Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / Great Love Stories Begin With An Amazing Songwriter The New Release From John Galea
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Aro dot net A r r oe dot net. Not
- 0:03Speaker 1: just one podcast, it's twenty different podcasts to choose from,
- 0:07Speaker 1: one of them being something our parents would say, all
- 0:11Speaker 1: of those things that even your grandparents would pop up
- 0:14Speaker 1: from out of nowhere. And you're like, what it makes sense,
- 0:17Speaker 1: but really what it shocks me when I have to
- 0:21Speaker 1: go back three and four hundred years to find the
- 0:23Speaker 1: roots of something like this, something our parents would say,
- 0:26Speaker 1: only on ero dot net A r r oe dot net.
- 0:30Speaker 1: Enjoy your exploration. How are you today?
- 0:35Speaker 2: I'm good? And how are you doing?
- 0:37Speaker 1: Very very well? And man, I'm so excited to share
- 0:39Speaker 1: a conversation with you because you know, this takes me
- 0:41Speaker 1: all the way back to when Don Henley of the
- 0:43Speaker 1: Eagles sat down and explained that the world needs great
- 0:47Speaker 1: songwriters and performers. And the very second that I heard
- 0:50Speaker 1: songwriter from you, I went, this is it? This is
- 0:53Speaker 1: who Don him all the Eagles was looking for.
- 0:56Speaker 2: Ohts, Yeah, it's nothing quite like some songwriting.
- 1:02Speaker 1: I tell you, Well, you totally get it. You understand
- 1:05Speaker 1: that on this side of that music is a person
- 1:07Speaker 1: that's really we're begging for those songs to make a
- 1:10Speaker 1: part of our soundtrack. It's not just like a little
- 1:13Speaker 1: hook that we're going to sing along with. We want
- 1:15Speaker 1: the entire song and that's what you provide.
- 1:19Speaker 3: It's a proper journey. I've always done that when I've
- 1:21Speaker 3: been songwriting. I mean, if someone can come along with
- 1:25Speaker 3: it and relate to it, it's even better. But yeah,
- 1:27Speaker 3: certainly songs do have journeys and take people different places,
- 1:31Speaker 3: and that's what I love about it.
- 1:32Speaker 1: See, And it's that journey that really drives me into
- 1:35Speaker 1: that place of creativity because I always want to know
- 1:38Speaker 1: how did it start? Was it something when you were
- 1:40Speaker 1: driving down the road, Like a lot of my stuff
- 1:42Speaker 1: will come to me when I'm walking through a mall
- 1:43Speaker 1: and I'm going, you got to be kidding me, But
- 1:45Speaker 1: you still have to answer the call.
- 1:48Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, and sometimes can come in you're sleep, when
- 1:50Speaker 3: you're dreaming. For me, it's in different places. I mean,
- 1:54Speaker 3: songs start in different ways, and that's the great thing
- 1:56Speaker 3: about it as well. You know, it's unpredictable in that sense.
- 2:00Speaker 3: But yeah, I've had hooks come to me and then
- 2:03Speaker 3: I've written on the piano and they've come to me,
- 2:05Speaker 3: or other times, like this song songwriter, it's taken years
- 2:08Speaker 3: to write I've had different versions of it, but I've
- 2:11Speaker 3: always known that I wanted to write a song called songwriter,
- 2:13Speaker 3: and it just didn't feel write the different versions in
- 2:17Speaker 3: the past. And then at one time I was just
- 2:19Speaker 3: at a piano and it just slowed down me. So
- 2:22Speaker 3: it's yeah, it's every song has its own journey, like
- 2:25Speaker 3: you said, and it's love the unpredictableness of it.
- 2:28Speaker 2: To be fair, how.
- 2:29Speaker 1: Did you handle that on the piano when you were
- 2:31Speaker 1: at home with your parents and everybody else in the house,
- 2:33Speaker 1: Because I would be trying to write a song and
- 2:35Speaker 1: everybody would say, will you stop it? No, do something
- 2:39Speaker 1: that we all.
- 2:39Speaker 3: Know it's true, and you know you're pin plunking along
- 2:43Speaker 3: and you know when you're growing up, you're always that
- 2:45Speaker 3: great and you know, bum chords and the rest of it.
