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Pitchfork Media had the pleasure of interviewing the self-proclaimed Italian Queen of Electronica Vara Gallo this week over live video chat from her bus, which was on it's way to Las Vegas for her last two nights on the Electric Summer Tour - part of the Carnival of Sounds 2013 circuit. It was Vara Gallo's first time headlining a tour, and it had certainly been a bumpy one from throwing yogurt to throwing books to later sending one of her tourmates to jail. We got to sit down and talk to this Queen about it all. As she appeared on the screen before us, she looked as gorgeous as ever, her mixed Filipino-Italian descent shining through. The first thing she said to us was that we were allowed to take any screenshots of her because she wasn't wearing any makeup. The stitches that she had from a fight earlier in the month with her tour mate, Yasmine, were still in place, she explained, and any sort of makeup might irritate them. When asked if performing was difficult for her without the help of makeup, she gave us a confused look and then said back, "I'm mostly half naked on stage. Darling, they're not looking at my face." And thus began our interview.
Pitchfork Media: So this is the first time you've ever headlined a show. How has it been different than when you were just a supporting act?
Vara Gallo: Ha, well, darling, you have to remember that when I was a supporting act, it was mostly with Shadowmachine [Frontman of Shadowmachine, Trent D'amoure, is Vara Gallo's boyfriend], so I never felt so much like a supporting act. It always felt more like... well, what I was: The girlfriend to the headliner. I think most of the people on the tour thought that the only reason I was there was to fuck and dance around on the stage in my underwear.
PM: But you've had a much more successful career than your boyfriend, Trent D'amoure--
VG: Only in some circles. Maybe by the numbers, I have been more successful, but I'm not everybody's cup of tea. The fans that Trent has are not my fans. Of course, the fans that Yasmine and Zane [Vara's tour mates] have are also not my fans, either, but that didn't stop us from getting thrown together, now did it?
PM: Yasmine and Zane are your tour mates. How did it feel when you found out that you were going to be touring with them? Zane has released nothing - at least not anything in recent date - and Yasmine only released her first single while you were on tour.
VG: Ugh, don't remind me. Sometimes I try to convince myself that they're just very enthusiastic stagehands... (she laughs and then sighs) At first, I did take it as an insult. I mean, I've had an album peak at #2, I've had singles in the top 5. And then I was touring with a bunch of nobodies. It was like we were paired together because we were the racially diverse group. (she fakes an announcer voice) "Don't want to see a bunch of white people singing and dancing? Come to the Electric Summer Tour! You'll feel better about yourself because you'll be supporting people of a different race!" (back to her normal voice) Ugh.
PM: But what about now? How do you feel about Zane? We'll get to Yasmine later.
VG: Zane is a complete and total sweetheart. He's dealt with Yasmine this whole time with a smile on his face, and I think he's totally awesome for that. I wish I could be that patient and happy all the time, but I guess that's only reserved fo the godly people like him.
PM: And Yasmine... We understand there were a lot of troubles between you and her on this tour.
VG: "Troubles" would be an understatement, darling...
PM: Why don't you just tell us what happened that day? Your side of the story.
VG: Gladly... No matter how nice people are, sometimes they're a little too nice, and that makes them boring. Zane and Yasmine... are boring. They never want to have fun, they never want to drink, they never want to go out. They basically just sit in their buses all day and sleep and read. It's ridiculously boring. Do you know that I've gone out and partied with a bunch of fans for the past week because neither of them want to go out? People are going to start thinking that I'm some bitch that doesn't have any friends. It's really just ridiculous. I mean, I'm all for spending a night alone with a smut novel every once and a while, but not every night--
PM: Vara...
VG: Right, right. Okay. So, anyway, I was sitting on top of my bus - I do that sometimes - eating my low-fat yogurt, and I guess Yasmine was in her bus, which is right next to mine. Well, I can't get down from my bus with something in my hand, so I dropped my yogurt cup and plastic spoon to the ground so I had two hands to climb down. I guess a gust of wind came by and picked up my spoon and cup, and it hit against Yasmine's window.
