Micaela Rachel Levi (born February 1987), previously known by the pseudonym Micachu, is an English musician, composer, producer, singer, and songwriter.
Levi studied composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, but left without a degree when their experimental pop band Micachu and the Shapes began to achieve early success. Their debut album Jewellery (2009) received enthusiastic reviews and was followed by several more studio albums, with the group changing their name to Good Sad Happy Bad in 2016. Levi has also released solo projects under both the Micachu moniker and their given name, and has frequently collaborated with other artists, including Kwes and Tirzah.
In the early 2010s, Levi made their debut as a film composer, creating the widely praised score for Jonathan Glazer's film Under the Skin (2013). Levi received a European Film Award for Best Composer and a BAFTA Award for Best Film Music nomination, and won multiple other awards for this first movie composition. Levi then collaborated again with Glazer on his next film, the acclaimed The Zone of Interest (2023) (for which they won the Soundtrack Award at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival), and two short films. In 2017, Levi received their first Academy Awards nomination for Pablo Larraín's Jackie (2016). They also worked with director Steve McQueen on his Small Axe anthology film series.
Early life
Micaela Rachel Levi, known as Mica Levi or Micachu, was born in 1987 in Guildford, Surrey, England and grew up in Watford, near London. Levi is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent; their grandfather was a German Jewish violinist who managed to escape from the Nazis during World War II and fled to the United Kingdom. Levi was raised in a musical household. Their father, Erik Levi, is a respected music scholar — the director of performance at Royal Holloway which is part of the University of London and an expert on music in the Third Reich — besides being a pianist. Their mother, meanwhile, was a cello teacher. Levi has a sister, Francesca, who is a video artist and has worked with them on various art projects.
Levi began learning the violin at the age of four and also learned to play the viola as a child. They then won a scholarship place at the prestigious Purcell School for Young Musicians at the age of nine and studied composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London from 2006 to 2009. There, they started an experimental pop band with two friends, keyboardist Raisa Khan and drummer Marc Pell, called Micachu and the Shapes. The name Micachu was a Pokémon reference. They quickly took off, and Levi never finished their composition degree. Performing as a DJ, they also released a mixtape titled Filthy Friends, which was posted on their official Myspace page.
Music career Micachu and the Shapes/Good Sad Happy Bad
After dropping out of university, Micachu and the Shapes signed to Matthew Herbert and Accidental Records. With the Shapes, Levi's focus was experimental pop music. Most of the music prominently featured an acoustic half-guitar with various non-standard tunings, extensive distortion, and use of noise and found-object elements, as well as occasionally unusual time signatures. Despite these experimental leanings, the artist categorizes their output with the Shapes as "pop music." Their debut album, Jewellery was recorded around Levi's composition studies at Guildhall School. In the wake of growing buzz, Micachu and the Shapes were signed to Rough Trade, which released Jewellery on 9 March 2009 to critical praise. The band performed with the London Sinfonietta at Kings Place, London, in May 2010, and in March 2011 released the live recording as the album Chopped and Screwed."Micachu and the Shapes and London Sinfonietta present: CHOPPED & SCREWED", Rough Trade Records. The follow-up to their debut, Never, was released on 23 July 2012. The band then released the album Good Sad Happy Bad on 11 September 2015."Pop and Jazz Listings and Albums for the Fall Season". New York Times, 7 September 2015
In March 2016, the band announced on social media that they were changing their name to Good Sad Happy Bad. The band then expanded to a four-piece, adding multi-instrumentalist and producer CJ Calderwood and Raisa Khan becoming the band's lead vocalist.
In September 2020, the band announced their return with a new single, "Shades". The track served as the title track to Shades, the band's fourth studio album and first under the name Good Sad Happy Bad. It was released on 16 October 2020 via Textile Records. Their fifth album, All Kinds of Days, was released on 8 November 2024.
As a film composer
Levi's first major film score was for Jonathan Glazer's 2013 film Under the Skin. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Michel Faber and stars Scarlett Johansson. Produced at age 26 and created in collaboration with Glazer, Levi's film score themes are so tightly woven into the film that they give a symbiotic quality, in which the aural feels inseparable from the visual. The score was widely acclaimed for pushing the boundaries of music and sound design and Levi was nominated for multiple awards. They won Best Composer at the 2014 European Film Awards, and tied with Jonny Greenwood for Best Music/Score at the 2014 Los Angeles Film Critics Awards. They were also nominated for the 2015 BAFTA Award for Best Film Music.