- 2:49Speaker 3: And yeah, quite thankful to hear the process. But then,
- 2:54Speaker 3: you know, I used to write a song I think
- 2:56Speaker 3: it's like fourteen thirteen, and I'd present it to my
- 2:59Speaker 3: mom and dad and they were like, oh, wow, actually
- 3:01Speaker 3: it's quite good. The encouragement they gave us it was
- 3:05Speaker 3: good and just spirald from there. So yeah, but it
- 3:09Speaker 3: can be painful to get there.
- 3:12Speaker 1: What is your your reaction when when those that are
- 3:14Speaker 1: listening to the songs get an interpretation of what it
- 3:18Speaker 1: is that you're writing. Because I mean, everybody's going to
- 3:20Speaker 1: have their own little soap opera or something in their life.
- 3:22Speaker 1: But when you get a song like songwriter, to me,
- 3:25Speaker 1: it can go into any storyline at any time.
- 3:29Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a kind of classic love song, and there's
- 3:33Speaker 3: song meaning that obviously it's a music related It's all about,
- 3:38Speaker 3: when it comes down to it, sharing whatever you have,
- 3:40Speaker 3: no matter how little or a lot, and sharing them
- 3:43Speaker 3: with someone you really love. That's quite a universal theme
- 3:47Speaker 3: and it's just done a context of a songwriter.
- 3:52Speaker 2: Sure, how much you can share before you're aware, well
- 3:55Speaker 2: we haven't paid a lot that is. But whatever you can.
- 3:58Speaker 3: Share, you know that the meaning behind it is that
- 4:01Speaker 3: you shared with the you voiced to love one there is.
- 4:03Speaker 3: So I really love that idea and yeah, hopefully people
- 4:06Speaker 3: relate to it.
- 4:07Speaker 1: Well. Speaking of sharing, look at what you did with
- 4:09Speaker 1: that video. This is one of those things. And I
- 4:10Speaker 1: guess I base everything on where is he taking the
- 4:13Speaker 1: viewer or the listener? And when you jump into this video,
- 4:16Speaker 1: I'm going, oh my god. Once again, he knows that
- 4:19Speaker 1: we're right here with him and he's gonna take us
- 4:21Speaker 1: for that journey.
- 4:23Speaker 3: Yeah, and it was a shot in the official music videos,
- 4:26Speaker 3: shot in London Center, London as well as it has
- 4:30Speaker 3: to be on a piano because.
- 4:33Speaker 2: You know, most of my videos are shot on the piano.
- 4:38Speaker 3: So i'd find a nice church as well, which he
- 4:41Speaker 3: found endorsed in East London. And yeah, it just kind of
- 4:45Speaker 3: brought this song to life really and as music video should,
- 4:50Speaker 3: really just gives it a different dimension, isn't it. Well.
- 4:54Speaker 1: I love the idea that you're using the authentic piano
- 4:56Speaker 1: in the first place, because I mean, there for a
- 4:57Speaker 1: while everything had that EDMB to it. So when I
- 5:00Speaker 1: see an authentic instrument, I mean all of a sudden,
- 5:03Speaker 1: I am really drawn into that moment.
- 5:06Speaker 3: And also in the video, we kind of took the
- 5:10Speaker 3: front part away from the piano just so esthetically you
- 5:14Speaker 3: can see behind, you know, the inner workings of the
- 5:17Speaker 3: piano as well, which is I thought it was quite
- 5:18Speaker 3: a nice little touch.
- 5:19Speaker 1: So do you do you name your piano? Because I
- 5:22Speaker 1: sure did. I mean, I've got a piano in my
- 5:24Speaker 1: in my dining room that's from eighteen sixty nine and
- 5:27Speaker 1: it's one of and but I mean, I just can't
- 5:29Speaker 1: believe the history it's been through in order to get
- 5:32Speaker 1: to my dining room.
- 5:34Speaker 2: Oh wow, what did you name it is?
