Since the day she was born, Gabrielle has had a strong bond with music. She started releasing her own music in the hopes of assisting others because music has always been a โhealing forceโ in her life. She hopes that her songs will strike a similar chord with listeners as her personal favorites have. Gabrielle is a graduate of the NSCC Music Production and Engineering program and a multi-instrumentalist, writer, singer, and record producer. Through continued collaboration with โas many female creatives as possibleโ and โmaking art that no one can ignore,โ she intends to challenge the male-dominated recording industry. She claims that everything around her has a significant influence on her musical taste. Including the people she meets, the locations she visits, and the music she is exposed to. At the moment, Harry Styles, Dominic Fike, Lady Gaga, Deb Never, Finneas, and Remi Wolf are some of her main musical influences.
โChange Your Moodโ is a song to make people happy. Sonically, the pop/dance records she grew up with served as a major source of inspiration for this song. Her all-time favorite songs include โThe Fameโ by Lady Gaga and โGood Girl Gone Badโ by Rihanna. It would have been difficult for her to ignore those influences while creating this track because they are now deeply ingrained in her mind.
Lyrically, She merely wished to create a positive and enjoyable song. When she wrote this song, she was going through a lot of personal struggles and wanted to write a song that would make her feel better rather than express how she was feeling. Something that would bring happiness to her. Check out the song and the exclusive interview below:
1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how it all got started?
GABRIELLE SOFIA: Yeah, for sure! Iโm from a small town on the upper east coast of Canada called Halifax. Iโm currently living here full-time, which allows me to be close to my family, which is awesome, and my studio is here as well. Iโve always been a huge fan of music and I had an interest in songwriting at a very young age.
I used to write the lyrics down to my favourite songs on this huge sheet of paper, so I could see how everything was laid out, and I would start replacing the original lyrics with my own. I did that for a long time, singing my own lyrics to other peoples melodies. When I was about seven years old, my dad and I started taking piano lessons together, then a couple years later my mum got me my first guitar and the number of instruments in my house hasnโt stopped growing since.
2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?
GABRIELLE SOFIA: Yeah, Iโve had training for a few of the instruments I play, but I havenโt had any for vocals. I took piano lessons, guitar lessons, learned trumpet, baritone and tuba in band at school, and I had my junior high band teacher give me after-school drum lessons for a little while, so I could play in the jazz band. Shout out to Miss Mantin! I also went to college for music production and engineering.
3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name โGABRIELLE SOFIAโ?
GABRIELLE SOFIA: I have to say that my dad has been a big musical influence on me, because for as long as I can remember heโs been unapologetically singing wherever he goes. Anyone whoโs ever met him has probably heard him sing, and he was the one who taught me how to sing. The most prominent professional influences are probably the people who I grew up listening to a lot, I call them โthe big threeโ. Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Justin Bieber.
โGabrielle Sofiaโ is super close to my legal name which is Gabrielle Sophia Whitehead. I simply changed the spelling of my middle name because I thought it looked cooler. I went by an alias name for a few years when I was just starting to release music in high school, with a collective I was a part of, but I switched it to โGabrielle Sofiaโ after I graduated.
4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
GABRIELLE SOFIA: I donโt feel like Iโm in any position to say what โshouldโ resonate with listeners. Take with you what you want from my music, and leave what you donโt. I would describe my sound as awesome, bouncy, a little cheeky, surprising, and honest.
5. ย Do you think is it important for fans of your music to understand the real story and message driving each of your songs, or do you think everyone should be free to interpret your songs in their own personal way?
GABRIELLE SOFIA:
Absolutely not. I completely think that people should be free to relate my songs to their own experiences without taking into consideration what I specifically wrote them about. Thatโs one of the reasons why I donโt talk about the backstories of my songs. Art is up for interpretation, always.
6. Whatโs your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles โ and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative, and entertainment?
GABRIELLE SOFIA:
I think that those two things often intertwine with each other. Most of my music so far has been focused on personal expression, I like my songs to be less strategic and more-so based on how I feel about a personal situation. Sometimes in describing a personal situation, I may hint at something cultural, spiritual, political etc. but that has never been my main focus when writing.
7. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?
GABRIELLE SOFIA:
Absolutely I do, yeah. Music is a form of therapy for me. It will always be a part of my life whether itโs paying my bills or not. I get fulfillment from music as soon as I finish a song that Iโm proud of. I canโt control how other people will receive my music, so I try not to have many expectations when I release something new. I donโt enjoy releasing music. I enjoy creating it. When I release something, Iโm happy if just one person likes it.
8. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?
GABRIELLE SOFIA:
It depends on the day. Iโm constantly recording voice memos in my phone of melodies and writing poems. When I need to make a new song, I will often gather a few poems that Iโve written with similar themes, format them into full lyrics for a song and back them with melodies that Iโve recorded in my VoiceNotes.
That songs that I write in that way, often feel too forced, so I rarely release them. I think of them as practice songs. Most of the ones that I release are ones that I write completely in like 10 minutes and record that same day. The ones that come from overwhelming inspiration. Those are the ones that I often resonate with the most, and are the ones you will hear.
9. What has been the most difficult thing youโve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
GABRIELLE SOFIA: Probably learning to not care about what strangers think of me. Releasing music is a super exposing thing, and it was hard at first to be okay with everyone knowing me so personally. I felt very vulnerable. Iโm still working on that, but it sits much better with me now than it used to.
10. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
GABRIELLE SOFIA: Releasing my first Album under โGabrielle Sofiaโ. It was the beginning of a new era and a very proud moment in my life.
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