This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Alan Seales: Welcome to the Theatre Podcast. Intimate personal conversations with theatre's biggest names. This is May, so this is the Quarren Queen Takeover. And I'm super excited to share with you that this episode is with Kala Gare, who is in the Australian cast of SIX. And this is the first of several Australian cast that I am going to interview here for the Takeover. And it's my very first Aussie that I've ever had on the podcast. She's an up and coming performer, singer in her own right in that region. And it was actually kind of, it's kind of fun because being the first Aussie that I've interviewed, we got into a lot of the differences between the New York scene and the West End scene and the Sydney, you know, Australia scene.

And I mean, of course, there are cultural and regional differences, but it was just really, really neat what she had to say. And we dove so far into a little bit of the science of music and vibration and what you get out of performing. And oh, my God, Kala, thank you for such an enlightening and fun conversation. Kala, you are amazing. And please find me when you come to New York because we got to go out for a drink anyway. Before we get into this, everybody, please follow me online at Theatre Underscore Podcast and find me online at the theatrepodcast.com. The video, as always, of this Quaran Queen Takeover, the videos are available at ttp.fm slash Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N. Leave a rating and a review. Let me know what you like about the podcast. I want to read those ratings. And now, everybody, please enjoy this episode with Kala Gare.

[2:04] Alan Seales: My guest today is a singer, actor, musician and songwriter based out of Melbourne, Australia, with stage credits such as Thoroughly Modern Millie, Rent, Twelfth Night, and even Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades. She is also a classically trained musician with musical direction credits and is the lead singer of a rapidly emerging band called Legacy. She's currently Anne Boleyn in the Australian cast of SIX and my very first Aussie on the podcast. Kala Gare, welcome to the Theatre Podcast.

[2:33] Kala Gare: Hello, thank you for having me. I didn't realize I was first.

[2:39] Alan Seales: Yes, you are Aussie number one. There's going to be so many. You're going to be flooded with Australians.

[2:46] Kala Gare: I hope so. I hope so.

[2:51] Alan Seales: Well, that's what I really want to get into in this conversation, is how much of New York is influential of Australia. I mean, there's some famous ones in the States that we've got film actors like Nicole Kidman, of course, and what's his name, Thor. I'm blinking on his name right now.

[3:04] Kala Gare: Chris Hemsworth.

[3:11] Alan Seales: Yeah, you know, Muscles McGee. I know him very well. Because like all Americans know each other, all Australians know each other, right?

[3:17] Kala Gare: Yeah, so there's a lot of, like, there's a couple of people to get out of that, but like, I guess, well, okay, before we get into that, where I normally start on the podcast is taking back to your childhood and like, so where did you grow up? What was your childhood like?

[3:32] Kala Gare: Well, um, childhood? Well, I lived in Melbourne, have lived in Melbourne whole time. And I grew up in a very musical family. So I have, both my parents are opera singers. And they actually met at the university doing an opera night course, where I then trained in musical theatre, which is a very cute little. They are, yeah, they harboured like, pretty much all of the love and excitement for music that I have, because it was just everywhere growing up.

[4:10] Alan Seales: Are you an only child?

[4:13] Kala Gare: No, I have a younger sister.

[4:20] Alan Seales: Is she into music too?

[4:25] Kala Gare: Yeah, she is. And human rights. She's on her way to being a big old lawyer. So she's, oh, well, music and singing, or music and lawyering. I guess there's, I think Legally Blonde was made about that.

[4:34] Alan Seales: Yeah, right. Yeah, very, very intelligent young lady is my sister.

[4:37] Kala Gare: So was there any sort of like influential moment when you really decided you're like, okay, this is what I'm going to do? And this is where you're a classically trained singer, when you're in classical piano too, you can play. So like, where did the decision come from to go down that path?

[4:53] Kala Gare: Yeah, I don't. I think because it was a constant evolution of just having music around, there wasn't a defining moment where I was like, that's what I want to do. I just, also, my memory is shot. I might have had that moment and it's just gone. But I do remember just always loving watching performances and watching live theatre and hearing people sing and tell stories in that way. And I think it was later, as I figured more out about what the power of theatre actually is, that that's when it really honed in that this is absolutely where I'm meant to be, what I'm meant to be doing, and what a journey it all is.

[5:41] Alan Seales: Right. Yeah, the journey, I mean, well, taking you on the journey though, like, where were you coming from? Was it looking for a family or looking for a home? Like, I found my belonging in theatre because it was like, a bunch of other kids that didn't know where they wanted to go ended up getting together and that's where they belonged.

