Photo: Acacia Evans
Gayle, the 18-year-old singer-songwriter behind the angsty singalong hit “abcdefu,” is opening up about a new chapter in her life following the smash single.
Ahead of the release of her second EP,a study of the human experience volume two, on Friday, Gayle broke down the project’s inspiration with PEOPLE — and detailed the lessons she’s learned in love and relationships.
“I wanted to find those personal details in my life that still affected me, and only really me, in those specific ways, but also something that can be broad to where people can be like, ‘Oh, something like that has happened to me,'” she says, citing the experience of her parents’ divorce at 3 years old as an example.
Onvolume one, Gayle showed fans her thoughts as a 15-year-old girl with big dreams. Withvolume two, she focuses on where she is now and her “identity” in music.
Gayle considers “indie-edgy-cool” the perfect place to start. “I’m 18, so I’m trying to figure out what my life is as an adult, trying to figure out the best ways to take care of myself and the type of person I want to be for myself and to other people,” she says. “And then also just getting attention from the internet that I have never gotten before, ever in my life. It was a very overwhelming and exciting thing to be dealing with.”
The musician continues, “I had no mental preparation, and so I also had no idea how hate on the internet affects me, my life and the music I make.”
The EP also covers relationships, of course, as this pop star wouldn’t be true to her identity without breakup bangers. In “alex,” she writes about the sadness she experienced before the anger of “abcdefu.” By the way, “alex” is not her ex’s name — but it’s “really close!”
“To me, this person, I was so attached to them,” she says. “I wasn’t able to stick to the promise that I made this person to stay with them forever, even though I was a kid, but it was just so serious to me. To come to that realization, it was empowering, but it was also very sad. It was a really sad moment of time. I wanted to capture that sadness before I got to the anger part.”
Acacia Evans
In the lyrics of tracks like “snow angels” and “god has a sense of humor,” Gayle writes about fear regarding the environment, the addiction to our phones and humanity’s progression — which can be overwhelming sometimes.
“Sometimes you just need to forget all of the difficulties of life and just have fun with your friends. My brother once said this phrase to me, ‘If I’m going to be getting f—ed up, I’m going to want to be making snow angels in the grass.’ And I was like, ‘I love that. I love that so much.’ "
Meanwhile, on songs like ‘15,’ she writes from a personal experience that “many” people “have gone through in their own ways.” Opting not to share more details, she’d also prefer the song “speaks for itself.”
As someone who wears her heart on her sleeve when it comes to songwriting, Gayle admits she’s realized her patterns in relationships.
“I have really low standards,” the “fmk” singer says. “I genuinely had no idea how in a relationship I should be treated. Then, I also came to the conclusion that getting treated well and respectfully is legitimately the bare minimum for a relationship.”
Because of this, Gayle’s focusing on getting into a relationship for the “right reasons.”
“One day I would obviously love to be in a long-term, healthy relationship, but I also think I learned that I don’t actually like commitment,” she says. “I thought I did. I thought I loved commitment. I thought I loved being in long-term relationships. In reality, I loved committing to people that I subconsciously know wouldn’t fully commit to me back.”
She concludes, “I’m trying to go to therapy and be more honest with the things that I actually want and just try and go from there.”
For now? She’ll probably be celebrating her EP release with a trip to Olive Garden. “The virgin piña colada actually [goes] hard,” quips Gayle.
a study of the human experience volume IIis out now via Atlantic Records/Arthouse Records.
source: people.com
