GALE's Sexy Spanish Summer Never Has to End

When GALE started promoting her sophomore album Lo Que Puede Pasar earlier this autumn, she kept thinking back to the two transformative summer months she spent in Spain. When the Puerto Rican singer-songwriter wasn’t onstage at Boombastic, Morriña Festival, or Pirineos Sur, she was hitting up every bookstore and library she could find, stopping only to look for the best matcha.

Even over Zoom, GALE’s enthusiasm — the same level of passion that flows through every frame of the music video for her sultry single “Perspectiva” — comes through, though this time, it’s directed toward a quick and dirty literary hit and a couple of zero-skip records. (She’s calling from L.A., where she goes to Erewhon for matcha: “hot, almond milk, and just a little bit of honey.”) And just like “Perspectiva,” GALE’s Shelf, seen below, also reflects a kicking-your-legs-while-texting-on-your-bed type of dreaminess.

Spanish Leather by Guitarricadelafuente

“I love the metaphors behind it, how sexy and sensual it is, how beautiful and poetic yet raw it is. And the musicality — every song is a no-skip for me, and I feel like it marks the soundtrack of my two months in Spain. So I have it close to my heart for that reason. But I was already obsessed when it came out. I'm very intense when I like something.”

El accidente by Blanca Lacasa

“It's short, it's quick. It’s invigorating and spicy. I read it in a day. This summer, I had six [festival] dates in Spain. It was amazing. One thing I feel I don't have in Miami is amazing libraries of all kinds. So my purpose when I was living in Spain for two months was to find good matcha and go to every library and bookstore possible. And I always try to find literature from authors from the place. So I bought 15 books, and I’m reading them little by little. And that was one of them.”

The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins

“I heard about this book because it's everywhere, but, actually, my therapist recommended I read it. I sometimes spend so much time thinking about things and trying to be careful around people. And this book says it's OK if people are uncomfortable. It's OK if they're mad about something. You just have to let them experience their feelings, and you also need to let yourself say what you need to say, or set your boundaries. I feel like, at the end of the day, I always set my boundaries, and I end up doing the thing that is good for me. And I love that about myself, but it's so hard, and it consumes me. So this book is helping me with that.”

The Perfume Room 

“Emma Vernon talks with experts or with other fragrance noses, and it's about their story and how they did it, and the chemistry of perfumes, and it's just beautiful. I have to shout out my friend Steph Jones, who's a beautiful sunshine angel/songwriter/queen, who cowrote ‘Espresso’ for Sabrina [Carpenter]. Three years ago, I was in search of a signature scent, and she was studying for a certificate in fragrance, and she gave me this love for perfume. So I became obsessed after that. I always travel with a little scent-sample bag everywhere.”

Who’s the Clown?

“[Audrey Hobert] cowrote a lot of the songs with Gracie Abrams for The Secret of Us. I also learned she directed the music video for ‘I Love You, I'm Sorry.’ She just put out her first album, and it's like my teenage self’s dream: singing in my room with my hairbrush, practicing every move in front of the mirror. That's how that album makes me feel. It's also a no-skip.” 

Se Regalan Dudas 

“It's two best friends from Mexico, and they invite experts on different topics, like psychologists and authors. And it's very inspiring. It's called Se Regalan Dudas because they have so many questions. They bounce between all these different topics like love or an open relationship, or psychology, or family, anything. And they're really good. And I'm obsessed, OK?”

What else is GALE into? Get real-time updates at shelf.im/GALE.