[6:05] Kala Gare: Yeah, that's so beautiful. And absolutely, theatre is a big home for so many people and a big family. I love that. That's really beautiful. I, yes, I think to a degree and meeting people, our music program at high school was good, but unfortunately, there were higher powers in the system that didn't necessarily think of it as a career move. So it was cut in certain budget places. But then when we had the school musical, that was a place for, I also went to a Catholic girls' school, so we got to meet with the boys who were also interested in that and figure out that, oh, there are other people who are also as into this as I am.

[6:50] Alan Seales: What are you talking about the coming into it? Where did I come into it from? I think the, I really, as all of us are, that drive to get into somebody else's shoes and portray that story and once we're, that moment when you're in there and there's just, you're not, you are a part of something entirely separate, but also all to do with us and so powerful and otherworldly, that influence and power that theatre has in performing to change people's emotions, to inspire and kept coming from it from that perspective of how we can move and with the music and movement and yeah, I think the power was the, not power to be powerful, but the actual magic, magic is a good word.

[7:49] Kala Gare: Yeah, it's the ability to command an audience and take them on an emotional journey. I am with you 100%. I love that just being able to be somebody, like you're given a script and you develop a character and if even like, everybody puts on this great persona and on social media now everyone's just like, here's all my happy times and then inside everyone is looking to be found and look, Dear Evan Hansen, there you go, you will be found. So looking to be found, looking to be identified, looking to be heard and so you become this other person, this other creature on stage that then allows you to empathize with others, gets you empathy from others and it is safe, right?

[8:49] Kala Gare: Yes, yeah, so safe and also the minds that are out there writing, then the brilliant minds that have been of just this incredible material that as an actor, I feel like I'm just a vessel for something else, being on that stage and I mean, yeah, just that and the emotions that come out and that you can, oh, there's a word for it, it's like micro something, something, something, something, when you're properly in or an experience where it's matched, the audience and the actor on the stage are meeting in the middle and that like, it's something primal, it's something where the audience maybe cannot control and they're with you there, that's very special.

[9:35] Alan Seales: Yeah, there's a lot of love chemicals, like chemically speaking, you know, all the love chemicals in your brain, the oxytocin and the serotonin and the dopamine and all this stuff, like there are things that happen when you are watching people go on an emotional journey that can only happen in your brain when you're in the moment and it's like, you can't, like you can imagine how you're going to act, but you can't train for that unless you're actually there, it's like you can't train to have empathy for somebody unless you've been through those situations, right? So I totally understand, yeah, I guess like why you would want to be on one side of it and why the audience, you know, why there are such passionate, passionate people who want to see it over and over and over again and like know every word of something and there's something that speaks to people, like the prom is a story of under-representation and not being seen and again, we mentioned Dear Evan Hansen and, you know, I think this is actually a good transition to talk about SIX because even though it's like Toby and Lucy, the writers, kind of like took their first inspiration from a Beyonce concert, right?

[10:50] Kala Gare: Yeah, I was at the festival as well, watching that concert.

[10:56] Alan Seales: Oh, was it really? Yeah. Oh, that's so cool, that's so cool. Yeah, so like it's about female empowerment, it's about telling six stories that don't get heard. I mean, we hear a little bit about Anne Boleyn, you know, here and there, but like the rest, I didn't even know he had six wives, right? And I mean, so for you, like I guess, well, we skipped over your career stuff, we'll come back to that because I want to talk about like New York Broadway versus Australian or Aussie, like is there, okay, ask that question real fast, is there like a version of like London's West End or New York's Broadway in Sydney or in Melbourne?

[11:40] Kala Gare: I don't necessarily think we have like a section that is like the street or that area, but we do have in Melbourne, in the CBD, there's a lot like, CBD is just the city central, so the Melbourne city is in the skyscraper area. I don't know what it's for actually.

[12:06] Alan Seales: Downtown.

[12:06] Kala Gare: Yeah, but it's like a smaller New York, it's just small and there's the art centre and then you travel maybe like two minutes and then you're in the city central and there's kind of like a box, not a block, a few blocks and there's about three or four theatres and that's kind of the central in Melbourne. In Sydney, there's the Opera House, but then there's a few other theatres nearby, but we don't have that like Broadway and that strip in West End, but the theatres are there.

