28 March 2019

Here’s what Turn Up The Volume! wrote after hearing roaring Boston rockers THE GALA
for very the first time: “If Debbie Harry and Chris Stein would have been into brawny garage rock instead of bubblegum punk Blondie would have sounded just like this. Hefty, robust, provocative and with an unstoppable appetite for lively tumult fueled by organ orgasms.”

The good news is this cracking turbo still rolls madly and badass-ly as they prove
on repeat on their debut album, titled BAD NEWS. A frenetic and frenzied record
with several soul-healing tracks inspired by the energetic frontwoman Emily Doran‘s unfortunate relationship breakdown which led to the overall raging resonance and
spitting force of this rowdy LP and to the discharging album sleeve. Ladies and gents, please welcome Emily who will tell you all about the bad news, track by track…

Here’s Emily…

Here’s the music…

.
Here’s the track by track guide…

1. OH ABBY
“I thought it appropriate to kick off the album with a song is about sharing a Lyft with
a drunk girl. It was a Friday night, not quite yet 10pm. The driver picked me up first,
then headed to a bar, whereupon arrival, he exclaims “oh no, that’s Abby?!” The next
thing I know, this Amazonian sorority chick is barreling in the backseat on top of me, followed by her date. She proceeds to ramble on about wanting pizza before passing
out. Once we get to her apartment, naturally she refuses to get out of the car. Her date ever so gently nudges her to wake up, but she doesn’t budge, until suddenly she pops
up and tries to climb out the front seat of the car, then comes crashing back on top of
me, again, before finally crawling out the back.”

2. NICOTINE
“Smoking is bad for your health. So is carrying on and on,
and onnnnnn about the last person you dated.”

3. BLOOD ORANGE
“Inspired by a can San Pellegrino blood orange soda, what was supposed to be
a working title to the song, just sounded too cool to change, so it stuck. At the
same time, I was seeing this new guy, we were really into each other, he was being
really noncommittal, but he was really hot, and we were really into each other, so the relationship stuck, (for a little while)… continue reading for the details of its destruction!”

Song-inspiring drink…

4. CRYBABY (DREAM OF ME)
“On the surface, this is simply my recollection of the last moments with the aforementioned guy, (after waking from a dream, thinking he was lying beside me)
but looking back now, I see writing this as more about acceptance. Letting the feelings
of loss wash over me, without any anger, or denial, and allowing myself to feel utterly heartbroken. As much as it hurt, as much as I cried, as much as I sobbed writing this song, it felt indescribably good, to allow myself that release, and bc I knew I had captured this moment of pure unfiltered emotion, something I couldn’t ever create under any other circumstances.”

5. FRAGILE
“This was the first song I wrote post-breakup. I had lost my shit for a minute, words were exchanged, and when I realized I’d said too much, this was my way to keep talking, to say all the things I wanted to say, when I knew I could no longer speak to this person anymore. (Really that’s what most of these songs were). I wrote it in four hours, and I was pissed, if you couldn’t tell.”

6. BOY
“I wanted to have one kinda ‘sweet’ song, and I knew I wanted to write about relishing in the pre-date ritual, the anticipation and excitement that comes with knowing you’re gonna get to see your sweetie soon. While I had no problem tapping into those feelings, I still struggled with this one, so of course, it is not without a subtext of bitterness.”

The clip about the boy…

7. SORRY
“I wrote this song to express feelings so painful, I refused talk about them, physically I couldn’t speak the words aloud. But I couldn’t write a song that devastating, so instead, this was my way of turning the tables, and taking that power back into my hands.”

Sorry seems to be the hardest word…

8. LONG WAY HOME
“There were a lot of compounding factors that made it a particularly difficult breakup,
one of them being that I had very recently moved from Boston to one of the neighboring cities. It was not by choice, and I wasn’t happy about it, but I was much closer to this guy, only about a mile away, that was the upshot. Everything I knew about the neighborhood was associated with him. For a while, I only knew my way around based off the relative location of his house (which was on the main drag). I felt like I was lost every time I left home. I ended up finding alternate routes to get from place to place, so as to avoid his block. It was a very traumatic, and overly dramatic time!”

9. XX
“Here we have my little rant on how women’s bodies are objectified and demonized, inspired by Lizzy Martinez, who at the time age 17, was reprimanded by officials at her Florida high school for not wearing a bra. I won’t get into the details of her story, but you can look it up if you want to share in the fury.”

10. GUILTY PASS
“This was the last song we wrote for the record, I actually finished it in the studio, as I was tracking the vocals. It’s more or less about holding onto everything when you know it’s time to let go. Because moving on means redefining your identity, and opening yourself up for the potential to get hurt, again (and I did). There was definitely this desire to stay in a place that while painful, had become comfortable in its familiarity, and what is scarier than the unknown?”

11. PITY PARTY
“But we can still be friends. Why do people feel like that is an appropriate way to punctuate a breakup? No thanks. And let me tell you why… that’s what this song is about, alongside the awkward discomfort of running into your ex at a party, except from the perspective of the new girl. Recalling on those experiences after the fact, I swore not to put myself in those shoes, and as I write this, I have still not run into that guy, sooo success?”

12. THE SPINS
“The oldest track of the bunch, I was reading Spinster by Kate Bolick at the time, and really feeling my single status. The spins was sort of my take on the subject matter, disguised as a song about drinking too much and losing control. It’s kind of apropos it ended up being the final track on the album, because I’m basically right back there where I started.”

Song-inspiring book…

Thank you, Emily, for opening your heart and guiding us
through the album. May the road rise with THE GALA!

This is how bad news looks like…

THE GALA: Website – Facebook –  Twitter / Label: DEAD BEAT RECORDS

(photos band/Emily: by The Man Formerly Known As JustBill received via band)