Ron Gallo

Photo By Chiara D’Anzieri

Ron Gallo is concentrating everything down to his own weird science through plausible characterization and crying-out-loud riffage. Upon that cranium through the quintessential afro lies a little Ron Gallo with big ideas. He plugs that brain into an Orange amp and out comes music you could play in the middle of nowhere and still feel someone else getting you. And after the fact you will realize how oft you find yourself in Ron Gallo-ian situations. That’s any twee quirk juxtaposed with existential mania in a holistically familiar setting. Like contemplating your outer-space levels of loneliness and parallelism with Emma Stone at a Marshall’s in Yucca Valley. You could try to write that off as foreign but be there the next business day. The pictures that Ron paints in his music are odd until they’re relatable. Plus you can eat them.

Ron has his finger on the dead pulse of a globalized society turned into fad-istic cretins from imploding technological advancements and too many shirts. He raises questions and doesn’t care if he gets answers because he knows they’ve been buried deep beneath the collective excess. But as long as that question is ringing off the walls of venues and through pricked ears taking siestas within snug headphones then it isn’t all lost. And fuck I can’t even write this joint without checking emails and dipping my jowls in Twitter or googling to find out why people go missing in Joshua Tree but Ron forgives me because he’s curious and sometimes distracted too. And he grins in knowing if we are so weak we will be killed and replaced by better animals. So that’s why Ron Gallo has returned to the stone age carrying a catalytic converter and his newest album FOREGROUND MUSIC.

FOREGROUND MUSIC does for music what typewriters do for alcoholics. We’re finding our way back to basics with the knowledge we have of the abstract. The basics themselves felt so far gone and you can’t quite tell if you’re remembering them the same way because the you that experienced them is not the edition of the present. That’s why Ron Gallo’s FOREGROUND MUSIC took a shit load of elbow grease. Physical exertion was required to build this collection of songs so that they may preserve an idea in silly putty. Ron has taken many computations and penciled them down or else they would float off into some jag-off’s back yard. This was no stationary process dear friend. Ron went many places without knowing why, and he had to trust something of a process to make something of a result. FOREGROUND MUSIC is the dust on an old mask, full of bunnies and blinding to the eye but reminiscent of time as a collection. You can shake it off and put the mask on, even do a little dance but that dust will settle and you will be reminded of how you inevitably moved on. But your discovery of old faces flushed together in a shadow box adds a new expression. And with that you can offer a new experience that may be shared. FOREGROUND MUSIC is the findings of Ron Gallo through the entirety of his creative life from debut realizations that birthed HEAVY META widely to the proportionally infinite and collapsing now. What bones he must have!

Ron Gallo and company capped off one rooting tour in East Atlanta at the great and powerful Earl for a night of ultimate pleasantry. Beforehand I demanded Ron talk to me over sushi burritos a block away. We went for a good while, talking about the unrivaled greatness of the sketch comedy show “I Think You Should Leave” and whether violence was a necessary component for revolution. We were also joined by the illustrious bassist for the collective Ron Gallo, Chiara D’Anzieri. She’s a squeaky clean producer with a tasteful ear and a thoughtful voice. She is also Ron Gallo’s wedded wife.

Here lies the breath of a conversation:

Photo by Taylor Monica

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Did you ever do stand up?

Ron: Well, before I moved to Nashville and was in Philly I used to host a variety show every Wednesday night. There was a mixture of music and comedy. I got really involved with the Philly comedy scene and I would host, so I kind of got used to doing improv things and what not.

Was this pre-Ron Gallo?

Ron: Yeah it was like the beginning/pre- and then the very beginning. And then I kind of retired that show after about a year, like 50-something consecutive weeks. Every Wednesday.

And you were in a band called Toy Soldiers right?

Ron: Yeah, that's like lifetimes ago. It's funny when people even bring it up or know about it, because we really didn't do anything.

You have an Audiotree session right?

Ron: We had an Audiotree session. That was about it.

Chiara: It's still around on the internet. I think that's what happens.

Ron: It's like six lifetimes ago.

Do you feel like you have a need to reinvent yourself? Or do you think it happens naturally?

Ron: Quite more natural I think. Because there's a natural tendency to just always be chasing whatever I'm into at the time.

