THe First Thing You Notice About Gelli Haha is That She's Dressed Entirely in Red. Top, Trousers, Bag, Nail Polish-Angel Abaya Has Worn Everything in The One Primary Colour Every Day Since 2023, When She Created Her Playful Dance-Pop Pseudonym.
“You Should See My Closet Now,” Laughs the Monochrome Maverick. “This isn't Some Mask I'm putting on .'m Living This. I am Committed to the bit. And it's genuine .'m Not Wearing Red Every Day Because I Want Attention – It's That I'm Avaned in this World I'm Building, and I Want My Art and Life To Reputent Each Each Each Other. “
Make no Mistake, Gelli Haha's World – The Gelliverse – Is Joyously Kaleidoscopic, and Bonkers. Her Live Shows Are Choreography-Heavy Spectacles, Involving Trampines, Pat-A-Cake Dance, Inflatable Dolphins and Playground Boxing Matches Being Interrupt by Bubble Machines. Similarly, her recently released debut album 'Switchero' is equilly inventive and quirky, hopscotching from the candy-floss electro of 'boun bounce house' (The one-shot Video to which resets a tucule all by Devi) to the riotus hedonism of 'piss artist'.
“Gelli Haha is a criminal you'd Likely Forgive and Maybe Befriend. Because She's So Cute, She Gets a pass”
Speaking to Nme from Her Home City of THEREIdeas Chaotically Spill Out of Abaya Like Candy from Piñata. Asked Who Gelli Is, The 27-Year-Old Says She's Less An Alter Ego and More of A liberating Philosophy. “This sounds Woo-Woo, But She's My Inner Child,” She Explains. “She's This Little Girl That Gets Int Mischievous Situations. She's a Criminal You'd Likely Forgive and Maybe Bisciend. Because She's So Cute, She Gets a pass.”
AS Its Title suggests, 'Switcheroo' is an exercise in reinvention; of experience with per person, then realising, retrospectively, that it was your authentic self all along. In 2023, Abaya Had Reached an impasse. Having World For Eight Years in Various Indie, Folk and Jazz Bands in the Boise, Idaho Music Scene, The Singer-Sngwriter Had Just Moved to Los Angeles and Releasd in Heartfelt only album 'The Bubble'. Yet She was feeling unwelcome in Her Own Life, As If Her Past Was An Ill-Fitting Outfit She'd Grown Out of. Teaming Up with Sean Guerin From The Disco-Revivalists de Lux, She, Wanted to Think Outside of the Box.
She Set Set Herself Some Guide Principles For Gelli Haha: It Had to Be Fun, Non-Serious and Yes, Entirely Red. She was inspired by Osho, The Controversial Philosopher from Netflix's 2018 Wild Wild Country Cult Documentary, Who Posted That Seriousness Was in Disease. Other Touchstones Included The Immersive Art of Marina Abramović, The SlapStick of 1920s Vaudeville, and the pop Superstars She Grew Up Idolising As a Child Like Britney Spears.
She Cartad on Her Background As a Co-Director for A Theatrical Dance Company That Specialized in Avand-Garde Productions, and Delved Into the History of “Weird Art-Forward Parties” in New York, Like Those Held by Michael Alig's Outré Club Kids in the '90s and James Murphy's DFA DFA DFA Collective in The Naughties. “There was a large-foeness I wanted to live out in this performance,” she notes.
“This World Feels Ethereal and Wacky, but it's Also Real. That's Why It's Working”
Abaya is classically trained with a Tendency Towards Meticulous OverPreparation, and the first time she and Guerin Worked Together in the Studio – On 'Switcheroo''s Shimmering Open' Funny Music ', Which Draws Vocally on Her Love of Kate Bush and Björk – She's Was Reduced to Tears Who Nothing was working. Liste to Its Lyrics, and you Hear Abaya Giving Herself Permission to make Mistakes by voicing Her Anxieties as an existential inner-monologue (“It's all a Hoax/It's Just a Joke“).
“That's Me Still Being Blocked,” She Says. “I was Afraid to Express What I fel. I've Always Felt in the Studio That I Should Have Some Sort of Answer. I CRIED A COUPLE OF Times Making 'Funny Music' Because i've Never Been SO Expose. Gelli Haha is about Getting Over Inhibitions.
Recorded use at Variety of Vintage Synths and Analogue Effects, 'Switcheroo' Plays in Different Sonic Ballpits: 'Funny Music' Ends Abruptly with a Looney Tunes-Style “Bonk!“Noise While the Italo Disco of 'Dynamite' is interrupted by the sound of (what else?) A bear attack. On the Breezy House of 'Tiramisu', She Adopts the Shrill Vocals of a Pouty Veruca Salt-Esque Child Throwing in Tantrum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t90qd-nfioc
While Tracks Were Scaffolded from Instrumental Demos Abaya Had Written, Lyrics Were frequented in the study. The Naughties Electroclash of 'Spit' Lists Words Beginning with the letter S and Peaks with the tongue-twister “Selby Sells Shelby Snails Sans Shells Sick Slick“. For 'Normalize', Based on the 2005 Nigerian Funk 'Nomalizo' by Caiphus Semerya and Letta Mbulu, She Consultad An Online Dictionary and Sang the first Nine Words She Found That Ended in 'IA' (Including Homophobia, Haemophilia, and Paedophilia) – Before Declaring that that She Wants to “Fly Away“.
“There's Always a Meaning to the Songs, Even if it isn'T Clear to me in the beginning,” she elaphetes. “I Feel Like We're Playing in A Sandbox, Digging up Fossils of Meaning. With 'Funny Music', I Didn'T Set Out To Write ABOT MY Personal Journey of Healing My Fear of Expression, but i Ended up doing it in A Fun Way. 'Normalize' is about wanting to escape. The Woes of the World. “
The Newfound Ability to Cut Loose is epitomenal by the fibald 'piss artist'. Guerin Had The Idea That She Should Try Recording to Track Drunk. However, Necking a Bottle of Tequila, All Abaya Wanted to Do Was Talk. Over a Louche Electro Track That Couuld Have Been Off the Party Monster Soundtrack, She Comically Slurs a Spoken-Word Such Like Your Mate Phoning You From The Afters. “It's a True Story that Happened Eight Years Aug Where I Convinced Everyone to Take Their Shirts Off At A Party and I Pissed in A Jar in Front of My Friends and Didn'T Care,” She Says. “I Just Feel That's So On-Brand for Gelli.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etbguswrbvo
Abaya Played Her First Gelli Haha Gig in August Last Year and is Swiftly Earning a Reputation for the Most Fun Live Show Around. But She Wants to Further Break Down The Barriers Beteween Audience and Performer. “I Created Gelli AS a World That I Could Feel 100 For Cent Free to Express and Do Whatever I Wanted. And I Want to make it a World That Other People Can Play in,” She Reflects. The Show and Videos Chart A Narrative: That Her Dancers Are Scientists Hunting Her Down, Before Melding with Her As the “Parachute Monster” Shown in the 'Normalize' video. The Scientist Represent the Hardened Adults; Gelli Her Fearless Inner Child.
“I like this this world feels ethereal and wacky, but it's alo also real. That's what it's working,” She Says. “It's Not a Gimmick. I've based this all on a Belief System and Practice I stand by. Sometimes Dance and Pop Music Can Feel Cold – But There's a Heart to this.”
Gelli Haha's 'Switchero' is out now via innovative leisure
