Ron Gallo - Punk, Wave and Human Power

We meet Ron Gallo on the occasion of his show at Magnolia in Milan. “Stardust Birthday Party” has been completed, but can't be announced yet. The conversation starts from here and moves on to the artistic evolution of this project and the deep themes explored in the lyrics.

You released an Ep at the start of the year, in which you sang about certain aspects of the music industry, and now you're forced to deal with another side of it, namely you've got an album ready and can't even announce it. How are you handling the situation?

It's ok, we just finished it and we'll be announcing it soon, there's not much of a wait between finishing it and being able to talk about it, the situation is better than before - the previous record had been ready for two years before it came out. By the way, how do you say "really nice guys" in Italian?

"Ragazzi molto carini". Anyway, by the time the record comes out, you'll have had three different releases in the space of a year and a half. Did you write the songs for each of them at a different time, or are you the kind of writer who writes constantly?

I write constantly.

So there's really no separation between the three records in terms of songwriting.

I think the perspective is different, especially on this new one coming out soon. Some songs were already written, but a lot of others are newer, and above all there was a process of refining the songs so they'd work together and share a similar perspective.

I think the most obvious difference between the past releases and this new one lies in the sound, because here it's much bigger and there are a lot more layers - I don't know if you agree, and if so, can you tell me something about how this sound came about?

"Heavy Meta" was made before we were a band. The new record comes after we've been one for two years. We spent the last two years touring, playing these songs, so I think it sounds like the band sounds now. "Heavy Meta" was made by a handful of different people trying to piece everything together, whereas now we're a tight-knit group, and I also think our being a bit weird comes through more. I'm trying to bring a lot more elements into my music, and to be a bit more experimental, whereas in the past I was very much stuck inside the lines.

Did you also work with new producers or sound engineers on this record, since you wanted this different sound?

We worked with a sound engineer, whereas in the past Joe, our bassist, handled the engineering duties for everything. He and I are still the producers, but this time it was different from how we used to work, and I think it helped us - we were able to get the sound we wanted, which is something between modern and classic, not too produced, or too clean or polished, but that doesn't sound retro or old-school either.

I also noticed, on some songs, more detailed work on the vocal harmonies.

Singing together as a group is something we'd never really tried before, but now that we've learned how to do it, it came naturally on these songs.

On the EP there's a song called "Related Artist", in which you describe fans or music critics trying to figure out musical influences and often getting it wrong. I think that, with this broader sound, a lot of people will try to spot different influences. Personally, I thought of Seventies glam-rock and punk-rock, but also of Bob Dylan. In general, are you prepared for a wide range of name-dropping that might well be wrong?

The thing is, that song is about me poking fun at myself and at other artists who struggle with this identity issue, you know, people can get it really wrong, but the point is to joke about it, because you can't control what people hear, people have their own filters, their own perspectives, and it's silly to get upset or puzzled about it. You put your music out there, and it's open to interpretation. As for this new record, I'm curious what people will hear in it, because obviously I know what influenced us - as you said, there's definitely late-Seventies punk in there, but there's also Talking Heads, Devo, those are the main influences, but then there are tons of others.

Is there a song you prefer on the record? Maybe one of the ones coming out as singles?

The choice of which songs to release as singles was a group decision, we picked the songs we think are the strongest in terms of both the message they carry and the sound. I like "Always Elsewhere" and "Do You Love Your Company?" - if I had to play the record for someone, I'd start with those two.

Can you tell me something about the lyrics? I know they're always very important to you.

There's a sort of overarching theme of killing your false self, your old self, and making room for a transformation so that your true self can emerge. A lot of the lyrics are like a dialogue between your ego, your mind, and your true self. We live in a world that's very dominated by the mind, and people don't operate from their true potential, their true consciousness, so you have to shift toward what we really are, beyond ideas, minds, social constructs and identities. What is reality, what are the real disappointments, what's wrapped up in our minds? We should tear off the false disappointments of our lives and see what's really there, and what I've found is that love and understanding are the most powerful forces in the world, so get out of your heads and into your hearts and you'll see it. Personally, I went from being a very angry person to being a loving and understanding one, by destroying my false self. That's what this record is about.

I often talk about your music with an American girl I met while traveling and who I'm still in touch with — she's from Austin and she's the one who first introduced me to your music. She's seen you live many times, and she told me the live band recently changed, that there's a synth now too.

Yeah, we have a keyboard now, our tour manager and friend Alex recently started playing keys with us.

Will the live lineup still be like this once the album is out?

We might actually expand further — we've been a trio for two and a half years, but now I think there's room for more people and more manpower on stage, to bring the songs to the best place for them. Maybe a percussionist, maybe... I don't know, I still have to think it through properly.

I like the graphic style of the images you post on Facebook, I mean the tour posters and album covers — I think they have a retro look but at the same time feel fresh and original, definitely outside the standard. Are you the graphic designer?

Yeah, that's me, I do all the work on that side of things myself. I like the idea of it looking like my brain — I'm not great as a graphic designer or an artist, but I think what these images do is look like me, they come from my perspective, which creates something a bit rough around the edges, but I like it for how it looks.

When you announced the tour, you said Alessandra Mastronardi would get free entry to all the shows. Has she shown up so far?

No, and I don't know if she will — I saw her in a TV series called "Master Of None", a comedy, and she's just wonderful, so since she's Italian, I made that little joke. Alessandra, you're always welcome to come to any of my shows for free!

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