Aly Michalka chats with ET about her music, rebooting her classics and her new Hallmark movie 'Sand Dollar Cove,' airing June 26.
Aly & AJ came back in full swing with the explicit version of their 2007 hit, "Potential Breakup Song." The singing duo gave their song a "makeover" with a more adult feel, and fans couldn't get enough of it. As Aly Michalka tells ET's Deidre Behar, the song came at the perfect time for them.
"It was interesting to dissect the song and find a new, fresh take on it," Aly shares of the re-recorded song she did with sister AJ Michalka last year. "It was great for AJ and I to be able to get into the studio and remix it, remaster it. Take out some of the things in the track that I think just weren't necessary. We were able to take down some of the auto-tune that was such a sound back in the day, that was used in so many songs."
The 32-year-old singer -- who was promoting her new Hallmark movie, Sand Dollar Cove -- adds, "It was just fun to give it a makeover." "I think the fans that were able to connect with it, I think a lot of them had been waiting and wanting some kind of explicit version, which is what made us laugh and feel like we needed to give this to the fans," she continues.
As for deciding on how much profanity to include in the explicit version, Aly explains they felt the final version was great and "not going too crazy." "We were just replacing words that were already there."
"We weren't really adding anything. We were just replacing the word that was like the PG version of it, and then putting in the explicit," she says. "AJ, I think, originally just thought it would be just the F-bomb once, and I was like, 'AJ, there's still a couple more in here that we can do.' She was like, 'Oh yeah, I guess you're right.'"
The sisters even discussed filming a new music video for "Potential Breakup Song," she shares. "We talked about that for a second, but again, we were so inundated with our new music at that point in time," she explains. "And we were doing music videos for the new album. We just didn't have the time."
Aly, however, couldn't be more grateful for the great response they've received from the song and how it's taken off on TikTok.
"It's great to see that younger fans are getting turned on to our music, whether it's the old music or this new music in these new ways. We're just happy to have them on board," the singer relays. "They've followed us for so many years, even throughout the time we weren't making music, and we were really focusing on our acting projects. Now, being back with the new record, A Touch of the Beat. I think for us, it just feels really good to be back to music. It feels like it's our home. It's our first love, and we just can't wait to get out on the road in 2022 now."
There’s even celebrities lip-syncing along to the infectious bop, like Nick Carter and AJ McLean from the Backstreet Boys and Lance Bass and Joey Fatone from *NSYNC.
"It's pretty fantastic. It's so funny to see this resurgence of acts from an era where it was unlike any other. The early 2000s were so special and AJ and I were huge *NSYNC fans and Backstreet too," Aly expresses. "So seeing them do that, it was pretty funny. My younger self would have just been like, 'No, this isn't real!'"
Aly also notes that it was the "perfect timing" to release the track while it was "having its moment." At that same time, Aly & AJ were already in the studio creating their new album, A Touch of the Beat Gets You Up on Your Feet Gets You Out and Then Into the Sun, which was released in May.
"It was just perfect timing. We really couldn't have created it better," she says.
Aly stars as Elli, a real estate developer who travels to a quaint seaside town to convince charming local Brody, played by Chad Michael Murray, to sell his beachfront property. As she attempts to make a deal, sparks fly.
"I describe it as this really sweet love story between two opposite characters that come from very different worlds. Elli is a city girl and Brody is a small town boy, and the two of them just find this connection with each other," she describes. "They're a little bit at odds at the beginning of our story, but by the end of it, Elli's fallen in love with this small town…It's really sweet. It's a great little love story, and it's set in a beautiful setting. It was shot in Mystic, Connecticut, which is a darling town. It was great."
Up next for Aly and sister AJ is a tour in 2022. "We hit a bunch of places overseas, and then we do the U.S. as well," she shares. "We've got a good four months of touring for us ahead, but it's been a while since we've been out on the road. I'm really excited."
Sand Dollar Cove premieres June 26 at 9 p.m. on Hallmark Channel.
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