As a freelance writer who sometimes covers music, I receive a ton of publicity emails from labels and press outfits promoting various releases.

I always read the texts of the messages (albeit often in a skimming manner), and if the descriptions interest me, I’ll listen to the song samples that are included. Sometimes the music doesn’t match the promise in the write-up. Other times, the sounds are intriguing enough for me to want to hear more and to consider writing about the release. Every once in a blue moon, what I hear is pure gold that rocks my world. Such is the case with ‘Switcheroo,’ the debut album by L.A.-based Gelli Haha, due out this summer from Innovative Leisure.

I could string together some sentences and paragraphs in an effort to describe these songs. But it’s better if I just list the notes I’ve jotted down as I’ve blasted ‘Switcheroo’ through my headphones about 50 times in the last few weeks: Giorgio Moroder/Donna Summer, Bollywood disco, Teletubbies trippiness, surreal performance art, shiny metallic, sensual, Devo, bouncy, bubblicious, doing aerobics while standing in a pool of Jell-O, robotic, deceptively dense, roller rink disco ball, cheap ‘80s synths, elastic, abstract dreamscape, musical pop art, irresistible, jungle gym, dependable bendable toys, tripping out at the amusement park, comic book soundtrack, ecstasy …

Something that shouldn’t get lost amid all the kitschy, brain-bending playfulness in these 10 tracks is that Gelli is a gifted vocalist with a vast range. Just listen to the octaves she hits on ‘Bounce House,’ the first single from ‘Switcheroo’ (and please, treat yourself to a viewing of the euphoria-inducing video on YouTube), or ‘Funny Music,’ when that’s available. It’s like a drama club oddball who was also a soloist in the high school choir took some X, listened to stacks of old disco and synth pop records, then let her imagination go wild in writing a set of songs that sound like they jumped out of a psychedelic Sid and Marty Krofft kids’ TV show.

Gelli and her merry troupe of instrumentalists and dancers put on a fantastic show, too, as evidenced by some of their gig sets that have been posted online. They sound sharp live, and all the energetic dance movements and playfully left-of-center theater costuming provide sensory-pleasing visual stimulation as gravy.

Listen to the full album when it’s released. Watch whatever Gelli Haha online clips you can find in the meantime. Go see the show if it comes to your town. Your imagination will be engaged along with a variety of your senses, and you’ll have some new, ridiculously catchy earworms.

Gelli and I recently talked over the phone:

Tell me a little about your musical background.

Gelli Haha: I grew up in Idaho. I was raised in Boise, and there’s a great art and music scene there. But I just wanted more, and that’s what brought me to L.A. This project couldn’t have been realized in the same way without the people I’ve met here. But it’s all inspired me—what I did previously in Boise and what I’m doing now. It all works out.

What other types of musical projects were you involved in before this?

I got into the Boise music scene when I was 18, which was a decade ago. I was in a ton of bands, and I was also involved in a performing arts dance company. The dance company performed all over Boise, plus Vegas and Seattle and other places. I was in the company’s band, and eventually I became an assistant for them, and then when I was 21 or 22 I became the program director. I would say that experience was the most pivotal for me. Being in the band but also being involved in the production side is a lot of what inspired the Gelli project.

“Part of the joy of my expression is to do it with other people.”

Do you think of Gelli as a solo project, or a band, or more like solo but with other contributors?

It’s all of that, really. I call the band the Gelli Company. I feel like anyone can be a Gelli. It’s a character that anyone can be. It’s fun, playful energy that anyone can embody. It’s collaborative. The music is really just me and Sean Guerin, who’s in the band De Lux. Nine of the 10 songs on the record are based on demos I made. And then Sean and I created a world from the demos. Sean’s very talented in the sonic space. So musically, it’s mostly just a collaboration between Sean and me. But there’s more collaboration in the performance part, between me and the dancers. I find a lot of joy in making this collaborative. I don’t believe I was meant to make art by myself. Part of the joy of my expression is to do it with other people.

When I listen to the record, I hear many different things, different genres and eras. What musical influences would you say inspired the songs?

I would say that for the identity of Gelli, I was inspired by Björk and Kate Bush. But Sean and I have also been listening to lots of late ‘70s/early ‘80s funk and boogie and experimental disco. And then he bought a bunch of old analog gear, like the kind of gear those people used. Animal Collective is another influence. I think originally the idea was this could be Animal Collective meets Kate Bush. But it ended up being something else. I think it’s tricky because you might feel like you’re hearing different influences, but personally I don’t think it sounds just like anything else. We wanted to make catchy music. But we wanted it to be weird. We felt like pop music is too boring and experimental music can be too unpalatable. So we wanted it to meet in the middle.

You have a really remarkable singing voice. Have you always been a singer?

That’s my primary instrument. I’ve always been the singer in every project I’ve been involved with, or at least one of the singers. I’ve sung while playing keyboards or guitar in other projects. What’s new for Gelli is that I don’t feel like I have anything I have to prove anymore, like as in fronting a band while playing instruments. I’ll sing it for you live and I’ll try to perform it in a weird way, but I don’t need to also play the instruments. So that’s been my journey.

Brian Greene

Headline photo: Sophie Prettyman-Beauchamp

Gelli Haha Website / Facebook / Instagram
Innovative Leisure Website / Instagram / YouTube / Bandcamp