- 2024-08-29
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MUSIC
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Allie X Teams Up with Empress Of for New Version of “Galina”
Los Angeles-based Canadian singer-songwriter Allie X teamed up with Honduran-American singer-songwriter Empress Of to release a new version of “Galina” on August 28, 2024.
The song is accompanied by the Jennifer Juniper Stratford-directed music video.
This marks the first collaboration between Allie X and Empress Of.
The original version of the song is featured on Allie X's third studio album “Girl with No Face”, which was released back in February.
Allie X wrote the song, which was inspired by a Russian woman named Galina, who worked at a naturopathic clinic in Toronto.
Allie X said of collaboration with Empress Of, “Empress Of is an artist I've admired for many years and it felt like the right collaboration for this song, which is an exploration of maternal and mystical relationships between women.”- Allie X told Apple Music about the song, “I have really bad eczema in my inner elbows, and I found this Russian lady named Galina at this naturopathic clinic in Toronto. For years, she made me this cream in her kitchen that worked better than steroids. She would always say, 'It cost me more to make this than I'm charging you. I get this man in the Swiss Alps to gather these herbs and I make you this cream.' She was pretty old, so I always worried: 'What happens when Galina retires? It's not like this is some patented product.' So sure enough, in the summer of 2022, I returned to the clinic, and I was like, 'Could I place an order for the cream from Galina?' And the lady was like, 'Oh, Galina has retired.' And I was like, 'What!?! Did she tell anyone the recipe?' And she was like, 'No, she won't tell. There's nothing we can do-Galina has lost her memory.' So the song is about somebody that you've come to rely on who just coldly leaves your life without something that you need.”
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Allie X shared on social media, “Galina was one of the last songs written for the album. In 2022 I took a 4 month break from doing any music and then when I got back to it in the late summer, the rest of my record kind of wrote itself. Galina was one of those songs. I was coming back from a hike with my dog at the end of the day and in the elevator heard a motif in my head. I went to my studio right away and put down the line I was hearing. This ended up being a string part which you can hear in the background of the voice memo in the next slide. It took me a little bit to find the melody and the voice memo is the moment when I got the basic map of it. It was one of those cases where I needed some words to help me. 'Galina Wake Up!' had been in my notes as a title for a couple years from an experience in my life (if you know you know) and those words helped me find the melody and rhythm. My melodies are usually soaring and span octaves, and it felt exciting to write a chorus that utilized just a few notes in the scale. The basic chorus was written that night then the next day I figured out the verse and pre chorus soon after.”
She continued, “When I programmed the bass line and drums was when I got really excited about it. I had recently acquired my Linn Drum and had rigged my studio so I could send midi to it. Galina was the first song I used it on. I wanted to do a Hounds of Love style tom pattern. The Galina chorus was so filled with toms I remember having trouble trying to carve out space for everything else, but that was eventually solved with Justin Meldal-Johnsen and EQ. I had also just received a Moog Matriarch and also sent midi to that. I spent a good amount of time perfecting that bass line and finding the syncopation (same with Off With Her Tits) I was trying to channel early Madonna synth bass programming.”
She added, “I wanted to keep the chorus in a lower part of my voice, but the energy just isn't there when I sing low so the key kept going up, even to the point where on my recent tour I've put it up another 2 semitones.” - source : Apple Music
