[GALXARA](https://www.instagram.com/galxara/) is exactly what her name encompasses: an artist from outer space. With an unwavering love and passion for music her entire 20 years of living, the Florida native proves she’s a force to be reckoned within the music industry. With her vibrant hair, her unapologetic persona, and standout voice that can move mountains, the “Jealous of Myself” recording artist wears her heart on her sleeve with each release.
Describing herself as a “rising electro ethic pop artist,” GALXARA aims to bring something different to the music space currently. She states, “Music is what I was born to do, there’s no plan B. Been trying to make it happen: writing songs, creating music, creating content for people to hopefully latch on to.
Inspired greatly by futuristic movies, cities, and the cosmos, GALXARA brings that energy into both her music, visuals, and everyday life. She’s not here to sound like anyone else, be like anyone else, or sing what other people want her to sing — she’s here to be herself.
At the top of this year, GALXARA made an all-star appearance on the [_Birds of Prey_](https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?data=02%7C01%7CChristina.Kotsamanidis%40atlanticrecords.com%7C21ce6d5ea8064c6b802908d865624573%7C8367939002ec4ba1ad3d69da3fdd637e%7C0%7C0%7C637370820031435979&reserved=0&sdata=LFciDQp7AwfsI9qhSb9JQ2Yegtm4Yqghxw5NGX1KVeE%3D&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbirdsofprey.lnk.to%2FBirdsofPrey) soundtrack, linking with [Saweetie on “Sway With Me”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19pp2jNapL4) which was paired with a cinematic visual that garnered over 18 million views on Youtube to date. To continue the momentum, the Atlantic Records signee unveils her newest single titled [“I Miss The Days,” featuring Party Pupils.](https://galxara.lnk.to/IMissTheDaysIN)
Flaunt caught up with GALXARA via Zoom to discuss how she got her name, her upbringing in Florida, working with Party Pupils on her new single, signing her major label deal, being featured in _Birds or Prey_, collaborating with Tiesto, and more!
**When did you pick up the name GALXARA?**
Well the name I was born with, I wasn’t going to be able to use because there's already artists by that name. I definitely had to come up with something different. I love the idea of having a one word name, one big thing. I wanted it to be strong, grand, and feminine too. I was going through tons of different names. Me and my manager came across it. We’re messing with taking out a letter here, adding a letter here, adding an ‘A’ at the end- a whole bunch of different things and we finally came across it. I thought this could actually work. Through months and months of talking to my lawyer and trying to make sure the name’s okay as far as trademark, it actually was okay. I was happy about that. My parents and everyone would say “just pick a name,” but this is the thing I have forever. If my career does well, this will be the name. I want it to be something I love and can live with, not “oh why did I pick that name at 16 years old?”
**Being from Florida, what was the household like growing up?**
My family's very into music. Both my parents are music-lovers, my mom thinks she can sing but I don't think she can. My dad has been a lover of all types of music. As the decades have gone, he's followed everything. My mom was always a big pop diva fan: Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, all that. I got all those types of music growing up. I come from a Latin family so any time there’s any sort of party or gathering, there was music everywhere. I was blessed to be in a very colorful family and wasn’t afraid to let their children listen to any types of music. My older sister listens to tons of hip-hop, I got those tastes from her.
**At what point did you realize you could do music for a living?**
I started singing as soon as I could talk, really. I was attracted to music at a very, very young age. I did singing competitions for a long time between the ages of 10 to 16, I was very into the whole performing side of it. I was constantly on stage, always performing to a crowd and I loved it. That was the highest of all highs I'd ever felt. I already knew I loved music, that I’d love to create music and be my own artist, but being in front of crowds and actually being able to perform and feel their energy solidified. This is definitely what I'm going to do for the rest of my life, it’s just how do I get it done?
**How long have you been in Los Angeles now?**
Coming up on 2 years, me and my whole family moved out here from Florida. For my music, but also we all realized I've been in Florida for my entire life. Let's do a change. Let's change it all up, why not? You only live once. That's great because the music industry is totally here in Los Angeles. This is where I was doing most of my sessions, writing and creating with other people. It felt right.
