Glad Rags: Berry Galazka On Taking Fashion Inspiration From Art

Get your glad rags on gang! Glad Rags is a column where we chat to some of our favourite musician's about their best garms. This week we're joined by Polish American songwriter Berry Galazka.

How important is clothing to you for a stage presence?

I'm driven by visual cues more than audible ones a lot of the time, I will see a painting and hear a song. Every piece of clothing I wear from the colors or how I layer it has purpose for the viewer/listener to interpret. It is important for me, even if nobody understands it, because I do. When I am watching a show, I hate seeing people wear all black on stage, blending into the floors and the walls and the ceiling! Like some beheaded ghost! It's too much of a distraction for me. I don't want to just hear the music, I will get bored. At Least put some sequins on you, a mirror? Give me something!

___STEADY_PAYWALL___

Do you have a different style on stage compared to off stage?

On stage is a magnified version of what I usually wear. I love magnifying! I wear my babushka's to Columbia Road Flower Market and always match my sunglasses to them. I'd wear full length gloves more regularly however I like to use my phone so maybe I'll have to cut a little hole in the finger of one of mine. Rosie (Rosie Sykes, my stylist) and I pulled a lot from my wardrobe when styling the ep art and videos, but my babushkas and sunnies are my staples. I can't get enough! I keep collecting sunglasses, always in the same shape, I go through phases. First it was rectangular, now it's oblong. Never in mint. I hate mint! Sometimes I make a shirt out of one of my babushkas. They're the most versatile thing to have. The only item I may wear on stage but not in the waking world is a heavy jacket as I like to walk fast, faster than fast!

Do you think image is important for musicians wanting to be successful?

I think it helps to bring the vision to life and communicate the message you're trying to get across. We experience the world of feelings in 5 main senses, as many as you can include in your music only enhances it. That's why you get swept up in a live show. Also, some people are audio learners, some are visual learners. I say give both, or more, to communicate a clearer projection of what's in your mind. You're a professor of your art, profess her! However if you're not too concerned with getting a particular vision across, then to hell with it!

Who are some of your style inspirations as an artist?

I look primarily at paintings. My upcoming EP 'Leash' is inspired by the painting 'Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening' by Salvador Dali, each icon ties into one of the songs as well as the look we put together for each song. For example, my latest single 'I Like Me, I Don't Like You' is represented by the fish in the painting, therefore the outfit was geared to be oranges and yellows. When Rosie and I were pulling items I found this fantastic Las Vegas showgirl feather headpiece and wristlets in orange to pair with long gloves. I had a kind of mesh-ish babushka I tied like a tie which looked like the tail end of a fish, echoing the giant goldfish prop I was holding. Pulling inspiration from two opposing mediums (ie: painting -> fashion or fashion -> music or writing -> painting) creates an interesting result. I do not naturally look for "outfit inspiration" to inspire an outfit, it is personally too on the nose for me.

What is your favourite piece of clothing to wear on stage and why?

Currently my babushka as it's become the overarching icon/theme for this project and my life, I grew up seeing my great grandma wear them when we'd visit her in the Polish countryside. It's such an emblem for Eastern Europe which I'm very proud of being from. She'd be cooking homemade pierogi with blueberries picked from the forest, using it as a functional piece of clothing to keep her hair out of her face, which made it all the more iconic. Fairytail shit. I love the colors they come in, patterns that tell stories, flowers and leaves! If I like one, I'll buy it. I'll never put a limit on the amount of babushkas I own. I even have a babushka basket! Poland is the most underrated country in Europe and I want to shift that perspective. The babushka to me is a starting point for that conversation.

What is your favourite piece of clothing to wear offstage and why?

I wear 13 rings most days, 8 of them stay the same.. the rest sometimes change. I look at my hands a lot, I love to have jewelry where I can see it. Jewelry and my enemies, right where I can see them! Like hanging a painting, I won't put one behind my couch where I'm sitting, but over the TV. I want to look at it! I recently purchased a silver tiger ring for my left forefinger, it's tied to the tiger in the Dali painting. It represents this project. I wear my grandma's diamonds and rubies. I wear an opal on my left pinky and a peridot on my right. Pinky rings are my favorite. I never wear fake jewels! In terms of fabric, I wear a uniform in the morning to limit choices and get straight into work. Never socks! Always slippers. I set it out before bed. It is functional, like my great grandma's babushka. I love clothes that serve a purpose in day to day life, to make it more seamless, to serve your calling. Everyday, everyday. My uniform frees me from thinking about anything but creating. I feel for it in the dark as I wake up before sunrise and know my body will feel good working into the daylight. I don't mind if I spill coffee on it.

Do you think people look down on musicians who like fashion too and if so, why?

Maybe, probably? I'd guess their silly attitude stems from a myopic worldview.

How has your style evolved alongside your journey as an artist?

It evolves with the music... another sense to activate in you, helping express the ideas I'm putting forward. My current project has been the most I've dived into this thematicism.The uniform is a new practice, as I've become more serious producing my own songs. It's been a great help to battle resistance and the war of art.

What advice would you give someone struggling to find their image as an artist?

If you are struggling, you're thinking too hard about it. Nature does not try, and you're nature. Find what part of art you do not struggle to make your ideas flower in and let all other expressions spring forth from there.

Photography by Henry Gorse