“yellow.” Makes People Feel Yellow
April 23, 2019
Looking for a bop-filled album by a talented up-and-coming indie pop artist? Then look no further than Gina Royale’s “yellow.”!
“To me, the color yellow represents a lot of nice things. Yellow represents happiness and serenity and peace and things that make me really excited,” she said.
Royale, a senior at William Paterson University majoring in popular music, released the full-length album on March 31 after working on it for two years.
From the very first song, “Boys Like You,” listeners are hooked. Royale’s talented voice and dynamic vocals carry the album to perfection.
“March Song is definitely my favorite. It talks about women’s rights and different issues about it and that’s a really important thing to me,” she said. It’s an empowering anthem for women everywhere because the song touches on issues like sexual assault, domestic violence, women in the workplace and maternity leave. The bridge of the song, “Left, left, left, right, left,” evocative of a military march, makes the song slap.
The song was originally supposed to be an anthem about moving on after a breakup, but her father suggested she write an impactful song to be used for marching and for rights. Her producer, Rob Freeman, helped her finish shaping the song. A music video for “March Song” is going to be filmed over the summer.
Royale also has two EP’s, “Heir” and “Brainwaves,” and three singles, “Square Up Soldier,” “Michelle” and “For Now” under her belt.
“I didn’t want to release another single and the hype around an EP wouldn’t be as exciting since I had already released two so I figured I would just go for a full album,” she said.
The album process started two years ago with the song “Two Faced.” It was originally written and recorded to be released as a single but she never got around to releasing it. A year later, when she decided to officially make an album, she threw it on.
“The album started off when I first started writing songs based on life experiences. As time went on I was able to write the songs just to write the songs. ‘Yellow’ was actually the last song written and that was inspired by my brother, but I wrote ‘Keep You Warm’ just to write a bop.”
The next step for Royale is finding a management team.
“I’m really confident with what I’m putting out there but I can only do so much from where I am artistically. It’s just a matter of finding the right fit for me artistically, personally and financially,” she said. “Things are in the works.”
The self-described “grandma who sometimes plays music” also enjoys knitting, her dog and tea. She also enjoys acting and was in six university theater productions, with the most recent being “Pocatello,” which premiered in March.
Upcoming performances by Royale include Braveathon at WP on April 26 and an indie-artist showcase on April 28 at M1-5 Lounge in New York.
The album is available on all major streaming platforms, including iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal. However, be warned, once you listen to the album, the catchy tunes won’t leave your head for days.
You can follow Gina Royale on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook under the handle @ginaroyale.