**“I Miss The Days” out now! How does it feel? I know you wrote this 2 years ago.**
It feels great! The whole way it happened was so unexpected, I didn't plan for it at all. I'm so happy it’d actually seen light. Obviously having Party Pupils do their own take on it, remixing it and doing all their production, took it to a completely different level that I saw or heard it. It's something different than what I usually do, which is why I like it. It's an upbeat dance record and I love to dance. I love music that makes me want to dance, so it’s great to do that. Especially with what's going on in the world, what's going on in our country, we all need to have a bit of a lighter heart at times. The song did that for me, very happy it's finally out.
**How was working with Party Pupils (pop artist MAX and producer Suave Yung Blanc)?**
It was great. They're super smart, their ears know what to do in certain moments that I’d never think of. Even as people, they’re great. We got along very well. I'm very happy I got to work with people like that. Because you never know: labels tend to put things together, artists that don't even know each other. It was really nice for them to reach out to me and want to know my thoughts about the song or production. They took that into account and actually listened. It was a great collaboration.
**What days are you missing the most?**
Definitely before Coronavirus, for sure. Last summer was one of the best summers of my life. I met my girlfriend who I'm with now, we fell in love. Me and her think about it all the time. Had I known last summer was going to be the last normal summer, because this summer was completely different than previous year, I would’ve cherished it more. Really stayed in the moment more, but that's how life is.
**How has COVID-19 affected you?**
Honestly, it hasn't been too bad. The normal things obviously, like having to be careful where I go out. I live with my 80-year-old grandmother so I have to be extra careful. We can't risk anything happening because of her old age. It's been sucky in the sense I haven't done a single in-person writing session. I've been doing a lot of it on Zoom, that's been a new thing. We've all had to come to transition, understand, accept, and figure it out.
My mental health has been rocky at times. Not being able to be with friends, not being able to touch people, the whole thing in general definitely put a downer in all of it. I gotta stay positive. Whenever I get down, I try to do things that make me happy. Working out, watching Netflix, spending time with my girlfriend or my dog, I try to divert my attention to something else and that usually helps. This is the normal for at least a few more months, if not into next year. I don't want to get overwhelmed thinking about it.
**How was linking with Saweetie on “Sway With Me” for the _Birds of Prey_ movie?**
Really cool. I'm very, very happy that happened, very grateful for the people who made that happen. I’m still such a brand new artist and the chance I was able to do that was really great. She's awesome, she’s the life of the party. Shooting the music video for the song was such a surreal moment and experience. Having that opportunity doesn't come to a lot of artists, being on a major soundtrack for a major motion picture movie. Nevertheless, Harley Quinn. Female empowerment, the whole album was only females. I'm 100% for female empowerment, always trying to bring up women. It was so awesome I got to be part of it in any sense. I'm very happy with the song too, the song’s dope.
**How’d it feel hearing the song back in the movie?**
It was really cool. The actual scene when the song comes on, you don't hear my vocal at all. \[laughs\] Alright you're not going to hear my voice, but I saw the bigger picture which was going to the premiere. Getting to sit there and watch my song, seeing my name with the credits at the end. There was some party for it, Margot Robbie and the whole cast was there. It was really lit! Really happy to even be there, that's never happened to me before. The whole thing was awesome, I'm very grateful for everyone that made it happen.
**Best memory from the video shoot? It looked pretty lit!**
Riding in the car while me, Saweetie and Ella, who was in the movie, it was this huge trailer thing basically pulling us. They’re filming us. The coolest thing was we filmed that scene on the real road in downtown LA. While we’re fake driving, all the cars in the background and everyone passing us were like “what the hell’s going on?” These girls are standing on top of a car, this thing’s pulling them. We’re actually in the middle of a real road, it wasn't a green screen. It was surreal because the wind was blowing, my hair was blowing, the sunset’s going, we're driving this car. So lit, it was really cool.
