Micah Willis, who spends about a quarter of his time in Los Angeles and the balance in his hometown of Salt Lake City, doesn't sound the least bit despondent when asked if he has any active acting roles in his world. He doesn't—at this moment—but he seems perfectly content to let that part of his creative life play out at the pace that it will. And he's going to Los Angeles regularly as it is, taking part in the other pursuit that he pursues avidly: music.
Co-writing, networking, attending conferences, connecting with musicians—these are all parts of his days when in California. Along with, of course, keeping tabs on acting opportunities.
Much of his music career, though, is nurtured in Salt Lake. It's the place where he's got an emerging team of collaborators, co-writers, musicians and supporters of all stripes.
"There's another kind of energy here," Willis says. "It's really unique. There're a lot of hidden gems. It's kind of, like, this secret that no one wants to tell people about. I grew up here and love the Salt Lake music scene. It's so accepting, and there're so many different types of music that come out of Salt Lake. I just went to a friend's show, and they were playing music I didn't even know we had here. It's so diverse in terms of musical genres."
His press kit suggests an artist who's not afraid to mix-and-match himself: "Influenced by everyone from Miguel and The Weeknd to Fleetwood Mac, Micah seamlessly blends elements of pop, funk, and hip-hop into his high-energy, crowd-pleasing performances."
To get his music out to the world, Willis is engaged in the form embraced so heavily these days, the single. The 26-year-old's latest track is called "Tell Me," now out in the world on all of the usual streaming platforms. The work is part of a project of eight songs that he's envisioning as a mixtape of sorts. In fact, the title of it is going to be Who The Hell Is Micah Willis: The Mixtape.
One of the tracks on that one—and the cut that'll likely get some interesting attention—is a song that features his father, Baton Rouge-based Kenny Neal. A noted blues guitarist with a self-titled band that plays throughout the U.S., Neal came into his son's project to support a track that's outside of the songwriter's usual wheelhouse. It's called "Sunshine."
"I was coming back home from a gig in Florida," Willis recalls. "A melody came to me, and I decided to do a voice memo so that I wouldn't forget the melody. I went ahead and wrote the lyrics on the plane. We went into the studio and quickly laid down a beat on a little sample pad. I sent it over to my dad, and he said that he could do something with it."
Though the studio work may've been happening in a couple of different states, this was, indeed, a collaboration years in the making.
"We've done gigs together," Willis says. "Whenever he's been in Salt Lake doing a gig, I would play with him. But this is our first time recording something together. And I'm super-stoked that it's such a different song. I don't do blues or soul, but that day I was inspired. He was the perfect person to be on that track. I'm grateful to be able to do this; not everyone's able to make music with their parents."
Willis' newest single, "Tell Me," can be found at li.sten.to/micahwillis. His next SLC-area date is slated for July 7 at 7 pm at Kilby Court (741 South Kilby Court) where he'll be joined by Obeeyay and Dixie Mann.
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