Chiara: And that's your need.

Ron: So, yeah, it's both. It's not forced, so it's just always following.

Chiara: It happens, and then you're in a knowledge. I mean at least from outside, since I’ve known you, that's always what happened.

Ron: Yeah, I think it's the only way to keep going. Because if you start a band and you have a sound and you're like, ‘We're a band that sounds like this’, and you just have to force yourself to keep doing the same thing, that's like death. That's why I went off on my own. Because I think you always need to be free and able to just go with wherever you need to go with. It's the only way, the only genuine thing. I'm not one who can be a template. Like ‘This is what we're supposed to do. So we're just phone in and do the thing that we do.’

So you're back in Philly now?

Ron: Yeah.

How's that? You liking it? You planning another move?

Ron: Yeah, I think we're over it again already. I'm from there. I lived there for a long time, and I already left once, went to Nashville for six years, came back, and now I think I'm ready to go for good.

You have any places in mind?

*They laugh

Chiara: Going back to Nashville, I’ll tell you what.

Ron: Well, these are the things: she loves Nashville because when she moved to the US a few years ago, that was like her first American home. But it's probably somewhere between if we were to go back there, but also eventually just gravitating towards moving to Italy, because, you know, she's tried the States.

Chiara: And I failed. No, never mind, cancel it: THEY failed. I did try very hard. I mean, I don't mind. I will go back to Nashville. I know that we’re always gonna have a house, a place there. Because, as you know, we have to split ourselves into two because that's what happens when you're an international family. But it would be great to to be able to do a little bit of both in a more equal time, because right now it's more here and then a little bit there in the summer. And I feel like now that we're he's getting used to it, he's actually liking it and feeling comfortable to live there. Picking up a little bit of Italian, you can exist. When initially he was feeling a little bit alienated because of the language, the barrier there.

Ron: But now I kind of like that about it. I like the option to not have to talk.

Chiara: Nobody knows that he can understand. So he can pretend to not understand.

Ron: There’s no social anxiety when there's a language barrier. You know, I can just stand there and there's no obligation for me to say anything, and I can plead that I don't know, and it's great.

Chiara: I also feel like we have much less social anxiety in general over there.

Ron: And much less anxiety in general. Everybody's just chilling. Very eye-opening, my time spent there.

Would you say it's affected the music at all? Living there?

Ron: Taking myself out of America to see another perspective, and then coming back in and then seeing more dramatically how fucked up it is here. You kind of step out of the picture and then step back in, you're like, ‘Whoa, this is all wrong.’ That's what I feel this record is like. That change in perspective. To really evaluate the way that we do things. Like everyone here is stressed and anxious overwork and burn out. Everything's a hustle. And a lot of it could be filled by Philadelphia too, which is like a super dirty, gritty, grimy city, and there's lots of chaos and crime and violence, all of it. But just in general when you go to another place and you see how people live and what they prioritize, it doesn't have to be this 24/7 grind for productivity. And the neglect of some simple, important things in life that are just so easily lost here. Why has stuff just been looking the same and crumbling? Because nobody cares. Everyone's too burned out to actually care. And I think that's the way that it's all structured. [In Italy] there’s an attention to beauty there. You know, people care about stuff. Everything's made with love. And things are closed for like four hours in the middle of the day so people can have a break. It's different. It's very different. So I wasn't used to that.

Chiara: I remember the first time he was like, ‘Why are a restaurants not open it’s 3pm?’

Ron: Yeah, ‘People should be killing themselves at all hours so that I have access to anything!’

Chiara: I would say, ‘It's 3pm. Nobody goes to restaurants right now. You go to restaurants at 7, or you go to restaurant until 12. You close your your shop, and you go pick up your son, and then you have two hours and then you go back to work. And that, at least, that's what we're used to. He was not used to that. He likes it now.

Photo by Chiara D’Anzieri

Let’s talk about FOREGROUND MUSIC. How is it a new chapter of Ron Gallo and also a circling back to the HEAVY META days? Like a revolution that created a new layer to rediscover the past through.