They reunited with Glazer to write the scores for two short films, The Fall (2019) and Strasbourg 1518 (2020). In 2023, Levi composed the score for Glazer's fourth feature film The Zone of Interest. It won the Soundtrack Award at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2016, Levi completed their second major film score, for Pablo Larraín's Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis biopic Jackie. Larraín had been a juror at the 2013 Venice Film Festival, and thought that Under the Skin deserved a film score prize. Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, also on the jury, was enthralled by Levi's bold score for the film, and he and Larraín spoke passionately of their accomplishment, which led to the collaboration on Jackie. Levi was nominated for Best Original Score at the 89th Academy Awards but lost to Justin Hurwitz for La La Land.
In 2017, Levi worked with their sister, director Francesca Levi, on the soundtrack to The Colour of Chips, an experimental film conceived with Colm McAuliffe as part of The Unfilmables project, produced by Live Cinema UK. That same year, Levi scored the science-fiction film Marjorie Prime and, in association with musicians Demdike Stare and Gruff Rhys, contributed to the soundtrack for artist Phil Collins' Ceremony: The Return of Friedrich Engels which was screened at the Manchester International Festival and then broadcast by the BBC. In 2019, Levi composed the soundtrack for Colombian director Alejandro Landes's Monos. In December of that year it was announced they would be writing the score for the dark-comedy thriller film Zola which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020.
Later that same year, Levi composed the score for Mangrove, the first, feature-length episode of Steve McQueen's Small Axe series for the BBC and Amazon Studios.
Musical collaborations
Levi is also known for their various collaborations with English singer and songwriter Tirzah, a close friend they met at Purcell. Levi notably produced the Devotion (2018), Colourgrade (2021) and Trip9love (2023) albums.
Levi also released Remain Calm (2016), a collaborative album with cellist Oliver Coates.
Solo works In 2021, Levi released their solo debut album Ruff Dog.
Personal life Besides their musical learning, Levi played a lot of football as a child and even turned up on the first day at Purcell in a football uniform with shin guards: "I played midfield, although now I think I’d be a striker." In 2016, Levi told in an interview that Bernard Herrmann is their favourite film composer, Bruce Langhorne's work for The Hired Hand their favourite film score of all time and Cliff Martinez's score for Spring Breakers their favourite recent film score.
They came out as non-binary in 2020.
List of film scores Feature films YearTitleDirector2013 Under the Skin Jonathan Glazer2016 Jackie Pablo Larrain2017 Marjorie Prime Michael Almereyda2019 Monos Alejandro Landes2020 Zola Janicza Bravo2023 The Zone of Interest Jonathan Glazer
Short films YearTitleDirector(s)2016 Delete Beach Phil CollinsMarisuke Eguchi2019 The Fall Jonathan Glazer2020 Strasbourg 1518
Television YearTitleDirectorNotes 2017 Ceremony: The Return of Friedrich Engels Phil Collins In association with Demdike Stare and Gruff Rhys 2020 Mangrove Steve McQueen Small Axe anthology Lovers Rock
Discography Studio albums Year Album details2014 Under The Skin (OST) Released: 28 March 2014 Label: Rough Trade, Warner, Milan Formats: CD, Digital download, LP2016 Remain Calm (with Oliver Coates) Released: 25 November 2016 Label: Slip Formats: CD, Digital download, LP Jackie (OST) Released: 16 December 2016 Label: Milan Formats: CD, Digital download, LP2018 Slow Dark Green Murky Waterfall (with Eliza McCarthy) Released: 24 October 2018 Label: Slip Format: EP2019 Monos (OST) Released: 30 August 2019 Label: Invada, Lakeshore Formats: CD, Digital download, LP2020 Ruff Dog Released: 16 December 2020 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download, LP2021 Blue Alibi Released: 27 January 2021 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download, LP Zola (OST) Released: 1 July 2021 Label: Invada Formats: Digital download, LP
Mixtapes Year Mixtape details2009 Filthy Friends Released: 9 February 2009 Label: Self-released Formats: CD, Digital download2010 Kwesachu Mixtape Vol.1 with Kwes. Released: 5 June 2009 Label: Self-released Formats: Cassette Tape, Digital download2011 Meat Batch with Kwake Bass Released: 22 March 2011 Label: For BTS Radio Formats: Digital download Chopped & Screwed Mixtape with Brother May Released: 2011 Label: Self-released Formats: Digital download2012 Kwesachu Vol. 2 with Kwes. Released: 30 April 2012 Label: Self-released Formats: Cassette Tape, Digital download2014 Feeling Romantic Feeling Tropical Feeling Ill Released: 27 November 2014 Label: Self-released (Demdike Stare Self-Released) Formats: Cassette Tape, Digital download
Singles / EPs "Taz and May Vids" (2016) (with Tirzah and Brother May) "Clothes Wear Me" (2016) (with KEVIN) "Delete Beach" (2017) "Obviously" (2018) (with Tirzah as Taz & Meeks) "Skunk Boy." (2022) "slob air" (2024)
Production