[12:40] Alan Seales: Well, how big is the scene, is the theatre scene like in Australia in general? Like in the US, you know, you've got New York theatre and TV, coming up with TV and film and stuff on the East Coast and then like LA and the West Coast is all like, if you're going to shoot a movie, or at least that's what it was, right? I believe this is coming from somebody who has only worked in Australia, but I think it's big. It feels big in it, but I do reckon, like when I went to New York and watched, it was like, oh, but this is the world of it. In Australia, it is there and in Sydney, I think for our continent, it's big and it's a very functioning happening. We're getting, we actually, there's like, especially now because of COVID, a lot of, I think, more attention is being put on new stuff to bring over once this is over, but I also am in no place to talk about like the CEO of Australian theatre.

[13:40] Alan Seales: Okay, okay. So, oh gosh, there's so much I want to ask you about. So let's go back to SIX. The fandom, when...

[13:51] Kala Gare: Did you know what you were auditioning for, like the phenomenon that it was before you were auditioning and what it was going to be? That's a good question. I remember watching, especially at the very beginning and when they performed at the Olivier's, and seeing that kind of grandeur and this pop concert-esque following on the socials, I was very much doing that. And then when the auditions came out, it was, ooh, this could be cool. But I do not in any way think I had crossed the line in my mind of what it would be like if you were actually in that world. And yeah, it was a very... It was a whole new world, a whole new experience. And the whole fan thing, it's beautiful, but it's also a bit scary. But I was them. That was me. I was a very big fan girl for quite a lot, still am, of my career and being in a very small portion. And being on the other side of that was, is bizarre, but also very beautiful that people feel that passionately about something.

[15:14] Alan Seales: Well, I think it's kind of fun because you guys, the cast, the Aussie cast just closed back in January, right? You closed the Sydney Opera House.

[15:19] Kala Gare: Yeah, March.

[15:22] Alan Seales: Oh, March. Yeah, you opened in... Yeah. So playing at the Sydney Opera House, performing at the Sydney Opera House, that's got to be something cool in and of itself, right? So you're doing this rock concert. I call it the Broadway show, right? It's a major musical in Sydney for... I don't know. How many seats does it have?

[15:42] Kala Gare: So we were in the studio because SIX is quite well suited to an intimate theater. And there was... Oh God, I might get this wrong, but I'm going to say no more than 200, 300 seats, potentially less.

[16:01] Alan Seales: I didn't know it had multiple theaters. I thought it...

[16:04] Kala Gare: Yeah, yeah. Oh, cool.

[16:06] Kala Gare: So there's a big Joan Sutherland theater and that's the big one. I'm pretty sure that's where Lizzo performed, which Lizzo... No, we just missed Lizzo, but we were there for when Solange was there. And in the room, you can see everyone working on the screens and we're all watching Solange. But yeah, there's a few theaters because there's a Shakespeare theater as well. I think there's, aside from the studio, I'm trying to remember where the screens were because we didn't get to go into all of them. I think there might be two or three more aside from Joan and the studio.

[16:39] Alan Seales: And so then, what was coming up? You have Melbourne, Adelaide and Wellington.

[16:46] Kala Gare: That have all been postponed. Yes.

[16:48] Alan Seales: So what's happening with those? Do you know?

[16:52] Kala Gare: No. The producers have been lovely and been in touch, but unfortunately, there's just no... I don't know what will happen with that. I hope that it is able to come back because it's had a run and it's got momentum behind it. And it's a very easy show to put up technically in terms of sets and lighting. But yeah, so fingers crossed on that front. But unfortunately, I don't know.

[17:17] Alan Seales: Man, yeah, that stinks because it seems like this was one of four big destinations and the tidal wave was just starting to crest. But I think Broadway will come back and I think it's going to be a couple of months because restaurants have to open first and transportation has to feel good and then tourists have to come and it's a cycle. So it's going to take some time. But when it does, like SIX will come back. I think it's too much of a phenomenon not to being the second most cast album streamed other than Hamilton. And it's not even a Broadway cast yet. Right.

[17:49] Kala Gare: So like the fandom that I don't know. I mean, what do you think about it that what do you think it is about the show that people are craving so much that identify with or enjoy? Like, why stream it hundreds of millions of times?

