Biography
Galen Ayers infuses her solo work with added lyrical nuance, letting bittersweet melodies carry both intimate feeling and a sense of social awareness. After issuing her first album under her own name, Monument, in 2018, she joined former Clash bassist Paul Simonon to record the retro-rock project Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day?, released in 2023.
Born in the 1970s inside a French commune whose residents included members of Tangerine Dream and Caravan, Ayers grew up in a household shaped by music through her father, English singer/songwriter Kevin Ayers. Her time in the commune proved brief; she spent her bilingual childhood chiefly in Deià, Spain, absorbing music via informal community settings and personal practice rather than conventional training. She later moved with her mother and stepfather to Sóller, Majorca. As a teenager she developed a strong interest in social and environmental causes that began to color her songwriting, which she pursued for London bands such as Drugstore while studying ethnomusicology and religion at university. During those years she also started working with film director Mike Figgis, contributing vocals to one of his commercials. She went on to complete two master’s degrees, one in Buddhism and another in the psychology of religion. An early solo demo brought an invitation to live with Talking Heads’ Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth in New York, where she worked on unreleased material alongside them and Tom Verlaine. Back in London she assembled several groups, including Galen and Siskin; the latter, a duo with Kirsty Newton, toured Europe and the U.K. and earned airplay on multiple BBC outlets before releasing their self-titled album in 2009.
Kevin Ayers’ death in 2013 spurred Galen to begin her solo debut and shaped several of its songs, while also prompting the early 2018 non-album single “Girl on a Swing,” a duet built around an archival recording of her father. That track preceded the July arrival of Monument, written largely during a two-year retreat to the Greek island of Hydra and later recorded with musician/producer Paul Simm, whose credits include Amy Winehouse and Neneh Cherry. She toured Japan in 2019.
Her next undertaking paired her with Paul Simonon under the name Galen & Paul. The duo signed with Sony and issued singles beginning with “Lonely Town” in early 2023. More retro-rock in approach than her solo recordings and featuring shared lead vocals, the project yielded Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day? that May.
Born in the 1970s inside a French commune whose residents included members of Tangerine Dream and Caravan, Ayers grew up in a household shaped by music through her father, English singer/songwriter Kevin Ayers. Her time in the commune proved brief; she spent her bilingual childhood chiefly in Deià, Spain, absorbing music via informal community settings and personal practice rather than conventional training. She later moved with her mother and stepfather to Sóller, Majorca. As a teenager she developed a strong interest in social and environmental causes that began to color her songwriting, which she pursued for London bands such as Drugstore while studying ethnomusicology and religion at university. During those years she also started working with film director Mike Figgis, contributing vocals to one of his commercials. She went on to complete two master’s degrees, one in Buddhism and another in the psychology of religion. An early solo demo brought an invitation to live with Talking Heads’ Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth in New York, where she worked on unreleased material alongside them and Tom Verlaine. Back in London she assembled several groups, including Galen and Siskin; the latter, a duo with Kirsty Newton, toured Europe and the U.K. and earned airplay on multiple BBC outlets before releasing their self-titled album in 2009.
Kevin Ayers’ death in 2013 spurred Galen to begin her solo debut and shaped several of its songs, while also prompting the early 2018 non-album single “Girl on a Swing,” a duet built around an archival recording of her father. That track preceded the July arrival of Monument, written largely during a two-year retreat to the Greek island of Hydra and later recorded with musician/producer Paul Simm, whose credits include Amy Winehouse and Neneh Cherry. She toured Japan in 2019.
Her next undertaking paired her with Paul Simonon under the name Galen & Paul. The duo signed with Sony and issued singles beginning with “Lonely Town” in early 2023. More retro-rock in approach than her solo recordings and featuring shared lead vocals, the project yielded Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day? that May.
Albums
