First released in August last year, GAYLE's cheeky hit "ABCDEFU" has now become a worldwide phenomenon: entering the Top 3 of the immensely competitive, all-genre US Billboard Hot 100 chart while simultaneously riding high on the Billboard Global 200 and national charts in the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Germany, Israel and other countries. Making the feat more impressive, the song serves as the major-label debut single for the 17-year-old artist, catapulting her to becoming one of the most talked-about voices in the contemporary pop landscape.

Seven months after "ABCDEFU" dominated (and still dominates) the charts around the world, the Texas native still couldn't decipher the reason why it had become such an unexpected hit.

"You know, I'll never fully get to know," she tells The Jakarta Post, "because when you're, like, a part of the writing process of the song, you can never really hear it for the first time. I think the biggest thing is, like, just having an open space to be angry, you know? I'm not sorry that I'm angry at that person - I just am. And I'm not saying it's healthy. I'm not saying you should be angry. I'm just saying that if you are, it's okay."

GAYLE's expression of anger through "ABCDEFU" might explain how she inadvertently became one of the most relatable teen sensations in pop music, especially at a time when everyone around the world was struggling with their mental health due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She would later double down on this emotional subject on her debut EP A Study of the Human Experience Volume One, released digitally on March 18.

Punk girl: GAYLE's debut EP touches on friendships, mistakes and teenage angst. (Courtesy of Acacia Evans) (Courtesy of Acacia Evans/Courtesy of Acacia Evans)

Incandescent fire

Born Taylor Gayle Rutherfurd, GAYLE spent her childhood in Dallas, Texas before deciding to pursue music professionally at 10 years of age. At the time, she went back and forth between her hometown and Nashville, Tennessee. Looking back, she concurred that it was her "stubbornness" that ultimately gave her the push to take such a leap, her youthfulness and lack of music experience notwithstanding.

"People told me I couldn't do it, which made me want to do it even more, you know? People told me it would be hard, which made me want to do it even more. I just kept doing things to prove [to] my mother that I truly wanted to do this with my life, and then, she took me to Nashville," she reminisced, explaining that it was specifically her "stubbornness, drive and [her] strive to want to be good at something" that fueled her commitment to her craft.

GAYLE's commitment soon paid off. Producer Kara DioGuardi found potential in the young ingenue, which led to her signing a record deal with Atlantic Records. While it may be every budding musician's aspiration to score such a lucrative deal, GAYLE asserted that it was Atlantic's ingeniousness toward fresh talents that gave her the conviction to sign with them – especially when it came to sonic explorations.

"I really loved, like, the R&B-soul side that they have with [their artists'] projects, but I also really love, like, their [exploration] in rock music. I just really love the label, overall, and it has been a dream of mine to sign with them since I was 12 and it actually ended up happening. Which was crazy!" she gushed.

It was time for GAYLE to face her first crucial task as a recording artist: picking what would be her major-label debut single. She had already released a few standalone singles before signing to Atlantic Records, which helped her figure out the sound and the narrative perspective she felt was suitable to take on.

"I released this song called 'Orange Peel' [in 2020] and it took me a year to release music again, so I wanted it to be something that wasn't surprising … but also, wouldn't necessarily be somebody's first thought of, like, 'That's what GAYLE would do'," she added.

The result was "ABCDEFU": a high-energy pop song that incorporates elements of pop punk and dubstep-inspired drumbeats. Written by GAYLE, Sara Davis and David Pittenger, "ABCDEFU" lasts for two minutes and 48 seconds, its title is a wordplay incorporating letters of the alphabet with their combination leading to a profanity. Lyrically, the song expresses the artist's frustration with her former lover who continues exasperating her after their breakup. Blending anger and sarcasm, the chorus finds her blasting what is arguably the most memorable lines of the song: "A-B-C-D-E, F you /And your mom and your sister and your job".

The song's wisecracking lyricism aside, "ABCDEFU" has been noted for being complemented with four different remixes: the "angrier" version, the "chill" version, the "demo" version and the "nicer" version. GAYLE has also released two different collaborative versions of the song: one with the American indie-pop singer-songwriter Royal & the Serpent and the other with electronic dance music (EDM) producer and remixer The Wild. The original version was produced by Pete Nappi who has worked with pop-upstarts such as Madison Beer and Chloe MK.

GAYLE insisted that she was not "aiming for anything particular" by releasing different remixes and versions of "ABCDEFU", despite how the listeners, who are accustomed to listening to only one version of a song, might find such release strategy peculiar.

"As an artist, you choose how you want a song to sound," she explained, "and so, I just wanted to show the fact that songs, sonically, have different directions. Like, songs can be taken in so many spaces and it's an artist's decision to show and represent what space that song is to live in. I didn't want to choose and I [was] indecisive and I thought, 'Why not all of it?'" she quipped.

Life's an orange: The cover artwork of GAYLE's debut EP 'A Study of the Human Experience Volume One', released on March. 18 (Courtesy of Spotify) (Courtesy of Spotify/Courtesy of Spotify)

Curative flames

A Study of the Human Experience Volume One also includes five recent tracks: "Luv Starved", "Sleeping with My Friends", "Ur Just Horny", "E-Z" featuring fellow newcomers UPSAHL and Blu DeTiger, and "Kiddie Pool" - all of which were co-penned by GAYLE herself. The EP continues the artist's exploration of pop-punk and pop-rock music, touching on more layered narratives such as friendship, mistakes and teenage angst. Anger and heartbreak serve as the emotional undercurrent that connects the six tracks.

The experience working on "ABCDEFU" taught GAYLE that there is no shame in expressing one's anger through music.

"My grandmother told me, after listening to that song, 'You get to say all the things that I never got to at 17'. And that really spoke to me. That just put the song in a completely new perspective," she said, pointing out that "as a woman being openly angry at a man, like, that wouldn't be something accepted 20 or 30 years ago."

While GAYLE had no intention to deliberately offend anyone with her music, she affirmed that "sometimes crossing the line is a good thing. I think the point is crossing the line," she offered wittily. "Ur Just Horny", a case in point, lyrically examines her frustration toward a questionable friendship. The artist brazenly disses over blistering guitar: "You don't wanna be my friеnd / You just wanna see me naked again".

"I think the thing is to be shocking," she elaborated. "I think the thing is, like, yeah, to define the line and maybe write it. Or maybe just cross it just enough to be daring, you know? I think staying inside the line is the opposite of what I want to do."

Now that her EP is out, GAYLE is pondering over the possibility of collaborating with Asian artists for her next material, though she could not reveal the specifics at the moment. On top of that, she is raring to go on a global tour that will most likely take place in 2023 – Indonesia and Southeast Asian countries are some of the tour destinations she is considering.

"I want to do things in the safest way that I possibly can. But yes, I'm definitely currently making plans to go there,' she said.

GAYLE's "ABCDEFU" and new EP A Study of the Human Experience Volume One are available to stream