[18:07] Kala Gare: Well, I think I mean, there's a plethora of reasons and doing the show and meeting Lucy. We didn't get to meet Toby, but meeting Lucy and I'm slowly working on it. It was like not. Oh, yeah, I'm going to make a comparison. Like with a Sondheim when you are just there's always something to unpack and there's always something new. And when you revisit it again, you're like, oh, wow, I needed to have gone through this to then understand that. But that Sondheim aside, this SIX taught me and I was taught me about standing in your own power as well as standing with other people in their own power and how we can do that and not in any way have to be passing it like you can live as a single unit and live together as single units and no needing to cut each other down, which is the whole competition aspect of the show and and that cleverness of the writing, which when I first heard the show, I was just quite happy with it.

I thought cool songs, they're catchy. But then as a writer myself, writing a catchy song is hard, let alone writing a song that just stays in your brain that much. Lyrically is so clever and witty and says exactly what it wants to say in the most pure form. Like there's no it doesn't have to go around in fancy circles. It's just like he wanted me obviously like that. And it's it's now it's very current. It's cheeky and it's very unapologetic, which I think and it just goes through so many styles as well. So you really get you know, if you want to rock out or if you want to be a soulful pop princess, it just gives you everything. I really love it.

[20:08] Kala Gare: The I actually saw the final preview the night before Broadway shut down. So I was at the show March 11th, March 12th. I'm getting my days mixed up now. It was whatever that Wednesday was and Thursday was supposed to be opening. And when I was watching the show, I was watching all of the girls interact with each other when they were backing up the lead singer, like whoever solo was, because everyone seemed to be having so much fun. Yeah. Interacting with each other when they weren't in the spotlight. Right. And so is that is that is that a show thing? Like was that just the Broadway thing? Are you like you and your your cast? Are you guys all like super tight like this?

[21:00] Kala Gare: Well, it's it's kind of brilliantly again, because it's only six people. It's so intimate in that sense. And I don't know. And this is down to excellent casting as well, especially I feel like worldwide. But I can absolutely speak for the Australian cast. We are all beautiful, beautiful women. And there's yeah, that play on that stage. It's there's something about that interaction with the audience as well that creates this new you're constantly dealing with stimulus. But also you've got mates all around you and on stage with you. You're dressed in this fierce costume. The lights are crazy. Music is pumping. It's it's it's hard to not have a very fun time on that stage because you're allowed to. It's written in. And like we have you know, the scenes are all little quippy bits, but so much of it is left to this like atmosphere that is created by this show that's just like.

[22:02] Alan Seales: It's a concert. It's a it's a rock. It's a pop concert.

[22:06] Kala Gare: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, it's it seems it seems like so much fun. And, you know, for for a show like I you know, Hamilton is Hamilton's fun. It's got some serious moments. There are shows that like just go to a place every night. And I talked about this with Elizabeth Stanley from Jagged Little Pill to like I don't know if you know anything about the show at all, but her like it it deals with it. It deals with white privilege and sexual assault and and substance abuse. And it's a heavy show. Like it's all just the things that people need to start talking about, like all in this two and a half hour musical. And and, you know, we talked to her like, how do you know you're this you're this victim?

You know, your character's been raped and your daughter happens to her. And then you're I mean, the neighbor's daughter and then the son is accused of, you know, like I don't spoil it for you. I haven't seen it, but it's a heavy show. And I'm like, how do you get how do you go there eight times a week and come back and be a normal person? And Dear Evan Hansen, too, like, you know, we were just hearing Andrew Barth Feldman talk about, you know, he and Michael Park like would would goof off backstage like you've got to keep it light. But then like you guys, you get to take all of that fun and bring it onto the stage and show it and break the fourth wall because you are interacting with the audience.

[23:41] Kala Gare: Hugely, hugely.

[23:42] Alan Seales: And it seems like it seems like so much fun. Like the feedback. Are you getting feedback? I mean, you're saying you're getting used to being in the spotlight now a little bit. You're on the other side of of being a fan and following things now. So you have people following you as are you getting like feedback that was unexpected or are you getting stories that you didn't expect to hear?

[24:02] Kala Gare: I will. Yes and no. Like there's there are some some beautiful stories of SIX really helped me find my voice and thank you for your portrayal of Pauline and thank you for all of I had so much fun and those sorts of things when you get that back. That's like a wow, especially when they're specific. That's a big like, whoa, this is really cool. I have those. Yeah, those sorts of I haven't had too many moments that like that, but the ones that are there that yeah, they're very special.

[24:41] Alan Seales: Is there a stage? Sorry, go ahead.

[24:43] Kala Gare: Sorry. No, no, no. Were you about to talk stage door?

