On April 3rd, 2024, Mad Gallica sat down with Hype The Sound to discuss her long-awaited debut EP Enter the Vortex: Act One (Read it here!). The EP, now available on all streaming platforms, is an epic space odyssey inspired by Mad Gallica's personal story, exploring her near-death experience during an extended period of debilitating illness. During the interview, Mad Gallica gave Hype The Sound the opportunity to listen to and discuss the two main singles on the album as well as a collaborative meditation piece composed by Netherlands musician Laura Scarborough.
The newly released EP contains the following five tracks of Act One from the Enter The Vortex saga, with plans for two more installments in the future.
"Enter The Vortex"
"Reprise"
"Dagger"
"The Within"
"Deep In My Heart"
The first single on the album is “Dagger”. Where would you say the lyrics came from for this track?
“It's so weird Caitlin the way this music kind of wrote itself because I was really ill when I first started hearing this music. I would say I was in, call it fever dreams [or] sonic hallucinations. I just started writing these lyrics. I had no idea what it was about, [but] as soon as I started to write more songs, the full picture of the story I was telling started to emerge. It was like 'Whoa! I've been writing this all along and now I'm discovering truly what it means'; So the end goal would be to hopefully have an animated film to tell the story.
“But it is based on a kind of near-death experience that I had. I felt like the tether between my soul and my body was becoming really weak, [and it was as if] I left my body and voyaged to this other world that I've been in… like [it] was home to me, more home to me than my body that was really ill.
""Dagger” is the point at which the soul invites the consciousness…The idea is 'we are shooting stars so bright falling from the sky like a dagger.' It's the visual of literally jumping as a soul down to earth to incarnate as a human and it's going to be dangerous, it's going to be heartbreaking, there's going to be suffering but it's going to be beautiful. [The track that comes before “Dager”], “Reprise”, is the invitation to the vortex and it talks about this.”
Your choice to use a live orchestra recording rather than a digitally generated one was such a smart move. I think it really shines in the next track, “The Within”.
“The cool thing about it is I haven't really heard a lot of music like this. If it has orchestral elements, they’re usually like prog rock, strongly overpowering it. I made the conscious decision to make the orchestra more powerful because I think there's so much more of this sonic spectrum that the orchestra can cover. I kind of wanted to show people that it can be just as powerful as rock. Then, of course, [the] big choir vocals make this music stand out. A lot of times backing vocals are tucked away to support the lead vocals [but in ETV] it shines [and] has a big part. I think a lot of that is because of my classical upbringing listening to Opera and musical theater. I even used “Hosanna” from Jesus Christ Superstar as a reference for Bob Horn, the engineer, of how big I wanted those vocals.”
Can you walk us through your vision for “The Within”?
“It's where her consciousness is with her soul, learning about where she came from before she incarnated on Earth. She meets with this group of guides and elders and they have this orb of light in their hands. They’re programming the orb, putting in all of their intentions for the life that she's going to live on earth and it's going to be her compass, her inner compass. There's light to guide us, it's all inside of us, we are the light, and we have access to this. We are guided by it every turn, every choice that we make [and] we can reach in for this guidance.”
The final track on the album is “Deep In My Heart”. I really love the track, it’s such a beautiful piece! It gives feelings of hope and a sense of reassurance that everything is going to be okay. I think a lot of people will find that they relate to the track.
“Oh good! That feeling of hope… you know going back to when I first kind of had this out-of-body experience and I was really sick. It was like a fever dream. I envisioned this blurry figure standing next to my bed and asked “Am I dying?” I felt so weak like I was slipping away. She said, ‘Yes, but you can stay if you choose to.’
“It's so tempting to want to leave when things are hard and it's so tempting, especially [when] seeing this whole other world that I would escape to in my mind when I was sick. But I chose to stay and this song is for those who have that decision whether they're so sad and depressed in their lives where they want to leave Earth; this is a reminder to why life can be so beautiful and why it's always a great choice to stay.”
Let's talk a little bit more about the lyric “learn to love and live to die” from “Deep In My Heart”. I think that is such a powerful message to live by.
“Truly learning to love means learning to lose loved ones…right? That’s just part of it. If you were just this ethereal being and never incarnated on Earth and there's no such thing as death… [Then] you wouldn't be able to truly experience love because there's nothing to lose. You feel it in the human experience so deeply because of the pain and suffering.
“If you think about major religions, we're always taught a general idea that power is outside of us and to be told what to do... We always have to look for our own external validation, but we have the answers all within ourselves. That's what the meditation is going to help with. I want to help empower people to connect with their own inner compass, trust their inner compass, and follow their heart. It's as simple as that. We've heard that it's an age-old concept [to] follow your heart….that's what this is about.”
You worked with Laura Scarborough to create a guided meditation piece to help listeners get in the right head space to fully absorb the music. Do you have anything specific that inspired what the meditation looks like?
“We live in a society right now where everything is fast-fast-fast paced. They say for Spotify listens you gotta get people in the first thirty seconds, [and] on TikTok and Instagram you gotta get people's attention the first three seconds. It's insane! Our attention spans are just so small now. Concept albums have always been a thing, but now we are in a world where you mainly get your single, you get your quick banger, and we are not asked as listeners to absorb an album from beginning to end as often.
“I wanted to inspire how I want this music to be absorbed and listened to… I want it to be a journey. My goal would be for people to lie down and listen to this music from beginning to end, let images come to mind, and go on the journey into the vortex of this music. The meditation is 40 minutes and Laura, she said ‘This is really awesome, it's a journey, but you know you're going to have people who aren't going to be able to have that attention span’. That’s okay, this isn't going to be for everyone, but I'd like to challenge people to take 40 minutes of self-care and just let their minds come alive and activate the creative mind that's in everyone. Open up their soul senses. I call this meditation “a seance for your soul” [because] you're calling in your soul, you're inviting it to tell its story and learn more about yourself.
Are you ready to Enter The Vortex? Act One of Enter the Vortex is available now on all streaming platforms!
Links to Mad Gallica’s website and Patreon are below. You can also follow Mad Gallica on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for the latest on her music and upcoming shows.
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