#GALLANT TALKING TO MYSELF LYRICS SERIES#

Sometimes those environments cross over and they’re vast deserts, empty swamps, things like that, and to me that has something to do with, not just loneliness, but searching for something, where you can’t really see anything around you upfront.

I think a lot of the time I had this picture of this environment in my head and I would just kind of paint that environment. “I think there’s a lot of mental wandering or meandering going on. “The gold sad face is supposed to represent optimism and the emotion and the pursuit of really knowing something greater,” Gallant explains. The visual identity for Ology centers around a golden sad face overlaying a current photograph of Gallant and symbolizes growth when juxtaposed with Zebra’s cover photograph of himself as a somewhat depressed child. The lyrics of the Nineties R&B and gospel-influenced “Bone + Tissue” read like verses of encoded scripture, but Gallant is clear that his intentions are to “try to subvert religion having any place in society.” Begging for affirmation, he sings, “And anytime I bite the hand that feeds, won’t you lie through your teeth and tell me I’m a monument to more than bone + tissue?”

#GALLANT TALKING TO MYSELF LYRICS SERIES#

“I realized that when I was writing it, I was basically putting myself up on a chalkboard and dissecting every element that I could,” says Gallant of Ology, quickly adding, “in a non-narcissistic way.” Tackling confessions of loneliness, self-doubt, and regret, the album is like a series of diary entries sung as streams of consciousness. “Weight in Gold” is reminiscent of vintage soul records with a twist of Prince, which was enough to catch the attention one of his heroes, Seal, who ended up covering the song for Gallant’s “ In the Room” YouTube series. Fitting somewhere in the center of Venn diagram of soul, R&B, future bass, drum & bass, and pop, Gallant’s sound has been dubbed neo-soul, alt-R&B, and more. The radio DJ Zane Lowe, who made the soulful single “Weight in Gold” his first World Premiere on his inaugural Beats 1 show back in June 2015, inadvertently turning all eyes onto Gallant, recently described the musician as existing in a “creative schizophrenic place,” which Gallant confirms. Shorts by Dries Van Noten.Īnd his voice is what ties the album, which also forms a study of his musical influences, together. Mining the rough, future beats of Zebra, STINT, the album’s primary producer whom Gallant found on SoundCloud, worked to put Gallant’s voice, namely his falsetto, front and center. Gallant, who performs under just his last name, self-released the haunting, future bass-filled EP Zebra in 2014, detailing his struggles living in New York during and after his time at NYU (where he study music anthropology and sociology), trying to express his feelings “in the only way” he knew how. Looking to escape the anxieties of New York and the music industry, the Columbia, Maryland-raised singer moved to Los Angeles in 2013, where he was discovered by manager Jake Udell. “I can’t really talk to people face-to-face,” he admits, “so with this album, I guess I was coming off the realization that being very honest and letting people in a little bit means something to somebody.” His voice is deep and soft, and he takes his time reflecting on his preparations for the LP.

“I really just wanted to challenge myself to dig even deeper and dissect myself even more, and learn more about myself in the process,” he says over the phone, having just landed in New York for his album listening party. “ I want to be a better human.” Can you buy happiness on Craigslist? These are both thoughts that passed through Christopher Gallant’s mind as he worked on Ology, his début album which also serves as an introspective study of himself.

Gallant talking to myself lyrics