Art of Pop: About Art of Pop

Michaele Alyras S. de Cygne (Alyras)

Alyras's music history dates back to very early childhood, when she began playing piano by ear at age two (2). Also being drawn to acting, visual arts and writing, she progressed through childhood developing these talents, (acting professionally in repertory theatres, exploring several forms of visual art and sculpture, experimenting with machines, being a kitchen chemist, plying her hand at starting and leading bands and learning to play 16 instruments by the time she was 16 years old.) At that point, she began her professional music career. While attending high school during the day, she was performing nightly in the clubs of Seattle, WA, as lead singer for "Tamaraw", a large band akin to Tower of Power and Seawind, (not the Scandinavian Rock band). Simultaneously, she was (coming into full understanding of her transsexuality while) learning to apply many of her music skills to recording, writing and arranging her songs, then recording all of the instruments herself. This led to her receiving a recording contract offer from Ivory Tower Records, (Joseph Jackson's label, [father of the J5, Janet...].) It was a dream come true, but for personal reasons, she declined the offer (on the eve of signing) and decided to tour. (She would have been marketed to the Black community under the name "Michael." There were chronic similarities between her [as a boy] and Michael and Jermaine Jackson. She chose to resolve her gender issues before involving her life with those of the Jacksons and subjecting that mix to the world press. Tremendous loss; right decision.) From there she evolved into leading her own bands on tours of the western U.S. and gradually moved into being Music Director for ensembles in Hawaii and Northern California. After several years of touring, she left the stage and headed to Los Angeles, CA, to pursue her recording career.

In L.A., her talents garnered the attention of George Murphy, who signed her to his production company 8 Mile/John Lodge. Although she developed more than enough material to meet her contract, the company's attention was overwhelmingly focused on other artists and she departed the company to open herself to other possibilities. This led to her working with Dick Rudolph who introduced her to Don Freeman and Warren Giancatarino. Don and Warren created great tracks to which Alyras wrote lyrics and melodies, forming songs that secured the attention of both John McClain at A&M and Jheryl Busby at MCA Records. John sought to unite her with Lenny Kravitz in order to form a band around them (as a songwriting duo, before recorded his first solo album), while Jheryl was wooing her to sign a solo contract. Following her manager's advice, she signed with MCA, shortly after they bought Motown Records and just days before they changed their Black Music business model to exclude artists like her, (Joe Sample, Stephanie Mills, Gladys Knight and many others) from their primary focus. That turn was coupled with her manager having personal challenges that caused him to pare down his roster to a bare minimum, though nonetheless international legacy acts). Along with that, all of her allies who brought her into the company moved to other labels and companies within two months of each other and 90 days into her contract. The MCA move, loss of allies at the label and loss of management was an heavy combination punch to her career, effectively stalling her progress at Universal, so she departed the company to be a free agent. Progressing through other directorships and developments, she entered the realm of healing music and cognitive enhancement software by translating the Mayan Sacred Calendar into sound. That same year, her second child was born. Three years later, her career was practically derailed when she contracted Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS); with that blow, (and her decision not to pursue fame, in deference to her 2 sons, enabling them to grow up without the stresses from the notoriety of her parentage being exaggerated by the media), her career would take a back seat to childrearing and learning to live with CFS until her kids were grown.

During the first several years of living with CFS, her body not supporting her making significant progress as a recording artist, she further progressed her development of cognitive enhancement software while pondering how to surmount CFS and regain her footing in the music industry. In 1995, her ponderances led her to the Internet. Those being the days of 14.4 and 28.8Kbs modems, she secured a PC and began converting her demo tapes to mp3s, developing web pages and presenting her music online, learning to troubleshoot hardware and software to accomplish her goals. Eventually recovering from the intensity of CFS, (using her own software), and needing to support a family, she took the computer skills she'd developed and joined the AT&T family to establish an alternate, technical career in the Information Technology arena. Nonetheless, Alyras continued to progress her music career through collaboration with L.A. songwriter/producer, Seth Hartman. Together, (along with lyricist, Shy Hart), they established the recording project, "Immortal Dream", creating an album based on Ann Rice's novel "The Vampire Lestat." After going through the yoyo of the .com boom and bust in her IT career, the toxins of life in L.A. proved to be major and insurmountable facilitators of CFS for her - in fact, they were killing her - so, she relocated to San Francisco.

In San Francisco, she began to return to the stage, with a principle role in the "Crazy Wisdom Sho'", (the final show of the George Coates Performance Works), sitting in at jazz clubs, performing as lead vocalist with the OmniCircus Theatre, and eventually joining the Transcendence Gospel Choir (TGC), the world's first all transgender gospel choir. As Soprano Section Leader (and Assistant Conductor), she journeyed through several milestones, including leading the Choir and other transgender GALA Chorus members in the first international trans GALA chorus, performing "Bless Me", (the Prayer of Jabez), in Montreal's Notre Dame Basilica. That event was part of a string of concerts marking the first time the Basilica opened it's doors to host LGBT performances. (Several of her experiences with the Choir were documented in the films, "The Believers" and "Why We Sing.") She left TGC soon thereafter, as CFS began to encroach again on her capacities. After fulfilling a promise and performing for a short stint as a chorus member with the Lesbian, Gay Chorus of San Francisco, (both her kids years passed the age of maturity), she withdrew from ensemble performance to focus exclusively on her solo career. Pursuing her interests in multilingual music, securing all the equipment she needed to work effectively as a self-contained artist, she redefined her career and established herself as the Artist/Label, "Art of Pop." (AoP)

Being a multiple genre entity, Art of Pop established its Profiles and conceived "The Archangel Diaries" (AD) as a compilation platform. Released in Spring 2009, AD I blew away all stereotypical limitations imposed on black, mainstream artists, establishing AoP (and Alyras) as a music entity that is definitely in the pocket while being out of the box. Having succeeded in neutralizing those limitations, Alyras decided it was time to represent the Top 40, urban music roots of her career and initiated the release of AD II in July '09 with three songs representing a synthesis of those roots and contemporary idioms. (AoP has paused the release of the remainder of AD II until Oct. '09.) As AD II was being released, the label began developing a tour program, in order to bring its repertoire to the stage, thus the "Bridges" tour was developed. As a tribute to MIchael Jackson, (Alyras being one of his unwavering, life-long fans), AoP decided to include an a cappella version of Charlie Chaplin's "Smile" as the penultimate number. [On September 3, (as a cleric), Alyras (was inspired and so) spirit journeyed into the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn, (Glendale, CA), from San Francisco, CA and chanted "Smile" (a la vocalise) into sacred spaces there, (during the scheduled hour of his funeral, although it hadn't begun.) She recorded the experience, thus establishing the chant version as both the right expression for the show and as an historic recording.

2009 closed with AoP converting the Archangel Diaries to an annual literary release, rather than music, and renaming AD to "Passages." Entering December, Passages I was released. Shortly thereafter, Archangel Diaries : Book One was published. With new music and media from Iluvamil, de Cygne and Dark Mother set for release Q1, 2010 is set to be a very exciting year for Art of Pop!

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