- 5:36Speaker 1: I just said I call it friend because every time
- 5:39Speaker 1: I get to sit down with it, I'm sitting with
- 5:41Speaker 1: a friend, and what I do is second. Instead of
- 5:44Speaker 1: me trying to write the song, I allow it to
- 5:47Speaker 1: write the song, and I'm I'm just there as the messenger.
- 5:51Speaker 2: That's a great that's great.
- 5:52Speaker 3: No, I've never named a piano a name before, but
- 5:55Speaker 3: I've got one of home, the Baby White Ground, so
- 5:57Speaker 3: maybe I should do that to be fair. It's it's
- 6:01Speaker 3: got a dent init I mean taking again. That's part
- 6:05Speaker 3: of the journey of the piano, isn't it. It's the
- 6:07Speaker 3: last hundred years. Hundred years, you know that'll always be there.
- 6:10Speaker 3: So I love to like your old piano. It's They've
- 6:13Speaker 3: all got their messages and journeys, don't they, Which is great.
- 6:16Speaker 1: Yeah, because I mean it's one of those things where
- 6:18Speaker 1: you can travel anywhere if you just take the time
- 6:21Speaker 1: to listen to those keys and listen to where you're
- 6:24Speaker 1: putting your vocals. Because I love what a person will
- 6:26Speaker 1: do when they start rolling their vocals when they're trying
- 6:28Speaker 1: to find those notes. That to me is what I
- 6:30Speaker 1: like to see.
- 6:32Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 6:33Speaker 3: Yeah, it's the creative journey and the creative process and
- 6:36Speaker 3: there's nothing quite like it.
- 6:38Speaker 1: Right when you were in the studio, did it all
- 6:41Speaker 1: come to you as that flow, or did you get
- 6:43Speaker 1: to pieces part this album together in the way of saying,
- 6:45Speaker 1: okay today on these tracks, we're going to drop this
- 6:48Speaker 1: down where then we're going to bring this musician in,
- 6:50Speaker 1: you know, or was everybody in the same room at
- 6:52Speaker 1: the same time.
- 6:55Speaker 3: Well, the album's taking a long time to get together
- 6:58Speaker 3: to get the right kind of songs, and there are
- 7:00Speaker 3: some songs produced by other producers as well, so it's
- 7:03Speaker 3: piecing all those stems together.
- 7:05Speaker 2: But yeah, mainly it was done in North London.
- 7:07Speaker 3: With the produced for Loscola Bruto, who I've been working
- 7:10Speaker 3: with for a long time now, and we've just me
- 7:12Speaker 3: and him just sat down and we're piecing song by
- 7:15Speaker 3: song together. Really, one of my favorite parts to do
- 7:19Speaker 3: in recording is bv's backing vocals, and I loved getting
- 7:22Speaker 3: creative with these. We've spent tracks on the album. I
- 7:26Speaker 3: found it really fascinating, so that was a cool thing.
- 7:29Speaker 2: To do.
- 7:30Speaker 3: But yeah, every song I wanted to mean something, you know,
- 7:34Speaker 3: I wanted to get the listener to have a part
- 7:36Speaker 3: of me and my journey of where I've come from
- 7:39Speaker 3: and how I've ended up writing an album. So how
- 7:42Speaker 3: few people listen to it. They're literally taking a souvenir
- 7:45Speaker 3: of me away with them in a way.
- 7:47Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with John Gallia coming
- 7:50Speaker 1: up next. The name of the first release from his
- 7:55Speaker 1: brand new album is Songwriter. We are back with John Gallia.
- 7:58Speaker 1: See so many listeners don't understand that being inside that
- 8:01Speaker 1: studio that can be a cold, lonely room. I mean,
- 8:04Speaker 1: if they would just crank up the hen just a
- 8:06Speaker 1: little bit more, But my god, I feel I can't
- 8:14Speaker 1: hit a note if I'm shivering. I mean, I'm that's
- 8:16Speaker 1: just the way. And I keep saying, dudes, you got
- 8:18Speaker 1: to give me some warmth in here because I'm missing
- 8:20Speaker 1: some notes here.
- 8:21Speaker 3: Well, it just gives a different performance, I guess, right,
- 8:24Speaker 3: the shaking of a barco maybe more.
