Written by Annie Barber
Photos by Virisa Yong
Sophia Galaté has had a non-stop schedule on the run up to and since the release of her debut album ‘For My Own Entertainment’, which captures Galaté as her most confident and authentic self. Hot off the heels of her support slot on James Vickery’s recent US tour, the singer dishes the details on her new album. A longtime performer, Galaté’s flare for entertainment is evident from the minute she joins our call from Malibu.
The album’s title is one that Galaté had picked out from the very beginning: “Even before I put the album together, I was like, my next album is gonna be called ‘For My Own Entertainment’.” Listeners could be led to believe that it was picked because there is a track on it by the same name. However, Galaté reveals that’s not how things actually transpired. In a session with producer Akiel, he asked her if there was one thing missing from her album, so she told him, “‘well, I don’t have a title track.’” She continues, saying “so basically told him about my life and we made the best song ever.” Despite not usually making title tracks and even admitting that she never thought she would, Galaté says she realised the title deserved its own song. As for the meaning behind it, she says “[it’s] a statement that I always found myself saying when I’m texting my friends about my ridiculous stories. One of my favourite qualities about myself is that I’m super open to experiences, like I live my life to the fullest and I say yes to things.”
The album combines multiple genres, most notably RnB and Pop. She says that the fusion of genres is partly due to her time working in the music industry in Chicago and LA, as well as a desire to stay true to herself. She says “I wanted the album to represent my personality and kind of the human experience. A lot of my previous music kind of felt serious and I’m actually super obnoxious, and especially on stage, I’m really funny and talk a lot,” she adds “I wanted it to be diverse, but I really feel like I didn’t even try to make it diverse. It was one of my goals for sure, but I think just [working] with different people helped that.”
Speaking of Chicago, she says it’s where she found her passion for jazz music: “I studied jazz in college and there’s just such a rich jazz history there.” The influence of jazz is evident in her earlier work and still shines through on her debut album. But jazz isn’t the only music that has had an impact on her own – she cites Black artists as another big influence, mentioning that John Legend was one of her musical heroes when she was younger. She adds that Malibu, where she grew up and listened to a lot of Motown and soul, thanks to her dad’s music taste, fed her creativity. It’s clear that both places have played a role in shaping the artist she is today. She confesses that “it’s like a duality. I feel like these old soul artists are such an influence, but then, I mean, obviously Adele is influenced by them too, but my truest, favourite songs for me to sing are my ballads, where it’s just me and a piano and I feel like that’s really like a Whitney thing, it’s an Adele thing.”
The album’s track list includes three features: ‘Don’t Wanna Let You Down’ with omoidé, ‘Just For a Moment (feat. Dende)’, and ‘My Girls (feat. Sierra Sellers)’. ‘Just For a Moment’ is a fan favourite which Galaté reveals came together by chance: “Dende was in LA in September of 2023 and first of all, I don’t even use Twitter… I happened to open [it] and I see that Dende had tweeted, ‘I’m in LA at a session and I need a female singer’”. After texting him, he asked her to join the session, and the rest is history. Turning next to ‘My Girls’, she says “I was talking to my girlfriends and I was like, ‘oh I’m just so sick of writing songs about my complications with men’ and they were like, ‘write a song about us’”. She continues, saying “Sierra Sellers is a friend of mine, she’s actually a singer but on very rare occasions, she does the sexy rap thing that she did… So I was just like, ‘Hey, I want you to feature on this song but, I don’t want you to sing, I want you to rap’, so it was cool.” And cool it is; is there anything more chic than honouring your female friendships by writing a song about them and featuring one of them on it? I don’t think so.
Galaté employs radical honesty in her songwriting on the album, a talent which she says comes from her refined creative process: “something that I’ve really come to accept recently is my process of writing. I don’t write music very often, and for a long time I would be really, really hard on myself about that because it’s very advised against… I truly only write songs when I’m experiencing something real and that’s why my songs are so relatable. It’s because they’re not some fake shit that I made up.”
In terms of visuals, ‘For My Own Entertainment’ is dripping in pink, Galaté’s favourite colour. She reveals the thinking behind the album’s cover, saying “my hair’s naturally curly. I was like, ‘I wanna keep my hair curly so that I can whip it around on stage’ and my favourite colour’s always been pink, since I was a child, like my walls used to be pink.” She adds that the cover for her 2021 EP ‘SOFIA’ was shot in front of a light pink background that looks orange post-editing. Although she was initially annoyed that the EP’s cover wasn’t pink, she’s now thankful because she feels it fits the vibe of ‘For My Own Entertainment’ better, describing its vibe as “overly pink, obsessive pink”. In the title track, the opening lines are “I needed a plan so I said yes / Excuse to wear this pink dress”, lyrics co-written with the song’s producer which sum up the album’s vibe and lend themselves to a neat TikTok transition Galaté uses to record a video every time she performs live.
For Galaté, one of the gifts which come from putting music out into the world is how people make it their own. She says “‘Options’ is a song I wrote about someone that I was at the beginning of my relationship with a couple years ago and it’s about me telling myself that if I really let my guard down, be vulnerable, maybe I could really be with this person for real… and then ‘Ruin My World’ is really a sweet love song about once you have that love in your life, or manifesting into your life, and it being the most amazing thing ever.” Galaté happened to place the songs next to each other on the album, a choice which she elaborates on: “I didn’t even put them next to each other because of the lyrical content. I just put them next to each other because sonically I felt like it went.” After the album came out, she said that a fan said to her that she thought the two songs were related and she realised how they had seen the songs through the lens of their own life.
Opening for James Vickery was a new experience for Galaté who says “I’ve never opened for a male before. I’ve opened for women and women that were super different than I am, that also works in my favour [but] I think sometimes it’s cool to not be so similar to the headliner.” A natural showgirl, she says “performing is really, really my most comfortable space. I would way rather be on stage than in a studio writing a song. The studio makes me nervous and the stage doesn’t.” The concerts allowed her to show her music to a new audience and to tour with one of her good friends. However, she admits that it was taxing, due to her album dropping while she was on the road: “It was good for like fan discovery especially because I’m going on my own tour in March… but baby, that was rough. I would come home from a show and make sure my music video was uploaded properly to YouTube, post on social media about the tour and then about the album and then get on a plane and then I had no service and then I would try to post again. It was too much.” Her hectic schedule is a testament to her hardworking nature and determination, which is sure to serve her well in her blossoming career.
Her answer for the first of Karma!’s staple questions, ‘if you or your art were a colour, what would it be?’ is predictable but very fitting: “Well, I think it’s pink, obviously.” She laughs before saying “imagine I said black. I feel like my personality maybe isn’t pink, but my art is pink, for sure.” And her song recommendation? Her very own ‘Just For a Moment’ featuring Dende. You have to love an artist who backs their own art!
Sophia Galaté is unapologetically herself on ‘For Your Own Entertainment’ and it’s a treat to listen to. The album is out now and available to stream and/or buy. Connect with her online to be the first to hear about her upcoming tour dates.
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