PM: Total accident on your part?
VG: I wouldn't lie to you about this, darling. If I were trying to be a bitch to her, I would admit to it.
PM: Alright, I believe you. Then what?
VG: Then Yasmine comes out and starts asking me if I'm trying to kill her. It doesn't even make sense. A spoon and a cup hit her window, so that obviously means that I'm trying to kill her, right? Ugh. It's so stupid. She just keeps on asking me over and over, "Are you trying to kill me?" and it's making me more and more upset, because I don't think I'm a bad person that would try to kill somebody! Do I come off as somebody that would try to kill somebody?
PM: No, ma'am.
VG: Thank you! So, Yasmine won't admit that she's being a paranoid bitch, which is making me angrier and angrier. I mean, tell me honestly, darling: Say, you didn't get along with somebody - just your personalities didn't work well together - so you've chosen to ignore each other. And then out of nowhere, they start accusing you of trying to kill them. I just found it both funny and irritating that 1.) she thought that I would ever try to kill somebody - like I'm some psycho bitch, and 2.) she thought that I spend my every waking hour thinking about her and how I'm going to kill her. Some nobody thinks that I actually give a fuck about her. Whatever, you know? It was fucking stupid. So while I'm talking to her, explaining to her why it's retarded that she thinks I care that much about her, she starts reading. Like, right in front of me. Like I'm not speaking. I'm a fucking headliner! You can't ignore me! So swatted the book out of her hands and it went into the mud. Another accident, but I would be lying if I said that it didn't make it all the better.
PM: Was that the same book that....?
VG: Yep. She ran into her bus to cry or some shit like that, and then I went into my bus. She started being a little bitch and throwing random shit at my window - the window that she knew I was sitting next to because, well, you know, it's a window. You can see through it. But I guess when that didn't satisfy her, she threw the fucking book through my window. This was a heavy, hardback book and she threw it through my fucking window. So it comes crashing through. The glass of my window shatters, which gets stuck in my face and my arms and everything. And instead of apologizing, like she should, she runs into her bus, locks the door, and doesn't come out. Like a (she turns her head and shouts towards the window next to her, as if Yasmine were listening) SCARED LITTLE BITCH!
PM: And that's when you called the police?
VG: Yep. I was bleeding! I had pieces of glass sticking out of me! And where was she? Hiding. Nobody fucks me up and gets away with it...
PM: Yasmine was only in jail for a week. How does that make you feel?
VG: It was not enough time, not enough at all! She assaulted me with a book! I had to go to the hospital and get stitches! I was bleeding, and it hurt really badly! And she went to jail for a week!? Ugh! It's because she's a pathetic little cunt, you know that, right? She probably sat in a fucking corner and cried the whole time, so they felt sorry for her and let her out. But believe me, nobody gets off that easy with me. She has much more to come, she just doesn't know it yet.
PM: I hate to bring this up, but the last person you publicly feuded with, Teresa Campbell, later died in a tragic accident.
VG: Not my fault, but I encourage the rumors that say that it was. (she smiles brightly)
PM: Hahah, alright... Why don't you tell us about your new single coming out?
VG: It's probably one of my favorites on my new album, which is called "Lover's Eyes." It's much more of a dance song than any other song I've put out before, which I love about it. I've become known for these dark, melancholy electronica ballads, but I'm done with that. This time, my music is going to be much more fun. It's going to be the kind of music that you hear in club and stuff. No remixes needed! It's club ready to begin with, bitches!
PM: We've already heard the first single, "One," from your new album, which did very well in the charts. Should we expecting another song a bit like that?
VG: My next single, "Eight", is much more dance party-esque. But the same themes to it. My whole album has a very sexy, mysterious, terrifying Alice and Wonderland feel to it. Think American McGee's Alice, but with a couple of orgies thrown in.
PM: Well, I know that we're certainly excited for it. Thank you so much for your time and for talking to us.
VG: Hey, thank you guys. You gave me a chance to vent, and I didn't have to pay you the therapist prices. Bye, guys!
PM: Bye!