[24:46] Alan Seales: Oh, yeah. I was gonna ask about like stage dooring if it's the same for is it culturally the same as it is in New York is like stage doors now become part of the ticket price. You just kind of expect to meet the cast afterwards.

[24:56] Kala Gare: Which as a fan, so cool as a performer. The not as much of a cultural thing. However, on SIX, we had to kind of adhere to the fact that it was kind of written in the ticket price. And that's what they expected to do. Like we had the stage door for the Sydney Opera House is the stage door for every theater. So you'd have heaps of different performers walking out. But because it wasn't a huge cultural thing, we didn't really have anything set up in terms of like bollards or any structural thing outside and leaving the opera house, you just walk out and then you're there in public and just in where anyone can go to, which I guess is the same as on the street in the theater. But it was a very bizarre, like just coming out, especially having not been in having to deal with fans in this way before.

And people coming into your personal space and being very excited, but sometimes very overwhelming. It was a really a big kind of adjustment to still be on and still be present after the show. And what I wanted to touch on was the fun is excellent in there, but SIX is one of the shows that it's like it's written in that you have to be at energy 100%. Like without it, it's very obvious because there's only six of you and the lights and the glitter and everything is on. If you're not, you can really tell. So there was a challenge in a different way of maintaining that energy, nine shows a week and keeping that a constant thing, which then meant when we would a constant thing, which then meant when we would come off stage and go to the stage door, it was zombies, especially on our ninth show.

And that whole balance of these people who have paid a lot of money to come and see the show and who have waited for so long sometimes, and you're just like a sweaty 75 minutes of cardio leaving the building. It was a funny like, whoa, okay, got to figure out what world this is now.

[27:34] Alan Seales: So you said nine shows a week. Is that for SIX or is that standard Australian show schedule?

[27:42] Kala Gare: It's becoming more standard as it goes on.

[27:52] Kala Gare: I thought eight was hard. My friends on Broadway are like, two-show day, man. It's a Saturday.

[28:01] Alan Seales: So when do you do the second, when do you do the ninth show?

[28:05] Kala Gare: We have two-show days, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And it was so... Okay, we'd go a 6:45 and an 8:00 Friday and Saturday, and then Sunday was a 3:00 and a 6:00. Putting a 3:00 matinee as your fifth show on a three-day weekend was the most painful thing, because that's when we had the matinee crowd, and that's when we needed all the help we could get. Trying to be so energetic, and it's just hitting the wall. But miracles happen on Sundays, especially when you're doing six shows. We'd somehow just... The power came and kissed us.

[28:54] Alan Seales: Oh, that's horrible. Normally here, we do two Wednesdays, two Saturdays, and then you've got your one on Sunday, and you're done. But to put three double-show days in a row seems just like torture. God. Especially by the end of Sunday, you just want to go home and just take a bath and chug some wine and go to sleep for a day.

[29:28] Kala Gare: Well, that was the other thing with six, is I was... Because we were in Sydney, I'm based in Melbourne, I really had the opportunity to pretty much focus entirely all of my energy to it, because I didn't have much connection in Sydney. And I think that that was a godsend, because I literally needed to give it all of my time and energy. With the nine shows, it was such a good learning thing of how to... Six taught me so much about sustenance, because I really... Because it's so vocally demanding, physically demanding, and just the actual energy spending. I would go home from the theatre, the next morning I'd be preparing, do the show, come home, recover, repair, do the show. And that was life up until maybe the last two weeks, where then during the days, I was like, maybe I can start. It's becoming a bit more of a routine now.

[30:24] Alan Seales: Yeah. Challenges in its own way.

[30:28] Kala Gare: Right. Oh, yeah. Gosh, my listeners are so tired of hearing me say this probably, but I've said Broadway performers are the Olympians of theatre.

[30:33] Alan Seales: Yes, athletes.

[30:34] Kala Gare: Yeah.

[30:35] Alan Seales: Yes. Yes.

[30:36] Kala Gare: The best of the best have to be athletes. Even if you have a track where you just plant and bark, then you're still vocally demanding. Vocal injury, the stigma is being destigmatized now. There's been a lot happening locally on Twitter. Casey Levy came out and Alex Brightman, of course, he's talking about his voice for Beetlejuice and how he had to make that comfortable so he doesn't have injuries. And there are so many people that you would think of, like George Salazar, actually, I was talking to him once from Be More Chill, and he was like, yeah, I hemorrhaged during a preview and I thought my career was over.

[31:16] Alan Seales: Oh, goodness.

