Young Allies turn Fritz Michel’s songwriting into a shared language

Fritz Michel has spent years moving between performance, writing, acting, and theater. With Young Allies, that range of experience seems to be settling into a band format that values collaboration over a single authorial stamp. Their new single “Fingers Entwined” makes that transition feel deliberate.



The song is the first release from Young Allies’ debut EP, also titled Fingers Entwined, due July 24. It also arrives alongside the announcement of the band’s ongoing Wednesday night residency at LIC Bar in Long Island City, where they have been shaping their sound in front of an audience rather than keeping the process hidden until everything feels finished.

That matters because Young Allies sound like a live band at heart. “Fingers Entwined” has a subtle push and pull to it, as though the arrangement is responding to the players in real time. It doesn’t chase a big radio-ready chorus or a clean genre label. Instead, it works through mood, texture, and slow accumulation.

Michel’s background as an actor and director comes through in the way the song unfolds. There is a strong sense of staging, but it never feels theatrical in a showy way. The band seems interested in the quiet tension of people sharing a room, watching one another, and waiting for the next move.

That idea is built into the song’s inspiration. “Fingers Entwined” draws from double-exposed Polaroids by Natalie White and uses backgammon as a metaphor for shifting human relationships. Those references could sound abstract on paper, but the track keeps its focus on feeling rather than explanation.

The band itself gives Michel’s writing a new kind of dimension. Tosh Sheridan’s guitar and production work, Gavin Price’s bass, Isaac Gardner’s drums, Phil Kadet’s keys, and Shelly Bhushan’s vocals create a sound that feels lived-in without becoming messy. The looseness is controlled, which is often harder to pull off than a cleanly polished arrangement.

The upcoming EP appears to continue that interest in source material and reinterpretation. “Watchman” draws from French pastoral poems dating back to around 1050, while “Are You In” takes inspiration from Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” Young Allies seem drawn to older texts and images, but the goal appears to be transformation rather than homage.

There’s something refreshing about a band introducing itself through process instead of personality alone. Young Allies aren’t trying to flatten Michel’s history into a simple frontman narrative. They are using it as one part of a larger structure.

“Fingers Entwined” works because it sounds like the beginning of a conversation. The EP will show how far that conversation can stretch, but the first single suggests that Young Allies have found a productive tension between songwriting, performance, and collective instinct