Ron: Yes. After HEAVY META I sort of did all of these sharp left turn experiments from record to record. And while I think it was necessary, I think with this record, after doing that for literally three albums of experimentation, I realized that it was a reckoning. It’s really important to stay in tune with what you're naturally inclined to do, and to remember why you started making music. And I think FOREGROUND MUSIC is that. It's like a return to the head space of the first record, using music as more of a vehicle for the message, which is where HEAVY META from. I'm just feeling a lot closer to the way I felt when I made that record. And it had to be genuine, because I guess I didn't feel it for all those in between. So it was full circle in that sense. Maybe it’s a good idea to get back to the basics. And it also feels like the most genuine thing to do. But then also using some of the palate that I explored with the other stuff, using the base to be grounded in that same space from when made the first record. And so then I think it kind of ties it all together, in a way. At least when I perform. It's like all of them tied up.

What would you say then are the main contentions you’re trying to make through your music on stage, as you’re compiling a setlist from different albums to present like a culmination of your being at this given time?

Ron: I guess it's been leaning pretty heavy on the new stuff. Because it's new, it's the most exciting stuff to play. I also think it's most relevant to now, because that's kind of what this record is to me. It's about now. So most of it being about FOREGROUND MUSIC. And then kind of lining it with in my opinion what are like the greatest hits of the previous. One thing that I'm also adopting is not being completely hard-headed. I have a tendency in the past to be pretty confrontational with the audience. I’ll intentionally self-sabotage or do things because I know that's what's expected. But I'm also trying to realize people come to the show: don't not play the songs that they like. So it's also taking that into an account. You know, after playing “Young Lady, You’re Scaring Me” like a million times, you get burned out on it. But with this tour I’m like, ‘No. People like that song. That song probably reaches more people than all the others. Just fucking like it for what it is. Love it for it is. Don't have a bitterness around playing the song.’ So it's just about getting out of my own way a little bit. But I feel good about it. I think the show is also getting back to the basics of, like, putting on an intense, in-your-face show. But it's all the songs across the catalog, with quiet moments too, but I think even then those are lyrically intense.

And is there a message throughout it all as these songs come together in that space?

Ron: I guess I'm always trying to reflect. I’m always trying to cause some sort of self-reflection with people by using myself. Especially with the new records. I know that I'm kind of talking about my perspective, but the reason I'm doing that is because I think it's probably a lot of people's perspective. And so I think the intention of wanting people to come to the show and see themselves in some of it might be a big, common-thread goal. Especially with the ways people have felt over the last few years. Any of that existential crisis, anxious, depressed, discouraged stuff. Focusing on that not as a downer thing, but more making it fun to talk about this. And then people in the show, maybe they'll find something in there. Like, ‘This is how I felt a lot over the last few years.’ That's what I feel is probably the goal of it all through each song.

Your stage presence can go from ripping tunes to getting ripped on steak in an instant, with some segments of the live show bordering on performance art. What is the importance of saving room for absurdity in your performances?

Ron: Very important. It feels a little bit more balanced. I feel like there were some points like a few years back where the bits were almost a little too much, where it was almost like the show was more of a joke. But reeling it back now I feel like it's a little bit more focused. If there's one or two moments where we break down that wall, people laugh, or something weird happens, it feels good. And then we can go back to intensity. My favorite bit that we've done on this tour so far is in Brooklyn. I bought an Amazon delivery person vest off of of eBay, and I had our friend Jake from the band Post Animal deliver us a package mid-set. And I just get a lot of joy out of it. Yeah. It's like if you're in the audience and you see a guy in an Amazon vest with a big Amazon package disrupt the show and like, stand back and do the photo that they do. The whole thing. I just like that confusion. Or like a super loud, chaotic, noisy solo section. I just really like that shit. I don't know,

Chiara: Somebody came up to me at the end of the show was like, ‘Was that an ad?’ I was like, ‘No, that was almost the opposite. What do you mean? we also had moments during this tour where it was a lot. Like the Nashville show at some points people were like, ‘What's going on?’ But yeah, I guess they enjoy it.

