Beyond the fade with Girl Gaze
Sun-streaked strolls with Girl Gaze; press photo courtesy of the band.
New Paltz Girl Gaze recently delivered the wondrous release Fade Out that shines with a warmth that our world is in dire need of at this current time. Created with an organic luster, style and sound that has been associated with many of the local SUNY alumnae—Michaela Passero, Izzy Deranieri, Emily Charash, Julia Oppedisano, and Cat Delaus create stirring and sophisticated melodies, harmonies and hymns made in the key of universal healing.
The DIY designed album opens with the soothing piano lead "Intro" that gently brings the audience a host of seasonal winter to spring expressions of chance on "Melting", sending more sentiments of our collective here and now on "Suddenly". The solstice shifts are further celebrated on "Sun Song", to the illustrations of distances and long lengths on the gorgeous "Far", the face-to-face glances of “Your Eyes”, to creating classic prom-swaying slow dances on "Shadows", right before the group goes straight to the core of the collective hearts of the listeners on the mesmerizing outro "Words". By the time the full-length draws to a close, Girl Gaze leaves you with a menagerie of moods, thoughts and feelings that exists outside the range of simple semantics.
Girl Gaze delivered some exclusive reflections on their breakout record:
Fade Out was a year in the making. The first original song brought to the group was “Far”. Michaela had composed chord progression on piano and worked with Izzy to write the lyrics. After many minimalist arrangements, “Far” was settled to be on piano, guitar, bass, and drums. For the studio version of “Far”, the chord progression was transferred from piano to a Rhodes 73 suitcase piano. Following “Far” came several different short pieces, each called “Untitled.” These pieces started off as instrumentals and for the ones that made it to the album (“Suddenly”, “Words”), lyrics and melody were added months later. “Melting” (which was written by Michaela) was originally a slow piano oriented tune with no guitar. The guitar and drums were added a few months after its conception.
For the studio version of “Melting”, there are dueling guitars creating a fuller effect. “Your Eyes” (also written by Michaela) was one of the songs that took the most time to record at the studio. “Your Eyes” was the last songs recorded both instrumentally and vocally. The studio version of “Shadow” was recorded with dueling guitars as well. Vocally, Cat and Michaela devised harmonies as the recording was happening, so the ending vocals in the outro of the song were completely on the spot and because of this we have incorporated it into our live sets. “Sun Song” was written by Cat. “Sun Song” was recorded on a vintage Mellotron. This song was probably the most fun to record because of the instrumental difference. The Mellotron was not further incorporated into the record.
Girl Gaze’s album Fade Out is available now via Team Love Records.