Sally Garozzo (Interview)

by Jon Gardner on 18.08.09

Sally Garozzo has balls.

You may be shocked by this, considering the singing voice and the pictures, but it’s true. This operatic, poetic angel has great big, hairy, shiny brass bollocks. I’m speaking of course, of fearlessness. Of bravery.

There has been a resurgence lately of the faux-gothic US shoegazing that Evanescence, Paramore, et al excel at, and this is largely thanks to the dreary soundtrack of teen wampyr-weepie “Twilight” and all the introspective lonely-hearts soul searching it has inspired in the panda-eyed nobody understands me set. While on one hand this might pave the way for the more intelligent rock fan to look deeper into the music they are being offered and maybe even find some real art under the machine-tooled rubbish such movies have championed, for the most part they will only likely dig up the typical and hollow “Why don’t nice boys / girls like me and honestly, I don’t care anyway cos I’m dead inside” kind of bullshit that barely held water when the Cure still had coke habits and Siouxsie Sioux didn’t have anyone blowing her onstage at the Brits.

Not since Kate Bush was initially openly ridiculed, and later quite rightly canonised, for what turned out to be a groundbreaking and essential move into a soulful, almost magical blend of vocalisation, dark poetry and instrumentation, has anyone stood even close to her fire. A shocking number of 21st Century songwriters have worn supposedly unique and broken hearts on their tattered sackcloth sleeves, which then have only turned out to pump ordinary old money-grubbing plasma after all, having aimed for Bush’s crown and missed by absolutely miles, time and time again. Even KB herself, with her overdue 2005 comeback “Aerial”, failed to capture that elusive element that made her truly captivating in the first place, instead choosing to champion the a capella skills of Rolf Harris and rattle on about her son Bertie being “luverly, luverly” rather than hit any of the deeper, ferocious notes we’d missed during her 12 year hiatus since the astonishing The Red Shoes.

Sally Garozzo may very well be just the peg to fill the hole, so to speak. For her, music must, above all, have a point.

“Put it this way” she asserts, “Without music, there is no point. In a world of transience, music lasts. I seem to have been born with this feeling that no matter how hard I try to explain myself with words, I will never be fully understood. Words alone don’t seem to do my feelings justice, but add a soundtrack, and they come alive. The heart opens and the soul merges with the mind and suddenly you not only hear what I’m saying but you feel what I’m saying.”

The heart opens. The soul merges with the mind. Hey baby, hey lover boy, I wanna rock you all night long.

“Music has the power to heal, enhance and enliven and it also has the power to destroy and torture.”

Do it to me baby. Uh-huh, uh-huh.

“I was horrified to read an article which said that music was used as a form of torture in some prisoner of war camps. Music would be played to prisoners at very high levels for long periods of time. Even classical music when played like this would drive anyone insane. When used with the right intention, music can soothe and change cellular structure to induce healing. I was recently on a long coach trip and one of my fellow passengers complained of travel sickness. I gave her my iPod with some soothing classical repertoire for her to focus on and miraculously, her sickness went away. This is just a simple example.”

…and Vogue.

You may have gathered by now that Sally Garozzo isn’t writing just to sex you up. Not that she isn’t sexy. Quite the opposite. Again much like Kate Bush, Garozzo exudes an odd, otherworldly sexuality that perfectly compliments her astonishing voice and dream-weaving, poetic lyrics. But in the face of the obvious fact that sex sells and we all like, yes we all like to party, where is the real need to write about anything with more substance?

“Because, like me, there are many adults and children in the world who want more from music. Sex and love are great subjects to write about, but there are other, more interesting things going on in the world. My favourite subjects are self empowerment, quantum physics, evolution, freedom, love, community and spirituality… so I write about them.”

Quantum physics? How do you even find anything in there that rhymes? Is this not a slog, writing about such subjects?

“For me, it’s not really an effort, it’s just what comes naturally. It would be more of an effort for me to write a ‘Hey baby why don’t you come over here and let me fuck you’ type song. It just wouldn’t feel right.”

Sure, but… quantum physics? Evolution?

“I think people get the impression that I’m a bit of a new age yoghurt knitter so I’d like to banish all rumours and say that I’m actually more of a space cadet!”

Welcome to Planet Garozzo. Her unique and beguiling approach to her art is evident not only through the music itself, but also her choice of performance venue. In addition to gigs such as the Mind, Body and Spirit Fayre at the Pera centre in Melton Mowbray over the 13th June weekend, Sally has a residency at the Blue Cat Café in Stockport as part of a monthly Electronica night, appearing alongside triphop mentalists Kalahan. This month you can catch the Blue Cat night on June 20th. Then, in July, she’ll be playing an acoustic set at Gorton Monastery. So where is the real Sally?

“I have a split personality. I do clubs and I do churches!” she laughs. “Gorton Monastery is the most spectacular venue I’ve come across. It is a church with cathedral proportions and was designed by Edward Pugin. The abbey itself has incredible acoustic qualities and when I got offered a gig there, I couldn’t refuse. I don’t know what it is about churches but my songs seems to fit! When I gig the Blue Cat Café, for example, I use my full electronica backing tracks. Coupled with some crazy outfits and some inspired dance moves, these gigs satisfy my alter ego. They’re banging!”

Sally recently completed her album “Earth, Meet Heaven” at Manchester’s Airtight Studios. She wants you to come to one of her eclectically chosen venues, hear her music, and then to take it home and really, really hear it. It may be obvious by now that her audience is a particular type. You can decide for yourself if that is you. So what’s next?

“Who knows where this is going. My goal is to continue writing songs and I will do so whether they are picked up, signed up, snapped up or not. I am a creative being and I will always be seeking new ways to express myself musically and otherwise. If somebody thinks they are any good, that’s great, if not, who cares… it ain’t gonna stop me! Life is a journey, there will always be another ‘over there’. You never get it all done and so making music is a beautiful path that unfolds along this already beautiful life. I’m not hoping I’m different from everyone else. I am just being myself, so if people resonate with it, cool beans… if not, I don’t really mind.”

Cool beans. Evolution. Crazy outfits and inspired dance moves. Banging. Quantum physics, yoghurt knitting, changing cellular structure to induce healing. This already beautiful life.

Try to keep up at the back, there. This one demands your full attention.