- 8:30Speaker 1: When when the song does come to you, do you
- 8:32Speaker 1: instantly go to the piano or do you sit there
- 8:33Speaker 1: and you start breaking it down? Because I do a
- 8:35Speaker 1: thing called defragging it's like, okay, so you've got this,
- 8:38Speaker 1: tell me where it came from, Why did it come from?
- 8:40Speaker 1: Why are you investing your energy? So I really start
- 8:42Speaker 1: breaking it down it basically, I'm a perfectionist, yeah.
- 8:46Speaker 2: And I'm a bit like that at some certain times
- 8:49Speaker 2: as well as songs. But sometimes you can.
- 8:51Speaker 3: Be own the perfection and then you never write anything,
- 8:53Speaker 3: so that's also the downside, or you never released anything
- 8:55Speaker 3: because it's never perfect enough and it just comes a
- 8:59Speaker 3: time when.
- 8:59Speaker 2: You go, no, I'm gonna just really as it is.
- 9:02Speaker 3: It's that kind of raw quality, and you know, the
- 9:06Speaker 3: audiences do appreciate.
- 9:07Speaker 2: That honesty even more nowadays.
- 9:10Speaker 3: So sometimes I do, you know, spend hours on a song,
- 9:14Speaker 3: but other times, you know, you can come in fifteen minutes.
- 9:16Speaker 3: I'm no, that's again, I think that that does the
- 9:19Speaker 3: message well. And that's what I wanted to give over
- 9:22Speaker 3: to the audience, and that's that.
- 9:24Speaker 2: So it all depends on me.
- 9:26Speaker 3: But yeah, you can be stuck sometimes, but you have to,
- 9:29Speaker 3: you know, push through it.
- 9:31Speaker 1: That's interesting that you said to give to the audience
- 9:33Speaker 1: because all of the videos that I've seen of you
- 9:35Speaker 1: when you perform is I feel you sharing with the audience.
- 9:39Speaker 1: It's almost like saying, hey, by the way, this is
- 9:41Speaker 1: kind of moving through me now, I want to just
- 9:43Speaker 1: share this with you and then we'll grow from there.
- 9:45Speaker 1: I mean, that's one thing I've always loved about you, John,
- 9:47Speaker 1: is that you share things with us.
- 9:51Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 9:52Speaker 3: Again, just like the song Somewhere, If I can share
- 9:54Speaker 3: as much as I can, you know, the messages or
- 9:56Speaker 3: positivity or some kind of hope through songs, I'll do it,
- 10:00Speaker 3: you know. And especially on this album, there's a lot
- 10:02Speaker 3: of sharing of my life from what I've been through
- 10:05Speaker 3: or journeys I've been through, so hopefully people can relate
- 10:09Speaker 3: to that. But yeah, music is very much a sharing platform.
- 10:12Speaker 3: You know, we'll be here without the fans, So.
- 10:15Speaker 1: Is it pretty interesting to still have fans out there
- 10:17Speaker 1: in that audience singing I'm not an angel.
- 10:21Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, if.
- 10:22Speaker 2: You can remember the day, that was a while ago.
- 10:24Speaker 3: But yeah, it's it's crazy to think when you when
- 10:27Speaker 3: you're performing live and people sing your lyrics back you.
- 10:30Speaker 3: But it's just crazy an amazing feeling. But it's yeah,
- 10:34Speaker 3: I'll never quite get over that.
- 10:36Speaker 1: Well, And the thing is is that they're sitting there
- 10:38Speaker 1: their lips seeking it or they're singing along, and I
- 10:41Speaker 1: can't watch them because then I'll start following them because
- 10:43Speaker 1: I'm reading their lips and if they've got the lyrics wrong.
- 10:47Speaker 3: A right, And I get the lyrics from all the
- 10:49Speaker 3: time I myself, So I'm like, my memory is not great.
- 10:52Speaker 2: So, yeah, you're really concentrating with I Telly problem.
- 10:58Speaker 1: Now, when it comes to locating your music these days,
- 11:01Speaker 1: it's not like when I was growing up, where all
- 11:03Speaker 1: we had was a record store. These days, I mean,
- 11:05Speaker 1: music is everywhere. Does Alexa and Siri get a part
- 11:08Speaker 1: of this or do you work that that line as well?