[31:20] Kala Gare: Even Olympic athletes pull muscles, right? So you have to be conditioned either vocally and cardiovascularly, whatever it is. But yeah, I'm with you. It's hard. It's hard and tough. You got to take care of yourself. It's a lifestyle that everybody wants and then they get it and like, oh, crap. Wait, wait, really?

[31:45] Alan Seales: Is this good?

[31:47] Kala Gare: I think I'm good. I think this is what I want. Yeah, okay, get on stage. Do it again. Yeah.

[31:52] Alan Seales: But it was interesting to me, for you specifically, because I was looking through your Instagram and you posted a lot of videos of like, in your album too, that you've got two EPs out, right?

[32:06] Kala Gare: Just one, working on two.

[32:08] Alan Seales: Working on two, okay. Yeah, so you've got music and I was listening to it and it's like, it's slow and it's jazzy and it's very, it's very sultry, for lack of kind of a better word. I interpret it as being kind of sultry and then even like a lot of stuff I was watching on Instagram was still not in the style of six, was not pop. And so I guess like, did you audition? I mean, have you always been able to sing multiple styles or were you training for something specifically like the jazz and the classical and whatnot? Or is it all just kind of technique?

[32:46] Kala Gare: Yeah, well, I guess to answer this, I have to go, well, my mum is a singing teacher. So I already had a, yeah, a real, real advantage and very lucky there. She, from like the womb, was singing to me and as a baby, like, la, la, la, at two months old. And I'd be like, what? Like, just constantly. And I think that idea of pitch and note relationships and that all was there very early age. And I began playing piano from a young age as well. And so the kind of relationship of music was there, which meant that when I began singing, I didn't have to worry about pitch and those sorts of technical elements. They were kind of naturally there. And I learned in terms of technical singing legit first. Well, yeah, that sort of was where I went and was trained, like, not in a way like if you went to school and learned that. It was a very relaxed thing, which I think also led to a love of singing because it wasn't so, what's the word I'm looking for? Regimented.

[34:18] Kala Gare: Yeah, yeah. I had, there was a period where it did have to be and my mum was my teacher and that was really hard, especially as a teenager. That was big times, but we learned. We got there. But I always had a love of singing and a love of producing sound and playing with that. And as I continued with theatre, I at uni really developed belting and the louder sounds. And I would love that. And a lot of my technical issues came from loving the sound, but not really being able to do it, but just doing it anyway. And now having to figure out how to actually do it with ease and get that all there. But I always could cross, cross training was a big thing. So the legit and then going on the other scale and doing a rock song.

And I loved practicing both of those. But when I was singing for myself and what I enjoyed singing, it was more of soulful and more that organic, slower sound, which I've never thought of before in that way. But now you've pointed that out that, yeah, that's a lot of my writing as well is that sort of slower stuff.

[35:39] Alan Seales: Soulful. Yeah, that's a better word than sultry. Soulful, it seems to me to be very, very introspective, expressive. What I'm trying to say, you can tell when I'm listening to your music, I can tell that it comes from you. And it's not like, I was told to sit down and write a song right now.

[36:00] Kala Gare: Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. That's very nice. But as on that, sit down and write a song. Yeah, that's something I love to talk about with writing. The way I love to write is quite an open experience. And usually when I try to sit down and write something with the intention of writing something, the work that comes out is never as fluid and nice. Nice is such a... Did I explain that in any way?

[36:40] Alan Seales: That when you sit down, you're like, all right, I'm gonna write a song. It doesn't come out authentic.

[36:44] Kala Gare: Yes, that's exactly right. Yeah. Well, in my experience thus far.

[36:50] Alan Seales: Yes, for you. What do you think about? What do you put into your songs that you can't express in other ways, like that has to be in song form?

[37:04] Kala Gare: I've never thought about it like that either. I did make a connection that I think that it's a sort of a therapy in the sense of an emotion that is there and comes out in the form of a song. But that's also a way of clearing that from myself. But yeah, I'm not entirely sure how to answer that. That is so profound.

[37:35] Alan Seales: Well, good. I'll give you something to go write about.

[37:42] Kala Gare: Yeah, you'll see the next album. It says I'm inspired by Alan.

[37:50] Kala Gare: Yeah, there's so many people. There are a lot of people that I like. And that's the kind of music that I really like to listen to. It's that I feel like maybe I'm jumping around in my head. Gosh. Yeah. I was going to say was that there's the music I like to listen to. It's that I can feel like it's something that authentically came from the person who sat down to write it, and it's not made by a machine. I don't like the pop factory that's producing content, which is funny and ironic because I like six. Six is pop, so I'm not dissing on the pop genre. But I mean, I don't know what I'm trying to say.

