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Michelle Cross is obsessed with her music. "I [play and write music] all the time. I have to do it everyday… as much as I can squeeze in." She describes her songs as therapeutic and very personal. Sprinkled with classical influences and firmly supported by strong vocals, Cross's songs tend to have a darker moodier feel to them. At times, there is a lot of aggression and rhythm in her piano playing, yet even at its most gentle moments her powerfully emotional and melodic piano-based songs have caused listeners to sit-up and pay attention.

Songwriting is a second nature to Cross, who has been churning them out for most of her life. American-born Michelle Shizuka Cross spent the first 10 years of her childhood in Japan. At age 11, her family returned to the United States and she quickly found herself lost in a new country. She immersed herself in the piano. She began to develop her own compositions and style. It wasn't long before Cross had gathered a collection of songs and was performing at local coffee houses around the Chicago suburbs. Her musical inspirations included such artists as Sting, Madonna, George Winston, Grace Slick and Joni Mitchell. In particular, Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, and Bjork amazed her because "they really are their names, they are themselves completely." Their ability to play spectacular shows both as a band and as a solo artist really hit a chord.

At Hinge studios in Chicago, she met producer and recording engineer Mathew Prock. Prock immediately saw the potential for her songs. Prock set to work producing the demo. He arranged a full band of talented musicians to support her piano based tunes. Together they added new layers of instruments to create a landscape of sound. March 1999 saw the finish of her first studio demo, "My Name is Not Cinderella".

Cross performed with her band in numerous clubs around Chicago, and as a solo artist at coffee houses and festivals. It wasn't long before she had sold almost all 1000 copies of "Cinderella". It also generated lots of attention. The song "Sushi Queen" was selected as the .1 pick in October 1999 by the editors at Rollingstone.com. In August of 2000, Cross was chosen as garageband.com's winner.

Cross continued to feverishly write more music, and Prock was always there to record them. Eventually, they realized they had enough material for a full-length album, almost enough for two albums. "Every song was done to a point of being presentable," says Prock. "All had rough edges, or ideas we didn't finish because of time or money constraints. It didn't take long to realize that if we put a little more time into these songs, we would have an awesome collection of songs for people to hear."

This work led to the completion of "Smoke Like Perfume". Armed with a stronger sense of herself and style, Cross’s new record is solid and beautiful. She took up a musical residency at the Underground Wonder Bar in the heart of down town Chicago. There, she had the opportunity to play for a wide variety of listeners. She also had the opportunity to open for Fisher at Schubas, which led to some more shows at the popular venue. She found she loved playing live music and took up another residency at Pop’s for Champagne on Sheffield, introducing alternative piano music to the famous jazz club. The two hour set she played every Friday night at Pop’s gave her the chance to improvise and begin formulating songs for her soon to be released record, “Dolls Come to Life”.

Cross promises to be a true rising star to keep a close watch on. In the dawn of her bright future, when asked will she always write songs and play her piano as obsessively as she does now, regardless of what path her music will take, her quick response is, "Oh absolutely, absolutely, because I love doing it. I love it."