And thus ended our interview. Don't forget to pick up Vara Gallo's album, "Lover's Eyes" when it's released, and give a listen to Vara Gallo's newest single: "Eight."
TITLE: Eight BY: Vara Gallo GENRE: Alternative rock, gothic rock, post-punk revival, indie rock LENGTH: 3:35 LABEL: Titanic Records From the Album: Lover's EyesAs said before, Vara Gallo's newest single, Eight, is certainly a change from her past singles. While many of her other singles have been based in a gothic electronica type sound, this particular song has much more of a dance club sound to it. It's the type of song that you would hear at a dance club late at night, and you end up making out with your best friend to in the middle of the dance floor. Which is definitely something that Vara Gallo has done before, but not to this song. But probably will to this song later. Whatever. Vara keeps just enough of her roots in the song to keep it just dark enough to be recognized as one of her songs, and to make the lyrics not seem out of place. She sings about being her own sacrifice, and how she doesn't quite understand what is happening around her. She asks herself questions like, "So is this falling apart, or are these pieces of me? / Is this a nightmare to be, or am I building a dream?" and "So tell me, tell me will I die if I forget how to lie?" as if she's running around in this world, unsure of where she is going and unsure of where she has been. The confusion of the song is part of her Alice in Wonderland theme that she's been carrying throughout the entire album. Other lyrics like, "Making excuses like imaginary friends that run away," references the idea that all of Alice in Wonderland was a dream made up by Alice and her imaginary friends, and other lines like, "I'm lost in my paradise, the walls have built in my life," bringing up the fact that while Wonderland is much like a paradise to Alice in the beginning, it's also just as scary and confining as her real life is. Although the lyrics are full of emotion and confusion, it all seems a little sexy. Vara's voice, while always having a very seductive tone to it, takes her attractiveness to a new level as every word she sings seems to sound like she's orgasming right in front of the microphone. If you didn't listen to the almost heartbreaking lyrics, the whole song sounds like it would be one of those songs on your list of songs to have sex to, and maybe it still would be with the lyrics included. It's definitely the type of song that would end up in the sex scene of a movie, and it probably will be eventually. If every song tells a story, then the story that this song tells is of a very attractive woman who is trying to convince herself that she's having the time of her life, sleeping with a bunch of men, doing drugs, dancing, drinking... but in reality, she wonders if she's wasting away with this kind of life, and not enjoying the other ways that life can be lived.Tracing the steps that I take Feeling mistakes that are fake Making excuses like imaginary friends that run away To where I've already been To where I already am So tell me, tell me it'll work out so I'll be wrong again I look inside, I'm surprised at what I see in my eyes So tell me, tell me was I there when I was taught how to lie? I thought I'd chase paradise, but I'll just settle for life So tell me, tell me did I die when I was taught how to lie? Don't tell me what it'll be because it's all in degrees And by degrees what I mean is you don't see what I see So is this falling apart, or are these pieces of me? Is this a nightmare to be, or am I building a dream?
When did this come to be? When did things pick up speed? Time gone by living in me Time gone by living in me Oh ohh Don't know why (don't know why) Don't know why (don't know why) Don't know why I am here All that I've forgotten is only stopping to remind me Only I (only I) Know that I (know that I) Only I can be my own Odd sacrifice I suffered twice and all that I did Was believe
It's funny how life can be the circles dance around me Drawing a reminder of what I've done and who I've become Sleeping my days without dreams, waking at night without sleep Missing the truth to lie to the promises I heard I would keep I'm lost in my paradise, the walls have built in my life So tell me, tell me will I die if I forget how to lie?
When did this come to be? When did things pick up speed? Time gone by living in me Time gone by living in me Oh ohh Don't know why (don't know why) Don't know why (don't know why) Don't know why I am here All that I've forgotten is only stopping to remind me Only I (only I) Know that I (know that I) Only I can be my only Odd sacrifice I suffered twice and all that I did Was believeSOUNDS LIKE: She Wants Revenge - All Wound Up
Edited by user 04 August 2013 01:41:20(UTC)
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