[38:34] Kala Gare: I know what you're trying to say, because I think there is a difference. You can stylistically have a pop song, but it still has the authenticness and the honesty in it. It could still have that dirty beat, but there's something in it. And that's the part about music that I am enchanted by in that you can't really explain it and you don't really know. I don't really have the words to describe that, but there's just something that you connect with and that is floating around that can be transported by notes and a melody and harmony. And a really cool person that I've just put all my energy to is Jacob Collier. And yeah, the way he speaks about it is beautiful. Do you know much of Jacob Collier?

[39:32] Alan Seales: Not much, no.

[39:35] Kala Gare: No, I've heard his stuff.

[39:40] Kala Gare: Yeah. If you want to dive into a musical wonderland.

[39:46] Alan Seales: We're kind of going off the rails and I love it and it's fine. But my background being in like choral music and boys choirs and things, I love tight harmonies and I love harmony, harmony. Maybe that's what it is. That's part of why I like six, because it's six women singing together, six people. And like the soloist stuff, often I don't get into because I want to hear I want to feel the overtones building on each other, because when you have multiple voices like that, then they are like, when you look at a waveform on a, what's it called? The histograph? What am I thinking of? You know, where you can see a waveform, an audio waveform. You can see like you've got your primary note and then you've got the fifth and the third and the octave that are there and you could barely hear them. And when you add them up, it's like, oh,

[40:33] Kala Gare: Octave that are there and you could barely hear them. And when you add them up in multiple voices, then you can start hearing the other things clearly, even though no one's singing it.

[40:41] Alan Seales: And did you know about this?

[40:43] Kala Gare: No.

[40:43] Alan Seales: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was in a room full of 100 guys. That's how all my stories start. So I was in a room, it was, we were in a room, I was in a chorus. It was like some all-state chorus in high school or something. And we were in a room and it was 100 of us or so, and it was, and the teacher was explaining this to us, the conductor. And he said, you know, everyone just sing this note. He's like, and everyone's saying this note. And the idea was that we had to sing it long enough so that the wave, all of our voices, the waveforms would come off the walls and bounce back. And it was bouncing back and forth off the room because it was echoing. And if you were to look at, you know, the wave, the, we'll call it, I think it's a histograph. I'm pretty sure that's what I'm trying to say, is, you know, we're singing the...

[41:32] Kala Gare: It's everything.

[45:44] Alan Seales: What comes first for you? Is it the lyrics, the music, or the need to have self-therapy?

[45:52] Kala Gare: The way I describe how I write as well, and this is sort of what I mean about that openness, is that I feel as though I am a vessel for this song that has been written already, and it's coming from somewhere else. And there's been experiences where I will be fine having a great day, and then be filled with this sadness. I like to think of it as birthing a song, and then I'm okay afterwards again. That sadness wasn't mine, but it's then transformed into a song. And that way of looking at it, I hear melody and lyrics together. Though the melody, I would say, is a bit more solid, because sometimes the lyric, I'll go up on the internet and be like, what rhymes with aim? And that's... So the lyric isn't as set in stone. And the melody is also fluid, but when I'm chucking voice memo on and just singing into my phone, it's lyric and melody together.

[47:09] Alan Seales: Yeah, that's interesting to me. I've sat down before and tried to write songs way when I was younger, and I don't know. I don't have any music in my head. When I sit down to write, I will have sometimes lyrics in my head, but no music. And then I'll finish a verse, and I'm like, I have no idea what to do with this. And so sometimes I'll think of some rhymes, and again, being nerdy, I did improv in college. So I can think of things that rhyme with other things, and that's not a problem. I just have no idea how to make it sound good. So coming back and listening to the science behind music, I was going to ask you if you have ever watched Explained on Netflix, that show.

[48:03] Kala Gare: So there's an original that they have called Explained, and it's just half an hour episodes explaining a different subject. Like one is cricket, one is cannabis, one is the wealth gap, there are other things. And one of the most interesting episodes was music, music explained. And humans as a species, it's been a while since I've seen this, so I'm probably getting this wrong, but I think even primates, or maybe it's apes versus monkeys, I don't know, one of the two. Humans as a species I think are one of the only species that can predict rhythm and melody. So you can get, like birds, birds can repeat a melody, but if you change the key, they have to relearn the whole thing. It's a completely new song to them.