Ron: There are some times where it just gets really loose. Like some shows on this tour there's been more dialogue between band and audience than I've ever seen. And so there would just be like 5 minutes between songs where we're like talking to this person. And then somebody yells out a song, like a song that we haven't played and we don't even remember how to play, and we just, like, see far we get. And when that stuff happens organically, I think it's cool. I don't know how people perceive it, but it's fun for us. And I think it just kind of breaks down that barrier. It just makes it personal. There's just something exciting about it. Somebody yells out a song, and it's one that you don't really even remember, and you're like, ‘Let’s just ruin this on stage right now.’

Photo by Taylor Monica

You’ve offered your critiques on American society including the backwardness of some of our inhabitants and our unhealthy relationship to consumerism. How has living abroad and then returning to America given you a more revolved sense of us? And can you add something positive or something you changed your mind about for the better?

Ron: When you land back in JFK airport, you like, feel the America again. It's like ‘Oh my God, this feels like a thing.’ And then you settle back into it, you're used to it again. But that was jarring. But in terms of a positive…

*Silence permeates the conversation. All that can be heard is enormous street traffic and a store owner in a shouting match with a homeless woman that's nearing physicality*

Chiara: It's taking too long.

Ron: Well, there's something to say about your comforts and having your stuff and your things that you're used to. Like the first few days back I like our house and the places that we like and the people that we like and all those things, which is kind of universal no matter where you are. But yeah, I think it's really just that. An embracing of the comforts that I have here is sort of enhanced, like when you are removed from the picture. Even with the language barrier. As annoying as it is to come back and hear Americans speak again. It's not big things. It's like being able to go get, like, a giant coffee.

Chiara: I don't even know if I have a positive… there is one thing. I have a very Western passion. Like, in Italy I would not be able to walk around this.

*Chiara gestures to her fringe western jacket and cowboy boots*

And that's the stupidest thing. But that is probably one of the only few things that I can really enjoy from here, because we don't have it there. The Spaghetti Westerns have been shot all in Italy, and that's why Italians have that thing around Westerns. And I was never America-fascinated. Like, when I first met Ron, I was hoping he wasn't American. And then he starts speaking. I was like, ‘This is definitely not British.’ And I've never thought about coming here, but when I came, the whole country thing with the boots and fringe, that was the only thing that I really enjoyed. And when I'm in Italy I have my cowboy hat there, but I don’t wear it.

Ron: Music is better here. It's better to tour and make music. It's more of a musical place. The music industry is very antiquated and sketchy in Italy.

Chiara: Generally in Europe I think.

Ron: You can't really have a livelihood of music over there. It's pretty difficult. Whereas that's one thing that's actually a good thing about here.

You did a tour of just Italy at one point didn’t you?

Chiara: We did and it was a pain in the ass.

Ron: It's very sketchy, notoriously. And I guess that’s another one of the positives here. You know what you're signing up for. You're not gonna not get paid for like six weeks. And even then a guy's gonna have to drive over a border to like wire money. It’s just weird. Stuff that you don't run into here. If anything America has right it's financial organization. Everything is clear.

Chiara: The transactions here are very like ‘It is what it is. It might suck but this is it.’

Ron: Like EVERY time you play a show in Italy, you get shorted on your pay. They’re just like, ‘We told you this, but here's less than we told you.’ And then it's like, where did it go?

Chiara: Also now they do this very funny thing because of me. they kind of go around Ron and they just come to me. And that makes it to where they feel entitled to be a little bit more sketchy, because they're like, ‘Come on, we’re the same kind. Help me out.’

Ron: So that’s a positive view, I guess.

What are some things you think we should be moving towards as a society? On both the national and global level.

Ron: I don't think the awareness about everything happening all the time everywhere is healthy. It's too overwhelming. It makes it feel like the world is ending all the time, but then you go outside and everything's actually fine. I think that there should be more of an attention to the community. Because the truth is if everyone focused on their community, their block, and built those communities on things like common-decency, goodness, whatever. If everybody did that, then it would be good everywhere. But it's like this, this dread that comes from social media, and like hearing about what's happening here just paints this very dark picture in the world. And it overwhelms people, and then it makes people feel like they're helpless. At least it happens for me. And so I think, again, attention to to your immediate surroundings, and people putting effort into their community is probably a good start. More locally-minded, I should say. Probably just less time in general on the phone. I don't know about you guys, maybe you’re anomalies, but we're all addicted to it in some way. I just think it's way more problematic than we think it is. Because things become normal, and everybody's doing it. It wasn't always like that, where you wake up and you're like, filling your brain with things that are happening. It has to be damaging. I don't know, just like the competitiveness over here, whatever the capitalistic structure. Like everyone being in constant competition, which is why everyone's burn out and grinding all the time. That's not helping either. So probably a more balanced work-life. That would probably benefit everybody's to to not be exhausted and miserable and at their wit’s end all the time. Also less polarizing, more empathy. That would really benefit here.