**How did you find your way to Atlantic Records?**
I was doing a lot of competitions for many years. I started working with a big producer in Orlando, Florida where I grew up, that's why this is all happening. He brought me to my now manager and A&R that works at Atlantic Records. We met, I performed for them. They said “okay, we want to do some writing.” I did some writing in Nashville for the first couple sessions, got some songs. Within a month or 2, they said “we want to showcase you to Atlantic.” That means you're going to go to New York, perform for the head of the label and hope that you get signed.
Surprisingly, it went very well. I performed for the head of the label. The one thing my manager kept saying: “look, this guy’s the head of Atlantic Records. He's a very busy man, you’ll get maybe one song in then have to dip and go.” We get there and I start singing. We’d prepared 4 songs in case. I go through all 4 of them, and he's still sitting there. He said “okay, I'm going to get the other head of the label, Julie Greenwald, so she could come and watch you again.” She's the one who handles all the marketing, an amazing woman. I sang all 4 songs again for her. It was an amazing experience. I was shocked I even got one song, nevertheless 4 twice. A couple weeks after that, they called me and said “we want to sign you.” That was back in 2015, so it's been 5 years.
**How was linking with Tiesto on “Round and Round”?**
That was so cool. I wrote that song 2 or 3 years ago as well, this happens with a lot of my songs. The producer who I wrote it with is very close with Tiesto, he showed the song to him. Tiesto said “this is super dope, I want to put it on my album.” It happened very organically. We went back and forth talking about production. Tiesto’s a legend and knows what he's doing. Within the first pass through, the song’s pretty much done. There wasn't much I needed to say about, any notes.
Another thing I'm really grateful for: being such a brand new artist and working with such a legendary artist like Tiesto. To me, he's one of the OGs as far as EDM. My dad loves him, such a really cool thing to be able to be featured on one of his songs. The album has Snoop Dogg on it too, so hey I was on an album with Snoop Dogg! I'm happy about that too.
**What do you make of all these big collaborations, fairly early in your career?**
I surround myself with really special people, people that believe in me and are willing to take chances. Even the producer I worked with, he didn't have to show that song to Tiesto. The people that took a chance on me with “Sway With Me” on _Birds of Prey_, they didn't have to do that. I want to believe they saw something and thought “okay, let's give her a chance.” It's all about who you surround yourself with. I've been blessed to work with a label like Atlantic that really takes their time on artists and doesn't do a couple sessions, whatever song’s the best song they put it out. If it doesn't do well, oh well. They take time and try to develop their artists.
I've been incredibly blessed because that doesn't happen to a lot of new artists nowadays. For young girls, it's a different game. Completely different now than it used to be, there's really no development. If you get a big song like on TikTok, they sign you. They make you do some sessions and whatever you got, you hope it'll do well. I've had a lot of time to develop, to grow as an artist. It's been 5 years, I’m not the person I was when I was 15. I'm grateful I even have that because a lot of labels don't do that, they just want their money back. All I can do is be grateful really.
**What do you want to get from your story?**
Dream big, honestly. Ever since I was 4 years old, this is the dream I've had. I never wanted to be a singer on a cruise ship or in a small bar, not that that's bad. That's not bad at all, but I wanted to be as big as I can be. I want to be on the Beyonce, Lady Gaga level. I used to wonder if I should be embarrassed or ashamed about it, but I’ve come to own it and realize dream big as far as possible, because that's all we've got. I'm not going to diminish my dreams or my goals because somebody else thinks that it's too grand. I want people to know when they hear my music, when they hear the story, when they see the visuals even, how expansive and grand they are, there's no limit. You can do anything you set your mind to. It's such a cheesy thing, but it's the truth. The only voice that matters is the one in your head. The second that you stop believing in yourself, things change. If you keep that voice positive, you’ll see how amazing things can get for you. That's what happened to me.
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