- 11:11Speaker 1: When it comes to getting your songs out there.
- 11:15Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you have to really adapt.
- 11:17Speaker 3: I think it's the best way, especially nowadays becoming an
- 11:19Speaker 3: independent musician, if to adapt and use every platform you
- 11:22Speaker 3: can to get the music out there. So I'm during
- 11:26Speaker 3: the COVID years, I took to TikTok and started doing
- 11:29Speaker 3: a lot on their that platform, and our ass gone
- 11:32Speaker 3: through the roof, which has been amazing. But the thing is,
- 11:36Speaker 3: we're doing all this, you have to just remember why
- 11:38Speaker 3: you do it in at the beginning. So I never
- 11:40Speaker 3: wanted to lose the reason why being a musician someway.
- 11:43Speaker 3: So whenever you know, I post stuff on TikTok, I
- 11:46Speaker 3: want to still make sure there's music stuff there. So
- 11:50Speaker 3: it's a fine line nowadays artists have to go through.
- 11:53Speaker 3: But if you can use the platforms to get the
- 11:55Speaker 3: music out there, I think it's you know, why not,
- 11:59Speaker 3: you know, it's embrace all the change you can.
- 12:02Speaker 2: I guess, get, let find you know what I mean.
- 12:05Speaker 1: I totally did that, and that's like with the new
- 12:07Speaker 1: album stuff like that. It's such a gift for fans
- 12:09Speaker 1: because I mean with an EP that gives us something
- 12:11Speaker 1: immediate to hold on to. This way we can escape
- 12:14Speaker 1: for at least forty five minutes to an hour inside
- 12:16Speaker 1: of full collection of music. That's gotta be exciting for
- 12:19Speaker 1: you as well, because it's not breaking a pattern. You've
- 12:22Speaker 1: got that vision inside your heart and all of a
- 12:24Speaker 1: sudden we grab onto it.
- 12:27Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's more of a statement in the album,
- 12:29Speaker 3: so it's more about who I am as iist, and
- 12:32Speaker 3: really it should stand the test of time. I've done
- 12:36Speaker 3: quite a few EP's in the past, which has been brilliant,
- 12:38Speaker 3: but I've always felt like that it wasn't a full
- 12:41Speaker 3: body of work. It was a current thing, whereas this album,
- 12:45Speaker 3: I feel like people can sit down and literally listen
- 12:48Speaker 3: from the beginning to the end and it's a casive journey.
- 12:52Speaker 2: And that's that's something very interesting to me and for
- 12:57Speaker 2: future projects as well that I want to develop with
- 12:59Speaker 2: the album.
- 13:00Speaker 3: So maybe you know, doing a book or something attached
- 13:03Speaker 3: to the album is a cool idea, you know what
- 13:05Speaker 3: I mean. It's like, it's you know, it's a full
- 13:08Speaker 3: body of work compared to an EP, and that's something
- 13:10Speaker 3: I'm really said for people listen to and reptive.
- 13:13Speaker 1: Well, I strongly suggest you do the book thing because
- 13:15Speaker 1: my tap, my past two published books came with albums
- 13:19Speaker 1: because I because while I was writing the book, I
- 13:21Speaker 1: just had this urge to write music and was like,
- 13:23Speaker 1: well go forward, dude, don't just shut this stuff off,
- 13:26Speaker 1: because it's not going to be here once your book
- 13:28Speaker 1: is done.
- 13:29Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true.
- 13:30Speaker 3: And again it's using every platform vibe. It's you know,
- 13:34Speaker 3: getting the message out there in every.
- 13:36Speaker 2: Medium you can.
- 13:37Speaker 3: And yeah, I mean congacts, man, it's a great it's
- 13:40Speaker 3: a great web of done it.
- 13:42Speaker 1: Do you find yourself doing an opera sometime or some
- 13:44Speaker 1: sort of you know, musical play, because I mean it's
- 13:46Speaker 1: you've got that music that's got that emotion. It's like, God,
- 13:49Speaker 1: I would love to see this guy do that with
- 13:50Speaker 1: these actors all around him.
- 13:53Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I did have a background of musical theater,
- 13:55Speaker 2: so yeah, it would be would be interesting to see.
