“I forfeited all my things one day / Left it up in a locker / And threw the key away” sings Micah Jey on the opening lines of ‘Honey Be’ the first track on her debut EP. Tentative but brave, the song begins to unfurl and with it Jey’s confidence blooms. Leading us through summery guitar licks, muted trumpets and thick bass, she concludes: “Oh honey be / All the flowers / Are inside you”.

On Head Above The Clouds, rising alt-pop talent Micah Jey collects and affirms her sense of self, both personally and as an artist. Fresh off the back of the project’s release, she joined Ify & Benny on Up For It as our Independent Artist of the Week.

Jey had been working on Head Above The Clouds  for the past couple years and the time she’s put into it shows. Every track is vast and ambitious; both sonically and lyrically, we find Micah in a state of constant reorientation.

“There were definitely times where I was questioning whether it was possible, but I think a lot of artists go through that.”

Jey initially left school with the intention of becoming a lawyer, instead enrolling in artist management  before becoming a musician herself. The EP reflects her journey. Just as a song settles into its groove, the light shifts and another part of the everchanging and endless possibilities contained in the human experience is brought into the foreground. Codependency, trauma, racism – Micah guides us through these vulnerable scenes with curiosity and warmth, meeting her past with care and affirmation.

“I just kind of just take my fear with me. I’m like you’re coming with me, we’re going, we’re going forward, let’s go.”

The music video for ‘Honey Be’, directed, produced and edited by Jey herself, shows scenes of her travels in America and Mexico. It was shot on Super 8 film and has a beautiful “home movie” style aesthetic that furthers the idea of Head Above The Clouds as a deeply personal look into the myriad of scenes from her life.

“I really love the idea of kaleidoscopes…”

You can listen to Micah Jey’s full chat with Ify & Benny above. Buy/stream her EP on Bandcamp below.