And most animals, most species in general, cannot predict rhythm. They can repeat, but they can't, like if you don't, they can't do the syncopation or whatever it is. And that's a fascinating, you would really enjoy it. It's a fascinating episode about the brain science of music. And some people have strokes and they can't talk, but they can sing. What that's all about.

[49:27] Alan Seales: I will be watching that.

[49:29] Kala Gare: Yeah, it's really incredible. Interesting test to have done. That would be really cool to be that scientist being like, let's go play some music for some animals.

[49:37] Alan Seales: Yeah, well, they had all these monkeys and different types of birds, and these birds that are mimicking things, they don't know that it's music. It doesn't register as music, it's just mimicking a sound. And so the ability to register as a note, their brain cannot do that.

[50:05] Kala Gare: Yeah, wow. My mind goes to history and that we've been brought up with all of this, and the culturalness that music has and all those roots. And yeah, the idea of, wow, that is a defining element of a human being. That's really cool. I will definitely be watching that.

[50:28] Alan Seales: Yeah, dancing and music goes back, you know, thousands of years. I mean, you've got, yeah, anyway, I'm nerding out. So, well, we'll end up, we'll wrap up this episode here with the three standard closing questions that I ask everybody on the podcast. And the first one, very simply, is what motivates you?

[50:45] Kala Gare: Very simply.

[50:48] Alan Seales: Very simply.

[50:53] Kala Gare: Very simply asked. Very complex in your answer. What motivates me to perform, to live, to live? Interpret however you want.

[51:09] Kala Gare: What motivates me? Wow. I would like, I'll answer what motivates me to perform. And I think what we touched on at the beginning of that idea of the family that theatre has and the family that theatre welcomes you to, and the, as an audience member and as a performer and as everybody else that is involved in the world, and the ability to transport to another plane and to raise awareness of things, but that moment and that energetic transaction between people, live, imperfect, flawed, brilliant people, that's what motivates me.

[52:09] Alan Seales: I love that. Okay. So the next question is what advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now starting out down a similar path?

[52:18] Kala Gare: Next question.

[52:23] Alan Seales: Wow.

[52:24] Kala Gare: Okay. To, yeah, okay. Well, younger me and then lots of younger people. Oh, okay. A big one that I wish I had learnt sooner, and this is more to me in my teens during uni, and I think is very relevant to starting out, especially when you're learning and playing, the idea of trying as hard as you can to be kind of focused on your learning and to really not care about what you look like and if it's wrong. I had a beautiful mentor say to me at the beginning, just fail, but fail gloriously. Where else can you fail but at uni or drama school and where you're meant to be learning? And I lost a lot of my first year in trying to be right and trying to be whatever I thought was right or be liked or all of those wonderful teenage things.

But, yeah, I would just say in terms of learning to really give yourself the time and allow yourself to be whatever you need to be in that moment and lean into the uncomfort because on the other side of that is something that you never would have got if you hadn't.

[53:49] Alan Seales: Lean into the uncomfort. I love that. That's your new quote right there.

[53:55] Kala Gare: Okay, so the final question here, the hardest one. If you could only see one show for the rest of your life but you could see it as many times as you want, what would you see?

[54:06] Kala Gare: I would say Six the Musical.

[54:10] Alan Seales: Which production?

[54:12] Kala Gare: Oh, what? All of them.

[54:14] Alan Seales: All of them in rep.

[54:18] Kala Gare: On screen because we'll be here for a while.

[54:22] Alan Seales: Okay. So where can we connect with you online?

[54:26] Kala Gare: Oh, Instagram is probably the best one. I don't even know what my handle is.

[54:34] Alan Seales: KGare, right?

[54:35] Kala Gare: K.Gare?

[54:36] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[54:37] Kala Gare: That sounds right.

[54:38] Alan Seales: K.Gare. It'll be in the show notes.

[54:40] Kala Gare: It'll be in the episode notes so you can find it there.

[54:43] Alan Seales: Cool. So you can get more of me at thetheaterpodcast.com. You can also show your support for the podcast at thetheaterpodcast.com slash Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter at theater underscore podcast. Please leave a rating, leave a review. And this is edited by Matthew Hendershot. And Kala, thank you. This has been so much fun. I've really enjoyed this chat.

[55:04] Kala Gare: Me too. This is awesome. And I wish you luck with all your new Australian members.

[55:13] Alan Seales: Thank you.