to us and the environment we lived in.

We were also super inspired by the harmonies.

We played a lot of Heart, of course, them being sisters. Our mom was a big Heart fan, so we always listened to their music growing up. And then we had the amazing opportunity to be able to write with Nancy Wilson, who became a mentor to us over the years and is someone still very much in our inner circle.

AJ: We lived in Seattle for seven years, and that's really when we got into country. Our mom would play a lot of country music and gospel on the way to school before being homeschooled and going back to California. A lot of our influence there is Martina McBride, Deana Carter, Shania Twain, all the female singer-songwriters who defined pop culture in the country space. That became a very big part of our musical toolkit.

I would also add The Police. We listened to a lot of Sting growing up.

Aly: Come On Over by Shania Twain was an early one. I remember the CD because we had a little CD player in our room that we shared at the time. We weren't even 13 yet. That was played on rotation all the time.

AJ: Another really early purchase was LeAnn Rimes, her first album [Blue].

Aly: Because we were kids born in the late ‘90, Britney Spears was definitely our obsession—from the wardrobe to the videos. I remember we had the ...Baby One More Time CD with the baby pink cover. We even went to the “Oops!... I Did It Again” Tour.

AJ: We saw *NSYNC open for her. It was like those two were like everything for us.

[The ...Baby One More Time CD] came with that poster. Growing up our parents were so conservative, we weren't allowed to hang posters in our room. But then later, Aly and I would sneak [Britney’s poster] into the back of our closet. I remember she was the one who started putting posters in her CDs, which was brilliant.

AJ: I have a lot of respect for someone like St. Vincent who's in the rock space, a female, and constantly redefining genre-bending music. She's cool and interesting and rips on guitar and is super intelligent about all aspects of how to make a record, how to mix a record, how to produce a record. And then women like Margo Price, Angel Olsen, and Sierra Ferrell.

Aly: And Feist. Those are a lot of women who inspire us, even if our music isn't super similar or the genre we're in doesn't quite cross over. These are artists I find to be really exciting, doing their own thing, and uniquely themselves.

Aly: My Morning Jacket’s Z. I think that record is a perfect record—so lush, the vocal quality feels so warm and inviting, and I love all the songs. Jim James is one of the best doing it.

AJ: John Mayer's Continuum album is my no-skip. It’s front-to-back incredible songwriting.

Aly: I have a really cool jacket from The Smile that I love that's like a work jacket.

AJ: I saw Jack White in Bakersfield and Tyler Childers opened. It was an amazing show, and Jack White was selling these blue jackets that were so cool that said ‘Jack White’ on the left part of the coat. I was like, ‘That's neat. If I keep that and I have that for 20, 30, 40 years, that could look so amazing down the road as an old tour jacket that I can give my future kid.’

Aly: Jim James. He feels like somebody who is very sensitive and spiritual, and I think we would have a lot in common—just our outlook on the world. He wants to make music that makes people feel good and music that is hopefully there to uplift people going to his shows. I always hope people feel that way walking out of an Aly AJ show.

AJ: I agree. And I'm going to add someone else I think is such a positive force in the music space: Chris Martin.

Aly: We would take him back to his early years of Chris Martin.

AJ: There is just something about him. Obviously, he's magnetic and his energy is incredible and he seems so kind and lovely. [Coldplay] is a force in the pop space and they put on such a beautiful show. It kind of feels like a spiritual awakening.

Aly: Bon Iver or Big Thief. I still have yet to see either in concert, but I love the records they make. They make very different music, but I find [Justin Vernon and Adrianne Lenker’s] voices to have a haunting quality to them.

AJ: “Lilac Wine” by Jeff Buckley.

Aly: I usually have NPR on. I’ve discovered a lot of music just [by] listening to the radio. Lately, I’ve been listening to Pink Moon by Nick Drake on long drives. That album is forever a classic.

AJ: KCRW or anything Michael Kiwanuka. He keeps me calm while stuck in L.A. traffic.

Aly: Any live album by The War On Drugs.

AJ: “Human Sadness” - The Voidz

Aly: “I Should Live in Salt” - The National

AJ: “Trouble” - Ray LaMontagne

Aly: The title track of our new album, "Silver Deliverer." It feels so poignant to what L.A. has gone through and that people have come in out of nowhere to lift up our city and lift up the people who have lost everything.

I feel like AJ and I have really come through this moment of deliverance when it comes to the music, when it comes to our confidence as songwriters. There's been a lot of uncertainty when it comes to where the home is for the music because of being independent artists. So, every time we have to find a home for where this music is going to be placed, how it's going to come out, every time we've been delivered out of that and into a new home. We've just had faith that it will be placed somewhere and it will be meant to be, and we just have to trust the process. It can be really hard and really stressful. But also, we've been able to maintain our level of artistry throughout it and we've been able to have a lot of creative control, even though it's been hard at times because it's fallen on our shoulders to carry the band financially. ‘Silver Deliver’ says it all for where we are as a band. We continue to deliver our own self out of these moments—out of the good moments and out of the bad.

AJ: For me, [our song] "What It Feels Like" could not be hitting home harder. I listen to it a lot, and it's so cool when you can write a song and a couple of years later it comes out and it actually speaks to you in a deeper way than it spoke to when you were writing it.

I'm going to be 34 in April, and I am entering a space where my skin has changed, my hair has changed, things are just different now—and that's okay. You don't always have a song you can crank as a go-to for feeling safe about those changes, and I feel like ‘What It Feels Like’ can be that this year for a lot of women.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.