- 13:57Speaker 2: You know, I'd love to work with a musical.
- 14:00Speaker 3: You know, it's it's difficult though with music musicals because
- 14:03Speaker 3: you know, people adapt plays to musicals and it doesn't
- 14:06Speaker 3: quite work out and stuff. It's it's a it's a
- 14:09Speaker 3: it's a hard thing to get right. But obviously once
- 14:11Speaker 3: you get right, it's you know, the world's oyster. So yes,
- 14:14Speaker 3: it's definitely something i'd be interested in. But yeah, we'll
- 14:18Speaker 3: see what the future holds.
- 14:19Speaker 1: Well, well, heck, they're turning songs into movies nowadays, so
- 14:22Speaker 1: can you imagine how a songwriter became a movie?
- 14:26Speaker 2: Yeah, and that would have been safe, right right?
- 14:30Speaker 3: That would be amazing. That would be really cool. I
- 14:32Speaker 3: think was it two thousand and a long time ago,
- 14:35Speaker 3: about fifteen years ago one of my tracks and labs
- 14:38Speaker 3: could fade a pop star and like a comic book
- 14:40Speaker 3: kind of movie to it, So yeah, I could. If
- 14:43Speaker 3: there's something like that again, that'd be really cool. But
- 14:45Speaker 3: it's a lot of work. But yeah, it's very exciting.
- 14:48Speaker 1: It's so funny you say, oh, it's a lot of work,
- 14:50Speaker 1: but I know it's inside your heart to do that
- 14:51Speaker 1: lot of work. That's everything I've ever read about you.
- 14:54Speaker 1: You are so deeply dedicated.
- 14:58Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's something well as a kid really to do,
- 15:01Speaker 3: you know, it's you go work, work at it as
- 15:04Speaker 3: much as you know, as much as you love it,
- 15:06Speaker 3: you have to work at it at the same time.
- 15:08Speaker 1: Yeah, where can people go to find out more about you?
- 15:11Speaker 1: Because I mean it's it's one of those things where
- 15:13Speaker 1: people are going to want to reach out and see
- 15:15Speaker 1: the guide, They want to come out and they want
- 15:17Speaker 1: to be a part of the journey.
- 15:20Speaker 2: Yeah. Well I'm online everywhere, you know. I think some
- 15:23Speaker 2: tour dates coming up later to be announced this year.
- 15:25Speaker 2: It should be fun. But in the meantime the video will.
- 15:28Speaker 3: Be official, video will be dropping seeing and yeah, Spotify,
- 15:33Speaker 3: TikTok if you're on it.
- 15:36Speaker 2: X. I think of all the social media platform they're
- 15:39Speaker 2: the new one. The new weekend of a new social media.
- 15:43Speaker 3: Platform could be busy, but yeah, I'm across it all.
- 15:48Speaker 1: Well, you got to come back to this show anytime
- 15:49Speaker 1: in the future. Let's let's break down the entire album
- 15:52Speaker 1: as you release it and stuff so that we can
- 15:54Speaker 1: know the stories. And to me, it's always the inside
- 15:56Speaker 1: sleeve of an album when you get the opportunity to
- 15:59Speaker 1: let us inside for just a brief moment.
- 16:03Speaker 3: Yeah, and the backstories of how the songs are created
- 16:06Speaker 3: and the inspirations.
- 16:07Speaker 2: Yeah, this this is all that takes. It's part of
- 16:10Speaker 2: the journey.
- 16:10Speaker 3: And that's why I'm so excited for people to hear
- 16:13Speaker 3: somewhere because it's the first track off it, so it's
- 16:16Speaker 3: kind of setting the tone really for thought's to come.
- 16:19Speaker 3: And that's an amazing tracts of that I'm been excited
- 16:21Speaker 3: for people to hear.
- 16:22Speaker 2: So yeah, well.
- 16:24Speaker 1: You're the one that You're the one that's making it exciting, dude,
- 16:26Speaker 1: So please come back to this show anytime in the future.
- 16:30Speaker 2: Oh, bless you. Thank you so much for having me.
- 16:32Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today?
- 16:33Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, have a great one.