In a world of lies and deception, is music the best source for Information?

Chiara: Yes!

Ron: Wow. I guess it is one of the few good things that people do.

Chiara: If they can keep doing it though.

Ron: I mean, yeah. I find a lot of times music and arts in general are the only things that maintain a sense of integrity in terms of talking about what's going on, bringing joy to people, all that stuff. Yeah. It’s vital. It's not treated as such, but yeah. Even like, if you're making music for TikTok. I just think music in general, it's just like a generally positive, harmless thing that humans do that is pretty much always good, no matter how bad it is. I feel like it's pretty important in general.

Photo by Taylor Monica

Do you think violence is a necessary component to revolution?

Chiara: This guy is good!

Ron: I think it's gotten to a point where I just think some people need to have the shit beat out of them. You know, like you can be cool and peaceful-protesting, but like, with some of the people that you're dealing with nowadays, these just psychos. I just think they all need to be slapped at this point. And I ultimately don't think that it's ever really the best answer, but I don't know, some people are just too far gone. People that are just like, perpetuating terrible shit in this country. You just need to get your ass beat.

But how do you do it? You know? Cause I, I'm assuming the people you're talking about are the ones with the guns. So how do you, as Ron Gallo, form a militia? Through music?

Ron: I might be completely overly optimistic, but some of the ways that I write about this stuff, there's like a deep-down goal. Maybe you can hit people in between the eyes with ideas, make them see themselves and not like what they see. And then they can have a little moment where they’re like, ‘What's wrong with me?’ Yeah, I don't know. I like to try to do that because I do think that's probably more effective than physical violence. You can try to use wit, but at the same time it's so frustrating because they're so far gone in their concept, so there's really nothing that you can say. But I like to believe that there is.

Chiara: We made the song “Big Truck Energy”, and he didn't even wanna put it on the record. And this is the best song. It's gonna hurt in the right way. So many people over the internet share so much hate.

Ron: So what she's talking about is the label washed to try out this TikTok thing where they share that song and then try to just blast it out to the truck community and just see if it can reach. So they did, and it did. But the the beauty of it-and it's kind of an answer to your question-is that there's nothing in that song that directly addresses a specific person. It's just telling a story. It’s in a story format, yet all of these people felt attacked. It wasn't about them, but they felt like it was. And that I think there's something there. Where if you can make something that's not confrontational, but disguise and then make somebody see themselves in it, yeah, maybe there's some magic there. If they're smart enough to be like, ‘Wait, why does this bother me? Because I’m a fucking idiot. What’s my fucking problem?’ That's where I feel like maybe there's something. And that's what I always like striving for, but it's just difficult. At one point I was like, ‘Let's just stop doing this.’ because there’s death-threats and really scary shit.

Chiara: Somebody tagged me in a comment saying, ‘I wish I could drive you over multiple times.’

With a truck, right?

Ron & Chiara: Yeah.

Ron: And this is where I go back to some people just need to be slapped. They just need a wake up call in some way. But until then, we try with words.

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Ron and Chiara went on to disintegrate notions and expectations with a strident set that toppled from jest to noise to concentration to even vulnerability. And a message of both Ron’s and the music’s own was made clear throughout. I laughed during the “Audience Solo” I stood perfectly still during the lamentations, and I balled up a tight fist in righteous victory when the last chord was struck. Ron Gallo is back from a strange trip and he’s better than ever. Look him in the eyes and you’ll see more than a quaint individual, you’ll see a man who’s traded coconut water for the fountain of youth; not fearing death nor seeking immortality but enjoying the health of life in those strange beats they come traveling in.

(To be published in Record Plug Magazine)