Interview for the Wearhouse Disctrict

The 17 piece disco band, Escort, played an amazing, energetic show at the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan on Saturday August 17th with opening band, Midnight Magic.

Both bands brought the audience a blend of classic disco and funk with new age electronic dance elements and vocals, and the crowd loved it. Everyone was on their feet, dancing, having a great time. The energy in the audience was unbeatable. I think after experiencing Escort live it's safe to say disco never died, it was just revamped.

Front woman of Escort, Adeline Michele - in a Nicole Miller print dress and hat by Crowns of Nyanga (styled by Irini Arakas), oozed sex appeal and glamour like the vocal and fashion icon she is. Michele, born and raised in Paris, France, grew up in a very large and musically talented family. She has been singing and touring professionally since she was 5 years old, when she joined a choir in Paris. Michele is also a working model and was able incorporate her modeling talent in her stage presence at the Bowery Ballroom by using the poses, confidence and style that you would see on the pages of Vogue.

I was able to interview Michele, earlier in the week to talk about her excitement for the Bowery Ballroom show, the origin of Escort, upcoming shows and so much more. 

DP: First, tell me a little about Escort.Who founded it? How did you get involved?

AM: Escort was originally founded by Eugene Cho and Dan Balis, who met each other in college. While spinning disco records together, they came up with the concept for Escort. At that time, I had just put out my first album and one of my friends told me that Dan and Eugene were looking for a vocalist and thought I'd be perfect for the spot. 

So, you grew up in Paris. Why did you decide to move to New York?

Let's see… I've lived in New York full time for about seven years now. After high school I decided to take the next step and move to New York, where I'd be able to take music seriously. I tried college for a few days, but I honestly just found it… boring. I like to live in the now, and at that time I had the choice of either staying bored in college or living an exciting life in New York doing what I love.

Do you play any instruments?

I do. I play the bass, and actually last year I started playing the bass in Escort. I don't play it the whole set, but we often play musical chairs with our instruments. Since it can sometimes be hard to travel with all seventeen pieces, and so many members of Escort are multi-talented, we do switch it up a bit. We have a very solid sound, but we are always growing and learning more.

With the success of Escort, do you still plan to continue modeling? 

I would love to bring the two together, so that when I model, I'm modeling as Adeline Michele of Escort.

Where have been your favorite places to perform?

One of my most favorite places to perform has to be Portugal. We went there in December of last year, and they had turn down three hundred people at our show. Everyone knew so many of our lyrics and were just all so welcoming. It was perfect. And, we went there again in July. It was Eugene's birthday and they sung Happy Birthday to him in Portuguese. It was amazing. 

Is Escort currently touring?

We just came back from a tour in Europe. And, next week we are heading to the west coast.

Escort's self-titled debut album is critically acclaimed and even landed a spot on both SPIN and Rolling Stone's list of the "Best Albums of 2012." They also recently released a new package for their single "Barbarians" that included remixes from CSS, Tiger & Woods and Rance Muhammitz.